The Woods 19

Tessa sat on the big overstuffed couch in her grandmother's living room. She had been there three days and was bored out of her mind. Her grandmother lived on a farm out in the country. There was nothing but national forest all around it. Woods, woods, and more woods. She had been raised in the city. Malls were her thing, not trees.

Her parents were getting a divorce and she had been exiled to her grandmother's place. Why she couldn't figure out. She was eighteen and knew about divorces. A lot of her friends had gone through them. It wasn't a big deal or was it? Her mother and father hadn't been getting along for several years.

Tessa sighed and leaned back, crossing her arms across her stomach. She had overheard some things about her dad cheating on her mom and there was also something about her mom doing the same thing. Maybe that's why she was here, to keep the details away from her. She sighed again and sat up.

Her grandmother wouldn't tell her anything. She just smiled and nodded when asked what was going on. The only thing she ever said was, "It lasted far longer than I ever thought it would." And she wouldn't expand on that, which made Tessa even more curious.

She had always thought her grandmother liked her dad. Maybe it was something to do with her mother. She had a lot of questions and not many answers. She hated not knowing things. Especially about her family. She was part of them after all.

Tessa heard her grandmother in the kitchen, stood up, and moved to the kitchen door. As she peeked into the kitchen, she saw her grandmother cleaning eggs. Tessa had learned the first day about cleaning, sorting, and boxing eggs. More than she really wanted to know but they were part of Grandmother's income.

The second day, she had learned about fresh killed chickens and rabbits. That was an even bigger part of Granny's income. People called her with orders. Seeing a chicken being killed had ran Tessa in the house where she had stayed. It also made her cautious about entering the kitchen. Granny cleaned the chickens and rabbits at the sink on a butcher's board.

Lorie Davis looked up from the eggs and smiled at her granddaughter. "Want to help?"

Tessa shook her head. "I'd screw it up. I don't know enough about it even after watching you do it."

Lorie grinned. "The only way to learn is to do it." She turned and went to a cupboard on the far wall and got out a board with holes in it. She spread out a doubled up dish towel and sat the board on it. Short legs held it up off the dishtowel. "Fitting the eggs to the holes gives you the size. The different sizes go in different boxes. Easy as pie."

Tessa walked over to the table and looked at the board. Four holes marked small, medium, large, and extra large. She picked up one of the clean eggs and tried two holes before she found it was a large. An open egg box had an L written on the lid. She put the egg in the box.

"Always put the pointed end down," her grandmother said as she picked up the next egg. Her grandmother was still cleaning eggs with a damp cloth and a brush.

They worked in silence until the last of the eggs were boxed. Her grandmother was far faster as she didn't use the board. "Six full boxes and three partials. Not a bad day. I have them all sold. A couple of phone calls and the cookie jar will be fuller."

"Cookie jar?" Tessa asked and her grandmother chuckled.

"Temporary storage until I make my trip to town on Friday."

Being somewhat of a smartass, Tessa asked, "Where do you keep your cookies?"

Lorie chuckled. "I have more than one cookie jar."

After a few moments of silence, Lorie asked her granddaughter, "So what do you think of sorting eggs?"

"Sorting eggs isn't bad. Kind of fun in fact. It's the killing of the chickens and rabbits I don't like."

Lorie nodded. "I understand that. You weren't raised around it like me or your mom. It's not pretty but it is a necessity. All meat comes from one animal or another."

"Knowing that is one thing but seeing it is altogether another."

Lorie smiled and nodded. "I'll keep that in mind. Your help with the eggs is appreciated."

"Why don't you have a TV?" Tessa asked changing the subject.

Lorie shrugged. "I have a radio for news. The radio is free. TV would cost me money I can't afford. Anyway, I have plenty to keep me busy. The eggs, the rabbits and chickens, feeding the stock and working in the garden. Then there are cakes and pies to bake. Not to mention cookies."

"That's all work. What do you do for fun?"

"I enjoy baking and working in the garden very much. I crochet and knit. I take walks in the woods. I read. It all fills my time until bedtime."

Tessa chuckled. "An hour after dark is way too early for bed in most of the world."

"Only in the cities," Lorie replied with a wink. "Anyway, it saves on electric and lets me get up early."

