The Plantation Maid

Chapter Fourteen

I walk inside the barn and my jaw almost falls off as I survey the inside.

It's a really big barn and wooden crates stack on one whole side, on the bottom floor and a top level. Hay bails stack on the other side. I think they might can be possibly useful, if there still in good condition. We can use those as seats.

Hardwood floors cover the whole first floor. A set of steps lead to the second floor, which is only a few feet wide that goes along the entire inside edges of the barn. Railings line the edges for safety.

I see Vicky and Tiffany searching through some wooden crates. Joey and Brandon are inspecting and discussing what needs to be taken out from upstairs. Paula and Harris are in the middle of the barn, deep in conversation. Jayden comes over and stands beside me.

"So, what did she have to tell you?" he leans down to whisper in my ear.

I shake my head. I still cant believe she spoke to me.

"She told me she is going to call her cousins to come help and she apologized for being rude to me." I answer, leaving out the rest.

He leans back as in surprise. "My mother apologized?"

"I couldn't believe it either, but yea." I whisper.

He smiles and reaches his hand out to my face. He picks a strand of hair thats loose, and pushes it behind my ear. His hand lingers as he slides his fingers down my cheek. Our eyes are locked on each other's, and I can feel insides melting at his touch.

"Hey, we can serve fried rat." Joey hollers down.

He drops his hand as we look up to Joey. We watch as a black object is thrown off the side and lands in the middle of the floor.

Vicky screams and runs out the barn. I squint and see its a dead rat. Brandon laughs as Tiffany takes a closer look. She also screams when she sees it.

"Ewww!" Tiffany screams as she's running.

A rat doesn't bother me so I just laugh at those two.

Jaydens turns back to me.

"You aren't scared of a little ole rat?" he asks.

"No. I lived in an apartment before with bigger ones than that. That's just a farm rat." I say knowingly.

It's true. My mother and I moved a few times. One apartment we lived in during my high school days, was a shaggy run down place. All I had was a mattress on the floor and my clothes in boxes. Rats would scratch in the middle of the night and the sound terrified me for awhile. I eventually got used to it. They never messed with us while they searched for food. I actually would find scraps to feed them, but my mother found out and I got yelled at about wasting food.

He smiles and wraps an arm around me. "Your my type of girl."

I'm gonna avoid my feelings any longer. I wrap my arm around him and raise my head up to meet his eyes. "Lets get this party started, shall we?"

He nods in agreement.

Hours later, we're all beginning to get exhausted. Paula left us at one point and went to make us all sandwiches for supper. Some of Margie's family arrive to help clean it out. There's four men and they even brought their wives and children. Their our age so they have about the same energy and strength as us.

Jayden and I are upstairs sweeping. Everything up here is gone so all that left to do is sweep. I'm using a standard broom. Jayden is using a push broom.

At one point, he decides to have fun and keeps pushing dust, dirt and hay where I just swept over. I stop sweeping and he looks at me innocent.

"Did you seriously just do that?" I mock what he said to me that morning in my bed.