"You're not going to tell me I did something wrong? Ran it too hard? Installed it wrong?"
"I don't know what happened yet," Earl said. "Until I do, I'm not going to tell you anything. But it was my part, and it failed, and that's on me until I find out otherwise."
---
He and Ray loaded Unit Five onto the trailer and drove it forty miles south to Carl's farm that same afternoon. Carl met them at the edge of the field, still angry, but quieter now, and confused in a way that made him seem younger. He watched Earl unload the tractor, check it over, and hand him the keys.
"I'll have yours back to you as quick as I can," Earl said. "And you'll know exactly what went wrong."
Carl looked at him for a long moment.
"Most people would've argued with me," he said.
"Most people would've been guessing," Earl said.
They took the failed assembly home in a cardboard box on the passenger floor of the truck. Neither of them said much on the drive back. Ray watched his father out of the corner of his eye. Earl's face was calm, but his hands were tight on the steering wheel, and once, at a stop sign, he sat for a long time after the road was clear before he drove on.
"It's not your fault, Dad," Ray said finally. "You tested it."
"I tested it," Earl said. "That's not the same as testing it right."
---
He opened it that night, under the lamp in the shed, while Ray watched.
Outside, the assembly looked fine. He drained it and sniffed the fluid, which was dark and smelled scorched. He disassembled it slowly, the same way he had disassembled it the first time, laying each piece on a clean cloth in order. Then he took two more rebuilt assemblies from the shelf, one pulled from Number Nine and one pulled from Number Thirty-Eight's sister machine, Number Forty, and disassembled those too, and laid all three side by side.
He was quiet for almost an hour. He measured. He compared. He opened three different service manuals and two of the old notebooks. He held seals up to the light, one from each assembly, turning them slowly.
Then he sat back on his stool and took off his reading glasses and rubbed his eyes.