Cuthbert wakes slowly, the courthouse clock catching first light while dew still beads on the red clay. Bert Landscaping starts the mowers early, when the air over the square is cool enough to work in and the crape myrtles have not yet begun to drop. The work is mowing, edging, trimming along walks and fence lines, and hauling off whatever the week has piled up. By afternoon the heat stands over Randolph County like a flat hand, and a yard cut in the morning holds its shape straight through it. There is real satisfaction in a stripe that runs true to the curb and an edge you could set a ruler against.