Kansas Twang and A Summer Thang.

They say your twenty-first birthday is when you really, truly become an adult. Like you can feel the weight of having to graduate college soon, and getting a job, starting a family, keeping that job .  .  . it all weighs on your shoulders. They say it's heavy.

Me?

I've got small shoulders.

And not too much strength.

My Pa was a contractor, and I used to help him with little things that would need some fixin' up. But little things like that wouldn't give anyone the strength needed to face my family at twenty-one, no job, and nobody to "court".

See, my parents were old fashioned. And strict.

My Momma married when she was eighteen to my Pa, who was twenty-four. Momma used to tell all us kids the story about how they met and how romantic it was. But things had changed since then, and my family didn't really understand that.

These days you don't "court" people. You date, and you fuck, and you date someone else.

But no, no. My Momma would hear none of that. She used to say "Carrie Ann Rice, one day you're gonna meet a nice boy who will love you like your dad loves me".

Little ol' me never knew any better. I grew my whole life up in Kansas thinkin' it would always be love at first sight, marriage, and then a family.

Graduated high school, single, with no romantic skills. Except for some kissin'.

My sisters and brother had all married, or were about to. The pressure was really on me when I was makin' plans to come home that summer.  

Was I engaged? Nobody knew. I refused to talk to anyone but my older sister, Mia, who completely understood what I was goin' through. I had to make my parents proud, oh, they'd be so happy if I came home with a fiance, or at least a serious boyfriend.

If only I knew some boys . . .