#WritePhoto: Farmer's Revolt

-
Image credit KL Caley

I am writing this for the weekly #WritePhoto challenge by KL Caley at New2Writing.com. Read all about it and join in if you'd like!

I have decided to try my best to join in on this hop again, and while this photo is particularly challenging in my opinion (there's a lot of empty space there... what's that tractor up to?), I think I can pull off a bit of something, so here goes.

Super short, just over 300 words.


Farmer's Revolt

Jane Amelia was bored. Bored, bored, bored, bored. She’d driven the tractor across this field a hundred times, trying hard to keep the rows straight and even, as her father had instructed her. And for what?

She left neat rows of cut hay for the next bored driver with the rake, then the baler, while she moved on to the next field, and the next, and the next. World without end, amen.

The house was just over there, behind the trees that kept the yard separate from the fields. She could go home, have a cup of coffee and one of Mom’s oatmeal cookies before moving on to the next hayfield.

Of course, Mom wouldn’t let her in the house, all covered in dust and chaff from the mowing. And Dad would yell at her for slacking off, with hay to cut and rain in the forecast. And they couldn’t even afford one of the nice tractors with an air-conditioned cab and a sound system so she could listen to music, or her podcasts.

Jane Amelia remembered when she first learned to drive the tractor. It was exciting to sit up on the high seat and control that power. She’d driven a wavy line across the field on her first attempt, and Dad had immediately begun to teach her to drive a straight and unwavering row.

He’d been teaching her boredom, in the name of being a good farmer.

Smiling at a new idea, Jane Amelia began to cut great curves through the hay, enjoying the rhythm of the sweeping turns.

Dad would be mad, but Matt, up behind in the rake, would appreciate the change. No more well-tended boredom; he’d have to pay attention to follow those rows.

If it wasn’t quite a cure for boredom, it was, at least, Jane Amelia’s small protest against the straight and narrow.

 

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2022
 As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated.
Don't miss a post--click the "Follow-it" link below!

Comments

Post a Comment

Let us know what you think! We love to hear from our readers!

Popular Posts

Non-fiction Audiobook Review: Falter, by Bill McKibben

-
Image
Important stuff, but hard to hear. Title: Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? Author: Bill McKibben. Ready by Olivery Wyman Publication Info: Macmillan Audio 2019. 11 hours. Hardback by Henry Holt & Co., 291 pages. Source: Library Blurb: (Goodreads): Thirty years ago Bill McKibben offered one of the earliest warnings about climate change. Now he broadens the warning: the entire human game, he suggests, has begun to play itself out. Bill McKibben’s groundbreaking book The End of Nature -- issued in dozens of languages and long regarded as a classic -- was the first book to alert us to global warming. But the danger is broader than that: even as climate change shrinks the space where our civilization can exist, new technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics threaten to bleach away the variety of human experience. Falter tells the story of these converging trends and of the ideological fervor that keeps us from bringing them under control. And t
Read more

#WEP--The Scream

-
Image
WEP challenges are FREE and open to all. On the 1st   of the challenge month, there will be a   get-your-thinking-caps   on post. The badge will include the dates of the challenge and the winner’s   prizes. The InLinkz sign up will open on the third Wednesday and close 3 days later. It will contain no news, just the sign up. Participants link up with their DLs (Direct Links to their entry).  Learn all about it here .    My entry this time is based on an actual incident. Mom and my brothers will recognize it. My apologies to them for the non-trivial liberties I took with history and their personalities. We are now also meant to provide a tag line for our stories, so here's mine: What terrors lurk in the root cellar?     The Scream The house we lived in that year wasn’t much. The wind blew in everywhere you could imagine a draft, and some places you couldn’t. The old enclosed porch we used as a root cellar was worse. It wasn’t just the wind that could get in through the chinks a
Read more

#WEP: December Flash Fiction Challenge

-
Image
This December challenge wraps up the year of artistic inspiration from some great works of art. The WEP is open to all, following the simple rules: 1. SUBMIT your name to the list below on December 1 thru the 15th . Add your link (URL) 2. POST your entry, put WEP is in the TITLE along with The Narcissus badge within your entry. 3. STATE feedback preferences and word count at the end of your entry. 4. READ other entries, giving feedback if requested. 5. SHARE THE CHALLENGE on social media. Tweets are ready on the WEP blog. PLEASE NOTE: ENTRIES CLOSE Dec. 15th @ midnight (NY Time - check WEP blog clock) ALL GENRES WELCOME except erotica - 1,000 words maximum My story for this month's challenge is maybe cheating a little--I didn't write it for the challenge, but I decided that the common understanding of Narcissus and narcissism fits well enough, even if the story doesn't relate to the painting. I wrote this while trekking in Nepal last month, highlighting a character w
Read more