A Winning Ticket Read Free

another drought, we won’t be able to pay it off, and we will definitely lose the farm. Second, the bank will ask to see our financial records for the last few years. They take one look at those and we will get laughed right out of the loan office. No, that’s not an option. Absolutely not.”
    “Sorry, just trying to help,” Harrison said as he put another spoonful of the deer stew in his mouth.
    “I know you are. But I just don’t see a way out of this. I have to be realistic, Harrison. If something doesn’t change, we’ll lose the farm before we even have a chance to get the corn and soybeans to market this year.”
    “Maybe we could sell off the hundred acres down by the county road. Remember that developer a couple years ago? He made us a very generous offer…maybe he’s still interested.”
    “No, I don’t want to sell any of the land to a developer. Looking at all those tract homes everyday would drive me crazy…remind me of what a failure we were.”
    The thought of selling even one acre of the farm that had been in the Zimmerman family for generations, made Benjamin’s stomach turn, but he would have gladly sold some of the land if it meant keeping the farm. But Benjamin had been withholding one important fact from his brother. The truth was that the land the developer wanted to purchase was no good for building houses on. In the winter it was fine, but during the spring and summer it turned into a veritable swamp. The amount of money it would take to drain the land properly and make it suitable for development would have made it a no-win scenario for the investors. Benjamin knew as soon as the developer ran a few tests on the soil, the truth would come out, and Harrison would learn how truly destitute their situation was. He was afraid that if Harrison found out the truth he might just throw his hands up and walk away for good.
    Benjamin needed Harrison to stay on the farm with him.
    “Fine. Have it your way,” Harrison said sharply.
    Benjamin didn’t respond. He finished the last bite of stew in his bowl, cleared the table, and went into the kitchen to wash the dishes. After placing the leftover stew in the refrigerator, he walked into the living room where Harrison was stretched out in one of the two recliners that sat in front of the television. The chair on the left was Harrison’s, the one on the right was Benjamin’s. They had bought the matching set four years ago at the local furniture store—back when things were better financially and they could afford such luxuries.
    Benjamin plopped down in his chair and extended the footrest. Harrison was dozing in front of an episode of
Wheel of Fortune
.
    This was their standard routine. Get up before sunrise, work all day, have dinner together, watch some TV before going to bed, then wake up and start all over again the next day. The repetition was enough to drive some men to extreme boredom and others to the brink of insanity.
    But it was the only life Benjamin had ever known—and he loved it.
    And despite their differences, he loved his brother, too. Harrison was the only family Benjamin had left. Their mother and father had both been killed in a car accident when the brothers were in their early twenties. Benjamin and Harrison inherited the entire farm—and all the responsibility, too. Each one received fifty-percent of the land, buildings, and other furnishings. Their parents’ will had contained one interesting stipulation though. The farm could only be sold if both brothers agreed and sold all of their combined interests at once. Benjamin had often wondered if that stipulation were not present if Harrison would still be living on the farm with him. Perhaps he felt trapped. Harrison knew Benjamin would never agree to sell his share of the farm, so maybe that was the reason he had never even attempted to do anything else with his life.
    Harrison could have had his choice of women in their small Nebraska farming community. He had dated