State of Affair 2
"You massaging my scalp was the last straw, a total meltdown for me. I had had a running debate in my mind about buying a morning after pill, and I decided I want your baby. I don't want to be anywhere else, ever." Tears were streaming down her face. She kissed me on my neck, just like in the shower.
Day 1 7/09/??
Somebody knocked twice on the door and came in, Mitzi looked up and saw Uncle Bill, and Uncle Bill saw the tears running down Mitzi's face.
"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?"
Mitzi sidestepped with both fists up, and a step toward Uncle Bill, "DON'T YOU DARE!"
I've seen Uncle Bill stand up to an eleven hundred pound Bull, but Mitzi had him stopped in his tracks, palms out, taking a full step back, and 30 seconds to get his mouth shut.
I busted out laughing so hard I had to sit at the table. If I hadn't seen it myself. I wouldn't have believed my mother if she told me about it. I was helpless.
Mitzi explained why the tears were in her eyes, so Uncle Bill settled down a bit and gave me a sheepish look, which got me laughing harder.
I got up and introduced Mitzi and Uncle Bill to each other as if Mitzi hadn't done a good job of it herself.
While Mitzi was in the bathroom rinsing her face and applying a bit of makeup. I showed Uncle Bill the bruise on my left ribs.
"Mitzi did that?"
"Yeah, it hurt so bad it brought tears on, and I could barely breathe for a bit, and when I finally could, I couldn't get a deep breath without wincing from the pain. You got off easy Uncle Bill, don't be ashamed of being pussy-whipped by Mitzi."
"Those are fighting words Boy!"
"Try it and I'll tell Dad on you."
"Your Dad don't scare me, but Janice does."
"I learned what you mean first thing this morning right when I thought Janice had her best behavior to fore. Janice told Mitzi and I, Mom peeked in my bedroom while Mitzi and I were busy, which explains why Mom was worked up and attacked Dad at 3:00 this morning. Just before Mitzi and I left the house, Janice said Dad's about a hundred yards behind and might not catch up."
"Needless to say Mitzi is embarrassed, and Mom's embarrassed. Janice has the makings to be a brilliant and fascinating Lawyer."
Mitzi watched me check all the fluids in the 120 Tractor, which already had a hay-rake folded and hitched behind it.
I checked the air in the tires and told Mitzi I'm lowering the air pressure in the rear tires a little to give us a smoother ride. Started the tractor and let it warm up while I greased all the fittings including the hay-rake zerks too.
I explained to Mitzi about the high cost of repairs, and our efforts to keep those costs down by doing proper maintenance. Our mantra is simple: "Grease is cheap."
Mitzi marveled at how quiet it was in the cab, and loved the air conditioning. Said she thought it was going to be a little hot and miserable. She was definitely pleased, and actually set the temperature a little cooler than I liked it.
I told her, Uncle Bill and I put in carpet padding and fitted used high-traffic entry mats on the floor of each of our tractors to reduce the noise in the cabs.
We were headed north on a two-lane at about twenty-five miles an hour, the hay-rake was tracking good, and Mitzi asked, "Where are we going?"
"We call it the 'Far Forty', it's about five miles as the crow flies north of us. It's forty acres of alfalfa, that needs to be turned over to dry a little more. We'll work the 52 and the 37 acre plots on the way back to the Barn for the Baler."
"We're gonna bale hay?"
"Yup."
We got back to the Barn after raking a hundred and twenty-nine acres of alfalfa or grass, depending on which crop was on the land.
I had just finished forty-five minutes of normal maintenance on the 240 Tractor and Baler when Mitzi came out of the cabin looking beautiful in a sleeveless shirt and shorts. She held up a paper sack, "I found some food in the fridge and pantry."
I gave her a half a hug, she turned and kissed my lips while both hands held the paper sack behind my back. I remembered a line I heard in a movie, "You are a woman to love."
"I saw that movie."
"Are you ready to go?"
"Yes."
I ducked down and wrapped my left arm around her legs just under her rump, stood up with her knapsack in my right hand, she squalled and kicked a little bit, thankfully she didn't drop the paper sack.
