Of Great Character. Joseph A. Byrne

the other drivers jump from their tractors, leaving them in gear, moving ahead slowly, as they hurried to the combine to clear out the vines. Anthony decided to try it; only, he didn’t jump. Instead, he lowered the hockey stick and stepped carefully from the platform to the top step with one arm braced on the fender of the tractor, the other holding the hockey stick loosely. Just as he was about to take a careful jump, his stick caught on a tractor tire lug and drove the butt-end of it squarely into his stomach. Anthony gasped, as the stick planted itself squarely in the pit of his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Anthony dropped to the ground, unable to breathe. The tractor wheel grabbed at the side of his shoe, but pushed it away rather than dragging it under. Anthony summoned his strength, got up, hurried to the combine, unplugged the vines, but this time, he left the stick there, as the other men did.

      Still unable to breathe, Anthony stumbled to one knee, hobbled forward, caught the fender of the tractor, pulled himself onto the seat, and shut the tractor off.

      “Wow! That was close!” he said to himself, as he tried to regain his composure.

      Lyle, who had seen the stumble and fall, hurried over.

      “Are you alright?” he started to say, fully intending to remind Anthony to read the warning sign on the front of the combine and to heed the warning. He wanted to say that, but didn’t, because another combine nearby, just then, had put on the mechanic light.

      So instead, he said, “I’ve gotta go fix that combine. We don’t want to lose any production.”

      It didn’t matter that he forgot to say “read the warning sign.” It was in Spanish anyway.

      The rest of the day went pretty smoothly for Anthony. He succeeded in unloading his bin full of peas a few times. He got shot by peas from the fender of a passing tractor. He felt welcomed by the horse play. Lyle never came back to warn him of anything else. The day was a good one. The crew went home early that day, at eight p.m.

      As they were leaving the field, Keith, the tractor owner, came over and said, “Hey, you did alright today. If you want to drive the tractor full-time for the rest of the season, you can.”

      “I do,” Anthony replied, surprising himself with his answer.

      “Okay then, I’ll count on you.” It was that easy. Anthony was now a full-time pea combine operator.