Chapter 29

BY MONDAY MORNING, Dennis had spent time with each of his girlfriends, though granted, it was not all one-on-one and certainly not all in bed. With each girlfriend, he spent time just looking at her out of his newly clear eye. The grin almost permanently attached to his face. Saturday afternoon, Tori pulled him back to his bedroom and took her T-shirt and bra off.

“Tori, you don’t have to undress. We’re not going to make love or anything.”

“I know. I’ve already showed you my boobs, but you can see more clearly now. For some reason, I wanted to know that you’d looked and really saw me.”

“I’m not sure when it happened,” Dennis said, “but you became one of my girlfriends. I would spend time looking at you whenever you want. You’re beautiful.”

“I don’t know why either,” she said. “I just knew when I saw you with the others, that this is what I wanted in my life.” She kissed him and guided his hands to explore her breasts as well as with his eyes. They hadn’t been alone for too long, but when they returned to the living room, Leanne and Rosie smirked at them. Both were more than willing to take a turn in the bedroom with him.

“Are you ready for work?” Randy asked.

“Yes, sir. The only restriction I have is that the doctor said I need to wear goggles when I’m working where there’s dust,” Dennis said. “Oh, and I need to make sure to wash my eye and use my drops at noon.”

“It’s a good idea. I usually wear goggles when I’m out disking. Raises up a lot of dust. And Friday, Lana got something in her eye when she was working in the barn and it took an hour of eyewash to get it clear. Today, you’ll need a mask as well as goggles. It’s not good to breathe in the amount of dust you’ll raise.” Dennis walked across the farmyard with Randy, carrying the crowbar and hammer he’d been given. He could see Lana out in the field with the lambs and stopped abruptly when he realized how far away she was and that he could see her clearly.

“I’m sorry,” he said when Randy stopped to look at him. “It still takes me by surprise when I see something clearly that’s far away.” He pointed.

“I understand. Far more jolting when it’s my daughter you see,” Randy chuckled.

“Sir, Lana’s my friend. I would never...”

“Never what, Dennis? Never be happy to see her? Never want to spend time with her? Never rush to her rescue?” Randy asked. “I know you would never violate her or break her trust. But she may be developing her own ideas about ‘never’ that are not so restrictive.”

“Yes, sir.” They walked on in silence until they reached a massive old corncrib.

“We’re going to take this down. Or I should say, you’re going to take it down. I’ve been intending to for years. Once we started combining corn, having an old crib like this was obsolete. And we joined the co-op, so our grain is stored with the other area farmers at the elevator instead of being here at the farm.”

“It’s kind of a cool building,” Dennis said.

“True, but we’ve reached the point at which the barnboard is worth more than the building. That’s why I don’t want to just bulldoze it down or burn it. I’ve already lifted the tin roof off and now I want as much of the wood preserved as possible. Hundred-year-old barnboard is bringing a good price if we send it to a rich place like California. People decorate the insides of their homes with it.”

After a moderate amount of instruction, Dennis set to work. Disassembling a building with the intent of preserving the materials takes time. The boards were pried off the frame and then the nails had to be preserved. Most of the nails were old square nails and would also be sold as antiques. After lunch, Nils joined Dennis. Dennis pulled the boards from the frame and Nils pulled the nails from the boards.

When his mother came to pick Dennis up at the end of the day, he was covered in dust and was sore all over. Randy recommended undressing outside to shake off the dust before the clothes went into the washing machine so the mud didn’t clog their drains. Dennis went so far as to hang his clothes on the laundry line in his back yard and beat them with a stick to clear more of the dust from them.

He got his clothes into the washing machine and then it was time for him to get clean as well. He started with a shower, but soon decided to fill the tub and soak for a while. When he got out of the tub, it was another half an hour to scrub the collected residue off the tub itself.

