The Art of bein Backwoods!

Prologue

Suzann’s POV

“Of all the crazy stupid things you could do, you shack up with a no good, low-down, gun-slingin hooligan! “  Mrs. Crenshaw bellowed.

 I would like to think that those words did not hurt my feelings, but truth be told they cut deep. You see I have never once heard my mother speak to me or any of her children as she did to my sister Elli that day. Even though they were not directed at me, I knew that if she knew of my recent behavior she would probably keel over and never wake up. You see if it wasn’t for me, Elli wouldn’t be in the mess that she is in. I tried to tell her to stay out of it; however, my sister has a mind of her own. That is most definitely for sure. When she sets her mind to something, she goes at it guns blazing and words that even a sailor would never use a-flyin.  Me, I was the quiet one. The good sister of this twin dynamic duo. 

Yes, you heard right. Elli and I are twins. We are the youngest of seven children. The oldest bein the triplets, followed soon after by the eldest twins, folks around here would say. All of us Crenshaw children are different than the next. Billy, the eldest triplet, was a quiet hard working man that had taken after pa and enjoyed farm life. Lane, a shy sweet young thing as many called her followed behind Billy by exactly two minutes and thirty seconds. And Zander, coming in third in their little race was far different than his two fellow birthday sharers. He was often referred to as the scapegoat of the family. He would steal the shirt off a man’s back just so that he could say he did it.

The eldest twins were a whole other story compared to the rest of us children. Jamie, like our pa and eldest brother Billy was hard working, but only when it meant he could turn a profit off of some poor schmuck who didn’t know better. He was an honest man, but a business man through and through. He went into town one day and decided he was gonna own the general store one day. Sure enough he did just that. Married the previous owner’s daughter in order to secure the place. Of course though the owner and pa had to drag him to the church on account that Marylou was carry-in the next generation of Crenshaw young ins to be had that next spring. Ma was mortified to say the least, but in the end Jamie made good of the situation and now has a whole passel of kids that run around the neighborhood terrorizing the poor Flannigan families wee bairns, as they call’em.  

Jamie’s twin Elizabet was similar to her brother on the fact that she was to have a child of her own before she made it to the preacher. She, however, never made it to the church. Took off in the middle of the night the night before she was meant to be hitched. Last we hearda her was that she met a nice cattle poke and settled down on his homestead. Momma praised the lord for the man that settled her wild daughter. 

In a way, momma had her work cut out for her whilst she was raising the Crenshaw brood as Granny Maggie would say. However, the troubles my older siblings caused was nothing like the trouble Elli and I caused when we reached the proper age to receive callers. And boy did Granny Maggie not once let momma forget it.