Hay Waddy

Nick reached for the pancakes in the middle of the breakfast table. "We got a lot of alfalfa to mow and get stored today. I hope we can count on some of your time. You're the one who's been the hay waddy, after all."

Heath said, "I can do the job. Mowing and storing is good, hard work. Keeps you going."

"Makes you sneeze," Nick said.

"Where did you pick up an expression like 'hay waddy' anyway?" Jarrod asked from the end of the table. "I thought that expression came out of the plains, not California."

"Picked it up during the war, from a guy I knew in the army," Heath said. "He was from Nebraska. Used to keep himself going by saying he'd go back to being a hay waddy in Nebraska as soon as the war was over. He'd work one place, then another, never settle down." Heath lost a little of his smile at the bad side of that memory. "And never get locked up again."

"What happened to him?" Audra asked cautiously.

"The last time I saw him, he was heading back to Nebraska to be a hay waddy," Heath said matter of factly.

"Then his plan to keep himself going worked," Victoria said.

"Like a charm," Heath said. "He was awful skinny and pale when he headed home, but he had a big smile on his face. I suppose, if he's still mowing hay, he's still moving from place to place, still open and free and wearing that smile."

"What did you do to keep going?" Audra asked. "Is there something you kept telling yourself?"

Heath smile grew wider again. "I kept telling myself that all the girls in California would love a soldier when he got home."

"That's funny," Nick said. "I told myself the same thing."

Audra smiled. "I'm not surprised. What did you tell yourself, Jarrod?"

"That I'd be as happy as a king to get out of the army," Jarrod said. "That was all I needed."

"I got a question," Heath asked and looked at Victoria. "What did you women tell yourselves while we were gone?"

Victoria's smile faded, but settled into something with a sweet remembrance. "I worried a lot, but your father kept telling me that his sons were good young men who would do their duty and we would be proud of them. And I am." She looked at Heath. "All of them."

Heath's grin went happily lopsided. "Even the hay waddy?"

Victoria's smile grew too. "Even the hay waddy."

The End