Free The Chardon Chronicles: Season One -- The Harvest Festival by Kevin Kimmich Page B

rev, then go idle. He went around to the right side of
the tractor. Morgan looked a little bewildered.
     
    He pointed and shouted, “Throttle, brake,
gear, bucket up and down, bucket tip up down.” and gave a quick
thumb’s up then went back around. Morgan nudged the up bucket
lever. It popped off the ground and the tractor rocked front and
back. He nudged it again and the bucket rose to just level with his
line of sight. The brake was set, so he shoved it down, and he felt
a spring release. The tractor rolled forward slowly so he gave it
some gas and it surged out. He pulled it off onto the lawn and
re-engaged the brake and shut it off.
     
    “That’s my first time driving one of those in
case you couldn’t tell.”
     
    “You’re a natural! That’s a great machine. It’s older than me but I think it actually works better
than I do! An absolute must for a place like this. Here take
these.” He handed the propane tanks to Morgan. “Can you throw the
empty in my truck? I think the other one’s still full.”
     
    Morgan walked over toward the truck and put
the light container in the back. Robbie was wheeling the huge grill
toward the back of the house on a dolly. There was a brick stand
for the barrel next to an old stone patio. The patio was in the
shade of a big old maple tree, and moss had grown over most of the
stones.
     
    “If you can help me guide this thing, it’d be
a lot easier.” Morgan grabbed one side of the barrel and they
hoisted it onto the stand. Robbie beamed and patted the grill. “I
made this last year. Check out those welds. Ever weld? Hardest part
was cleaning the barrel. Hook that up.” he handed the hose over to
Morgan and Robbie started vigorously scrubbing the grill with a
wire brush.
     
    “I’ve never welded anything.” Morgan
answered.
     
    “We’ll have to build something this fall.”
Robbie said. He patted Morgan’s shoulder then jogged over to the
truck and grabbed a cooler. “Free range, grass fed,” he mentioned
as he walked into the house.
     
    He grabbed an oval serving plate from the
kitchen cupboards. “Hey Tracy!” he called out. She was walking back
from the master bedroom. “I was getting you some flannel sheets and
airing the room out. It was stale in there.”
     
    “Thanks! Hey, want to help with the
steaks?”
     
    “Sure.”
     
    “We could just throw these on the grill, but
they’ll be a lot better this way.” They massaged salt into the meat
then let it sit on the counter. “It’ll sit for about 40 minutes.
Makes a huge difference.”
     
    Morgan stepped inside. “The grill’s ready. I
think I’ll head back into the library.”
     
    “Oh excellent.” Robbie led the way to the
room and thumbed through the stack of notes. “You guys are doing
some research… For school?” Tracy and Morgan struggled to put an
answer together. “Have you spent much time in here?” he asked
Tracy.
     
    “Well, yeah, just recently.” she said.
     
    “I was looking at these books,” Morgan said.
“My notes there. Trying to figure this out.” he handed over the
coin.
     
    “Oh wow, what’s that?” Robbie checked it out.
He hefted in in his hand.
     
    “I found it, believe it or not.”
     
    “Found? Where?”
     
    “In the woooods….” he trailed off
embarrassed. “In the wall at school.” he said matter of factly.
     
    “Hmmmm……” Robbie scratched his beard and
tipped his hat back. “That’s really freaky.”
     
    “I hadn’t even thought how weird it is that
it was just jammed into the wall.” Morgan said. “I just noticed it
there on the first day of school.”
     
    Tracy said, “speaking of weird, an old friend
of yours stopped by… David something...”
     
    “Oh! David Mathis? I didn’t even know he was
in town.” Robbie rubbed his beard.
     
    “Yeah that’s it… Oh yeah, more weird: I
passed out, dreamed about Mom and Dad, then started remembering
things about the collection. David tried explaining some things