The door was already open, so I just went up three steps, and stood her on the floor of the cab.
All Mitzi had to do was back into the Buddy-seat.
I got seated in the driver's seat, released the brake, selected a gear and released the clutch.
"What's wrong? You're pale."
"I forgot about my ribs when I picked you up."
"I'm sorry."
I smiled at her and turned the tractor to the side of the lane and stopped, turned to Mitzi as best I could in the cramped seat, took both of her hands in mine, "Mitzi, you and I started this day together at 2:30 this morning, and this day with you has been one of the best days of my life, and it feels like we have been together a week already." I kissed both of her hands and prepared to drive again.
She released her seat-belt and flipped the steering column release, and Mitzi was sitting on my lap in a heartbeat, with her left arm around my shoulders, and kissed my right cheek, we sat and held each other.
"What was the other day?"
"Pardon?"
"You said this is one of the best days of your life, what was the other one?"
"I'm ashamed to say I've taken that day for granted many times. Now I try to spend an hour with God every day, because Jesus rebuked his disciples for falling asleep instead of spending an hour in prayer with him."
"I was reading what might have been the third or fourth book I've read written by Hal Lindsey. He's the guy that wrote the Late Great Planet Earth. I could hear Hal's voice while I was reading Satan is Alive and Well on Earth. Later I heard Hal Lindsey talking on TV, and he sounded exactly the same as in the Satan is alive book. Hal was saying in the book, that Satan will try to convince you that Jesus Christ isn't real.
“Right then I closed the book and thought `no way anybody anywhere is going to convince me Jesus Christ isn't real!' I didn't actually know at that time Jesus Christ is real, but nobody was going to convince me He isn't.
"I got up from my bed and looked out the window thinking about this, and I laid back down on the bed and turned away from the window with my eyes closed and said, 'Thy will is my will, Thy will is my will, Thy will is my will,' and directly after the last word was spoken with my eyes closed, I saw a bright white cross in my forehead. "God made Himself real to me without me asking."
I glanced at Mitzi and saw tears, she held me tighter.
"I was afraid I would be unequally yoked."
"Will you marry me Mitzi?"
She held me even tighter, "Yes! I'm glad you are my first Paul!"
"I know, there was a little bit of blood on the sheet."
"Sorry."
I kissed her left cheek, "Don't be, it is a token of your virginity."
I finally got the tractor rolling again. Mitzi and I were hand in hand all the way to the Far Forty.
We baled ninety-two acres, and quit early for the day, because I needed to finish the Thesis I was writing while Mitzi was driving the tractors, because I didn't want to answer twenty questions from each of our parents.
After finishing the Thesis in the cabin, I handed a copy to Mitzi.
I had basically explained how and why it was an accidental inadvertent affair, and stopped at the point where I got out of bed and locked the slider, and wrote two more paragraphs to explain my feelings about Mitzi.
Mitzi tried to hand her copy of the Thesis back to me, but I told her I would stand with her while her parents read it.
Mitzi and I went up to the house to talk with Uncle Bill about what I didn't get done today, while Mitzi talked with Aunt Lucy.
On the way to Mitzi's home, we agreed to stop at the Courthouse tomorrow and pick up a Marriage License on the way through town from baling one field to another on the far side of town.
Mitzi stepped through the door of her home, "Everybody decent? We've got company!"
"YES." rumbled her Dad's voice through the house, so I stepped in behind her and turned from the foyer into the living-room, seeing the entire family there.
Mitzi performed the introductions, and handed her Mom the Thesis, and waited while she read it. Her jaw dropped, then she clinched her teeth and resolutely read the rest of it. Her Mother glanced up at Mitzi,
"Kiddo? Your Uncle is in serious trouble with me. I didn't know he was hurting you." She looked at me, "You're blameless because of circumstances, and you're man enough to look me in the eye."
Mitzi's Mother Ann handed the paper to her Husband Gregory.
Mitzi's Father was startled right away, "State of Affair?" looking at me,
"Yes sir, an accidental inadvertent affair."
He stared at me a moment, then returned to reading.
