Colin gave him the patient look of someone who had explained the same clause a hundred times. "Misuse. Impact damage. Anything that comes from operating it in a place it shouldn't have been operated." Neither man suggested that a flat, cultivated field could qualify as a dangerous place. Tom signed, handed over the deposit, and tried not to calculate how many bushels of corn it represented.
He did not tell Jenny how frightened he felt driving the rental home. He knew every turn in the road and every driveway for miles, but the vehicle's value seemed to occupy the cab with him, pressing on his shoulders whenever he touched a control. He parked it beside the machine shed, checked beneath it for leaks, and walked around it three times before going inside. At supper he said, "We'll be back on schedule by Friday." Jenny looked at him for a long moment and said, "Please don't make the schedule more important than knowing what went wrong."
The next morning he went out early with the intention of planting carefully enough to satisfy both of them. He checked tire pressures and connections and inspected the planter's attachment points. The machine idled smoothly, and the monitor showed no problem when he entered the first pass. He drove slower than usual, slowing more as he approached the area where Gary's tire had failed. A farmer can be perfectly aware that he is acting from superstition and still feel obliged to obey it.
He had almost reached the pale strip when his instincts urged him to turn. There was plenty of room to do so, but a turn would leave an unfinished section and require more time later. He reminded himself that two breakdowns could still be a coincidence, that Ray had examined the first failure, and that Gary's tire might have been damaged before he borrowed the tractor. He kept the wheels straight. Seconds later the engine cut out and the ground seemed to strike the machine from beneath.
After Ray arrived and asked about the line of breakdowns, Tom spent several minutes standing beside the rental in a state of exhausted confusion. The mechanic inspected the visible drivetrain connections and found fresh damage consistent with an abrupt shock load. He checked underneath only from secure ground and did not crawl into a place where the machine might settle farther. The deeper mechanical examination would have to happen in the dealership's service bay. For now, Ray was less interested in proving which part had failed than in understanding why the tractor had been jolted hard enough to fail at all.
"You know what all three machines were doing?" Ray asked.
"Pulling the planter."
"And where were they when it happened?"
Tom pointed. "Right there, more or less."
Ray followed the three rough locations with his eyes. "Then we're finished guessing at parts. A cracked support, a blown tire, and a driveline that has taken a sudden load. None of those is the same failure, but each could be the result of a wheel dropping farther than a driver expected. I want the records and I want the ground."