Story edit by Romantesist
*****
Across the wide flat land, Lars recognized his pickup coming down the road trailing a plume of dust. It meant that one of his twin 18-year-old daughters was on her way to the field. The truck was a couple of miles away, so he finished the circuit, and headed the tractor to the gate in the fence. Jane arrived about the same time as he did and parked waiting for him to come over.
After climbing off the 4010, he used his ball cap to knock the dirt off himself before opening the passenger door. "Hey good lookin'" he said as he climbed in, "What'cha bring me?"
"Sandwiches," Jane replied, handing him a bag from a cardboard box containing his lunch.
"Hope you brought me sump'un sweet too!" he grinned in a sly way.
"I did," she answered, "a piece of pie."
"Umm, I was hopin' for that exact thing." Lars said, beginning to eat his ham sandwiches and occasionally taking swigs of tea from a mason jar. He looked out the windshield at the expanse of ground he had been working. He thought he probably was less than a third of the way finished planting the sorghum.
While he ate, Jane sat quietly watching a meadowlark perched on the top strand of a barbed wire fence.
Hungrily, Lars gobbled down the sandwiches and then began crunching on some celery sticks. He washed them down with the last bit of iced tea. He sighed, fishing two Winstons from a pack in the pocket of his chambray work shirt, and handed one to her. "Let's have a smoke," he said, taking his zippo out of his pants pocket.
Jane accepted the cigarette and leaned towards him for a light. He then turned the flame to his and took a long drag.
"Reach under the seat and see if you can find my bottle of whiskey," he said while expelling the smoke.
Jane rested her cigarette in the dashboard ashtray and bent down behind the steering wheel to feel around with her hand. Grasping the bottle's neck, she pulled it from beneath the seat.
Lars took the bourbon from her, unscrewed the cap and tilted it back to take a swallow, watching Jane as he did. She drew on her cigarette and turned to exhale out the open window. Sunlight caught her face and Lars could see the freckles across the bridge of her nose. She had combed her hair so a ponytail lay along the left side of her face and hung down the front of her blouse. The light reflecting off the blonde strands made them appear pale as straw.
"I've been thinking about you this morning," Lars said, giving her a sideways look. Her bosom was swelling snugly against a blouse that had fit well the summer before.
"Oh?" Jane said, in a disinterested tone.
"Yes, I was hoping you'd be the one who came down to bring me my lunch."
"Why was that?" she asked flatly.
He uttered a rough laugh, "Sitting on that tractor seat for hours vibrates my balls...makes my dick hard."
Jane knew where this was going. She opened her lips slightly and inhaled the smoke back up through her nose. It was a habit of her father's that she had unconsciously copied. Breathing out, she said acidly, "What doesn't?"
Jane stubbed out the cigarette and left it with the other butts in the tray. She peered over the steering wheel her eyes in a blank, unfocused stare.
Ignoring the sarcasm, her father said, "There's something about you...a quality that's kinda hard to describe...but, you've got it."
Jane glanced out the window at the meadowlark still sitting on the wire. "What's wrong with Joan?" she asked.
When Lars didn't say anything, she looked back at him. Offering her the bottle he said, "Want a snort?" Jane shook her head.
He took another swig, then answered, "Nothing's wrong with her looks...hell, she's your twin after all. No...she's cute enough. Too passive maybe. Doesn't have your fire."
Jane studied the chipped polish on her fingernails, waiting to change the subject. "Aren't you going to eat that pie?" she asked.
"Why don't you take off that shirt instead? I'd like to see those pretty tits of yours."
She turned to look at him. Momentarily a flash of anger crossed her face. In response, one corner of his mouth turned up in a smirk as he tapped ashes out the window.
What Jane resented most was that they both knew she would do exactly as he wanted. That was the way it had always been. For almost as long as she could remember, he had controlled her and her sister. They had always been afraid of him, afraid of his volatile temper, and afraid of the strap he sometimes used on them.
Lars had taught them that they weren't to say what went on out at the farm—that they must never tell. Jane and Joan had to pretend that their father was good and kind. They sat at their school desks, looking at the other girls in their class, wondering if their fathers did "things" to them too.
In trying to cope, the sisters created a façade to hide their shame and angst. They learned to lie in both their words and actions. They went to church, wore their nice dresses and prayed that God would still love them, even when they lied and did naughty things.