Daniel traversed a narrow path between clumps of dead, wild grass that led him around the back of the crooked farmhouse and out toward the tractor shed. The ancient poplar tree that grew on the border between the yard and the south pasture creaked in the breeze. One of the lower branches, crusted with old snow and snapped at the joint, hung down to the ground.
What he saw after he rounded the shed stopped him in his tracks. He lifted up on the bent and grease-stained bill of his cap with a sour look on his face. “Melvin, what the hell’re you doin’?”
Just out of reach of the tangle of branches, fallen walls, and crumpled roof with chipped and curled shingles, a man sat on an exposed outhouse toilet, hunched forward with a cup of coffee in his hand and baggy pants pooled around his untied boots. Melvin turned his eyes, almost clouded over by his scratched-up eyeglass lenses, and wild, bushy eyebrows as white as the chinook arch clouds above. “Takin’ a shit. What the hell are you doin’?”
Daniel had no response. He only waved his hand in the shape of where the outhouse walls should have been.
Melvin blew at the steam drifting over the mug, then took a sip. He made a satisfied noise then set it back on his knee. “Got a little windy last night, if you ain’t noticed. This was a little more important’n me bein’ shy.”
“Why ain’t you doin’ than inside?”
“Cracked a pipe with the temperature swing. Gonna have to do it the old-fashioned way for a bit.”
Daniel stuffed his hands into his pants pockets. He sighed as he looked over his shoulder. “I’ll see you in the house, then.”
“Coffee’s on. Help yourself.”
Daniel nodded and turned back the way he’d come.
Melvin sipped from his mug again, then searched around his throne for something that wasn’t there. He craned his neck toward Daniel as soon as the realisation was made. “Hey. Wait up.”
Daniel stopped. He turned the upper part of his body back to Melvin.
“Damn storm blew the shit tickets away. Be a friend and grab me a roll.”
Daniel grimaced but raised a hand in acknowledgement before he continued on to the house.
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Photo by Sandra Grünewald on Unsplash
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