Ben became familiar with the back of his father’s head. The back of the cap that hid his shame and the tips of the sunglasses that hid his crime.

Ben’s summer started out with the headline:

Local Principal Caught in Public Bathroom Sting Operation

But the cap his father was wearing was Ben’s. He never wore his cap that way, he wore it at the side or backwards. And now his father was using it as a disguise. Everyone knows it’s his cap. In such a small town where you wear either a John Deere or CAT, Ben’s was unique.

Ben’s mother bought it for him when he was eleven so she could find him at the state fair; Benny, I bought this for you so I won’t lose you, but no one else needs to know that..K? She handed him a camouflage cap with a world map printed on it, The worlds yours, meet me back here in an hour, now scoot! and smacked his rear.

And now here he is again, facing the back of his father’s bent head, out in the middle of nowhere, in a wide open field, limply holding their sleeping rifles.