“LOOK AT HIM! HIS GRANDFATHER LEFT HIM THE BEST SOIL IN THE COUNTY, AND HE'S BURYING IT UNDER ROCKS!”
Hank Barlow's laughter rolled across the dry Kansas pasture.
The sixty-three-year-old farmer leaned over a weathered wooden fence, pointing one thick finger at a fourteen-year-old boy kneeling in the dirt. Two other men stood beside him, their faces red from laughing beneath their faded baseball caps.
Behind them, an enormous red barn leaned against the pale summer sky. A rusted windmill stood motionless beyond the field, and a dirt road curved between acres of yellowing grass that hadn't seen a meaningful rainfall in weeks.
The boy didn't look up.
His name was Eli Mercer.
He wore an old straw hat with a torn brim, a faded blue denim shirt, a brown canvas vest that had belonged to his grandfather, and jeans stiff with dried mud. His boots were cracked, his gloves too large, and his arms were scratched from carrying stones across the field.
Beside him stood a rusty wheelbarrow filled almost to the rim with gray rocks.
Eli selected another stone and placed it carefully beside a small watermelon seedling.
Hank laughed harder.
“Did you hear me, boy?”
Eli pressed the stone gently into the dirt.
“Yes, sir.”
“Then explain what you're doing!”
“Protecting the roots.”
The men exploded with laughter.
Gus Tanner, a heavyset farmer with a red nose and a gray beard, slapped the fence rail.
“Protecting the roots? From what?”
“The heat.”
Gus shook his head.
“Son, you've got the heat trapped under those rocks!”
Eli said nothing.
Hank pointed toward the wheelbarrow.
“Your grandfather spent fifty years pulling stones out of that field, and now you're putting them all back!”
The third man, Roy Kessler, leaned forward.
“Maybe the kid thinks he's growing rocks instead of watermelons.”
All three laughed.
Eli lowered his head.
He'd learned that arguing only made the visits last longer.
Instead, he took a handful of dry soil, brushed away the loose surface, and checked the darker earth several inches beneath the stones.
It still held moisture.