The rough angry hands pulled hard at his shoulders. Huge arms that had spent a lifetime lifting bales and sacks and wrestling all manner of animals were now squeezing around and compressing his chest. A rib cracked.

Above him he saw eyes wild with decades of desert sun. A crazed face, a burnt wreckage that once been beautiful and lean. Light green eyes, devoid of empathy, that were now appraising the animal. Looking at the teeth, city white and city straight.

Wandering through daze of his addled mind he thought of his naked body, and how liked to look at it in the mirror, of that same body now, a crumpled heap in bed of an old truck. He thought of a girl he once knew, she had left him because of his pride. She had hated his boasting.

But for now there was just the heat, the oppressive heat, and the farmer, who had yet to utter a word.