The Ridge Farm Summer

Brian: Unplugged

It was apparent to me within the first ten minutes of meeting Mary, that she would fit in flawlessly. She was delightful and full of life.  The way she made Freddie light up was unmatched. I don’t think even Roger had seen Freddie this happy before. Or maybe that was the summer air? No…no, it was Mary. We were all essentially strangers to her and yet she treated us as if she had known us since meeting Freddie.  Much to my delight, Mary had a pack of cigarettes on her and to hear her talk, she always did.

 Night had cast its purple shroud over the farm and the eleven of us were situated behind the recording barn around an open bonfire. It’s flames were burning strong and the smell of smoke and cinder emitted from the fire pit. This right here, was what a summer night was all about. Roger and I were situated on a blanket. Vivienne, of course, was practically laying on Roger’s left shoulder. I couldn’t help but smirk to myself because every time she’d lean a little too far, Roger would push her back away from him.

  “Where did you get this bracelet?” Vivienne asked taking hold of Roger’s wrist. She petted his arm and traced her fingers over his.

  “Lyd got that for me. It’s platinum, ya’ know.” Roger told her.

 “Oh, she has such nice taste.” Vivienne said a bit dreamily.

 “I know she does. Look at me.” Roger laughed and winked at her. I rolled my eyes to myself and smiled but it made Vivienne swoon. At least Roger was right. To my right, was John and Veronica sitting beside him, then Chrissie, Brian, Freddie, Mary, Norma and then Greg which brought the complete circle around the campfire.

 “Brian, this is for you. Someone made you something quite lovely with all of that fresh produce from the market.” Norma stood up and took a large container over to the opposite side of the fire where Brian was seated. He laughed when he saw it.

 “Hmm…let me try to guess who made this.” He smiled and looked over at Chrissie. The rest of us were having burgers that had been cooked over the open flame of the fire. As for Brian, Chrissie had cut up some assorted fruits and arranged them next to what would certainly be considered, a farm fresh salad of lettuces, radish, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, olives, onion and peppers. She had slathered the whole thing in Brian’s most favorite dressing.

“Lydia, how does your farm impregnate your mares?” Greg asked of me as he began passing some plates around our circle.

 “Well, we have a syringe that is immediately incubated. If we have a mare go into heat and we have a viable sample that we want to use we take the mare and…” I put my hand over my face. “I…I’m…I’m sorry. I can’t talk about getting horses pregnant over dinner.” I started laughing, taking a plate from Roger and passing them along.

 “Why not Lydia!? We’ve talked about far worse!” John reminded me. I shook my head.

 “Yeah…yeah, John...we sure have” I admitted.

 “Oh I know! Remember when we went out together that one night after Chrissie worked late and that guy on the corner was selling pocket copies of the Kama Sutra? Remember how we had to turn page forty-seven upside…”

 “NOO! We don’t remember!” Veronica hissed at Freddie. “We are never talkin’ about page forty-seven again! Or that hobo that sold that to you!”