Mitzi started shaking, and I gave her a half a hug, she turned and put one hand between my shoulder blades and the other at the back of my head and kissed me full on the lips for a five count. She dropped her upper hand on my shoulder, and I held her, "Relax, we've already won." She turned to face her Father.
"Alcohol?" glancing up at her.
"No."
"A little bit of morning mouth, wasn't bad at all." I said, "No alcohol, would have been nice if she'd had one of those minty girly drinks."
He stared at me again. You would think his stare could peel the hide off a rhino.
I gave Mitzi's hand a gentle squeeze. "I'm sticking up for Mitzi whether you like it or not."
Mitzi's Dad tossed the Thesis on the end table, and Mitzi's younger sister April went to pick it up and read it. Her Dad grabbed it back before she could get her hands on it. "It's X rated and private, nobody else is reading this. Ann, do you have any more to say about this before I get the last word?"
"I don't have a quarrel with Paul or Mitzi, and I don't think you're going to get the last word tonight Greg. Mitzi is spoken for, did you see the ring on her finger?"
Mitzi stepped closer to her father and showed him her ring.
"It's stainless steel. I don't believe in coincidence. I found a stainless-steel pipe in the Barn, that was almost the right size, so I lopped a quarter inch piece off the end and worked it down to three sixteenths wide and swaged just a tad bit more diameter, and polished it up and it fits perfect."
"How long did it take you to do that?"
"About forty-five minutes."
"When's the wedding?"
"We're picking up the Marriage License tomorrow on our way through town from field A to field B."
"Did you hear that Ann?"
"What?"
"They're getting a Marriage License tomorrow."
"The sooner the better!"
"I get first dibs for Mitzi's room!"
"You're not getting Mitzi's room, April. "Your Dad and I already decided to use it for our master bedroom lounge."
Without any discussion at all, Mitzi and I packed two big boxes of her stuff out to the pickup and said we would be back for the rest later. Mitzi gave her Dad and Mom a kiss, and I gave Mitzi's Mom a half a hug and shook hands with her Dad, "Congratulations, Son."
It was my turn to blush. "Thank you Dad."
Mitzi and I talked on the way to my parent's place.
"It feels like we have only known each other twenty minutes. I don't know if surreal is the right word Paul, but it also feels like we have been living together a year already."
"Surreal is like irrational, or a fantasy dream. That was what I wondered too when I told you there was a new toothbrush in the right-hand drawer, and start the shower, I'll join you in a minute. You just nodded your head and walked buck naked into the bathroom."
"In spite of how wild the intercourse was, you were gentle with me. You didn't pinch or grope or hurt me in any way except for that initial push into me, which I didn't blame you for. If you were kicking my butt, I would have dodged through a bonfire to get away.
"One of the boys at school was trying to feel me up and pinching me. I told Dad, and he called the boy's Father. First time I saw the boy after that was a week later limping off the school bus. He walked over to me and apologized for mistreating me. I guess he warned a couple of other boys, because none of the boys bothered me since."
"I missed the first semester of my freshman year, because we were short handed on the farm. Dad normally works six hours a day when we are behind, helping us catch up, but had a big lawsuit on his calendar that was giving him no slack at all, Aunt Lucy was no help, being seven months pregnant, Mom and I were working 16 hour shifts on the farm.
"Janice took care of everything at home, made ready-to-eat meals for us, laundry, housekeeping, made sure Mom and Dad saw all the bills that came, so they would get paid. Janice did better than any twelve year old I can imagine. Top that off she kept up in school and got good grades. Dad put Janice on payroll at his firm, so she has been working there part time, and full time during the summers.
"It was crazy how fast the crops were growing that year, we got four cuttings of alfalfa and grass hay. We always considered the third cuttings our bonus for the year.
"We harvested a hundred and twenty acres of corn at 40 bushels an acre, tilled the foliage under, and planted winter wheat on top.
"I worked twenty-four hours straight four times that season, because we had to repair equipment to stay caught up. We were a week behind for three months, which made for a heavier harvest, an added bonus needless to say.
"Uncle Bill was busy maintaining equipment, ordering supplies, buying, selling, trading, scheduling work, so Mom and I were more efficient. We couldn't hire anybody to help, because we didn't have time to supervise them."
