That was all.
No celebration.
No lecture.
The decision became a responsibility.
Malik understood that.
On Monday after school, he reported to Bell Repair.
Otis pointed toward the back room.
“Inventory department.”
Malik looked at the nine hundred plates.
“I work here.”
“That is work.”
“For you?”
“No.”
“Then why am I doing it during work?”
“You’re not.”
Otis pointed toward the clock.
“Shop closes at five.”
“You start at five-oh-one.”
So Malik worked his normal hours.
Swept.
Changed oil.
Replaced a planter bearing.
Helped Otis rebuild a hydraulic cylinder.
At five, Otis locked the front door.
Malik went to the back room.
He began with a wire brush.
Plate number one.
Surface rust.
Grease.
Dirt.
Underneath:
IH 24 CELL.
A casting number followed.
Malik wrote it down.
Plate two.
Different cell pattern.
Different number.
Plate three.
Same as plate one.
He made a tally mark.
By seven-thirty, his hands hurt.
He had cleaned twenty-eight plates.
Nine hundred suddenly felt enormous.
Otis came back from the office.
“How many?”
“Twenty-eight.”
“Good.”
“At this rate it’ll take forever.”
“Then get faster without getting sloppy.”
Malik looked at the pile.
“What if most are worthless?”
“Then you paid one eighty for education.”
“That’s expensive education.”
Otis laughed.
“No.”
“Wait until college.”
The next evening, Otis brought a small cardboard box.
Inside was a folding jeweler’s loupe.
Used.
Scratched.
The leather case worn smooth.
He handed it to Malik.
“What’s this?”
“For numbers you can’t read.”
Malik opened it.
“You use this?”
“Used to.”
“Why don’t you now?”
“My eyes got too old for magnification to help.”
Malik smiled.
Otis pointed at him.
“Don't get sentimental.”
“It’s a tool.”
Malik placed it carefully in his shirt pocket.
Over the next three weeks, the system improved.
Clean.
Read.
Measure.
Record.
Stack.
At first Malik wrote everything into a notebook.
That became chaotic quickly.
The same casting numbers appeared repeatedly.
Some manufacturers used similar numbering conventions.
Different plates had identical outside diameters but different cell counts.
Some had adjustable inserts.
Others were clearly for crops Malik could not identify.
Otis watched him flip through ten pages one evening.
“You need cards.”
“Why?”
“Because paper in a notebook stays where you wrote it.”
“Cards move.”
The next day Malik bought a box of three-by-five index cards.
He created one card per unique plate number.
Manufacturer.
Casting number.
Outside diameter.
Center opening.
Cell count.
Cell dimensions if he could measure them reliably.
Known crop.
Compatible planter models.
Condition.