Logger

Finally Denny and Bobby got cold and got out. They rolled around in the clean green grass for awhile to dry off, pulled on their clothes and the big heavy boots Pa had bought for them to work in.

The shoes had steel spikes sticking out the bottom so they didn't slip while walking on the logs, those got real slick after they peeled off the bark.

With Sally Mae's help they got 10 logs cut and done, loaded them up and hauled them up to the road where the man with the truck would come and pick them up. The little bulldozer Pa had bought sure did help with that, they could drag all of them at once instead of two which is all the Mules could pull. Plus Pa had been talking about getting one of those big saws with an engine, her brothers sure wanted one of them.

Cutting and selling the logs was getting to be good money, Sally Mae had her heart set on maybe getting that blue dress she saw in the store but to Pa that was a waste of money.

That coming truck was sure noisy, it didn't have any muffler at all. He did that so folks would know he was there and come down the long dirt road to help him load. Four big men could pick up one of the logs easily, one man by himself just could not quite do it and had to use the Mules, and those Mules often didn't want to help.

Once when Pa had cut his hand, she, Bobby and Denny had helped. She got on one end with Denny and the driver got on the other with Bobby. Sally Mae noticed that man had looked at her real careful like, lately she was spotting things like that.

It caused that same funny feeling she got when Jeremiah looked at her, the expression was almost the same on their faces.

And on the face of old Mr. Ridland.

+++

One evening after dinner Sally Mae's Ma spelled her from the chore of feeding Mr. Ridland, she was grateful for that since she was tired.

"Mr. Ridland is getting better, he sat up tonight all by himself and he even wiggled his fingers!" She announced when she came downstairs.

"That is good, if we can get him healthy we can use the hand with the logs. I got another order, they want 200 this time." Her Pa grinned.

"Oh my, that is wonderful!" Her Ma said.

"Yea, that be $8000, I can maybe buy that big Bull Judd Hanson has up for sale. He wants $450 for it. Enough left over to maybe put me a down payment on a used Farmall tractor."

"I thought we was going to see about getting the wires put in?" Her Ma said, sounding not too happy about that. Building a fire in the stove was a daily chore, along with hauling in the wood.

An electric stove? That would be wonderful.

"The way we do it works just fine." Pa told her.

That began one of their arguments so Sally Mae slipped outside to get away from it.

Her Pa wanted a tractor and her Ma wanted electricity, before when there was no money it wasn't an issue. Now it was nearly every night.

Sally Mae wanted that dress, but she knew there was little hope of that.

She walked down by the barn, sat down. It was a nice night, the stars were out and very bright.

"Hi!" Came a voice, it made her darn near jump out of her skin. She saw a dark shadow by the wall.

"It's just me, Jeremiah."

"Oh. Hello." Sally Mae's heart skipped a beat.

"I was coming over to ask your folks if I could...if I could..you know...come calling?" He managed to stammer.

"I don't think they would mind." She told him.

"I just want to be sure, is all." He still had not moved from the shadows.

"Well, I guess you should just go ask." Sally Mae got up.

"It's all right with you, then?" He stepped out of the shadows where she could see him.

He had on a clean shirt and jeans, his hair was all slicked back and shiny looking, and he smelled like some kind of toilet water.

Even his shoes were black with something, they caught the reflection of the Moon in them for a second.

"Yes, Jeremiah. I don't mind. I think you are a nice man." She told him. She called him a man deliberately. She suddenly felt a surge of confidence, he was acting all silly and shy.

"Come on then." She told him, turning for the house.

Her Ma and Pa were still arguing about how to spend the money they didn't even have yet when they got to the porch.

"We got company." She announced and they quieted right down, turning to look.

Jeremiah turned bright red, opened his mouth a few times but nothing came out.

"Jeremiah wants to know if he can come calling on me." She told them.

They looked at each other, her Ma smiled but her Pa had a frown on his face.

"So what do you have in mind? You ain't gonna go trying to pester my little girl, is you?"

"Sally Mae is 19 years old, Pa! She ain't no little girl, she is a woman!" Her Ma piped in before anyone could speak.

"Well. I suppose. But I am warning you, boy. If you..."

"Oh, shut up, Pa!" Her Ma told him.

Sally Mae reached out and took Jeremiah's hand and they escaped. Her Ma had stood up for her, that made her happy.

+++

It was close to 8 miles to where Jeremiah's house was, but after that he showed up every single night. He said it only took him an hour and a half to trot over.

He held her hand a lot but that was it. Sally Mae was hoping he would try to kiss her but he didn't, not even once.

They talked about everything, Jeremiah mentioned once that one day he would like to go see New York City. He also told her that he was saving up his pay from the logging, and he had almost $300 put away.

That was a lot to save, Sally Mae knew that Pa paid Jeremiah a dollar for every log they got loaded out.

When fall arrived, it got colder and soon they would not be cutting logs.

Each day she would chop and bring in the wood, then take care of the animals. Usually her Ma had more chores for her to do, plus most of the time she also fed and took care of Mr. Ridland.

