Chapter 2

“I DON’T THINK you’ll need to ted the hay after it’s raked,” Mr. Abernathy said the next morning. “One thing about cutting so late in the season is that the grass is already drier than new mown spring grass. Give it a day’s rest tomorrow and you should be ready to bale on Thursday.”

“Will do, Mr. Abernathy. Do we have all the supplies needed for baling? I mean, like, twine?” Dennis asked.

“Check the store room over there. I believe I put in a new twin pack last year.”

“Yes, sir,” Dennis said, coming from the store room. “There are two 10,000-foot rolls back there. I see a partial still on the baler. As dense as the hay pack is, we might need a third full spool. I can run in to County Seat tomorrow and pick up a couple of spools at Tractor Supply.”

“Not necessary. I need to take Lila to the doctor this afternoon. I’ll pick up extra twine while we’re out. That’s good thinking. You’ll do fine out here. I need to get inside and fix Lila her breakfast now. Have a good working day.”

Dennis mounted the tractor and headed to the field to rake the hay.

By noon, Dennis was washing down the rake and making sure the equipment was clean and maintained. He left the barn to walk over to the school and met Lana walking up the road. She set her pack down and welcomed Dennis’s embrace and kiss.

“I didn’t expect you to be done so soon!” she said. “I was bringing lunch to you. Natalie told me what a nice picnic you had yesterday.” The picnic had been nice, but Dennis didn’t think Lana wanted quite the same kind of treatment Natalie had.

“Raking went pretty quickly. Mr. Abernathy has a cool setup for his baler. He tows a wagon and loads the hay as it’s baled. The problem is it takes two people to make it work: one to drive and one to stack bales. Could I interest you in helping me out Thursday?” he asked as they walked back toward the school.

“I’m bribable. Of course, most of the girls are, but they don’t have the experience driving a tractor. Except Tori. I’m sure she’d come out to help you and she’s probably a good lunch, too. I mean lunch companion. You know,” Lana giggled.

“I know exactly what you mean, little minx,” he laughed. “The hay out there is so dense that with only two of us working, it might take two days of baling anyway.”

“How much do you think is out there?”

“I’m estimating 5,000 bales. Which means we’ll have to stop and unload the wagon after every four or five acres. It’s going to be a long day or two.” They found a place in the bleachers to have their picnic. The first football practice of the day was over and the second wouldn’t start until two.

“You know, all the girlfriends would come out to help,” Lana said. “Why don’t you just ask?”

“Well, this is different than when we baled on your property,” he said. “I’m not getting paid for this. I volunteered. I can’t just ask my girlfriends to volunteer for hard labor with no reward but my scintillating presence.”

“I didn’t know you were volunteering.”

“Mrs. Abernathy is really sick and Mr. Abernathy just hasn’t had the time or energy to tend the fields. This is the only one that was even planted. He’s been really good about providing access for our cross country trail on his property and I just wanted to help him out.”

The kiss Lana gave Dennis took him so much by surprise that he fell backwards with her straddling him. It was deep and sensual and passionate. It was very unlike Lana. He couldn’t help but get an erection as she kissed him thoroughly, and she ground herself against him. Finally, she pushed herself away and looked at him. Her almost white blonde hair was matted against her head from the sweat they had worked up in such a short time.

“I didn’t know you were doing this just to help out. Dennis, I’m so proud of you! Of course all the girlfriends will come out to help us bale and stack. We just love you more every day!”

“Do you know what I heard?” Coach Torvalds barked at the football team during their second day of practice. “I heard the conditioning trainer of the cross country team saying football players weren’t as good as cross country runners. He said you weren’t strong enough or fast enough. And what I’m seeing here today says he’s right! You have to be strong! You have to be fast! Are you strong?”

“Yes!” answered the players.

“Are you fast?”

“Yes!” answered the players.

“I’m going to have you prove it. A week from Saturday, we’re going to have a little challenge match. I don’t expect all the linemen to be long distance runners. Artie there can scarcely run from the sidelines into position. But he’s going to be a wall that defenders won’t be able to get around. But all backfield, the ends, and all defensive backs are going to run in a race against the cross country team. And I’m going to make it worth your while.”

The team straightened up to listen to the challenge. None of them were happy to be considered second rate to the wimps running cross country. Coach had a deal for them.

“Every player who beats the cross country team across the finish line will get a guaranteed playing slot in our first game the next week.”

“Beating their whole team?” Jake Larson asked. He had a good chance at the starting quarterback slot, but he knew there were some fast runners who were going out for cross country. He wasn’t sure he could beat Dave Overman in a footrace.

“Oh, is there a girl on that team you think might beat you?” Torvalds teased. “I tell you what. I’ll make the offer to any one of you who can beat their team manager. Will that do? Coach Byers, what’s that kid’s name?”

“Dennis Enders. He manages girls’ basketball, track, and cross country.” Coach Byers did his best to hide a smile. This was a clear setup. He was pretty sure none of the team had seen the new Dennis Enders who could outrun a pig for over half a mile. Andy said he was going to get him to race as well as manage.

“That little twerp?” Si Goodman snarked. “He couldn’t beat a fly.” Si had some evidence of that. He’d been one of the JV basketball team accused of abusing Dennis their freshman year. It was some fast work by Si’s father that got him and the other boys to testify against the gang of three in return for not being prosecuted themselves. He’d tried to extend a hand of friendship to Dennis during basketball season, but the dweeb had given him the cold shoulder.

“Okay. Here’s the deal. Any player, offense, defense, line, backfield, or special team who can beat ‘that little twerp,’ as Si called him, gets a guaranteed playing spot in our first game.” He wasn’t too worried about that. He intended to play every boy in the first game regardless. It was far more important for parents to see their babies play than to win the first game. This was just motivation to get them focused. “Let’s hit those calisthenics and speed drills. We’ve got a challenge to meet!”

Dennis worked all afternoon mowing the trail. Since there was cut grass on the trail from the big mower, it took longer for the garden mower to cut and mulch the grass down to the proper length. He was definitely not going to finish in one afternoon.

Dennis put up the tractor for the night and went home to shower, eat, and get ready for cross country practice. When he got back to the school, Coach Byers was waiting to talk to him.

“Dennis, how did the mowing go today? Is it going to take that long every week?”

“Hi, Coach. I don’t expect it will take as long in the future, but we’ll need to watch the growth pattern as we move into fall. The grass could grow faster. Right now, I’m mowing at a slower speed and I’m collecting the clippings. That’s because the grass was so long that leaving the clippings would smother what’s under it. In the future, I should be able to mow at about seven to ten miles per hour. But like I said, we might have to mow more than once a week when the grass starts growing strong again,” Dennis said.

“How long to do the football field and the infield?” Coach asked.

“Oh. Well, we could have the same problem with the first cutting. Our football field hasn’t been maintained aside from a twice a year chop job to keep the weeds down. It will probably take a few hours to get it all to playing length. Then about an hour per mowing, I’d guess. Maybe two.”

“You are quickly becoming our resident expert on mowing. George Samuels comes out in the spring and starts mowing the baseball diamond, just because he’s a fan. But when baseball season ends, he quits mowing,” Coach said.

“Well, there’s a lot of acreage around the school to get mowed,” Dennis speculated. “There are bigger and better mowers than this one Mr. Stackhouse is loaning us. He’ll need this back by the weekend to mow his mammoth yard. I’m not sure why he wants five acres of grass to mow, but it’s how he spends his Saturdays. Mr. Abernathy told me about an attachment for the regular tractor that could mow a lot faster and I know professional mowers for sports fields can run anywhere from $5,000-$10,000. It’s a big job.”