Free Falling

Farm Life

Jessica Phyllis Lange was a normal girl who grew up with loving and caring parents. They were as what most would call "old school".

Jessica's mother had always told her growing up that women were to honor and obey their husbands and to put her own feelings aside. Her mother's name was Dorothy and she taught Jessica how to cook and clean so when Jessica was married, she knew how to do "women's work".

Jessica did look up to her mother and listened to every word she said. Since Dorothy had told Jessica all these things all her life, she didn't know any better. Jessica just thought that every women was like that.

So, years later when she was nineteen years old, Jessica met a man named Phillip Anderson. He was ten years older than Jessica but she fell deeply in love with him.

Phillip was visiting some relatives in California for the summer where Jessica had lived. Phillip went out with his cousins for a fun night in Los Angeles and they stumbled into a club where their last bit of fun for the night would take place.

Phillip had seen Jessica with a few of her girlfriends and he was immediately smitten with her. He summoned up the courage to walk over to Jessica and well, the rest was history.

Before the summer was up, Jessica had some news for Phillip that he was not ready for. Jessica told him she was pregnant and being raised similar as Jessica he did what was right and married her.

Phillip's parents were just as "old school" as Jessica's parents. So once they heard about Jessica, they had no choice but to have her as a daughter in law.

Of course, Jessica didn't see it that way. In her mind, she and Phillip were in love and for the first few years, they were indeed in love. Or at least, that was the facade Phillip had put up.

Jessica at first, had to stay in Los Angeles while Phillip went back home so he could get things settled.

When his parents first found out about Jessica, his parents were disappointed in their son. The reason was that Phillip had a girlfriend. They had been together since high school and he was close to asking her to marry him. But his fling with Jessica immediately put a stop to their relationship.

He had no choice but to break up with his girlfriend, Mary after marrying Jessica. Jessica had known about Mary but she didn't know that Phillip and Mary were still together when they met.

Mary was heartbroken and would have never imagined Phillip being cheater. Mary soon moved away from their hometown because she couldn't bare looking at Phillip with his new bride.

At the age of twenty, Jessica welcomed her daughter Abigail. Jessica was over the moon to have her little girl.

Phillip had traveled back for the birth but had to leave again back home. His father had gotten very ill, so Phillip being the only child and next in line to care for his father's farm had to step up. He had no choice but to move back in with his parents.

Phillip was finally able to bring Jessica to Cloquet, Minnesota to live with him at his father's farm. Jessica didn't want to live with his parents but she had no choice in the matter.

The whole town of Cloquet welcomed Jessica and she was able to find her place in the town and settled into life at the farm.

Although, the down side was Phillip's mother, Karen was horrible to Jessica. Karen would speak her mind on how she truly felt about her daughter in law and in the first year of living at the farm, all Jessica did was cry.

Karen would put Jessica down so much that Jessica's self esteem began to plummet. So Jessica just stood back and never stuck up for herself.

Although, Jessica isn't the only one to not speak up. Their family was built on never talking about their problems and pretending they don't exist. They wanted the whole town to think that the Anderson family had it all together and were just perfect.

Phillip's father made a quick recovery and resumed his position at the farm. Phillip's father, Phillip Sr. began to like Jessica as a daughter in law and would often stick up for her against his wife.

But years later when Phillip Sr. passed away, Jessica was so heartbroken. Not only has she got to know him and love him as a father in law, he was her only supporter and now that he was gone, Karen went back to her put downs and name calling.

Jessica had gotten a job a the local library when she first arrived in Cloquet and would leave her daughter with her mother in law to care for. Which was a huge mistake that would have a huge impact on Abigail's and Jessica's relationship.

Karen would tell Abigail how much Jessica was useless and just a horrible person. Abigail began to believe all the horrible things that Karen said about Jessica. Abigail grew up to despise her own mother because of the lies Karen would tell her about Jessica.

Jessica's heart of course was broken that Abigail now felt that way about her. All she wanted was her little girl back.

Abigail was thirty years old now and was married to a writer, Adam. They had no children. They chose not have any because of Abigail's job. She was a lawyer and she was top ranked as the best lawyer in Cloquet.

Jessica also has two sons; one's name was Rick. He was twenty eight years old and was married to a women named Shannon. Shannon and Rick were having some trouble having their own children. No matter how hard they tried after five years of trying, Shannon still was not pregnant. This was their main cause of them having such turmoil in their marriage.

Then there was twenty five year old John. He was the baby of the family and Jessica couldn't help but baby him the most out of her other two children. John had moved to Los Angeles to be closer to his grandparents, Dorothy and Albert.

He was a struggling screen writer and he was determined to make it big in Hollywood. John was the only one who hasn't gotten married yet and had yet to have a girlfriend.

The secret he has been carrying around for many years is that he's gay. He is terrified to come out to his parents. Especially his father; he knows how his father is and that's a huge reason why John doesn't have a relationship with Phillip. He is closer to Jessica and he has hope that his mother will accept him no matter what.

Jessica is now fifty years old. Philip is sixty one and their marriage is almost nonexistent. Jessica just doesn't feel the love between them anymore. So she was surprised that Phillip wanted to be with her intimately one September night.

They hadn't connected with each other as husband and wife in so long that she forgot what it was like to be with her husband. That night, it made Jessica have some hope that their marriage was on the mend. Maybe this was the first step to making their marriage work she thought.

But she could never guess how wrong she is and that her life and her family's life is about to turn upside down.

Well...I know I shouldn't have because I have other stories I need to finish but I couldn't help myself. Jessica So I hope you all enjoyed this first chapter.

This story was inspired by a book called Just Like A Woman by Jill Gascoine.

I just finished reading it and loved it. So of course I wanted to write Jessica as the main character and see her journey through the events to come.

Please let me know your thoughts.