Chapter 1: Meeting Caroline
It was a hot, muggy day in the rural plains of Jackson County, Iowa. The sun scorched and roasted the dry cracked ground and the hot wind blew dust through the air. It hadn't rained in 4 months. The crops were dry and withered. Yet, she continued to work the land. Caroline was the daughter of a small town farmer in the tiny town of St. Donatus, population 135. She hated this town. Everybody knew everybody. At age 26, Caroline was still a virgin. She grew up with and went to school with the same 15 kids her entire life. Caroline had long brunette hair, usually in a ponytail, and had tanned skin from working outside in the sun all day, every day. She wore jeans and a t-shirt most of the time. Work boots were typically her everyday shoes, even to church. She wore a dirty old ball cap to keep the sun out of her eyes.
Today started off just like any other day. 4:30am: Up & At'em. Harvest the eggs, feed & water the animal, milk the cows, restock the straw in the barn loft, and harvest fruit, all before breakfast. 7am: a good hearty breakfast of 4 fresh eggs, bacon, meat (steak, chicken or sausage), coffee and/or orange juice and fruit from the garden. 8:30am: back to work trimming hooves, mending any broken fencing, shearing the sheep if they need it, weeding the garden and yard work. She wasn't shy about getting down and dirty, and she could hold her own in sports or the occasional fistfight. She had been known to take on the roughest bullies in her school years and win. She was one to be feared if you got on her shit list. But hardly anyone was. Everyone knew her and a sweetheart since she could walk. She volunteered at the community center and the old folk's home. She delivered produce and dairy to several of the townspeople. She worked hard. She and her family went to church every Sunday and never missed. She was the poster child of the typical American small midwestern town. Yet, she hated it. She couldn't stand everyone being in her business. She tried applying to colleges in big cities just to try to get out of this town, but all she received in return was rejection letters saying she didn't meet the requirements. So at 26 years of age she decided she had had enough and would do anything, I mean anything, to get out of this town.
After church one Sunday in late July, she and her family loaded up in the truck and headed to town. They needed to do a bit of grocery shopping and stop at the farm supply store for new fencing materials and a new feeder for the horses. She dressed in her Sunday best. A white sundress with Spanish rose paisley patterns, her fancy white cowgirl boots, and a white custom fitted cowboy hat.
"Daddy, I can't go to town and load the truck in this. I need to change. Can we please stop at home real quick?" she said.
"Yes, we can, honey. But make it quick. I don't want to be in town all day. We have work to do here," he said.
They pulled in the driveway and they all went inside to change. She, her younger brother, Cole and her father and mother, Buck & Barbara Carson. 15 minutes later they all walked back outside and hopped back in the truck. On their way out of town, they stopped at Casey's General Store for fuel. She ran inside for a sweet tea and a snicker's bar. While she was inside, she overheard an out-of-towner talking about strange lights out in the night sky. Fort Dodge was just 3 hours due West of St. Donatus, after all.
'We see floating lights in the skies more often this time of year anyway,' she thought as she grabbed her tea from the cooler.
As she went up to the counter to pay, Cole came inside and said, "Dad said to hurry up. We're waitin' on you."
"Ok ok, I'm hurryin'," she said in a slightly irritated tone.
Once in Dubuque they stopped at Theisen's picking up parts for the truck and momma's car, then hit Blain's Farm & Fleet across town. She played with the baby chicks while daddy and Cole talked with the sales associate about ordering items they didn't have in stock. Momma was over by the clothes. She needed new gardening gloves and a new gardening hat. An extra shirt or two would be nice as well. Before they left town, they stopped at Walmart for groceries. Caroline, of course, got paid for her work just as any farm hand would, so she went over to the beauty section, then to the undergarments.
She saw several pairs of panties and thongs that turned her on. She saw a few sexy bras she pictured herself wearing as well. She saw a sheer nighty and panties set she wanted to buy and look at herself in her standup mirror. She wanted to feel sexy. Right now she just felt dirty, like a boy. She saw other girls in their tight hip hugger jeans and cute shoes and tight t-shirts laughing and having fun with friends at the beach or in the city. She wanted to feel like they did. Not just feel like them, but be them. She wanted to buy the nighty but knew her mother & father would not approve in the least. She would get scolded and would be told that sex and masturbation is a sin!
"Idle hands are the devil's playthings," Pastor Bob said just this morning in church.
She didn't care. She was just trying to figure out how to purchase this lingerie and sneak it into the truck with no one knowing. She was suddenly pulled back to earth by the vibration and "Ding" of her cell phone in her pocket.
"Daddy said let's go. We are up at the cash registers, ready to check out. Meet you at the truck," Cole said in the text message.
'Jesus Mary & Joseph,' she thought, reading Cole's text, 'Why can't daddy just call me or text me? Why is it always Cole?'
Her mother didn't have, nor want, a cell phone. She enjoyed using the house phone because she didn't need all those fancy gadgets she said every time someone's phone rang or ding'd.
"I don't know why you three have those. If anyone needs to get ahold of us, they can call the house or stop us in town. They know where we live anyway," momma also said.
Caroline just rolled her eyes and kept quiet. No sense in arguing with either of her parents. They were very old school conservatives who's minds were made up, and anyone who opposed them was just downright wrong.
"Ok. I'll be there in 10 minutes. I'm in the ladies' room," she texted back to Cole.
She knew daddy would be irritated. He hated wasting time. She grabbed the nighty and stood behind a clothes rack watching the door waiting for them to walk out. Once they did, she would buy it, take it to the restroom, and put it on under her clothes and head out to the truck. About 5 minutes went by. No sign of them yet. She checked her cell phone. No notifications or messages. When she looked back up, she saw the three of them walking out. She watched them walk all the way out to the truck and load it up. Daddy put the cart in the cart coral and walked back the truck. She cautiously headed to the furthest cash register from the door, keeping an eye out for any of her family members the entire time. She set the lingerie on the belt and nervously watched the cashier ring it up and the door, glancing back and forth between the two.
"$17.87, honey," the older cashier lady said.
Caroline handed her $20.
"Here's your change. Thank you for shopping at Walmart," the lady said.
Caroline grabbed the shopping bag, and speed walked to the restroom in the store's rear. She locked herself in a stall and opened the bag. She sat there for a minute, staring at the nighty and panties. Her heart raced and palms became sweaty. She swallowed hard and pulled them out of the bag and hung them on the hook on the stall door. She started at them, second guessing herself. Then she stood up and took off her shirt, then her bra. The cool AC blowing on her from above made her soft pink nipples hard. She took the nighty off the hanger and put it on, then the panties. She took out her cell phone and took an awkward selfie just to see how she looked.
