Chapter 1
The truck rolled down the dirt road.
Dust rose in the early morning sun.
Lucas leaned against the wooden fence.
Arms crossed. Eyes squinting.
Another city kid. Another problem.
The door opened.
Mateo stepped out.
He stretched like he had escaped a prison.
His shoes were clean. His shirt bright.
He looked around the endless fields.
Please tell me there is Wi-Fi somewhere.
Lucas sighed.
This is a farm, he said.
Mateo smiled.
Yeah, I noticed.
The truck drove off.
Silence fell.
The wind whispered through the tall grass.
Lucas motioned for Mateo to follow.
Every step crunched on the dry dirt.
Mateo stumbled once.
Lucas didn’t help.
“You’ll get used to it,” Lucas said.
Mateo scowled.
“I doubt it.”
The barn smelled of hay and animals.
Chickens clucked. Horses nickered.
Mateo wrinkled his nose.
“How do you live like this?”
Lucas only shrugged.
“I don’t know any other way.”
The sun rose higher.
It cast long shadows across the fields.
Mateo stared at the horizon.
The sky was wide. Endless. Free.
He envied it.
Lucas noticed.
“You’re not going to last long if you stare at the sky all day,” he said quietly.
Mateo didn’t answer.
He just walked on, boots heavy with dust.
Lucas followed silently.
The farm was calm. Too calm.
And somewhere, between chores and quiet moments, something would begin to grow.
Not yet love. Not yet friendship.
Just curiosity.
The kind that sparks when two people are forced to survive the same summer together.
