Meaning every morning at 5:00 a.m.
Sarah sat down next to me. ‘Grandpa, you always wanted to be around Thunder, didn’t you? Tom nodded. I now understood why my father stood in front of Sander every morning for half an hour. It wasn’t a conversation. It was gratitude. He couldn’t put it into words, so he just stood there beside him.
Changed the location of the well.
The next morning, Tom called Dan. ‘I need you to relocate the well.’ Without asking, Dan replied, “Okay.” He covered the northwest corner with the original soil and leveled it off. The animals watched the scene quietly over the fence. When the work was done, Ruby made a low, single cry. What emotion was expressed in that single cry of Ruby’s?
Ruby approached for the first time.
The next morning I went out to the farm and found Ruby quietly grazing near the northwest corner, the first time in ten years. The cows were also closer to the horns than before. It was as if they knew, in their own way, that the secret had been correctly revealed.
Sign erected by my son
Tom bought some lumber and handcrafted a small sign in the same manner as his father. On it he wrote only one word: THUNDER. He placed the sign on the ground at the northwest corner. Sarah stood beside him. They stayed there for a while. The wind shook the sunflower field. Will the thoughts on this sign continue to live on with the farm?
The night I told Bill.
That night Tom called Bill and told him about the casket and his father’s letter. Bill was silent for a moment and then said. ‘Ed must have kept that envelope all these years to give to you. That’s right. That’s just like him,” Bill said, laughing on the other end of the phone. Tom laughed, too.
The farm my father used to watch.
The next morning Tom woke up earlier than usual and walked around the still dark farm. The animals were still sleeping. He stood in front of the sign at the northwest corner. He stood there without saying a word, just as his father had done with Thunder. The sky was getting a little brighter. What in the world did my father see in this farm?
What Sarah noticed.
I know my dad stands over there every morning,’ Sarah said at dinner. ‘I know Grandpa used to go to Sander’s every morning too. It’s the same thing, isn’t it? Tom did not answer. He did not deny it. Sara said nothing more.
I bound the letter to the farm records.
Tom bound his father’s two letters in the farm’s records file. At the top of the page he wrote, “Sander died in 2013. Buried by Edward Wheeler,” he added. This filled in one blank in the farm’s 50-year history. Will this record be passed on to the next generation?
The grass is greener in the summer.
That summer, the grass grew greener than the rest only in the northwest corner. When Dan came to visit after the construction, he said, “That’s a nice color.” Tom replied, “Yes, it is. That was the only conversation they had, but they both stood there for a while.
Tom stands there every morning.
Tom still stands in front of the sign every morning at the end of his tour of the farm. He doesn’t say anything, just stands there, as his father used to do with Sander. The animals keep a certain distance and graze around the spot. There is a corner of the farm that is protected. It was the only thing that made me feel like I could keep going today.
*This story is a work of fiction. All characters and events are fictitious and have no relation to real people or events. Photographs are for illustrative purposes only.
