The Machine That Killed My Father

When Tony Keating was thirteen, his father died under a John Deere 4440 while clearing snow. The family called it an accident. Said Robert Keating was careless. A novice. Never cut out to be a farmer anyway.

Seven years later, Tony — now Kit Foxx — owns the farm.

This is the equipment barn on a cold morning in March, three weeks before planting. Andy runs the place now. Bernie McKenzie is his partner. They’re going over every machine they own, and Kit is walking the building his father used to rule.

He can handle the tools. It’s the tractor he can’t get past.

This is the first of nine short films running between now and publication day. They move between 1989 and 1996, between Illinois and Chicago, and they all come back to the same question.

Sycamore Boy publishes September 1. The eBook is on pre-order at Amazon; the paperback at hlesbrown.com.