Tessa sighed and asked, "How long before I can go home?"

"Your mom said a couple of weeks at the very least. Maybe more."

"I'll be stone crazy by then," Tessa whispered.

Lorie laughed and shook her head. "Not even close. You just need to find things to keep you busy. Time flies when you're busy."

"Time flies when you're having fun," Tessa said to correct her grandmother.

"That too," her grandmother replied. "Now it's time to check on the garden. Want to come along?"

Tessa shrugged. "I might as well but I don't know a thing about gardening."

"You stick a seed in the dirt, water it, and instant vegetables," her grandmother said with a grin. "Go change into something you don't mind getting dirty while I make some phone calls about the eggs."

*****

Ten minutes later, Tessa was on the back porch in an old pair of shorts and an old t-shirt. She had tennis shoes on. Her grandmother came out of the kitchen wearing a bikini top and shorts. Her feet were bare. Tessa stared at her grandmother with her mouth open.

Lorie looked at her granddaughter with a funny expression. "What's your problem?"

"I... uh... well.... I, uh, never thought of grandmothers in a bikini top."

Lorie looked down at the bikini top and then up at her granddaughter. "I am a grandmother but I ain't old. My body is fifty two but in my mind I feel no different than when I was thirty five or forty."

Tessa had always considered her grandmother old. She frowned as she did some quick math. She would be nineteen very soon and her mother had been eighteen when she was born. That was thirty seven. Her grandmother had been fifteen when her mother was born?

Lorie grinned and then laughed. Tessa looked at her funny and her grandmother said, "You did the math and found out one of the family secrets. I had your mother when I was fifteen and yes I was married. That happened in the country back then. Your aunt Lucy was born when I was seventeen and Mildred was born when I was twenty. Your grandfather died in a car wreck when I was twenty five. Does that fill out your timeline?"

Tessa nodded slowly as she absorbed what her grandmother had said. Her eyes went to her grandmother and ran up and down her body. "You must have been one great looking hottie back then."

Lorie laughed and shook her head. "I was a skinny little girl with no tits and a skinny ass. My only problem was keeping my clothes on. I ran around naked more often than not. Robert, your grandfather was a timber cruiser. That means he traveled the woods estimating timber values and marked mature trees to be cut."

"And you ran into him running around in the woods," Tessa ventured.

"Pretty much," Lorie said. "He told my mother about seeing me and I got my ass lit up with a switch. I hated him for a few weeks and then ran into him again. This time I was dressed. I pretty much cussed him out nine ways to Sunday."

Tessa chuckled. "I can see that."

"He laughed at me and went back to checking trees. I expected several things but being ignored wasn't one of them," Lorie said and then sighed. "He was eight years older than me, which doesn't sound like a lot but believe me it was a very large gap."

Lorie sighed and took a deep breath. "To make a long story short, I followed him around anytime I could find him. We talked about everything under the sun. He came by one evening and talked to my father for several hours. After he left, I got an ass chewing about my running around naked. Two weeks later, my mother told me that Robert had asked my father for my hand in marriage."

Tessa looked at her grandmother hard. "You never slept with him or anything?"

Lorie laughed. "I was naive and liked to run around naked but I was a good girl as we called it back then. As far as my mother and I could tell, I got pregnant on the honeymoon."

Tessa chewed on her bottom lip for a few moments and then whispered, "I'm still a virgin as far as boys go but...."

Her grandmother smiled and nodded. "Accidents happen. I lost mine falling off this very porch. It scared the hell out of me until my mother explained a few things. The same for my first period."

"Luckily mom had already had that talk with me before I had my first."

"I got lucky and had the same talk with her before."

Tessa's eyes went to her grandmothers even tan. "Uh, do you... uh... still run around naked at times?"

Lorie grinned and nodded. "I'm just more careful now."

Tessa looked around at the big barn, the pasture land past it, and the big garden to the left. Her eyes went to the woods past the garden and then ran her eyes around the edge of the woods until she was looking in the opposite direction. "It is private out here."

"Now it is but there are egg buyers on the way so it won't be later."

"Oh yeah," Tessa whispered and then looked at her grandmother with a crooked smile. "I've... uh... never been... uh... naked outside in my life."

Lorie chuckled. "Be careful, it can be exciting to the point of being addictive."

