“This is me saying no to your ‘I do not need your help’ Hazel,” Tess said.
“I shouldn’t need help. It’s my job.”
“What are you going to do with him?” Tess asked, pulling John Henry from her arms.
He went to her willingly.
“I can keep him with me. It’ll be fine,” she argued, though she had never been successful in that. John Henry hated just sitting around, and hours on her lap in a tractor or combine would be just that.
“It is not fine. What happened? Last night you were all for this. Now you do not need anyone?” Tess demanded, her eyes on the field that needed to be harvested.
“Nothing. I just grew up. I should do it myself.” Hazel looked out at the field, realizing just how daunting it was, how much time it was going to take.
“Should. You keep saying should. Yes, you could do it yourself. And I have no doubt that you would do it yourself. But you keep saying should. Who told you that you do not need help?” Tess shifted the boy in her arms as she looked at Hazel in question.
“Nobody,” Hazel replied as she watched a red combine slowly drive toward them. She should have known it would take more than a phone call to stop the book club.
“Ruston? Would he say that?” Tess asked, looking over Hazel’s shoulder at the road, seeing the same thing Hazel was.
“No, he would never do that.” Hazel shook her head.
“That is how I read him also.”
They watched a car pull into the yard. Natalie was there.
The car was barely stopped when Tess stomped over to her. Natalie looked at them with a smile before Tess jumped in with, “Someone told Hazel she didn’t need help with the wheat. Do you know who that would be? She says it’s not Ruston. Do you think it’s Ruston?”
Natalie instantly lost her smile. “No, not Ruston, but her grandparents wouldn’t want anyone’s help. I can just hear her grandma say that she needs to learn to do things on her own; nobody will be around to help her.”
Hazel wouldn’t confirm or deny anything. It didn’t matter—she had a job, and she didn’t need help.
Tess handed John Henry to Natalie, then turned to Hazel, pulling her into a hug. “She’s wrong, Hazel. You take help any chance you get. Nobody does it all without help. We all are coming because we want to help you. Because we all love you, Hazel.”
“But you guys have better things to do than help me. I can get it done. Don’t worry about it,” Hazel said with less conviction as the combines grew closer. There were now two heading her way.
“We have nothing better to do than be there for you. You are more important than anything we could have possibly done today.” Tess pulled her into her arms as Hazel tried to control the tears.
It had been years since anyone had said they wanted to help her. Years since anyone had helped her without her having to beg. She was so tired of begging.
“Tess is right, Hazel. We’re all here to help you today. But we are also here to help you every day. Any one of us can watch John Henry. Any one of us can come out here and help with stuff. We are friends, and that’s what friends do.” Natalie put her arm over Hazel’s shoulders and kissed her temple. “Tess especially—she needs practice with kids.”
“I do not,” Tess stated firmly and then broke out laughing. “I know more about kids than both of you put together.”
“A few months pregnant, and she thinks she’s an expert,” Natalie teased Tess and let Hazel go.
Just then, the combines turned onto the driveway. They were twice the size of the one her grandfather had. Math was driving one, and Tess’s nephew was in the other. He and his family hadn’t been in town long, and Hazel didn’t know him well, but Hazel knew he was one of Math’s best employees since arriving.
As three trucks followed the combines, then two cars behind them, everyone was there to help her. Hazel knew she couldn’t stop them from helping even if she tried.
By the equipment’s size, Hazel knew the crops would be off before sundown, maybe before mid-day. It wasn’t going to take long, and for that, she was thankful.
Math in the first combine had stopped near her, and Hazel had climbed up on the large combine and rode with him to the field. Together they devised and planned, and for some reason, Math let her drive the machine that cost more than her farm ever would.
It was a different way of farming that Hazel had never known. New equipment vs. the old, broken-down equipment she always used. A completely different way of operating.
After a few hours, she realized that she didn’t enjoy the big new equipment any better than the old equipment that she had always used. Neither really made her happy.
CHAPTER12