It wasn't going to be very long now, Mr. Ridland was sitting up by himself and he even got out of bed and walked a little bit.

Sally Mae was thinking that he probably could wash himself and even take care of the other things, but he always acted like he couldn't when she went up there.

Then one day she was washing him and he got fussed up like he seemed to do every single day, so she reached over out of what was now nearly a habit and began to pump him.

Her mind was on Jeremiah, so when Mr. Ridland reached right down the front of her dress and fondled her breast, it took a second for her to realize.

Sally Mae jumped back with a start.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

Mr. Ridland looked at her with a big smile. Sally Mae went downstairs and told her Ma, Pa was sitting right there.

"You say he be putting on then?" Her Pa got up and went upstairs. There was quite a discussion, it got rather loud.

The next afternoon, Mr. Ridland was gone. As it turned out, he had been milking the hospitality for quite some time.

Pa didn't even put him back on the crew.

The good part is that less than two weeks later, a crew showed up to install power lines. It seemed that Sally Mae's Ma became insistent, her Pa did argue for awhile but he finally gave up. Part of that was that by supplying all of the poles, he saved enough money to buy that prize Bull.

Of course, if her Pa ever expected Ma to join him in the bedroom again, she was going to get electricity.

Then after dinner one night, her Ma brought out a huge box. Inside it was the blue dress! Sally Mae let out a squeal of happiness.

She went right in and put it on, fixed her hair and came out, doing a little whirl.

Even her Pa stared at her, along with both Denny and Bobby. The problem was that there was no place to wear it, not really.

But Sally Mae had her blue dress, she was happy.

+++

By the next Spring, life had changed quite a bit. There was no more chopping wood and cooking over a fire, all her Ma had to do was turn the little dial. The house no longer smelled of the lamps all of the time, they had lights!

A huge machine had shown up and dug up the yard, the outhouse was now gone and they had a room for that inside, warm and dry. Right there on the wall was this metal cabinet that got hot and glowed red, that really helped during the cold months.

They had all promised to work very hard on the logs all Spring and Summer, because once again, Pa had almost no money, having spent it all. The new saw with a gasoline engine was going to help, both Bobby and Denny were beside themselves happy abo

+++

Every year just outside of town they held a big party, people came to play music and dance, and drink the different types of homemade whiskey that many folks around made. Sally Mae had taken a sip of some years before, it tasted horrible.

Instead, she drank the Lemon juice that one of the women always brought, it was bitter also but she brought along some sugar which helped.

This year, she was happy because finally she had a place to wear her blue dress, and Jeremiah had asked her to go with him. She was giddy with excitement, and the way Jeremiah's eyes had lit up when he saw her in that dress made her feel all warm inside. He had actually shown up with a cart, one of the better mules pulling it, so they were going to arrive in style.

Sally Mae felt very proud to be arriving with Jeremiah, and in such fine style plus wearing her pretty dress. Her Ma even had some gold colored earrings she let Sally Mae wear. Those made her ear lobes throb but she suffered through that. She did wish she had some of those shoes that would make her look taller, but those were also hard to dance in on the dirt floors in the tents.

+++

Everyone for miles around was at the party every year, this year was no exception. Sally Mae climbed down off the cart and waited while Jeremiah put the mule away, then with her arm tucked in his they went in.

Old man Donaldson was playing his fiddle, several people were dancing. There was one young man playing on cans and things for drums, and Mr. Clark was on guitar. Mr. Clark was a big black man, he often sang and his voice was really gravelly sounding but good to hear.

She and Jeremiah danced until she thought her legs might fall off, plus she had several glasses of the lemonade. Jeremiah wanted to put a little bit of that moonshine in it for her, so she let him since she was all grown up now.

By around midnight, her head was spinning, so they went outside to get some air. Nobody was out there, so when Jeremiah finally leaned down to kiss her right on the lips, she let him. That felt so nice she let him do it some more. Then, he wanted to walk, so holding hands, they headed down to a storage shed by the big barn.

There was some hay there, so they sat down and Jeremiah began to kiss her a whole bunch more. Then, he reached up and touched her breast, that sent a little shock wave through her.

Her Ma had warned her that boys would be wanting to try and breed her and no way did she want to be with no youngun's, so if things got out of hand she was supposed to just take care of it.

Sally Mae did not know what she meant at first.

"Like with Mr. Ridland." Her ma told her.

"Oh." She had answered, then she had blushed furiously.

"It's just the way things are honey. Menfolk can get real aggressive, you know how the Bull gets sometimes. So, ya just take the edge off and they get really easy to deal with."

Sally Mae had nodded, she knew what to do.

Now, Jeremiah was getting fussed up, she could tell, so she reached over and undid his pants. Normally she would not have but the combination of the drinks and the wonderful day combined to make that just feel.. right.

"Oh?" He said, acting surprised.

Sally Mae fished him out of his pants, he was quickly getting hard just like Mr. Ridland did. But Jeremiah's was way bigger than Mr. Ridland, and his had seemed pretty big to her. It sure didn't take very long, Jeremiah shot off all over the place, it must have been five or six long spurts. It was way more than Mr. Ridland had, for sure.