Tessa shivered as she pictured herself wandering around in the woods naked. "I... uh... yeah."

Her grandmother chuckled again and looked down at the tennis shoes on her granddaughter's feet. "I'm going to water some, so you might want to leave those shoes here. Feet wash easier than shoes."

Tessa toed her tennis shoes off and wiggled her toes. She looked at her grandmother again and said, "I didn't bring my bikini with me."

Lorie was headed down the steps and paused to look back. "You forgot your bras also."

Tessa chuckled as her hands came up to her small breasts. "I have a couple but seldom wear one. I got short changed in that department compared to you and mama."

"I was small until I had your mother."

"Then there is still hope," Tessa whispered with a grin.

Lorie shook her head and went on down the steps. "I'd wait a while for that. I got lucky on my first try. I'm talking about your grandfather, not getting pregnant."

"Is that why you never remarried?" Tessa asked as she followed her grandmother.

"Keeping a five, eight, and eleven year old fed and clean kept me too busy at first and by the time all three were big enough to take care of themselves.... I guess I was too set in my ways and independent to worry about it."

"You, uh, never dated or anything?"

Lorie laughed and stopped by the garden gate. "I didn't say that. I have a number of gentleman friends, some of which have fringe benefits, if you know what I mean. But there isn't one of them that made me feel the same way as your grandfather did."

Tessa stared at her grandmother with wide eyes. "You, uh, have friends with benefits?"

Lorie laughed and nodded her head as she opened the gate. "Does that shock you?"

Tessa said, "Yeah, kind of," as she went through the gate.

"It shocked your mother and her sisters also," Lorie said as she came through the gate and shut it.

"I can see that. Mom is such a prude."

Lorie laughed as she opened the shed next to the gate. "If you only knew."

As her grandmother got a hoe and a rake out of the shed, Tessa just stood there and watched her. Her mind was spinning at that last statement. What did it mean and what didn't she know about her mother? As Lorie handed her the rake, Tessa asked, "What does that mean?"

"That you will have to discuss with your mother."

"But...." Tessa protested.

Lorie grinned and closed the shed. "If she thinks you need to know, she will tell you. I ain't getting in the middle of it. I said something before I thought."

"Another family secret?" Tessa asked fishing for information.

"More like personal information," Lorie said as she turned and walked down to the last row of plants. It was a row of tomato plants. She started loosening the soil and uprooting weeds. She paused and looked at her granddaughter who was still standing by the shed. "It's nothing bad, just personal, so don't worry about it."

Tessa walked down to where her grandmother was and leaned on the rake. "Secrets make me curious."

Lorie nodded. "They make all of us curious."

Where Tessa didn't say anything, Lorie looked at the rake and said, "That's not for leaning on. Pick the green stuff off the row and drop it in the walkway and then rake the dirt up to the center neatly."

Tessa looked at the freshly turned dirt and grinned. "So you're going to try and teach me about gardening."

"Nope, I'm letting you help me clean up this row of tomatoes. If you learn something, that's all the better. Anyway, it'll make my job easier and kill some time for you."

Tessa chuckled as she squatted down and pulled the loose grass and weeds out of the dirt and dropped them in the walkway. Her grandmother was back to loosening the dirt.

As they made their way down the row and it got closer to noon, the warmer it got. By the time they reached the end and started up the next row, both women were sweating. Tessa paused and wiped her face on the bottom of her t-shirt. The light breeze was cool on her bare belly. She took a moment to roll her t-shirt up until it was at the bottom of her breasts.

Lorie grinned. "I have another bikini top or two but they would fall off you." She looked thoughtful for a moment and then added, "I do have an old tube top somewhere in my dresser."

"This is fine for now," Tessa replied and then heard a horn in the driveway.

"Egg time," Lorie said as she headed for the gate. "Take a break in the shade. I won't be long."

Tessa nodded but finished picking the weeds to the point her grandmother had stopped. Then she went to the end of the row where they had turned around and raked the grass into a pile where they had stopped. After that, she looked around for shade. There was a tree at the corner of the fence with a water trough on the outside of the fence. She walked over and stood in the shade.

