Mystics of the Tuolumne

Ontogenesis. #

Even though their school had started, Joel and Dahlia had a multitude of tasks at their holding. September was also the harvest season.  They had to pick apples, peaches, wild plums, and nuts.  The pumpkins were ripening as well as all the other winter squash.  

"Joel, help me carry these bushel basket into the root cellar," Beets, garlic, turnips, and other root vegetables needed to be picked and placed in the root cellar that one of Ericia's clients had dug them.

 "Dahlia, I need to go and train my other pig."  he was serious. 

"Not until we seed the winter vegetables, "  They had to plant the chard, kale, cabbage and other cruciferous vegetables for the cool season. This took place both before and after school.  Dahlia longed to sit next to and talk to Albert. Joel kept her spirits up by joking and constantly smiling.  

"Dahlia, can I help you move the hay into the cattle shed?"  They had to get ready for an almost non-existent winter.

The air was filled with dust and haze from the mechanical wheat harvesters.  There were as many as 50 of the huge steel, iron, and wooden giants scouring the never ending fields of wheat.  The cloud of dust dimmed the sun on some days.  To make matters worse, it was still hot without any winds.

 Dahlia had not concentrated on any of her gifts and skills.   She had to concentrate on the work of a small land holder's inexorable need to prepare for the season of scarcity.  Scarcity the season that never ended. With hard work, though, it could be ameliorated.  

Dahlia saw Albert every day and was able to squeeze in some time when they just sat or stood together.  Words were not necessary. He showed her some of his drawings which he carried in a long leather tubular valise that his mother had purchased for him in Venice, Italy.  She also bought him, much to his father's chagrin,  a beautiful set of wild boar paint brushes.  She bought him a colossal amount of oil paints in Lyon, France.  

Albert would, through thought, convey to her the scenes he wanted to paint.  She was awestruck by some of them and brought to tears for the beauty of it all. Albert guided Dahlia to a secret hiding place he had found at the edge of town by the Tuolumne River.  The little haven was curtained by immense cottonwood, ash, and willow trees.  The long slender branches of the weeping willow gave them an impenetrable curtain or so they thought.  It was halfway between their respective dwellings.  They met there on one hot  Tuesday afternoon.

"We have known each other for so many years. I wish we could  be together more often.  You make me feel safe from myself." Dahlia said demurely to Albert.

"Thank you. I want you to feel safe and be safe.  I want to become a painter.  I have to learn other skills to keep you safe,"  He was very earnest and afraid to make eye contact. For the first time, Albert saw her as more than an understanding pal.  

"I feel something I cannot describe.  When you are gone in the summer.  It is like half of me is missing.  It hurts.  We have gifts."  She looked deep into Albert's soul.

"You have grown since we last parted company."  Albert was actually smiling , his head cocked a little to the side.

"Momma had to let my dresses down and I have bigger shoes." She proudly announced.

"I didn't mean tall."

"Do you think I got fat?"  She said with a tinge of menace in her voice.  Dahlia was more than a little aghast.

"No...no...not at all.  I just noted that you grew a little here."  He brushed his chest with some amusement.

Dahlia turned a bright hue of red from hair to toenails. "I guess that I have." She looked down at her own chest with discomfiture.  "But that doesn't change anything for us."

"Oh, yes it does.  It changes almost everything."  Albert was no longer grinning.

"How do you mean?"  Dahlia was hesitant and touched by the fear of losing her truest friend.  Her heart was pounding in her chest and there was ringing in her ears.

"This summer I was dreaming about you.  We were kissing and hugging.  We were naked.  Jasper got very hard... for the first time in my life.  I knew then... it would never be the same.  I lifted the covers... and looked at Jasper's... future."  He was smiling again and talking hesitantly.

"I have so much going on... inside me now.  I can't... control it.  Go away."  She was clumsy, impecuned, and delighted.  "But, come again tomorrow.    I am not angry."

Albert smiled and reached down and gave her hands a squeeze while he looked into deeply into her. He loved what he saw.  "You go first.  I will follow... to make sure everything is OK."

When Dahlia burst through the gates to her home, she was greeted by a grunting pig and a smiling brother who was trying to teach the pig to heel on a leash.  The scene wiped all the worry out of her mind.  She ran over and kissed the little imp on top of his head.  "Don't come inside without yelling and asking me first."

"OK!  Have you got your monthly curse?"  He was as serious as she had ever seen him.

"NO!... It's none of your business anyway.  Just do what I asked."  She was emphatic and stern..

"OK."  The sweet boy smiled and bobbed his head.

Dahlia went inside she closed all the doors and locked them.  She pulled the curtains across the windows so that nobody could look in.  She removed her jumper then her blouse and skirt.  Then her petticoats and camisole.  She hesitated.  She wrapped her arms around herself fo a minute then removed her pantaloons.  She took the hand mirror from the dresser.

What she saw amazed her, scared her, and enchanted her.  She was showing curves at her hips.  Her waist was narrowing and she did have something up there on her chest.  They were more than alert nipples, they were actual breasts, small feminine breasts.  She looked at herself from head to toe.  She had beautiful raven black shiny hair that fell to her shoulders with natural waves.  Her eyes were deep and dark brown.  Her cheek bones were high and regal.  Her nose was straight narrow and aquiline thanks to her Miwok heritage. her ears were just the right size and pinned closely to her head.  Her skin was smooth and bronze with a shine to it. Her shoulder did not dip or slope they were prominent and accentuated her breasts.  She also noted hair sprouting where it had been barren before.  

"Oh my God, I am becoming a beautiful woman!"  She quickly put her clothes back on.  And walked back outside beaming radiantly.