32
John slept like the dead. He and his brother had shared the big, old double bed until they were ten and Grumps’ sister had passed in her sleep. With her room opened up, John had the chance to sleep on his own.
He and Larry had traded stories long into the night. They’d talked about the farm. The success of the last season, the high cost of irrigation water versus driving in a couple more wells.
And they’d talked about flying, briefly. The topic too foreign to any of his kin to sustain the conversation for long. His family didn’t truly understand. They liked that he flew as a mechanic for the US Army. But they thought he’d do a tour and come home, as had he. Now that he’d been in the service a decade, the family wasn’t so sure how to think about it.
Larry’d come to Campbell once on a
