Tomorrow is Easter! Happy Easter loverlys!!!!
Love always. -Evelyn Rose.
We walk into daddy's house and I start supper. Simple homemade soup tonight. I see and hear dad walk in, he comes to the kitchen kisses my cheek and then goes over to Harry. I hear whispering and then they go outside. I run to the window to see where they’re going. They are just sitting on the porch. I go back in the kitchen to finish cooking. I yell for them when it's ready and they come in. Daddy first then Harry right behind. I give dad a bowl and the pepper. He loves pepper on his soup. Then I give a bowl to Harry, they get their food while I pour the drinks and then I get mine. We all sat at the table. Daddy at the head, then me to his right and Harry to his left. We talk about what we did today, if he needs our help tomorrow, and what else needs to be done. Harry and dad go back and get another bowl full. I'm not really that hungry tonight.
My stomach hurts pretty badly. I put my bowl back in the dishwasher and then Daddy comes over and hands me his bowl. Harry is still at the table eating. He's out of tea already I laugh and get more for him. I kiss him on the forehead and go back. I finish the dishes and we head home. Harry's nodding off in the passenger seat already. I'm trying to keep my eyes open too. We pull in and slowly walk into the house.
Falling on the bed we are both asleep when our heads hit the pillow. I decide to let us sleep in. Daddy's interns are coming in and I don’t have to be there as early. We wake up at about 10, and we both take showers. It's supposed to be hot today so I wear ripped jeans and a cut off shirt again. Harry the same. We aren’t really rushed this morning and just kind of go with it. "Leigh?" "Hm?" I say braiding my hair.
"About yesterday..." "What about it?" I turn to him; he's sitting on the bed, lacing his shoes, but is having trouble so I help him. "Well your dad." Oh no, what did daddy say to him? I sharply look at him, waiting to hear this. "Well, he started talking about. You." I stand and his eyes follow me. "He asked me if I truly love you." Harry said reaching for my hand... "Well, what did you say?" Harry laughs pulling me on his lap. I sit and play with his hand. Sizing it up to mine. His hand is almost half the size of mine. "I said..." He replied to my question while kissing my cheek. "That I love you more than anything. Even though we haven’t been together that long. You’re the most amazing person in the world to me." "What'd daddy say?" "He said, tell me something I don’t know." We both laughed and then he went on, "We better be getting to the farm. We aint got to do nothing just supervise." Harry stands, he kisses me. When he pulls away I pull him back in making him smile.
He throws me my keys and we get in the truck. We drive on to the farm and when we pull in there's about 3 different trucks there. One, a ford, red, kind of small for a farm vehicle. The other one, rusted silver, taking it to be an older truck, but it's bigger than the other one. The last one, just like mine, only black. We pull in beside it and there stands Daddy. We get out of the truck, "Harry why don’t you go on inside, gotta speak to you." Harry nods, I wink at him and he leaves. "Duke, you go on to the barn, meets the interns and show em around." "Alright dad." I say jumping on the four-wheeler.
While I'm driving, I guess daddy made them walk. I pass them, three guys. One tall, like Harry, auburn hair. The second one, shorter, blonde hair, kind of longer than the other one. Last one, average height, very muscular, black hair, buzzed. I go on to the barn and wait, I can hear them scuffing their boots, and talking. They walk in and there I stand. They all look me up and down. "Well, I take this to be your first day, since chief told me to show yall around. I'm Leigh-Ann. worked here my whole life." I hear another set of boots, I turn, and it’s Charlie. He stands in with them, winking at me. Charlie likes to pretend he's new. So he can get a feel of the new guys.
"We don’t take lateness here." I walk over to the horses. "This here is Shadow, wild fella. You do not approach him without me or chief. Understood?" I pause and they nod. "Then there’s, Georgia Peach, sweetest horse you'll ever meet. Firecracker, gentle but can be wild. Then Moonshine, He's the oldest one. Gotta treat him gently." I start to walk out of the barn "Yall coming or what?" I hear them running to catch up with me. I catch a sight of Harry and Dad getting in his truck and leaving. 'What is he doing?' I think.
One of the boys walks up beside me, "Hey." I nod back. I love interns they have to listen to me. It's so much fun to be able to walk in the barn and everyone gets quiet. They follow me like lost puppies around here. "I'm Jack." I nod again. I walk on; he tries to keep up with me. "You and chief close?" I nod once again. "You don’t talk much do you?" "Yea I do, but not you the likings of you." I say snapping back at him. He stops, and Charlie meets up with him at the back of the group, all the other guys are laughing at him.
"Real smooth there man. I'm Charlie." "Jack." They shake hands and we walk on to the cow pins. "She's a feisty one aint she?" Jack says to Charlie. "She aint the flirting kind, gotta be nice, pay attention. You want on her sweet side?" Charlie asks, Jack nods. "Do your work, and do it right. Have respect. And pay attention." Jack nods and I stop, they stop behind me. I turn to them, "Here's the cow pins, you don’t bother them they aint gonna bother you. Feed them on time, and be kind. You let them out, you go get em. Right there, that's the chicken coop, its small so for you tall ones don’t lift up, don’t spook em either. Feed em first, then go in and get the eggs. You take the eggs back to the house to Chief."
They nod, and we walk back towards the barn. I stop once again, they stop behind me crowding in, "When we say 'put the horses in their pastures.' We mean right here. Same with the cows, you let them out, you go get em. That there's the practice pin. When asked you will bring Shadow to me, you will be my spotter. You will time me and record my records. Only the ones who do their work get to help me. Maybe." We go back to the barn and I stand up on the four-wheeler. "Alright, you know the farm, and me. But I don’t know you. State your name, age and experience on the farm. You." I point to the one who tried to be sweet with me. "Jack, I'm 20, and worked on a farm since I was 15 till about 18." I nod, he winks and I roll my eyes.
I point to the really tall one, that's about as tall as Harry. "I'm Kane, 19, and I worked on a farm about 5 years ago." I nod, and look at the next one the short blonde one. I point to the next one, the big one, "Keith, 20, about 5 years." And Charlie, I look at him as if he's a stranger. "Charlie, 30, 15 years on a farm." I nod, "Alright, chores time, I'll be walking around and watching you. At about 3 we'll have a break for lunch. Um, Jack, you go to the chicken pins and feed them, get the eggs, and feed the cows. Charlie, you go with Jack…" I look up, "Well get to steppin." They turn around. "Keith, you feed the horses, when you get to Shadow, I'll help you. Kane, you'll go with me to get the hay out of the truck and haul it in here. Let's go." I jump down and I start to walk.
