Jerry was shirtless and the bottom of his pockets were hanging out under the frayed edges of his jean cutoffs, flapping against his legs. I hate those cutoffs. I tell him all the time those cutoffs are too short, but Jerry says he needs ventilation to keep his balls from getting swampy in the summertime, and I hate swampy balls, so there's that. He's six foot something, skeleton thin. He's got a bald spot on top but the rest of his hair is almost as long as his beard, which touches his chest even when he's staring straight ahead. Not a looker, but he sticks close by, so he'll do.

“Watch it, Jerry,” Smith said. “I stay here long enough, I'll find those birds. This is an illegal chicken facility you're running. New rules say you build them a special shed or you don't raise them up anymore. It's for their own good. For the good of everybody. Can't be too careful with this bird flu thing.”

“Jesus, Smith,” I said. “Next you'll come tell me that you have to lock all the people up inside sheds. For their own good. To keep safe. Is that what you want?” I know my history; I believe the government is capable of that, maybe even eager. The worst part of it, I think, would be the vicious establishment of the human pecking order inside the shed itself.

Smith stared at me for a long time then, but he only shrugged, and he didn't find the birds.

“You better get these weeds taken care of, Grace,” Smith said as he got in his truck, waving at my corral. That corral is a mess of puncture vine and Russian thistle since they took the water, with purple loosestrife blooms infesting the edges of my old irrigation ditch. “You know I have to report them.”

“Spray them yourself if you want,” I said. “The government is the only invasive weed I worry about these days.”

I worried for a while after Smith drove off, a plume of red dirt rising off the road behind him, about calling the government an invasive weed. They say we still have free speech, but it's hard to tell for real anymore.

ME AND SMITH WERE sweethearts in high school and for a couple years after, but he ended up on the government side of the water grab a couple years ago, and that was the end of that. He's good-looking though. A lot better-looking than Jerry. Smith's looks are the only thing I know for sure about him anymore.