I had left the curtains open and I woke easily with the first hint of sun through the window. My body was sore, not achy, but tender in the nice way that reminds you that your time the day before was spent well. In my case that was lugging conduit and doing whatever else they told me to do at the job site. None of which I really minded.
The small bedroom at the back of the house felt less and less like mine everyday, and today was no exception. Not because I wasn't welcome or didn't like the place, just that I was ready to move on. My older brothers were all grown and moved out, leaving just me with my mom and pop. Even though it was a Saturday and sleeping in after a long week of work would have been alright, I wanted to get out before my mom was up, otherwise she would feel like she needed to feed me or make a fuss in some way. She had raised four boys and we were all men now though, so there was no need for any of that.
Besides, I was awake and with the heat and the light I wasn't able to sleep much longer even if I wanted to. The shop had offered me a couple of early shifts last week on top of the regular work I had, and more and more I was used to being up and out before the sun wasn't much more than an orange line low in the sky. No point in spoiling what was becoming a good routine by getting a little lazy.
I pulled on a pair of weekend jeans, broken in work boots, and an old tee shirt and snuck my way down the hall into the kitchen. After a glass of water I stepped outside and walked down the dirt drive to my truck. I'd be lying if I said I had a destination. I didn't. Certainly not this early in the morning, but I needed to move and that's just what I did. There's something special about that time, when it feels like the day hasn't made up its mind about what it wants to be yet and anything is possible.
The truck came to life easily and I pulled onto the county road and started driving, enjoying the morning for all it could be.
I was still a ways away from Mrs. Hollinger when I spotted her along the side of the road and out near the edge of her property. It wasn't much more than an overgrown cornfield that badly needed tending to. She was pulling a red wagon that was loaded with hay, what looked like some bundles of clothing, and some tools that hadn't seen proper work in quite a while. But it wasn't the wagon that grabbed my attention. Mrs. Hollinger was a hard woman to miss. She was tall, broad shouldered, and sturdy. Even from a distance her full chest could guide you straight to her as well as any landmark. But her ass was likely to lead you astray, rather than get you home. I'll admit that seeing her out in the fields was always a treat for me for as far back as I can remember.
As I got closer I slowed down my truck and pulled over to the shoulder of the county road, stepping half out and waving when I came to a stop.
"Morning, ma'am. Do you need a hand with anything today?" I offered, if for no other reason than my dad would be mad if he knew I drove past without trying to make myself helpful to some older folk. But truthfully I wanted to help, I liked feeling useful and I had no other work to do today.
Mrs. Hollinger had been watching me since I started to pull the truck over, but despite the shade from her wide sun hat hiding her eyes I could tell that she was looking me up and down. "Morning." She paused and took another measure of me and then spoke up again, her voice carrying easily in the predawn light. "You're one of those Thompson boys, right?" Her pale hair was pulled into a long, thick braid that ran down her back. It was a soft gray and it didn't take much imagination to picture the blonde of her youth.
I smiled. "That's right, ma'am. I'm Luke. The youngest one."
"That's what I thought. You look like your dad, now that you're grown. How are your parents doing? I ain't seen them in a minute," she dropped the handle to the wagon and rested her hand on the top of the fence. From inside her light denim shirt her massive tits wobbled and I couldn't help but follow their movement, if only for a moment. I'm pretty sure that after a lifetime of having men look at her tits she was pretty smart to it and I had no chance of going unseen. I acted as if I was squinting my eyes from the sun, an amateur tactic that she must have seen right through. The shirt she was wearing was old and faded, even more so in her chest where the blue denim was all but colorless from the constant pressure of her tits pushing against it.
"They're doing fine. My pop...," I began, but she cut me off before I could finish.
"Now, come a little closer if you're going to be talking to me. I'm not going to hurt you. Besides, what's an old lady going to do to a young man like yourself, Luke." I smiled when she said my name, like we were old friends or something. I remember speaking to her once when I was little. We were at the grange for some kind of fair or something and she was asking me to pick some numbers for one of the games of chance that she was playing. Other than that I had been around Mrs. Hollinger, but never actually spoke to her in any sort of meaningful way.
I got fully out of the truck and walked closer to her, whatever I had planned to say about my pop was long gone from my head. "I was just driving by and saw you with that wagon, I thought that maybe I could help you with something. If you need help, that is." I knew that she could take care of herself but that didn't mean that I couldn't help lighten her load. My pop had mentioned more than once that Mrs. Hollinger was a good woman and, ever since Mr. Hollinger passed, knew how to put a young man to proper use.
"Well, that is very kind of you Luke. A lonely woman like myself always appreciates a man around the farm. I don't want to make you late for anything though," when she spoke her attention to me never faltered and I felt like I was under a spotlight. She had shifted a bit and I could see her eyes now, light colored and looking deeply into me.
"Honestly, I was just going for a drive and I'm used to working early in the morning. I don't have anywhere to be, I'm happy to help you out with whatever you need." That was the truth, for a variety of reasons. Again my eyes wandered, this time seeking out Mrs. Hollinger's meaty thighs nestled inside her patched pants. Not an ounce of this woman was wasted on anything frivolous, I decided. Every bit of her felt like a woman properly assembled for any kind of work that she would want to do. I thought of the girls that I had graduated with two summers ago; flighty, distracted, unsure of who they are or what they wanted. It was tough to imagine that Mrs. Hollinger was ever that way. She was, for sure, a product of a different time.
"Up this early and you're not headed to work?" she questioned.
"No ma'am. No work for me today, I'm just an early riser." It was true in more ways than one.