Christine sat quietly, looking out the window of their bedroom window.
She loved the quiet times in the morning, her husband Dale off to working meant she could sit and think.
It was close to a full mile to the road down by the river, she knew that almost the moment Dale got in from the field he was clearing, he would want to go down there. The big Salmon were running, and the government had opened the river so people could catch some.
Owning a section of the river bank was great. Not only was it one of the very best spots to catch the big fish on the entire river, but private too.
That was also their very special place, it was where she and Dale had lain on a blanket hidden a bit back in the bushes. He had touched her intimately for the very first time that day. Her orgasm from his gentle touch had been blinding, it was something she knew she would never forget.
Christine had helped Dale carry the boards down there to build the tiny cabin on the bank years later, chaining the platform off solidly to some huge trees that grew there.
The higher tides might carry it off otherwise, and Dale had wrestled some large logs down there to create a float for when the tide was high.
Life was fine on their huge ranch, Dale had inherited what turned out to be 25 years of neglect from his parents. They both were elderly and just could not keep up with everything, and finally they didn't even try.
The engines were rusted solid in both tractors, the huge baler, built in 1939 had worked perfectly the day it was stored but it was never going to ever bale anything again. There was a big 12' self propelled Heston mower, all of the pulleys were rusted, the belts and drapes rotten.
Replacement equipment was hugely expensive, but Dale searched and found what he needed. The old machinery he cut up for scrap and hauled that to town and sold it all.
Even the monstrous barn was failing, but Dale cut some young Fir trees and peeled those, swinging them up and into place for support.
Those times were very hard, everything cost a lot and for several years the two of them lived off of what they could grow or manage to catch.
But now two dozen fat black Angus cattle grazed the fields with their young at their sides, the berry vines were gone from acres and acres of flat land that had been overrun and the prices the hay crops brought were good.
Big trucks brought in loads of fat Sheep, the pasture income from doing that paid the taxes. The little home Dale's grandfather had built to live out his life in was now a rental, bringing in a stipend every month.
Dale told her that one day timber would once again bring good prices, when it did they would be set because over 200 acres were heavily timbered and mature.
But so far things simply stayed tight, Christine became quite good at canning food and smoking meat. Deer were plentiful, in the Fall Dale slipped out after dark, dropping a young Buck for food.
Christine never went with him as he strapped the big flashlight to his Father's old rifle. She did help cutting up the meat, though.
Life before had been far easier, sometimes she missed just being able to buy something if she wanted it.
Her man was so good to her, so kind and loving, she would have lived with him under a bridge if it came to that.
Dale being good in business had done well before, made some capital and bought out his wayward brother Franklin. Franklin had done almost 6 years in a federal prison for growing and selling things that was frowned on by government. When he was released, he had nothing so Dale paid him $100,000 of their own life savings for his share of the big ranch.
I was worth more than that, but it was all they had, and the surprise was that Franklin took it.
The truth there was that Frankiln would never have made a farmer. Working with Cattle and Sheep, operating tractors just was not his thing.
Franklin preferred partying, and trying to figure out a way to make a fast buck. When he was around, he made Christine nervous, always looking at her like she was something he wanted to eat.
He never said or did anything, so that was just a feeling she got.
+++
Dale had been great from the beginning, Christine met him in high school. She was a cheerleader at the games, but Dale was on the track team. He wasn't tall at just 5'9" or even big anywhere.
Too short for basketball, too light for football really, he did have one thing he could do.
Dale could run like the wind.
The cheerleaders didn't go to the track meets, not to cheer them on anyway. But one of her girl friends told her about this guy who had the world's fastest legs, so curious she went to one of the meets at their local field.
Her friend was not kidding, not one bit. The boy could run, he was 30 feet in front by the first straight stretch and pulled away for all four laps around the field.
So when Dale crossed the finish line almost directly in front of her, she leaped to her feet and did what she did at the games.
She cheered.
Dale looked up at her, panting while he walked off his efforts. He was soaked in sweat, his intense brown eyes met hers.
Then he smiled.
Christine was lost at that moment, and from then on. All the way home that evening, her head was full of Dale's look, that steady gaze.
She woke up in the middle of the night, her dream clear, those eyes looking at her.
The next Monday at school she was struggling with her locker, the thing always gave her fits. The door stuck at the top, and the lock would then jam. To get it open required jerking and hitting on it so that was what she was doing.
"Hey. Let me take a look." A masculine voice said from behind her. She glanced back, it was him!
Dale reached past her, pushed the locker door in slightly at the top, gave it a tug and it opened.
"Thank you." Christine managed.
He stood there with that same smile, she felt a blush cross her face. He reached out as she went to close the locker door, grabbed the top and bent it downward, then he pressed in at the top and out at the bottom. The door now swung freely, slid right in and out of place.
"Oh! Great! Thank you so much!" She told him.
"I'm Dale. I saw you at the races. Are you coming Friday? We have another meet after school."
"I...OK. Sure, I would love to."
"How about after we go to Charlie's Deli, get a sandwich and a soda?" He had that same slight and confident smile.
"I would like that. Yes." Christine smiled right back.
The entire rest of the week was terribly slow, the big clocks on the walls in every class went "click" as a minute passed, then another.
Finally the final bell on Friday rang, Christine had no idea at all what any of the teachers had said all week.
The race was fun, this time one of the runners from the other school challenged, she was screaming as they rounded the last turn, Dale in the second lane and a half step behind.
The other runner was very tall and muscular, Dale's much shorter stature meant his legs were a blur in comparison.
As she jumped up and down in excitement, the other boy's legs began to wobble, Dale moved ahead and by the line he was a step out in front.
A half hour later he walked up to her.
"Wow, you look nice." He said.
