Shadows Disinterred: Day 12

Word Count: 72,021

Summary of Events:
Dallas was put to work trimming the dead wood out of the willow trees with Debbie before Shirley asked him to cut a test strip for her. The wheat was ready to harvest, so the next day they began harvesting and Dallas spent the quiet time in the combine thinking about what he should do and where he should look. He also found out that Debbie was actually spelled Deby.

Excerpt of the Day:
"Dallas shook his head and started the combine, which roared to life loudly in the metallic confines of the machine shed. Shifting it into gear, Dallas drove the big red machine out of the shed and carefully turned it in a wide arc around to head past the building it'd been in to the north edge of the main yard and the space between the granaries where a gate opened into the field.
Being as the crop was growing right alongside the gate on the other side, Dallas stopped a bit short of the gate so Shirley would have the space to open it. He then let the combine idle.
Slowly Shirley made her way down and went toward the gate, then she unlocked the padlock and opened the gates. She stood back out of the way as Dallas turned on the cutter so that it spun in front of him and started forward, lowering it to the ground level as he got a bit closer.
Carefully Dallas manoeuvred the combine around the corner and drove it along the fence all the way to the corner by the barn where he stopped it, completely shutting it off. He wasn't going to risk anything.
Dallas even put the emergency brake in place to make sure that the vehicle didn't go anywhere. He then got out of the seat and climbed up the stairs and other footholds that led to the hopper.
Not much was in the combine, but it was all golden coloured, no green. Dallas reached in, hanging on tightly, and scooped the cup full. As he came down he heard a metallic click before the combine moved slightly.
Alarmed, Dallas scrambled into the cab and pressed the brake, to no avail, the emergency brake was still in place. Dallas removed it and hit the brake again. The combine stopped with a bit of a jerk.
So that was how she'd done it. She'd rigged the emergency brake, and somehow it overrode the foot brake too. Dallas sat in the seat, trembling, his foot pressed on the brake like he was trying to embed it into the floor.
The grain sample was still safe in his hand. He set it between his legs and then started the combine and reversed it to see the damage. There was little, if any; thankfully the combine hadn't moved far.
Dallas then continued reversing, keeping himself as straight as possible based on the fence, all the way back to the gate, where he passed an astonished Shirley as he reversed around into the driveway between the granaries and the back of the square machine shed — which was completely surrounded by the driveway.
Shirley closed the gates and locked them while Dallas got down out of the combine, remembering Shirley's words to Debbie that the yard site was flat. He gave Shirley the grain sample when they met."