The Cedarville Review 2020

54 | THE CEDARVILLE REVIEW Nonfiction TOPOPHILIA CHLOIE BENTON I was raised on a 20-acre plot of land nestled in central Kansas. A winding gravel drive led to a sprawling ranch style house, Cleary-built barn, and hand sawn red and white chicken coop in the middle of cultivated patchwork fields. The 3500 trees enveloping the property bore wit- ness to sacrifice as my parents meticulously constructed the home they had dreamed after attending open houses on Sunday afternoons, reviewing floor plans at the kitchen table, living in a leaky 900 square foot rental house and becoming Home Depot loyalty members. They chose to build their life in a wheat field halfway between Buhler and Inman with a gentle sloping hill and rich, dark soil; creating a Kansan’s paradise their children would be proud to call home. I’ve proud to be a born and raised Kansan. It meant driving the dusty backroads with win- dows cranked down in an old F150while Johnny Cash murmured through the CD player, watch- ing John Deere tractors lumber across pastures and breathing in crisp, unadulterated night air. Learning how to split a log, shoot a gun, start a chainsaw, run a square mile and track a coyote. Every Friday night, two Ford F-150s backed into the Fast Lane Express Car Wash and a dozen