Jackie Shannon Hollis

In the 1970’s, on American farms, especially on wheat farms in Oregon, the main part of the work is done by teenagers, boys driving huge combines, girls driving truck. Kids and big machines, sometimes steep terrain, and the tinder-dry heat and dust of harvest, lead to dangerous mishaps.

AT THE WHEAT LINE is about eighteen-year-old Carly Lang who drives one of those trucks as part of a crew that move from farm to farm cutting wheat. Her mother has been killed in a drunk driving accident which also killed another woman in town. Her mom was the drunk one. Carly’s dad will hardly talk about her mom, her friends have gotten tired of her sadness, and people in the town of Springs are still whispering about the accident.  Now she’s spending her summer making enough money to get out of this town and go to college and not repeat her mother’s life.

There’s a new boy on the crew, Mac, he’s from the city and completely different from Springs kids. He tells Carly his secrets which involve drugs and a girl and she tells him about her mom.  She starts to think this might be a great summer but then, in an attempt to win her best friend’s attention, she betrays Mac’s secret and begins a pattern of connection and distance with him that mirrors her feelings toward her dead mother. Tensions rise when Carly discovers her dad is dating her favorite teacher. The crew boss pushes all the kids with long hours and harsh words. One of the boys loses control of his combine and nearly wrecks it. One night, Carly and Mac sneak out and he teaches her how to run combine. Afterward they have sex there. But the crew boss suspects them and Carly confesses in order to protect Mac. She gets fired. When she goes home to tell her father, his new girlfriend is in the kitchen cooking dinner and acting like she’s there to stay.  Ultimately Carly must face the truths of her mother’s life and death and she and her father must find forgiveness in each other. And, in the way of small towns, it takes another tragedy to begin to move on.