GodPretty in the Tobacco Field Read Online Free

to lose another piece of her.
    I brushed a sleeve lightly over my hurting jaws and more hard things I knew were headed my way.

Chapter 3
    F or Penance, Gunnar sent me to work the back rows of the tobacco alone. But with the State Fair only a month away, I welcomed the Salvation. Quiet field work let me visit loud thoughts of the city I’d soon live in. I’d be sixteen in September, and if Rose made it there at thirteen, imagine what the extra years and prize money would do for me. These were just a few things rattling my brain.
    I gathered tobacco seed from the blooms for next year’s planting while Rainey worked the rows alongside Royal Road. I was a little relieved Gunnar’d separated us, being I didn’t have much talk in me still because of my sore mouth. Not to mention I was embarrassed for Rainey to see my puffy cheeks and swollen lips.
    Still, I missed him. Every time my eyes set upon him, worked shoulder to shoulder with him, or heard him humming three rows over, my heart got lighter and my mind rested some.
    Shortly before suppertime, I took the hoe to my own tiny tobacco rows, careful not to disturb the prized plants. The last thing I needed was my small patch competing for sun and growth, getting crowded out by Gunnar’s tobacco.
    After an hour of weeding, I dropped the hoe and looked over at Gunnar’s land. Fifty acres of the best in these parts. A breeze rippled over his separate five acres of tobacco, leaving a standing shiver of green rolling toward the east. Gunnar grew some of the finest burley on the rich bottomland, and still left a big plot for vegetables, letting the surrounding acres rest for crop rotation. I dropped my hoe and examined my work.
    When Gunnar parked his tractor for the day, Rainey joined me to inspect the leaves.
    â€œI will surely take home the prize money at the State Fair next month,” I slyly announced to Rainey.
    â€œGunnar told me.” Rainey grinned. “And he wants to send me, too, so I can check out those new tractors he’s been hearing about. Rose can tote me in the back.”
    â€œOh . . . he did? It’s going to be swell, Rainey.”
    â€œSwell,” he bounced back.
    â€œYeah . . . The city—us there, the lights, the people,” I chirped. “I can hardly wait—”
    Across the field, Gunnar rang the porch bell.
    Happy, I slapped the dirt off my hands and looked over to the big porch aglow from a grayish orange ruffled sunset. “I best go get supper on the table. It’s later than I thought.”
    â€œI still got some time,” Rainey said, picking up my hoe.
    â€œYou go on, and we’ll finish this later.”
    He lifted the bandana from around his neck and wiped the beads above his lip. “Just another hour, girl.” Low sunlight sparked his smiling eyes.
    I stared at him, thinking how hard he worked. How he hung around extra to help with my burley. How much he acted like my uncle when it came to putting tobacco above everything else—and even the way his hands talked like Gunnar’s when he was excited. My uncle had rubbed off on him good.
    â€œYou’ve stayed till eight o’clock every day this week, Rainey Ford. And you’ve more than earned your five dollars from Gunnar today. It’s Thursday night and I bet your mama has a mess of fine fish on the table waiting. Go on and get.” I hiked my thumb to his small house on the other side of the field.
    â€œYou know August is coming fast,” he said.
    â€œOnly July 24. Sure wish it would come faster,” I said, thinking about the fair.
    Rainey shook his head. “ Only? You know with folks running toward the easy draws, instead of field work or to the coal mines, it’ll be hard for Gunnar to get his crop harvested with only the two of us.”
    â€œThat’s what Gunnar says, too, but he’s talked to the Newtons.”
    â€œNow, Roo.” Rainey teased out my nickname. “You