Here's to Me and You

The golden arches rippled onto his weathered face, but they made him look older rather than illuminating him.

She was not in an amiable mood, for she knew he had all the answers but would give away none. The man held his secrets like some orthodox Greek God. She watched him as he ploughed away.

"I don't think that's going to work, you know," she called. It seemed a feeble attempt, even to her.

He ignored her, but kept at his rather repetitive task. One could not blame him.

She tried to formulate some wild plan to extract the information she wanted, and failed miserably. She had never been much of a thinker.
The words rolled out; an impulse.

"You know, I was thinking maybe the tractor would work bett-"

The roar of the tractor interrupted her sentence. Even now, he was one step ahead of her. Just as he always had been. Screw you, she thought.

"Mom called yesterday," she tried weakly.

This time his head turned, ever so slightly, in her direction. He still wasn't looking at her.

She kept going, but treaded softly. "She says she misses you."

She could've sworn he was about look at her.

"A lot."

There was now so much pain on his persona that it vibrated all the way beyond the fence to where she stood. It was with a great amount of trepidation that she continued. "Dad?"

He finally turned around to look at her, his eyes carrying more messages than one.

"I love you."

His face seemed to fall apart, crushing at the edges. He bent forward a bit, then his entire body seemed to shake as one solitary tear escaped his eye.