Thank you for reading my short story, I hope that you enjoy it. Love Mica xx, Yorkshire England.
All email comments good or critical welcomed. Please note that all email comments from an invalid email address will be deleted immediately and will not be read, so please take care when entering your email if you want a reply. Rude or abusive comments may result in blocking. Please note that I am a British female, and I write in British English and vernacular, so for me a fanny is the correct term for female genitalia, a pussy is a pet cat and the ass is a bum or arse.
We had a row, Mark and I, a humdinger, and it was just the latest of many. I had enough. That was it. In the morning when he went to work, I went through the flat and got all of my things, everything that was mine and piled it up by the front door. I stuffed everything into bags and cases and took it to my car, filling the boot, the back seat and the passenger seat. I sat down for a minute changing all of my passwords and pin numbers on all of my accounts and bank cards. I took the flat keys off my key ring and put them on the kitchen work surface, got up, pulled the front door shut behind me and left.
I sat in the car for a moment and took a deep breath. There was only one place to go now, back to the farm. I started the car and headed off, through Shipley, past Bingley, skirting Keighley and then another thirty minutes and I was on the small single-track road that ended at the farm, and pulled in.
"Kate," Dad said coming across as I got out of the car.
"Dad," I hugged him, "can I stay for a while?"
"Of course you can. I have to go and see to the cows, I'll catch up with you later, you know where everything is. You'll have to make your bed."
"Thanks Dad," I said and headed into the farmhouse.
It isn't a big farmhouse, two rooms and a bathroom upstairs, and a large kitchen and a sitting room come lounge downstairs. There was an outside loo downstairs near the main door, saves you coming into the house when you were busy working and needed to go; a number of small outhouses used for various things, one housing the diesel generator used in emergencies. To one side were the various barns, cowsheds, pig pens, milking sheds and the like. It wasn't a big farm, a few hundred acres, but Dad owned it, well, half of it, Mum had left me her half in her will, and so I was, I suppose, technically a farmer too.
Dad had dairy cows, some pigs and a few sheep. The sheep he tended to keep just for meat and barter. He might barter a lamb or two for some services from the other local farmers. A few fields were put aside for hay, and that provided the winter fodder. The necessary combine and bailer were borrowed from the co-operative, the pecking order changed by rota each year, sometimes you got it just in time, sometimes later.
Every year Dad killed a dairy cow that was coming to the end of its useful milking life, he processed it himself and the meat went into a freezer. All he had to do was fill in the forms and send them off to say that the cow was deceased and no longer on the farm.
I went up to what was to become my room once again. I flipped back the quilt on the bed and sniffed the sheets, they didn't smell, they would do for now. Back down to the car and I started ferrying my life's belongings upstairs to my room. It took a fair few trips and I was pretty tired at the end of it. I wandered over to the milking shed where Dad was just finishing milking.
"I am putting the kettle on, fancy a tea?"
"Yes, can you bring it out here?"
"Yes Dad."
I went back and made the teas and took them out to the milking shed and passed Dad a mug.
"Do you know where my old wellies are Dad?"
"Yes, they are in the barn, I will sort them out and bring them in. You might want to clean them out before you put a foot in."
"Yeah, good call."
"What happened? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
"It's okay Dad. Mark and I had a row, we were both at fault really, but it just showed me that we weren't meant to be together, so I moved out. I changed all my passwords and pin codes and stuff and that was that. It's over. Life moves on. I don't know what I am going to do."
"You can stay here of course; I could do with help around the farm. I was going to ask Joe Egan if his lad wanted to come and help, but, if you are here, then I won't have to do that."
It made sense, as I was going to be here anyway, and I am not the kind of person to sit around and do nothing, so yes, I would help around the farm. It would do me good to be honest, give me something to think about.
"Of course Dad, I will do whatever you need. You'll have to remind me of some stuff, and teach me a few others, but yeah, it'll be good."
