The River Bed

MoonBeams

                                                                 CHAPTER  1

I laid looking up at the ceiling, shadows from a tree branch was dancing with  moonlight sweeping across the wooden rafters up above. The shadows swaying in rhythm to the melody of the crickets and bullfrogs outside, their harmony was drifting in through the old rustic screen that hung loosely in the window frame. A country tune playing nightly, the band hidden somewhere in the landscape outside. Every once in a while a whippoorwill would join in the melody, reminding me that loneliness and sorrow was not just a human feeling and emotion, but experienced by the smallest of creatures. A feeling that could be heard with the ears and have an onset of emotions that followed behind the sound.She often wanted to find that blasted bird and give it a hug.

A cool breeze passed through the open window like a welcoming friend and played with the curtains. The material lifting ever so slightly and falling, fanning my face and drying the sweat from my brow. The breeze was a luxury tonight; considering we did not have central heat and air unit for the old farm house. Each room was blessed to have a rotating fan, which served no purpose when the heat warmed the rooms like an oven ready for baking Sundays roost. The fan just pushed the heat right on top of you and smothered the air.

I turned my face toward the cool breeze and allowed it to caress my face like the back of a mothers hand,

The only room blessed with air conditioning was the living room. It was still too early to use that luxury, not until temperatures peeked in the high nineties, which in Oklahoma could be anytime now.

Hank, the oldest of nine siblings, would allow us to use the unit sparingly.even when the temperature spiked in the upper nineties. He was a penny pincher in all ways, which was fair in the since he worked the hardest to provide for our family.

It was nearing the end of spring, only a few more days and we could declare it summertime. Although the weather had declared summer a couple of weeks back, the humidity was high already. The heat was already responsible for on going drought in our state. The river was so low,you could jump from sand bank to sand bank.

Farmers were complaining about the drought even before the river bed showed sign sof drying up. The crops not producing as they should, not growing to the extremes needed for a good year harvest. Spring time usually meant flooding to some parts of the state but eve those areas were having record lows. The feed -mills had to run overtime to supply feed for cattle, which was again taking money from the cattlemen and ranchers. Everyone had a complaint, yet I kind of enjoyed the sandbanks of the river bed being exposed, I had always been an explorer of the sandy shore lines and sandbanks. Lots of interesting things got thrown into the river, or just happened to fall into the waters of the Cimarron River that ran through the backside of grandfather's land.

A slow moving yawn spread my lips apart, showing signs I was growing tired, yet my mind would not give into the thought and theory of sleep.

This summer would be like no other summer she had known, last year at this time  I had a father, a mother, and a sweet red headed brother we called,Tommy. We all slept under the same rooftop and slumbered in the heat as one. Now, we were orphans. The last few months seemed more like a fog had descended down upon us. We all had changed and went with a routine, functioning like robots. We rose with the sunrise, went about our day taking care of each other under the supervision of Grumps, who had became the caregiver of the herd of grandchildren left orphaned for him to raise. Nothing made since and sorrow filled the walls of the two story farm house, sounding much like the whippoorwill at times.

Tear drops still stained the old wooden flooring, most likely in every room.Grief came upon them all at different times and in different ways.