The Ewing Fairgrounds were dark except for the dirt tug pull track. There the lights shone brightly down on the farmers and their tractors. However, these tractors weren't for farming for the most part.
Beneath their glossy coats of paint they had been tinkered with to increase horsepower, increase your chances to win. As usual the start was running late. And men talked about how slow women were. Tractors lined up at the scale house to be weighted in and have the drawbar measured.
A pull was the only thing Kent was ever on early for, Cathryn thought to herself as she knelt down letting air out of one the 3020 John Deere's tires. On the other side Sam doing the same thing to the other tire. The tractor pulled better on this track with low tire pressure. The hiss of air stopped when she move the pocket knife away from the valve stem. She looked under the tractor at Sam and waited for him to pass the air gage.
"Thanks hon." She said when he laid the gage in her outstretched hand. He winked at her before he stood up to help Kent fasten down the weights.
When she was done she stood, put her knife and the air gage in her pockets, and went around to where Sam was to help him with the ratchet strap. They worked together quietly both so used to the routine they never needed to speak. Sam glanced around to locate Kent and saw him talking to Jim, one of the other pullers and their biggest competition.
"Kent was asking me questions about you today." He said softly still working.
Cathryn's hands trembled slightly as she glanced over her shoulder at Kent then forced herself to be calm. "What about?"
"He wanted to know if I noticed anything different about you lately." After a short pause, Sam continued with," He said you haven't had sex with him in a while."
"Shit, I can't screw him, I feel like I'm cheating on you."
A small smile passed over Sam's lips at that. "He said other things too. I got the impression when you did have sex it wasn't anything great."
"Hmm." Cathryn competently wound up the excess length of strap and tied it on the tractor. "If you are waiting for me to tell you that you are better its not going to happen. But you should be able to figure it out. I want you all the time, everyday, all day. Hell I would go for it right now if I could. Everything about you turns me on."
Sam ached to hold her but he couldn't, not there. Not with some many eyes around and Kent just a few steps away. So he merely laid a hand on her arm. "I know what you mean."
They stared at each other with longing in their eyes for a few moments before looking away and looking for Kent. He was standing beside the one thousand pound dead weight sled. Sam moved in that direction. "I'm going to see what's going on."
"Fine, I'll hold down the fort." She climbed up on the Deere and watched him walk away.
From behind his tractor Jeff Riley watched her watching Sam. His ears might not be what they used to be from all the years of riding tractors. But he didn't need to hear the murmured words between them to see the heat in the gaze they were sharing or to read the body language.
Playing with fire he thought to him self and went back to working on his tractor. It was none of his business if Kent's wife was banging his cousin. It should be one hell of a show when he figured it out.
The tractor pull started forty-five minutes late but none of the guys seemed to care. That was actually fairly early for them. On the bleachers Cathryn sat between Kent and Sam watching the primarily green, red, and blue tractors drag the sled up and down the track ten feet at a time.
When it was their turn to pull the guys left her sitting alone. There were times when they would leave her alone while they talked to the other pullers about the condition of the track, farming, and other things that men chat about.
There were hardly ever any women at these events so Cathryn reclined on the bleachers and watched the action. She had pulled before and even had a trophy to prove it but she would rather watch, then go to the truck and sleep when it got late.
Jeff stood, leaning back against the weight bracket of tractor, talking to Jim Fitzgerald. "Ever notice how chummy Sam and Kent's wife are?"
Jim looked over as Sam was bringing Cathryn a burger and Mt. Dew. "So you know Kent, he's always bringing her to these pulls and ignoring her. And you know he treats Sam like a slave."
"Mmm." Jeff scratched him chin while he thought. "I saw them talking earlier today."
"Yeah, so Kent was talking to his wife." Jim said wishing if Jeff had a point he would go ahead and make it.
Jeff looked over at him like he was an idiot. "Shit for brains. I didn't mean Kent. I meant Sam. I think he's fooling around with his cousin's wife."
"The hell you say." Jim stared in disbelief. "They're too close for that. What did they say to make you think so?"
"Well I don't rightly know. I couldn't hear them." He watched them eating together before he swung his gaze back to Jim. "But it was the way they were looking at each other, like if they weren't here they'd be screwing each other silly."
"Interesting, I wonder how long it's going to take him to figure it out. It almost serves him right. He's the one that leaves them alone together." Both men turned to look at Kent in amusement and sympathy.
It was four in the morning when they had finally added enough five hundred pound weights to the sled that no tractor could pull it the full ten feet. Cathryn missed the end of the pull. She was sound asleep in the truck by then. And by then the rumor had spread that Sam was nailing her behind Kent's back. Men were worse gossips that women ever thought about being.
On Tuesdays Cathryn spent the day with her friend Lizy. They had been friends since their days in the eighth grade. Unlike most grade school friendships they made theirs last. Like any relationship there were ups and downs but they hung on with frequent phone calls and visits. Lizy worked at the Wal-mart downtown in Alexandria and was currently dating someone from that area. Her relationship with Ray had lasted over a year and was still going strong.
Cathryn waited for and feared the day Lizy moved down there with him. But for right now they were together and making their way up Interstate 275 to the Florence Mall.
Lizy reclined against the gray seat of Cathryn's 2001 Impala. "So is Sam coming over tomorrow?"
Cathryn cast her a sidelong look. Lizy was the first and only person she told about her affair. "Yeah, he always comes over for lunch on Wednesdays."
Laughing, Lizy patted Cathryn's arm. "Right, lunch. You two tear up the sheets every week. Cat you can't pull that one on me. I know you too well."
"I still fix him lunch." Cathryn said stubbornly.
With a mischievous light in her brown eyes Lizy finger combed her long deep brown tresses before stepping out of the car. "I bet I know his favorite think to eat."
Cathryn's lips twitched in a smirk before she could stop her self. "Get your skinny ass out of the car so we can shop. You have filthy mind. You know that don't you?"
Catching up with Cathryn, Lizy waggled her eye brows at her. "I bet it's his favorite thing though."
Cathryn smiled and shook her head. "Yeah. So what are we shopping for?"
"Ray's birthday, I have no idea what to get him."
"How much do you want to spend?" She stopped to eye a pair of earrings.
Lizy shrugged and leaned closer to the earrings too. The girls combed through most of the stores at the mall. Three hours, four pairs of earrings, three pairs of shoes, some lingerie, and a shirt later they emerged victorious with a present for Ray. It was perfectly him, some piece of Star Wars memorabilia that he had been hunting for months. They lucked out when they found the little Yoda hiding behind the stack of Care Bears.
