“What’s that noise?” I asked.
Mrs. Finch listened, her face grim.
“Could be nothing. Could be something working itself loose. Won’t know without tearing it down again.”
“We don’t have time for that.”
“No, we don’t.”
“So what do I do?”
She looked at me hard.
“You pray your grandma doesn’t notice. And tomorrow you tell your grandpa everything.”
Iris drove the tractor back to the barn while I cleaned up tools, hid evidence, and tried to make everything look normal.
We had just gotten the barn doors closed when Grandma Lorelei’s car appeared on the driveway.
I walked out to meet her, forcing my breathing steady, keeping my hands from shaking.
“You’re home. How did it go?”
Grandma got out slowly, moving like someone who’d spent too long in a car seat.
She looked at me.
Really looked.
And I felt like she could see straight through to everything I’d done.
“The bank agreed to extend the loan. We have until December now.”
“That’s great.”
“Is it?”
Her voice was flat.
“We still owe the same amount. Just have more time to fail.”
She walked past me toward the house.
Then stopped.
Turned back.
“What did you do to the tractor?”
My heart stopped.
“Nothing. Why?”
She pointed at the ground.
“There’s fresh oil on the driveway, and I can see it on your shirt.”
I looked down.
She was right.
Oil stains I’d missed stood dark against the fabric.
The truth caught in my throat.
I wanted to lie.
To deny it.
To buy more time.
But Grandma’s eyes held mine, and I couldn’t do it.
“I modified it while you were gone. I’m sorry.”
She didn’t yell.
Didn’t even look particularly angry.
Just tired.
So tired.
“Does it still work?”
“Yes. Better than before.”
“For now.”
Her voice carried weight I didn’t understand yet.
“Come inside. We’ll talk about this after supper.”
But we didn’t talk about it after supper.
Grandma went to her room early, claiming exhaustion from the drive.
I lay awake most of the night waiting for consequences that didn’t come.
Around midnight, I heard footsteps in the hallway.
My door opened a crack.