She dug out her little hankie that she had tucked away, wiped him up.

"I sure do love you, Sally Mae!" Jeremiah blurted as she watched him fasten his clothing.

"You do?" His saying that surprised her.

"Yes, I do! As soon as I get enough money I want to build us a house and be with you as my bride."

"Oh Jeremiah!" Sally Mae exclaimed. He put his arms around her and they kissed, then she felt his hand come up and touch her breast. That felt good, so she let him. Next he pulled down the front of her blue dress and began to nuzzle her. When his lips closed on her nipple, it sent shock waves through her body. Her head was swimming, she felt Jeremiah press her back onto the hay bales.

He was suckling at one of her nipples and rolling the other one with his free hand. Then she felt him reach under her dress, and touch her.

She wanted to tell him to stop, wait, but she could not form the words because that felt so good. When she felt the stab of pain as he pressed inside of her, that brought her back to being aware, but it was too late. Her hips came up with a mind of their own to meet his rapid thrusts. Then, for a few seconds, she had no idea at all of her surroundings. It felt sort of like when she did it to herself but way stronger.

Sally Mae sat up finally, her head still swimming. Jeremiah rolled over on his back, she glanced down and was shocked. He was all bloody down there!

Looking down, she saw the stains all over her blue dress.

"Oh, no!" She cried out.

Over in the main barn was everyone from miles around. Plus there were a lot of them right outside the shed she and Jeremiah were in. What were they going to do?

That was answered when the shed door suddenly flew open, her Pa stood there. Sally Mae grabbed her dress, pulled it up to cover herself. Jeremiah stood up, still naked from the waist down, his head hanging and his arms at his sides. He knew what was coming. He didn't even try to fight back as her Pa knocked him to the ground.

She jumped up, nearly naked herself, climbed on top of Jeremiah to keep her Pa from hitting him any more, meanwhile, it seemed like everyone came in to see what all of the commotion was about.

And, quite a commotion it was.

+++

Sally Mae was in her room, her Ma sent her there as she and her Pa talked. It was more of a yelling match than any talk, though.

"She is a woman now!" Her Ma was yelling, when her Pa threatened to take his shotgun over and fix that Jeremiah boy. It was several long hours before things finally calmed down. Sally Mae cried herself to sleep.

The next morning, her Ma woke her up, told her to get dressed and go get in the wagon. She pulled on one of her flowery sack dresses.

Sally Mae did that without complaint. Her Pa came out, he didn't say a single word as he climbed in and they took off. Sally Mae knew where they were going, she really did wish her Ma had come along, but she didn't.

Jeremiah's Pa came out as they pulled up, Sally Mae expected a fight but they just walked over to a nearby corral and talked. Then her Pa came over and stood silently by the wagon as the other man went inside, and came back out with Jeremiah.

Her heart skipped a beat when she saw him, then she saw the large lump just above his left eye where her Pa had hit him. She wanted to jump down and go take care of him but she knew he didn't dare.

"So, boy? What are you going to do about all of this? You shamed me, and you shamed my daughter."

"I love Sally Mae, and I want to marry her. I will build a house for us down by the pond, and I will take care of her forever." He said, his head down.

"Well, then you best go ask her what she wants." Her Pa growled.

Jeremiah walked over to the wagon, she looked up at him.

"I want you to be with me, I want to build us a place, I want to make babies with you, Sally Mae. Will you have me?" He asked.

Sally Mae jumped up, climbed down off the wagon and wrapped herself in his arms.

They stood holding hands as the wagon with her Pa driving went down the road. She knew her world was now completely different.

+++

Back home, Sally Mae's Pa told his wife what the outcome was, she just smiled. He had simply handed his daughter to the young man, nodded and drove away. About a mile down the road he tipped his head back and laughed. Jeremiah had worked for him for almost two years. He was a fine young man, always polite, and worked hard.

Sally Mae could have done a lot worse.

+++

"They sure did create a fuss, didn't they?" He said as he kissed and hugged his wife as soon as he walked in the door.

"Remember way back, honey, when the preacher caught us out back in the storage shed behind the church?" She laughed.

He certainly did, that had been one embarrassing incident. The back door had opened suddenly, there the two of them were, she leaned forward on her hands and knees as he had been very busy from behind. She had been naked except for her shoes, her heavy breasts swinging wildly, he had his pants around his ankles.

The old preacher had certainly gotten an eyeful.

The lecture he gave them later lasted almost an hour, then barely a month later he was the one that married them.

+++

Holding hands, they went inside the bedroom. The two boys were way down by the lower section cutting logs, so they had the whole house to themselves. Listening, he knew the washing machine had shut off again, his wife had washed that blue dress at least half a dozen times now.

Probably a waste of time there. He knew the next dress they bought their daughter would be white.

+++

As he lay there on his back, his wife tending to him like she still did fairly often, he asked her.

"Now, honey? What do we do about our two boys?"

She tipped her head back and laughed.

"I bet them two will figure something out."