Her eyes went up and down the row they had weeded and a smile came to her face as she realized she was enjoying the work. If it had been cooler, it would have been fun. It was cooler in the shade. That thought made her look towards the woods and the shade there. Naked in the woods would be even cooler. She grinned as she leaned on the rake. "Maybe one day. That is if I can get my courage up."

*****

Tessa had just about given up on her grandmother coming back, when she came out on the back porch and headed toward the garden. She had a bottle of water in each hand and something under her right arm. Tessa leaned the rake against the fence and went to open the gate.

As Lorie came through the gate, she said, "That tube top I was talking about is under my arm. It'll be cooler than that t-shirt."

Tessa took a hold on the band of elastic cloth and her grandmother raised her elbow. Tessa held it up and grinned as she started out the gate.

"Where are you going?"

Tessa stopped and looked at her grandmother. "Uh, in the house to change."

"Why? There ain't no one here but us."

Tessa looked around and stepped back inside the garden and shut the gate. "I've, uh, never...."

Lorie chuckled. "Then it's about time."

Tessa looked around again and then whimpered softly as she whipped her t-shirt off over her head and hung it on the top of the shed door. She glanced at her grandmother as she untwisted the tube top. She was watching her. Tessa groaned softly and started to turn around. Then she took a deep breath and put the tube top on over her head. When she had her breasts covered, she shivered and looked at her grandmother out of the corner of her eye.

Lorie shook her head and chuckled as she handed her granddaughter a bottle of water and turned to get the hoe. "So how was it to be topless in the garden?"

Tessa took a sip of the water. "Uh, interesting would be a good word. Exciting would be another. Kind of embarrassing with you watching"

"Interesting and exciting I understand but why would you be embarrassed? You have nothing to be embarrassed about that I could see," Lorie said as she opened her bottle of water.

"It was, uh, more the looking at me part. Other than gym class back in high school I've never undressed in front of anyone. Uh, there was this one doctor but she didn't really count."

"If she didn't count, why should I?"

Tessa looked confused for a second and then took a deep breath as she shook her head. "I'm not sure. Maybe because you're related to me."

"How about your mother?"

"Mother hasn't seen me naked since I was real little. When she used to give me baths."

Lorie chuckled. "Maybe your mother has turned into a prude."

Tessa did a double take and then asked, "Mother liked to run around the woods naked also?"

Lorie sat her water bottle on top of a fence post and headed for the row of tomatoes as she said, "More places than the woods."

Tessa stood there with her mouth open until her grandmother turned between the last rows of tomatoes. "More places?" She whispered as she sat her water bottle on a post top. "What kind of more places?" She asked herself as she went to get the rake. The dark blue elastic material of the tube top hugged her body and cupped the tops and bottoms of her breast. It felt sexy.

As she walked toward the far end of the row, she grinned as a vision of this same top on her grandmother flashed across her mind. "It would be a whole lot fuller," she said to herself as she turned into the row where her grandmother was. Her grandmother was three plants ahead, so she hurried to catch up.

*****

They had finished that row of tomatoes and were sipping their water when another horn blew out in front of the house. Lorie grinned and opened the gate. "This will be the last of the egg people today. We'll get wet when I come back."

Tessa wondered what she meant by that and then remembered her grandmother saying something about watering the garden. She grinned as she remembered playing in the water hose when she was a kid. It had been cooling on a hot summer day, not to mention fun. She took her time putting the hoe and rake in the shed and shutting it up.

She looked at the pile of grass and weeds at the head of the second row. She wondered where they went. Was there a place to burn them or a trashcan they went in? She was still wondering about it when her grandmother came out onto the back porch.

Her grandmother had what looked like towels in her hand. She waved for Tessa to come to her. Tessa grabbed her t-shirt, went out the gate, and headed for the porch. "Come put your shoes on. We're going for a short hike."

"What about the watering you were going to do?"

"It's too early and too hot to water plants yet. We finished up a lot quicker than I expected too."

Tessa came up on the porch and tossed her t-shirt on a chair. Her grandmother had sandals on. She sat down on an old straight back chair and put her tennis shoes on. "Where are we hiking too?"

"It's a surprise. One of my favorite places in the woods."

Tessa stood up and asked, "Why do we need towels?" and then her eyes grew wide. "Swimming. We're going swimming? I don't have a bathing suit with me."