Patrice took the build sheet before she took the keys.
“What does this code mean?”
“Engine from donor nineteen. Pump from donor thirty-one. Transmission original to chassis.”
“You warranty it?”
“Thirty days on major systems.”
“That’s not much.”
“It’s what I can stand behind today.”
She looked at him carefully.
“Today?”
“If the process gets better, warranty gets better.”
Patrice drove the tractor for twenty minutes, worked the loader, changed direction repeatedly, engaged the PTO, and deliberately held the hydraulic circuit against load long enough to make Isaiah uncomfortable.
When she finished, she said, “Thirty-four hundred.”
“That’s my price.”
“I know. I’m telling you I’ll pay it.”
Thirteen days later she called again.
Isaiah recognized something was wrong before she described it.
Her voice had no anger in it.
That was worse.
“We lost a crew this afternoon,” she said.
“What happened?”
“Your tractor was towing a core aerator up the grade behind Northview retention pond. Hydraulic pressure dropped. Loader sagged. Hydro drive lurched. Operator stopped before he rolled into a fence.”
Isaiah stood completely still beside the shed phone.
“Anybody hurt?”
“No.”
“Machine there now?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll be there at seven in the morning.”
Patrice paused.
“Isaiah.”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“I bought a machine that worked. Not a machine I need to worry about whether it works.”
“I understand.”
“You’d better.”
He did not sleep much.
At six fifteen the next morning, the pickup was loaded with tools.
Denise stood at the kitchen door holding a travel mug of coffee.
“What broke?”
“Hydraulics under sustained load.”
“You know why?”
“Not yet.”
She handed him the coffee.
“Then find out before you decide how bad it is.”
At Cypress, Isaiah pulled the tractor into their service bay and connected his pressure gauges.
Cold pressure looked normal.
Idle looked normal.
Loader cycle looked normal.
After forty minutes of running, pressure started wandering.