Library Writing Group May 2017

This month's library writing group assignment was to write about something romantic that happened 30 or more years ago and to make it kind of steamy.  The intent was that we would write a story about our personal past.  At first I was going to write about a funny incident where a police man interrupted a parking date time that I was involved with in a construction zone.   I chose to take the chicken way out to write a fiction story about an ancestor.  I even tamed down the steamy parts that were in my original rough draft because I became concerned since we read our work aloud in the group which is a group with mixed gender.   What follows here is the fiction part of what I wrote.  It had a non fiction introduction but I don't want to put it online as I am thinking I will use it for another project.   It was a fun meeting to hear what every one wrote.  Several like me went off in a separate direction.  Some shared broken hearts.  Some wrote about love stories that turned into to life time partners.

“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

Becky picked up the basket by the door and headed to the lean to that served her family as a temporary barn. It was early morning and although the sun had not been up long it was beating down on the path with a fierceness she had become accustomed to in the short time she had been in Kansas. It baked the dirt on the path and she felt it warm the skin underneath the back of her dress across her shoulders. She wore a bonnet to protect her face and neck from the sun. The bonnet was beige with blue flowers and was tied in a bow under her chin to prevent the breeze from blowing it across the prairie. It took her about five minutes to follow the path and enter the edge of the lean to. The smell of straw, dung, urine and hay tickled her nostrils as she stepped inside its shade. She sat down the basket and picked up a wooden bucket. Reaching into a barrel she picked up a scoop and began to put two scoops of corn into the bucket. Then holding the bucket in one hand and the basket in the other, she left the lean to and headed behind it to where the chickens were scratching and clucking around the yard. She felt the sweat begin to collect under her arms and trickle down her back as she threw the corn across the yard. “Here chicky! chicky!” she called out as she walked around and the hens busied themselves flocking to the corn. As they consumed the corn she proceeded over to the nesting racks and began to gather the eggs, placing them in to her basket. She then walked across the hen yard over to where the cow field began and up to a long wooden trough with a hand pump on one end. She pumped some water into the bucket and carried it over to the chicken yard and filled several shallow pans with water for them to drink through out the day.
By now she was slick with sweat underneath her breasts as she carried the empty bucket and the basket of eggs back toward the lean to. Inside the lean to she sat the bucket down and savored the cooler shaded area within its shelter. Moving toward the enclosure she leaned over the fencing and began to stroke the neck of her father’s large horse. Shakespeare was a large animal. He was a dark brown color and had been gelded for many years. He was a gentle giant. He blew air out of his nose and nuzzled her back for her attention. He was in today and not out in the pasture to stay cool for a little while longer. Later he would be saddled up as her father was going out into the fields to check the cows today. Becky always felt that she could think so much more clearly near the animals. Today she had a lot on her mind. Her parents were trying to decide whether or not to send her back to Ohio to stay with her grandparents. Kansas was getting more and more dangerous as the boarder ruffians burnt and killed their way across it trying to run people like her and her family away. The move to Kansas had been to establish residency in this new territory in time for the vote which would determine if it were to be a free state or a slave state. She didn't know how she felt about the possibility of leaving. She missed Ohio. There was a lot more to do there and many more people. She missed the family and friends she had left there two years ago. Iowa had been nice but she had not put down the deep roots there that she had established in Ohio, having grown up there. Now Kansas was all new. There was things she liked about it and yet there was a lot that she didn’t like. It was so empty. And her parents were right - it was a dangerous place right now. But it was kind of exciting to be a part of a large and important goal. The formation of a free society for all was exciting work in which to be involved. As a young woman she was limited in what she could do to help. But she could be supportive of the men who were working so hard to make Kansas a free territory. Running back to Ohio hardly seemed like being supportive. And then there was that Sam Patton, one of her father’s ranch hands. Fourteen years her senior she had watched him closely for the last three years. He had lived in the more western part of Ohio and even for some time in the central part of Indiana. He was tall compared to her five foot stature and had very strong shoulders and upper arms. She had watched him rope and pull down cows to brand them, pitch hay, and do many of the ranch chores that had to be done around her fathers place. He had bright blue laughing eyes and a warm smile. Always quick to go to church with them, she enjoyed talking with him on the Sunday wagon ride to and from

the services. Yet he never acted like he was the least bit interested in her in anyway besides being nice to his bosses daughter. He was always the gentleman - darn it - she thought. The mere thought of him made her body stir in ways that she was not familiar with. And when she saw him she could feel the color creep up her neck and cross her cheeks. As she turned away from Shakespeare and readied to walk back to the house, she started as she saw Sam standing in the door way of the lean to looking at her.

“Hi Miss Becky” he said quietly.

“Sam” Becky nodded back at him.

 She became very aware of the acrid smell of her sweat.
Her heart was beating very fast and she was working hard to keep her hands steady. She felt annoyed by her crush on Sam. Maybe going back to Ohio was the best thing for her. She didn’t want to spend her days mooning over a man who was not interested in her. She started to walk toward the door of the lean to and around him. But when she approached him to pass him he reached out and put a hand on each shoulder to stop her.

“Wait” he started. “I hear tell your parents may send you back to Ohio?”

“They are talking about that possibility” she answered.

“Is that what you want to do?” Sam asked.

Becky sighed. “Not sure what I want” she began “I haven’t got any ties to Kansas yet.”

Sam took his hands and cupped her chin tilting her head up and looking straight into her eyes. He then said very evenly “And what would it take to tie you?”

Her heart was skipping every other beat as she softly whispered in response, “You only have to ask.”

Sam scooped her up and sat her on the rail to Shakespeare’s stall. Then he got down on one knee and said “Rebecca Tipton, if you’ll have me, I will do everything I can to take the best care of you all our lives. Will you marry me?”
She hopped off the rail, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck and held on with all her might. She tasted the salt of his sweat as she kissed his neck.

“Does this mean yes?” he laughed and she nodded as he stood and carried her to the area behind the hay stack and laid her down gently in the straw.