"Uncle Bill worked thirty hours straight a couple times, then thirty-six hours on six hours sleep once, and ended up in bed two days straight recovering.
"Fortunately Dad won the lawsuit two days earlier, and came out working six hour shifts at night, and all day on weekends, besides what he had to do at his law practice, while I did as much of Uncle Bill's work as I could, and did five hours field work each night. Everything slowed down, so we caught up during the second week of December.
"I got a good deal on a two year old pickup, and bought forty acres next door to The Barn from a hungry farmer, so that was a good deal too."
"The Barn?"
"Grandpa incorporated the farm, and called the business 'The Barn', because everything on the farm revolves around the Barn, later you'll realize how true that is. Aunt Lucy claims their first child was conceived in the Barn."
Mitzi laughed as we arrived at my parent's house.
It was my turn to holler as I opened the door, "Everybody decent? We have company!"
"Just a minute!"
We heard somebody scurry up the stairs, probably Janice.
"Ready now?"
"Yes!"
We stepped in not knowing what to expect, and found Mom and Dad relaxed in the living-room
I introduced Mitzi, and handed the Thesis to Mom.
"Mitzi, I remember you when your Mom and I shared the same hospital room when you and Paul were born."
Mitzi stared at me purely amazed.
"I'm two days older than you, Mitzi."
"Actually you were born five minutes before midnight on the fifth Paul, and Mitzi was born five minutes after midnight on the seventh, if I held on a little longer and Ann pushed a little harder you two would have been born on the same day. "That means you two are twenty-four hours and ten minutes apart in age."
Mitzi stammered, "I, I thought you were a year younger than me. "I thought some people were going to call me a cougar!"
"Cougar?"
"It's a woman that has a younger significant other, usually much younger."
It was Janice picking up on the last of what we said about age difference as she descended the stairs.
"You know too much Janice, I suggest you seriously pay attention to what Mom and Dad are saying to you.
"You have no idea how a little trouble can mess up the rest of your life."
"I'm not your business Paul!"
"I am my sister's keeper Janice, whether you like it or not. Dad? I suggest you start her researching farm land within five miles of the Barn, because Uncle Bill and I are going to build another Picker for a baler just like the last one, and we need to justify the investment of time and money by working more acreage.
"Tell us about your new ring Mitzi."
It was the smart, sly, slick, and sneaky Janice. You can trust her to get a jab in after I got the last word.
Dad finished reading the Thesis, "Watch yourself Janice!"
"Yeah, but the ring?"
"A smart lawyer knows the answer before he asks the question." Dad handed the Thesis back to me, and shook my hand, "Congratulations son, congratulations to you too Mitzi."
Mom gave us both a hug, then Mitzi and I went up to my room, and loaded a couple boxes of my stuff.
Mom was waiting at the bottom of the stairs with a 12"X12"X4" box. Mom opened the box and showed Mitzi the folded sheet inside with the blood stain centered, "This is your token Mitzi, proving your virginity given to Paul. Your mother called after you left them, and told me about the ring and Marriage License."
Mitzi hugged Mom, and we loaded the boxes in the pickup, Mitzi brought the little box into the cab with us. "I love your Mother Paul. She made this very sacred for me." I handed her a Kleenex for her tears.
Mitzi and I got home at 11:30pm. Yep. That's right, HOME in our cabin.
We changed the bedding to give Mitzi a fresh start in our bed, and we talked a bit while we took a shower together.
"There's no way I would have taken a morning-after pill Paul, I kept remembering what God said in the Book of Jeremiah. You made it easy for me to accept what happened."
"What impresses me about you is, you haven't done any whining at all. You have had a long day with almost no sleep, and you haven't been upset about anything, except when your Dad was trying to stare us down you got a little shaky."
"That too was amazing, because you gave me a reason to turn away from Dad and kiss you. I haven't had so much fun yesterday since kindergarten."
"Yesterday?"
"It's five after midnight."
"Ouch." We toweled off and went straight to bed, cuddled up, I kissed her forehead and zonked out.
Day 2 7/10/??
The sun shining through the window didn't wake me up...
