I looked across the street at the old barn and the path that lead to the raspberries. My back ached from the stickers. My pussy was wet from the memory and I wasn't going to go back and give him a second chance at doing it all to me again. What was I stupid? I didn't think so...
I turned my back on the old barn and went back into the house. I could hear mother singing in the kitchen while she did dishes. I was glad at least someone was happy.
"Kathy," mother called out just as I rounded the corner. "Did you get enough raspberries yesterday to make a pie?"
"Pie?" I echoed the last word she said with a question mark.
"Yes," mother answered, "your dad wants to have raspberry pie for supper and I don't think we have enough raspberries to make one."
"Uh, you've got all that I collected, mom." I swallowed hard half expecting her to send me for more.
"Well you know how your father is, Kathy, when he wants something he gets it." She handed me the bucket I had used to collect raspberries in the day before and walked back to the sink.
"Don't be too long dear."
I'd been dismissed. Wasn't that just perfect?
I stumbled towards the front door and looked across the street. Perhaps he hadn't arrived yet. It was two hours earlier today then it was yesterday when I'd first gone over.
I picked up my woods walkin' shoes and started towards the gate. Surely it wouldn't happen again I reasoned as I tossed my good shoes to the ground and pulled on the others.
I picked up the bucket and shoved my good shoes closer to the barn door where I could exchange them once I came back, if I came back.
I clicked open the gate closed it and began walking. I really liked living here in the country. We had everything you could ask for when it came to food. We had grapes, apple trees, walnut trees and the best raspberry bushes you could find anywhere in Ohio.
I open the second gate closed it mowed at the cows and continued walking. The woods reminded me of the rainforest because of their canopy in some areas. Over my favorite creek the trees blocked out the sun so nothing grew on the ground. You could sit for hours just dropping stones in the water and watching bugs dance across the waves.
But, I realized as I neared the next gate, it was lonely. With only the family to talk to the summertime seemed like it went on forever. I pulled open the old gate and listened to it squeak as I closed it again.
My dad was planning to buy the old homestead from our landlord and had made an offer on the place. He was sure that it would sale, because the landlord had no other family. He was getting up there in years and ready to move to the city for medical needs and care.
I stopped along the path to pick some raspberries from a wild raspberry bush which was growing long the fence line boarding one of three cornfields. It was silent. The air carried no sound. I swallowed hard and started walking again.
The cornfield I was looking for came into view. I wasn't looking forward to walking down the rows of corn to get to the broken fence. That was the only way I knew how to get into the other pasture field. I didn't want dad to be upset over the raspberries so I wasn't going to look everywhere else when I knew the only place I could get that many raspberries was beyond that hole.
I started walking into the cornfield. The rows of corn in some areas were even higher then they had been the day before. I pushed corn stalks away from me as I paraded down the isles. Lucky for me this was one of the smaller cornfields. I rounded the curve and stepped out into lower stalks.
It was too bad I couldn't see into the field where I'd gotten the raspberries before I went into it. Then I'd know if he were about. I stopped and listened hard for the sound of a tractor. I didn't hear one, but then I didn't have my hearing aids in either.
I continued walking hoping that I would be too early for him. The end of the cornfield was within my vision. I stepped out of the corn and onto the ground near the hole in the fence line. Carefully I ducked and stepped through it to the other side. The air was fresh and felt like heaven. I began to walk down the hill towards the raspberries. As I neared the turn I stopped and looked downward, kinda hiding behind a tree in case he was down there. I didn't want him to see me.
Nothing I assured myself and stepped out into the opening hurrying down the hill to the best batch of raspberries I'd ever seen. My mouth watered just thinking about tasting them.
The nearest ones were so ripe and ready to pick, I noticed, as I started filling my bucket with them. I watched several birds fly overhead and circle the area. I moved to the next section, my bucket was nearly half full now. I wondered if something had died and they were circling to get bits from the dead thing.
I stopped picking and let my eyes followed the birds as they made another circle. They were black birds I realized. I sat the bucket down and started walking towards the area they were circling.
The grass was tall in this part of the pasture field and I'd never ventured into this area before. I wasn't sure if it belonged to the landlord or if I'd stumbled onto the neighbor's property and was trespassing. Still I wanted to know so I kept walking.
That's when I saw a mowed area. Kinda like a tractor had been used to mow out a lane to follow. It moved along another fence line and then it went upwards towards the cornfield I'd just come out of at the top of the hill. I kept walking.
The closer I got to the top of the hill the more trees and brush I saw laying along the sides of the lane. Raspberry bushes grew here and there, but none like my favorite one.
Where did this path go I wondered, as I walked along?
The hill turned sharply at the top and changed from farmland into woods.
I kept walking. The woods were filled with more raspberry bushes, brush and a pond.
I stopped to look at the pond. It was covered in moss and filled with floating sticks from the trees above it. Along the banks were fallen trees, a snake, which looked harmless, a squirrel and...I stopped breathing, it was him!
He tipped his hat at me.
"Evening sunshine," he called out as he started walking towards me. His old worn out blue jeans sang as he walked towards me.
"Did you come to get more?"
"I" and didn't say another word. He kept on talking.
"I come out here to attend to the pond and fish," he said. "Did you know that the best eatin' fish this side of Perry County can be caught in that there pond?" He pointed at it from over his shoulder and stopped walking.
"Your mom know where you are?" he asked as he took his hat off his head and dusted it against his right leg. Dust floated around his body from the tapping and he kept at it until the hat was clean.
"Uhhh," I said, thinking it would be wise to back up and run.