He fell into a routine: getting up and going to work, having lunch with Lana and her siblings, going home in the evening to clean his clothes and take a bath. Then it was time for dinner, games and reading with Peg, and finally study. Wednesday evening, Brenda was waiting at the house for the family to get home with dinner ready and waiting. After Peg went to bed, they sat at the kitchen table and watched the next lesson online for their class.

“I’m ready for a more practical study of the selection and use of protective equipment,” Brenda whispered to him after they’d studied for nearly two hours. They closed their books, kissed Dot goodnight, and went to bed.

“I love you, Brenda,” he said as they slipped into bed. “I don’t know that I’ll stay awake all that long. I can’t believe how hard it is to work all day!”

“I suppose it’s something teens’ parents wish they understood. Just kiss me, Dennis. If we don’t get around to making love, I don’t care. I just want to be with you and share the same space with you for a while.”

They did kiss. They did share the same space. When Dennis slid into her, it was smooth and effortless. They continued kissing as they moved together, taking a slow mount to heaven. They held each other through the aftermath, staying connected as long as they could. Dennis reached down to retrieve the condom and discovered nothing there.

“We forgot the protective equipment,” he breathed. “Will it be okay?”

“Yeah. It happens. I’m protected and I’ve been intimate with the same girls you have. I don’t think we have anything to worry about, lover. It sure did feel good, though, didn’t it?” she sighed.

“It was amazing. I just couldn’t think of anything but the beautiful girl in my arms.”

“Good. Now let’s go to sleep. My pussy is going to drool on your leg all night.”

Friday afternoon when Dot came by to pick up Dennis at the farm, Randy stopped him at the car.

“Hello, Dot. Dennis, you forgot your pay.” He handed Dennis an envelope.

“I didn’t even think about getting paid,” Dennis said, accepting the envelope.

“That covers this week of good work, and the partial week you worked before your surgery,” Randy said. “I’ve tried to make sure you aren’t working more than forty hours a week, but you need to start keeping track to make sure. I’ve started you at the Iowa minimum wage for youth agricultural workers of $6.35 an hour and computed your time as forty hours per week. You’re doing a good job, Dennis. The last planting of corn is all in and next week we’ll start mowing hay. I want to see how you handle the tractor.”

“Wow! Thank you, sir.”

“And Dennis, we are working together now. Sir and Mr. Brown are too formal for farm life. Call me Randy.”

“Yes, sir. I mean, Randy, sir. I mean...”

Randy and Dot both started laughing. “You’ll get used to it.”

They waved and drove back toward town. Dennis looked in the envelope.

“Mom! There’s like a whole bunch of money in here!” He pulled it out and began counting the twenties. “$320! Wow! Should I go open a bank account?”

“Why don’t you just keep it in the bank under your bed,” Dot said. “It’s easier to access that way.”

“Under my ... you mean ... the satchel?”

“I know I used money from the satchel for bills and to keep us going the first few months, but I consider that money to be yours. We were never able to create a college fund for you and you’ll need that money. I suggest that you continue to keep a log of how much money is in the satchel only now you’ll have to note deposits as well as withdrawals.”

“Does that mean I can spend money from the satchel, like for a date?”

“That’s where the money I’ve been giving you for dates comes from. Don’t go overboard. Set a budget and be sure your funds are growing and not shrinking,” Dot said.

“Don’t we still need the money for bills, Mom? You shouldn’t need to pay for everything now that I have a job,” Dennis said.

“I’m working almost full time now,” Dot said. “So are you and Peg. My responsibility is the home and family. Peg contributes to that, though I try to make sure what she earns goes to making her life better. That includes clothes, medicine, and treats. It was just barely enough to scrape by. But your father had a life insurance policy. It paid out this week and I was able to cover all the funeral expenses, and put aside a sizable nest egg for the future.”

“Um ... I was going to ask this before I saw all this money, but could we go into town tomorrow—maybe to Goodwill—so I can get some work clothes? My jeans are just too tight to move around on the farm and I’ve been washing them every night. I need some farmer overalls,” Dennis said.