Letting the manual fall open onto his stomach, I sighed a breath of accomplishment. Another one done. Another 1000 pages of human information about farm equipment stuffed in my head.

I stared up at the ceiling, the fan blades swooped by at high making cold air slip over me. My legs were tangled beneath the thin blue blanket thrown over the lower half of my body.

I could hear Evie’s faint footsteps as she ambled in her room. Mark hadn’t been with us on the drive home today, so I sat upfront.

I didn’t tell Evie about my conversation with Elias Alvara in the hallway before class. I’m not sure she would approve. Instead we mostly sat in a comfortable silence on the ride home. I watched and analyzed the scarecrows in the wheat fields as we passed by. The rust on one of their pitchforks is getting worse, most of the metal is turning into a crumbling red metal.

Rising from my recently reconstructed bed frame, I placed the finish manual squarely on my mostly empty bed side table.

We’d arrived home a couple of hours ago. The truck was gone from the driveway now though, mom and dad and grandma had taken it to some meeting in town. I could see the indented tracks from the tires in the shifting gravel.

The porch steps groaned like usual as I walked down them and towards the shed. The beginnings of chirping crickets were springing through the air. Cold air was beginning to seep into the afternoon.

Pushing the shed door open, my feet crunched the hay beneath my steps. More farm equipment lined the wooden walls, I could hear the squeaking of rats at the far edge of the place.

I saw the bent tractor edge that my dad had spoken of this morning. Like he had run into a large rock, the green alloy waved inwards and towards the belly of the machine.

Gripping the thick metal it wavered like the wind under my grasp. The alloy groaning as I bent the edges back to its original straight form. It wasn’t difficult in the slightest which made me gaze around the property for another living being. The strength it took to bend the thick metal was nothing more than what humans used to break pasta.

It was quiet in the shed now. I liked these quiet times and quieter days. When the only sounds were the simple and natural ones.

Only stopping once to rub a thick oil from the wrist of my flannel, my time was well-spent, with only one goal in mind.

Huffing the edges of my mouth quirked upwards at the work I had done. Though my smile waned when I noticed the flat tire. Grabbing a new tire and letting air out of the old one. Slowly I got the tire wedged off of the rim and was just beginning to slip the new tire on when my concentration broke.

“Knock knock.” Evelyn said as she approached me. I stopped what I was doing and turned towards her. “How was your day?” Her hands were laced behind her back and her ears were slightly pinker than usual.

Behind her I could see the setting sun. A coral and periwinkle hue settling over the golden fields. It looked peaceful as they wavered in a large group. I have never left Bedlam, but I like it here. It’s predictable. It’s simple.

It’s safe.

Looking back to Evelyn and her slightly guilty face I deadpanned, “What do you want?”

“Me?” She feigned ignorance despite us both knowing she was possibly the worst liar across the galaxies. When we were younger, Evelyn lost dad’s prized wrench and we had decided to lie about it so we didn’t get in trouble. But as soon as dad asked her if she’d seen it, the tips of Evelyn’s ears and her face went bright red before she blurted out that she’d lost it only an hour after we’d agreed to lie. “I just want to ask my sweet little brother about his day.”

Stepping in for a hug, Evelyn outstretched her arms but stopped when I turned back around and continued working, “I’m only technically two years younger than you and you’re never this nice unless you want something. So spill.”

“Can you drive a couple of us to a party on Thursday night?” She tried to masquerade the favour with a sickly sweet voice.

She doesn’t seem to notice what I’m doing. Or care. I’m not sure to what extent Evie understands what I can do. I don’t talk about it, nor will I. But I stop what I am doing to bring my attention back to her anyhow.

“Who is a couple of us?” I like my sister, but sometimes her choice in friends was…interesting to say the least. They were the type of people I stayed away from. They were loud and sometimes obnoxious, meaning there were very few things that .

Usually when her friends came over I just left or hid in my room.

“Me, Mark, a few of my friends and a few of the guys on the football team.”

My eyebrow raised, “I thought you were driving?”

“Yeahhh... but I want to drink.” She fiddled with the sleeves on her cardigan, “Come on Rory, please. It's like one of the first parties of the year and I want to have fun. School is already kicking my ass with all this homework. I just want to let loose.”

“I’ll owe you.” She tried to add to the deal at the last minute.

I waved her away, I don’t care about doing her favours or driving, “Don’t bother with that. I’ll drive you.”

“God I love you!” She hollered obnoxiously and making me wince slightly at the noise. “Okay, thank you so much. I’ll leave you to do…whatever you’re doing.”

“Bye.” I muttered long past when she had left.