"You can take over the cows, they take up most of my time, oh, and 363, she is the next one to go, her milk is drying up and she is too old for another calf. So, she is meat. You'll have to dig the pit, can you remember how to drive the back ho?"
When Dad culled an animal, all the non-edible bits were put in a pit, covered in lime, buried, and left. That would be my job when the time came. There used to be bags of lime at the back of the barn, I guessed they were still there, or he would have said.
"Probably Dad, I'll find out when I get in it, we'll see. Any idea when?"
"Saturday, so you need the pit ready by then. I'll cull and prep, you can help and bury."
"No problem."
"I'll put the hot water on Saturday, it can be a messy job, I only usually have hot water at the weekend, is that a problem to you?"
"No Dad, I can take a bath on a Sunday. I will use the electric shower in the week."
"Right. Tomorrow I will get you added to the insurances, you can drive the Land Rover on the roads then, useful if you need to go to Keighley to get supplies."
"Thanks Dad."
"There are potatoes in the outhouse next to the loo, can you do them for supper? Saves me doing it, I can clean the dairy then and makes sure that everything is ready for the milk lorry."
"Of course."
I took the mugs and went back into the house. In the outhouse I found the sack of potatoes and sorted out a couple of biggish ones. They went in the microwave for ten minutes and then into the Aga oven to bake. There was cheese in the fridge, we could have that with them.
The evening progressed, Dad came in and washed and we sat down to eat. We heard the milk tanker, but he didn't need us, he knew what he was doing and he always left the paperwork in the dairy. Dad doesn't have a TV, and his internet is functional, not brilliant, so there was only so much I could watch on my laptop before the buffering got on my nerves.
"I'm beat Dad, I'm going up, I'll see you in the morning."
"G'night sweetheart," he said and I went up.
I stripped in my bedroom and walked across to the bathroom. A quick wash in cold water, I would have a shower in the morning, all though I guessed as the farm work progressed, I might need to switch to an evening shower rather than morning. I used the loo, finished in the bathroom and went through to my bedroom, and got into bed pulling the cover over me. I heard Dad come up, go into his bedroom.
I realised that in the mirror on my dresser I could see out onto the landing, and I could see Dad walk across to the bathroom, he was naked, as I had been when I walked to the bathroom. This was my life now I thought as I buried myself in the quilt and tried to get to sleep, flashes of the argument with Mark juxtaposing with a naked Dad filling my mind as I tried to rationalise the day.
In the morning I woke up and for a moment was unsure where I was, and then my memory kicked in. My new life. I got up and went to the bathroom, used the loo, washed my hands and face in the cold water and headed back to my room to dress. I had cows to do. Bra, knickers, dress, my dress was an oldish knee length flowery patterned cotton dress that I can't even remember where I got it from. Probably be charity shops from now on, clothes don't tend to last long on a farm.
In the dairy my legs would get splashed with all kinds, and trousers would just need washing every single time I wore them, at least with a dress, most of the splashes would be on my skin, easily washed. I put my wellies on and headed out to the dairy. The cows were cooperative, and an hour or so after starting I was in the end game. I must make a flask of hot water before I go to bed I decided, that way I can bring some tea out with me, I was parched.
Eventually the cows were back out to pasture, the dairy cleaned and the muck all ready for collecting. I would do that later, the plan being to scoop it up with the JCB bucket and tip it into the muck trailer, and go and dump it on the poop pile. But I needed to reacquaint myself with JCB controls and with the tractor. I needed a hot drink first.
Dad had let the chickens out and collected the eggs, so, eggs for breakfast.
"You were doing okay," Dad said, "so I didn't interfere."
"Thanks, I expect I will get quicker as I get more practice."
"No hurry, do it at your own pace, that way there won't be accidents."
"True. 363 was virtually dry."
"Yes, Saturday."
"I will dig the hole later today. I need some hot food and a hot drink, and then I need to go and either shower or at least wash my legs first."
"Eggs and bread. We have run out of bacon at the moment."
"Perfect, do you want some?"