The Next Generation Chapter 5
| The Next Generation | |
|---|---|
| Chapter 5 of 19 | |
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| Read this chapter | |
| Time frame | June, 1983 |
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Summary
A few weeks later, Lori and Judy are talking; Judy claims that she is not going steady with Ken, but that she is going out with him; they've had burgers and an occasional show after their sessions at the Geneva Y. Lori admits that she's gone out a few times with Bob and hopes that they will all go to the class party after graduation. They speculate about how some of their classmates might end up.
With Chet in the hospital, Ken had to take on a larger share of the farm work, often driving a tractor well after dark. He was thinking that he really didn't want to become a farmer, wanting to do something else (although he didn't know what) with his life, and knowing that Tom was going to be running the farm anyhow. He also wasn't sure about whether he wanted to continue seeing Judy, but resolved that in his mind and decided that at dinnertime, he would call her about the graduation party.
At graduation, Chet was let out of the hospital for a few hours, and was pleased with Ken. When Judy made her way down the aisle on crutches, he thought "There's another good kid. Her parents must be proud of her tonight." However, Irene was telling Norman that they should have kept her home; that she was going to fall. Norman realized that Irene was stifling Judith, and would keep her at home if it were left to her. Norman wanted to believe that she had more of a future than being a housebound cripple, and had told her "I know you can do just about anything you set your mind to doing."
Judy, Ken, Lori and Bob go to the party, which starts to get dull until Bob gets his guitar and they sit on the steps of the Legion Hall, singing song after song until he got tired and it started getting cold outside.
After graduation, Ken is even busier with getting the corn planted, but was able to take her to Geneva occasionally. One day he called her to say that he was too busy to go to Geneva the next day, and wouldn't see her unless she wanted to come out to the farm to watch him sweat. When she gets to the farm, she is sitting in the kitchen with Lydia, when the call comes through that Chet can come home from the hospital. Lydia had been planning to drive a tractor that day, but having to fetch Chet would prevent that. She suggests that Judy might be able to drive the tractor in her place. Even though she's never driven anything before, Ken tells her that it will be easy, and that he could rig up a hand lever for the clutch. He gives here a quick lesson, and she picks it up readily; soon she is driving the tractor hauling wagons of baled hay. That afternoon, as she was driving the tractor along the road, Norman passed her, and thought "That could almost be Judith -- "Naw, it couldn't be."
Chet gets home, and is sitting on the porch watching the haying, unhappy that he couldn't be a part of it. He asks who is driving the tractor and Lydia tells her that Judy has been doing a good job of it. He said that he didn't know she could do that, and Lydia replied Neither did she. When they get done for the day, everyone heads for the lake to cool off with a swim. When she gets ready to go home, Tom gives her $40, telling her that she had earned it. Weeping, she told Ken that she had never expected to get paid, and notes "That's the first money I ever earned in my life."
Also Mentioned
- Merle Watson
