The only time Leeds turned his attention to Dean was to say, “I didn’t expect you to be such a strapping big boy. Way Raymond talked, I thought you were just a little fella.”
Was that how Pa saw him? As ten years old, like time had stood still for the past eight years?
“I reckon he wouldn’t know anything about me,” Dean said.
“Now, Dean…” Ma began.
“What about you?” Dean asked Leeds. “You leave a family behind?”
“No, I’m a bachelor. I had a sweetheart when I left, but she wasn’t interested in trekking across the country, and I could hardly expect her to wait for me…”
Dean gave a harsh laugh. He could feel Ma’s eyes on him, angry.
Leeds went on, oblivious. “I’m eager to get home to see my ma, though. Pa died last year, and I promised Ma I’d come back and look after her.”
Dean almost said that it was nice that some people kept their promises, but instead he excused himself. Better to leave the table than to anger Ma even more. Besides, his issues with Pa were none of Leeds’ business.
Dean finished with the fence posts that Leeds’ arrival had taken him from, trying to clear his mind. It didn’t work, but he did get the job done.
When he finished, his neighbor Grady was walking down the path toward him, jiggling his baby son in his arms. Grady was four years older than Dean, and growing up he’d been friends with Dean’s older brother Alec. The two had delighted in ignoring Dean then, but Grady was a second son, too, and in the end that turned out to be a better bond than age. They’d both been left behind, both become the men of their farms.
Grady had gotten married a couple years back, but Dean still hadn’t quite gotten used to that. The baby in particular was jarring, like that time it had snowed on the first of June.
“Jack was fussing, thought I’d take him for a walk,” Grady said. “Fence looks good.”
“It’ll do,” Dean said.
“That stranger find your place?”
“Yep.”
“Everything all right?”
“Just dandy.”
Grady gave him a look, shifting the baby to his other hip. “You sure about that?”
“Yep. Just didn’t feel like hearing about the wonders of California all evening.”
I enjoyed this story very much. I relate to it in a variety of ways, several of which are, tangential but my liking of it is real. I was raised in Nebraska, though on a farm. I’ve had, indeed I have, decisions pushed on me by circumstance, that seem to have no “proper” choice: some gain, some loss with any decision. I’ve written a story, much, much different, with the same title, which is what got me to read yours. Turned out that, after reading yours, I’ve realized that the two stories have much in common, in spite of their differences. Still, the core of my response to your story is, well done. It moved me.