“I knew you going to say that,” Jiichan retorted. “You want to argue about everything. You argue more than me.”
“That not true. You argue the most.”
Then they spent the next couple of minutes arguing about arguing. In the end, Jiichan relented and got into the passenger seat.
“I need to work,” he said petulantly. But he closed his eyes and said, “Ahhh,” as if it felt really good to slump down.
After Obaachan and I got Jaz and Jiichan into bed, Obaachan began washing dishes. I dried. “By the way, I decide. Pressure most powerful force on Earth.”
I didn’t answer. When the kitchen was clean, I went outside with a flashlight to walk Thunder before confining him for the night. The field looked barren, like a bomb had been dropped. It was the opposite of the flowing field the workers were cutting. I thought about our skimpy savings and wondered if they would deduct some of Jiichan’s salary because he couldn’t work tonight. And worse yet, what if we got fired?
Thunder galloped through the cut field. He flushed out a rabbit and took off in pursuit. They were both so fast. I stood still to admire Thunder’s muscular black body bounding in the moonlight. He caught the rabbit in his mouth and shook it dead. Back home when he did that, we ate the rabbit meat. Dogs killed rabbits, mosquitoes killed people, and people killed just about anything. But I really thought we all had good souls. That was so deep, I made a mental note of it.
“Thunder!” I called out. He tore back across the field and barreled into me with his dead, bloody rabbit. I took the rabbit inside, where Obaachan was reading a Japanese magazine. “Look what Thunder caught.”
“Rabbit not in Mrs. Parker’s recipes. Get that out of here.”
“Can I cook it for Thunder?”
Obaachan seemed to consider that. “If you clean up after.”
I took out a big knife. “Is there a hammer someplace?” I asked Obaachan.
“Use that,” she said, gesturing to one of the recipe books. “I do it.”
So I rested the knife blade on the rabbit’s ankles, and Obaachan pounded down on the blade, snapping the back feet off. We did that with the front feet and the tail as well. Finally, we did the head. Starting at the ankle, I yanked the rabbit’s skin off. Thunder was whining impatiently next to me. I gutted and rinsed the rabbit, saving the liver. Then I started boiling the meat with carrots and celery.
Obaachan went to check on Jiichan and Jaz. We’d turned down the air conditioner to save energy for the Parkers. But with the stove back on, sweat started to drip down my face and chest. I washed my hands and stepped outside. It didn’t feel much better out there, but at least it was windy. The uncut wheat looked like a flying carpet in the distance.
I stared for a moment at the Parkers’ camper. I decided to go say hi to Robbie, then I decided not to because it was being too forward and he’d been ignoring me. Then I decided to do it after all. I knocked, and Robbie answered. Right behind him was Mr. Laskey’s pretty daughter. I stared at her for a moment. I was so surprised that for a second it was like my whole brain was empty. Then I blurted out to her, “What are you doing here?”
Robbie turned to her and said, “Her grandfather is a combine driver for us.” And from the way he said it, I could tell he meant that I wasn’t important, and neither was my family. I remembered I still had my apron on. I looked down and saw blood and guts on it. Anger and sadness washed over me at the same time, and I was torn between wanting to cry and wanting to shout at him.
Instead, I said calmly, “You didn’t seem bothered by that when you kissed me.” He looked truly surprised, and I felt a surge of triumph.
I walked away, making sure to hold my head high. Jaz was sitting by himself under our “porch” light, his head lolling to the side. “What’s that?” he asked me.
“What’s what? I’m in a bad mood, so don’t bother me. What are you doing up?”
“There’s something on your forehead.”
I wiped at my forehead and found a piece of rabbit guts. That meant I’d had it on my forehead when I went to see Robbie. Wasn’t that wonderful? “Mind your own business!”
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: What did I do?” Jaz scratched at his face, then suddenly fell to his knees and started pounding his head on the ground. I grabbed him from behind, enveloping his arms. He was too sick to put up much of a fight, and in a moment he calmed down. Sometimes he did that as a trick, so that I would let go and he could pound his forehead some more. I took a chance and released him. We were both dripping sweat. He lay out on the ground like Obaachan does, then gagged.
“If you’re going to throw up, maybe you should sit up so you don’t choke,” I said. “Why are you even out of bed?”
“I don’t know. I’m sick of being inside. I’m just going to lie here and maybe go to sleep.”
“You can’t sleep out here.”
“Will you carry me inside?”
“I can help you, but I can’t lift you.”
“Then I’m going to lie here.” He closed his eyes and really did seem to be asleep.
I sat on the steps and leaned my head back against the door for a long time. I felt like I didn’t understand a single thing in the whole world. I didn’t understand a single person. I didn’t even understand myself.
I went inside and took Obaachan’s cell phone from her purse. Then I went back outside, away from Jaz, and dialed Melody. One of the combines was driving in for some reason.
“Hi, Mel.”
“Summer! I was just thinking about you. Mr. Lerner had a family emergency so we have a substitute for the rest of the year, and he gives
“Mel, I kissed a boy.” I spoke urgently but also quietly enough that Jaz couldn’t hear me.
“What?! Who?”
“A boy named Robbie Parker. He’s the son of the people we’re working for. I had a crush on him, and then he must have liked me too because he kissed me.”
“That’s amazing!”
“No, now he likes the girl who lives at the farm here, and he kind of insulted my grandfather.”
“Oh, that’s terrible. What a jerk!”
“And I have to see him all the time for the whole rest of the harvest season. What should I do?”
“Maybe he’ll apologize to you.”
“Nobody can insult my grandfather. I don’t even like him anymore.”
Then the camper door started opening, and I slipped the phone into my pocket.
Obaachan stepped out. “Don’t ever leave stove on when you go out. What I just say?”
“Don’t ever leave the stove on when I go out,” Jaz and I both recited.
The combine that had been heading in finally reached the edge of the wheat field and pulled to a stop. Mrs. Parker climbed down and headed over.
“I was worried about Toshiro and wanted to check on him,” she said. She glanced at Jaz. “Why is he on the ground?” She cocked her head. “And what is that sound?” It was Mel’s little voice talking to me from my apron pocket.
“My husband sleeping already,” Obaachan said.
“Do you think we need a doctor?”
“No doctor. Doctor give you pill and make you drug addict. He get better. Jaz stay sick a long time, but Toshiro never sick long time in his life.”
Mrs. Parker looked thoughtful. “Well, all right, if you think he’ll be fine.” She glanced at Jaz again. “You can’t leave him there.”
“He’s too heavy for me to carry, and he refused to get up unless I carry him,” I explained.
“Well, that’s a problem easily solved,” Mrs. Parker said. She knelt down and, with a huge grunt, pulled Jaz over her shoulder, as if he weighed twenty pounds instead of eighty.
Then she said, “There is that noise again!” Then the noise stopped, and I knew that Mel had hung up.
I held the door open as Mrs. Parker climbed up the three stairs into the camper, grunting all the way. She
