When he went inside to change into some “going to town” jeans, Jeff heard his eight-year-old daughter Jenny complaining.
“This Rice Krispie cake doesn’t taste right,” Jenny was telling her mother. “Did you use the wrong recipe?”
Jenny wasn’t usually whiny, but she’d had a lonely week at home. She didn’t have symptoms, but her COVID-19 rapid test had read positive on Monday morning before the bus came.
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“Connor gets to go to school and I don’t?” Jenny was incredulous. “I’m not sick!”
“That’s the rule,” her father Jeff said. “He’s vaccinated with a negative test.”
“It’s not fair.” Jenny had stormed off while her older brother Connor went out to catch the bus.
Jeff’s wife Elaine had also been less than thrilled to have Jenny at home all week. Not that she didn’t love Jenny, but since Elaine had given a solid presentation to a farm commodity group meeting in January she’d been getting calls about the topic and invitations to speak at other farm group meetings.
“It’s going to be tough to take Zoom meetings in my office with Jenny roaming free.”
“She can come out to the shop,” Jeff said. “I’ll teach her to weld.”
Jenny did spend a lot of time in the shop that week, but instead of welding she painted a birdhouse and tried to teach new tricks to the cats.
By Thursday afternoon her birdhouse was drying, the cats were hiding and Jenny was back in the house.
“I used the regular recipe,” Jeff heard Elaine explain, “But we’re out of Rice Krispies.”
“So get some,” Jenny demanded, in a tone that Jeff didn’t love.
Jeff walked into the kitchen. “Trouble?”
“I’ve been searching every grocery store in town for two months. Nobody has Rice Krispies. And apparently Special K is not a good substitute. This is almost as bad as the time there was a run on China Lily soy sauce.
Jeff hoped she wouldn’t get started on the great Minit tapioca shortage of 2021.
Elaine kept on. “On Monday there were empty spots on shelves all over Co-op. And it wasn’t even seniors’ day. We might need an extra pantry so we can hoard.”
“I thought hoarding was bad,” Jenny said.
“It is,” Jeff said. “Your mom’s kidding. Time to clean your room?”
“I’m doing homework,” Jenny said. Her teacher had sent out worksheets for the quarantined students. “I took a break for a snack.”
“Okay, later then,” Jeff said.
Jeff spied the cake pan on the counter and cut himself a piece. He took a bite and made a face. “She’s got a point,” he said to Elaine. Elaine went to her office, calling back, “I hope you’re not wearing those filthy jeans to town. It looks like you’ve been burying bodies.”
Forty minutes later, Jeff was at the parts counter in the ag dealership, wearing clean pants.
“I came for those openers I ordered for the air drill on Monday,” he told Nicole.
Nicole’s purple fingernails caught his eye as she tapped at her keyboard.
“They’re not in yet,” she said.
“Are you sure?”
Nicole tapped a few more keys and peered at the monitor.
“They’re on back order,” she said.
Another parts person called over from his end of the counter.
“Some kind of problem at the plant,” Gavin said. “You’re not the only guy waiting for those.”
“Any idea when they might turn up?” Jeff asked.
“Next couple of weeks?” Gavin had no clear idea.
“It’s going to be a mess if this is still happening during seeding,” Jeff said.
“Never mind this plastic shield for COVID,” Nicole said. “I’ll need a metal shield at the counter to save me from angry farmers.”
“We won’t kill the messenger,” Jeff said. He started toward the exit, then turned back around. “Since I’m here, I’ll pick up a tote of DEF fluid.”
Nicole picked up a binder and held it up in front of her face, protecting herself from a physical attack. “We’re out,” she said.
“What?”
“We don’t have any DEF totes,” Gavin said. “Guy from south of town took the last five totes this morning.”
“You’re kidding,” Jeff said.
“We’ve got those small jugs,” Nicole said hopefully.
“So far,” Gavin piped up.
Jeff shook his head. Small jugs cost twice as much and would be a hassle to empty.
“This is quite the year,” Jeff said.
“I’m going to work on my resumé,” Nicole answered.
Jeff drove down the service road to try the competing dealership. Inside, Jeff’s friend Shawn Peterson and his dad were both leaning on the parts counter, talking to a new parts person.
“How can you be out of DEF totes?” Shawn was asking.
“We’ll have more on Monday,” the parts guy said.
Shawn’s dad was not impressed. “If the feds are going to make us use the stuff they should make sure we can get it,” he grumbled. “If this happens in the middle of seeding we’re going to have to delete these emissions systems right off our machines.”
The new employee looked nervous. “That would violate your warranty, sir.”
“He knows that,” Shawn said, while his father stomped out. Shawn started to follow, then saw Jeff. “Another fun trip to town,” Shawn said.
“This was better than the time they ran out of ice for his rye and coke at the Harvest Festival,” Jeff said.
“It was hot that night,” Shawn said.
Jeff made one more stop to ask about DEF totes. Again, none in stock, but some coming next week. He finally gave up his quest and went to the grocery store.
Back at home, Jeff carried in a stack of mail and a couple of grocery bags. Elaine heard him come in and met him in the kitchen.
“It’s crazy,” he told her. “Those openers I ordered won’t be in for a couple of weeks and there’s no DEF totes anywhere.”
“Weeks?”
“They’re on a boat somewhere,” Jeff said.
“I hope we don’t need parts during seeding,” Elaine said.
“This might be the year we’ll be glad Grandpa always insisted on keeping so many spare parts around.”
“If we have to hoard parts let’s hope Jenny doesn’t find out.”
“I’ve got more grocery bags in the truck,” Jeff said, heading outside. “I’ll be right back.”
When he came back, Elaine had the first bags unpacked and was flipping through the pile of mail.
“Jenny!” Jeff called. “Come here.”
When Jenny came to the kitchen he was holding a grocery bag behind his back.
“I finished my homework,” she said. “I’m making a training plan for the cats.”
“Good luck,” Jeff said. “Look what I brought.”
Jeff pulled a box out of the grocery bag and held it up.
“Rice Krispies!” Jenny shouted. “We can have real cake again.”
When Jenny went back to her planning, Jeff handed the grocery bag to Elaine. She looked puzzled to see at least a dozen bags of butterscotch chips inside.
“Mom couldn’t find any of these at Christmas. She couldn’t make me my favourite peanut butter marshmallow cake. I thought I’d better stock up.”
Elaine laughed. “I won’t tell Jenny.”
“This could be a tricky spring,” Jeff said. “We’ve got to be ready.”
