Distanced by Quinn Graham
Ern found the footprints early that morning pressed into the field ' s soft soil , next to a bent and bare stalk of corn . That made three sets of prints he ' d found this week , and none had been closer to the house than these . Ern wiped his brow with the back of his glove , replacing the sweat on his forehead with a smudge of dirt . Harvest was only a few weeks away , but apparently thieves weren ' t going to wait until then .
Under the hot August sun , Ern made his way through the corn stalks back to the house . From the trees by the road a few yards away , cicada song filled the air . He needed time to think about this , he decided . He ' d been prepared to let the whole thing go when he ' d stumbled across the footprints and stolen crop the first time while checking for aphids and corn borers , but at three times it was clear that this was something that needed rectifying .
Within a few moments , the house came into sight as Ern emerged from the field , separated from him by the worn dirt path he had for a driveway . It wasn ' t a pretty building to look at , the outside made mostly of sunbleached wood and shabby shingles , but it belonged to the Forester family , bought by Ern ' s pa just before the great war . It needed a bit of work every year or two , but it ' d been home for as long as Ern cared to remember .
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