Page 25 of On the Land, We Shoot Straight
Grady pulled out the cured beef wrapped in white paper and the bread and got to fixing sandwiches. He handed one to Cole, who took it with a thanks, his eyes down as he bit into it before turning back to the horizon.
“We could go huntin’ if you want something else,” Grady said.
“I don’t like huntin’,” Cole replied and focused on his sandwich.
Grady grunted. He didn’t like hunting much either, but he’d thought the Cole boys were right into it, at least from what he could remember from all their talk at school.
They didn’t say much else as they ate and then settled in to snooze away the heat of the day.
16
G
rady normally liked toride out for a few hours in the later part of the afternoon on that first day, but he decided to stay by the lake on account of the rain. Cole seemed happy about this, settling in with his bedroll after he’d fed and watered the horses like he was planning on living there. Grady guessed he must’ve been drifting for a good year before he wound up on Grady’s porch, so maybe this was more what he was used to.
Grady was about to fall asleep when Cole’s voice brought him back.
“Grady?”
Grady hummed to let Cole know he was still awake, but didn’t open his eyes.
“You awake?”
“Well, I ain’t respondin’ in my sleep.”
“Okay.”
Grady waited. He could hear Cole’s breathing from where he lay on his bedroll less than a foot away, but he didn’t say anything else.
“Were you gonna say somethin’?”
Cole shuffled around. Grady turned his head and made out the shape of Cole’s head facing him.
“I was just gonna ask about tomorrow.”
“What about it.”
“We headin’ through to the other lake, yeah?”
“Yeah...”
Grady had given Cole a rough outline of the ride back at the house. Cole had listened in a way that made Grady think he knew exactly how they were planning to ride it and didn’t understand why Grady was telling him. So Grady had a feeling that wasn’t what Cole wanted to ask at all.
“Cool,” Cole said now. “Night.”
Grady listened to Cole shuffle onto his back and frowned. That wasn’t what he wanted to ask.
The next night, they were camped out in the shell of the grocery store in the abandoned town near the biggest lake in these parts. It was off Grady’s land, but right on the border. It’d been the biggest stop on the railway line before foreclosures gave the wealthier landholders the opportunity to spread like malignant cancer, before the droughts and the death of good prices. The horses were hobbled outside, ambling around and grazing on the ryegrass while Grady and Cole had come inside and set up camp. The smashed-out windows and missing door gave them a nice view of Red and Chloe in the near distance.
Grady was almost asleep when Cole said his name again.
“What.”
“Sorry, go on back to sleep.”
“I’m awake now.”
“It’s nothin’.”
