Farm Boy

Author's Note - Um. This is kind of based on a few songs that you may or may not have heard. "fishing in the dark" is one (you'll find out in the next chapter about that). And Rusty is based on a character kind of mentioned in a song by Sarah Evans (country singer) only her boyfriend/lover/husband/whatever is a miner, but he's all muscly and hot. Like Rusty. Yummy. :-)

---

I met Russell “Rusty” Brown when I moved to the small farming town of Hayward, Vermont from New York, and I was instantly infatuated. He was just over six feet tall, with a mess of curly, flaming red hair (hence the nickname). He had muscles to spare from all those years of farm work. I imagined that he could pick me up with one hand if he wanted to. I was only 5’5”, 130 pounds – small for a guy my age. Along with my shaggy brown hair, often in a ponytail at the nape of my neck, and my near-androgynous features, it was no wonder that most of the other guys called me “Andrea”. Rusty was my only friend, the only person to call me Andy.

It had been two months since my mom and I had moved to Hayward, and she still didn’t trust me alone in the house. So, while she went to visit with her brother for the weekend. I was going to spend it at Rusty’s farm house – where I had never been before. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous.

“There’s nothin’ to worry about,” Rusty assured me, on the drive from school to his house on Friday. The truck was small, leaving little space between the two of us. I had to control my heartbeat whenever Rusty reached to shift gears, noting how close his hand was to my leg.

“Well, you keep saying that you’ve got all these brothers and sisters and animals…it sounds like a zoo!” I exclaimed. Rusty looked over at me and smiled. My stomach fluttered.

“Naw, I’ve only got two brothers, Danny and Jacob, and my sister Sarah. They won’t bother you much. Plus, the animals are nice,” he explained. I hoped that he was right.

When we arrived at his house, I felt a little more comfortable at the sight. It was a huge, old farm house, with a faded red barn and a large front and back yard. As we stepped out of the truck, a gray cat slinked up to us, rubbing against Rusty’s legs.

“This is Tramp. We’ve had him since he was born. Ain’t he cute?” Rusty asked.

“I’ll get you stuff, and we’ll go in the house,” Rusty said and went around to the back of the truck. I stood, awkwardly, waiting for him. He lifted my bags as though there were filled with papers instead of clothes, having nowhere near as much trouble as I had. He led me into the house. Upon entering the house, the discomfort returned slightly. His mother, a big-boned woman with the same red hair as Rusty, was shucking corn at the table. by her feet, a small boy with brown hair and freckles was playing with a brown rabbit. Tramp joined another gray cat in twirling around my feet.

“Ma, this is Andy Larkson,” Rusty introduced me, “That’s my ma, Elizabeth, and my brother Jacob. He’s two, and that’s his rabbit, Thumper,” he added, gesturing to the boy on the floor, “and the cats are Tramp, who you met already, and Lady.” I nodded, trying to take it all in. I shook hands with his mother and followed Rusty to find out where I was to sleep.

His bedroom was in the basement, and his bed was king sized – big enough for two people.

“Hope ya don’t mind, but your gonna hafta share the bed with me,” he told me, placing my bags on the floor.

“I…that’s fine,” I replied, wondering how I’d be able to sleep with him so close to me.

“Well, I’ve got to feed the animals. D’ya wanna come with me, or are you gonna wait here?” he asked. I didn’t want to leave his company, so I followed him out to the barn. The smell was the first thing that got to me. It was the strong scent of manure, mixed with the smell of hay, and other smells I couldn’t quite recognize. I put my hand up to cover my nose. Rusty saw this and smiled.

“Ya get used to it after a bit,” he assured me. First, he fed the goats. There were two of them, both white, and he filled their dishes with pellets, and gave them some hay.

“This is Goofy and Donald,” he told me. I nodded, giving them a wide berth. I’d heard about goats’ ability to eat anything. I wondered briefly about the names, though. Thumper, Lady, Tramp, Goofy and Donald? I was about to ask Rusty about the names, but he decided to introduce me to the horses next.

“This here’s Daisy,” he introduced me to the first horse, a brown one with a patch of white on her nose. He fed her, patting her head. He noticed me keeping my distance and smiled.

“Aw, she don’t bite. C’mere,” he reached out for my hand. It was nice the way he held his large, callused hands over mine. Then, he moved my hand to pet Daisy’s nose. I took another step closer, and Rusty let go, stepping back to give me room. Daisy nuzzled my hand, snorting.

“She likes ya,” he declared, handing me an apple to feed her. She took it willingly, keeping her eyes on me the whole time. I smiled and patted her again. Rusty fed the other two horses, both black, named Mickey and Minnie, and we moved on to the chickens. There were seven of them, named Doc, Dopey, Sleepy, Grumpy, Sneezy, Happy, and Bashful.

“Is there a reason you named your chickens after the seven dwarves?” I asked Rusty as finished feeding them.

“Actually, yeah,” he grinned, “we named ‘em all after Disney characters. It started with the horses, and we decided to keep naming ‘em all like that. Neat, ain’t it?” he asked. I couldn’t help smiling.

“Unique, at least,” I told him. He slung his arm over my shoulder and we walked into the house. I tried not to let on how much I enjoyed his touch. When we got into the house, he let go of me and we washed our hands before sitting at the table, to a meal of corn-on-the-cob, mashed potatoes, and pork chops. Rusty’s brother and sister joined us. They both looked to be about ten or eleven, with matching golden-red hair and freckles. I wondered if they were twins, but I didn’t want to ask.

“You’re Andy,” the boy, whose name I remembered to be Danny, said, eyeing me. I nodded, feeling uncomfortable under his scrutiny. He’s ten years old for crying out loud! I told myself.

“You’re awfully short,” the girl, Sarah, said, scooping mashed potatoes onto her plate. Danny nodded.

“And skinny, too,” he added. This was beginning to be more than a little annoying. I was becoming glad that my mother had stopped at me.

“How old are you, anyway?” Sarah asked.

“I’m seventeen,” I told her, and tried to concentrate on eating my delicious supper. It was much better than anything my mother and I had ever eaten at home – usually take out or microwaves suppers.

“You look kind of like a girl,” Danny said. I felt myself flushing and wondered why the hell these kids were so forward.

“That’s enough, Daniel. You too, Sarah. Eat your supper and leave Rusty’s guest alone!” Elizabeth said, looking up from where she was cutting up Jacob’s pork chops. For the rest of the meal, it was fairly quiet from the twins. After eating, Rusty and I went down to his room. It was nearing eight o’clock and I was getting kind of tired.

“We can turn in early, if you like,” Rusty suggested. I nodded, and took my pajamas out of my bag and brought them into the bathroom adjoining Rusty’s bedroom to change. I wore flannel pajama pants and a t-shirt. When I stepped out of the bathroom, Rusty was standing there – in a pair of boxers and nothing else. All those muscles were just there, displayed for me to stare at. I swallowed and tried to pry my eyes away.

“Um,” I gulped, “where are your pajamas?” I asked. Rusty just grinned at me.

“I usually sleep naked, but I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable,” he explained. And you in your boxers wouldn’t make me uncomfortable, or anything. It was impossible for me not to picture him naked, spread out on the bed, waiting for me. Oh, my God. How am I supposed to sleep now?

Rusty pulled back the covers of the bed and gestured. I went over to the opposite side of the bed and climbed in. I closed my eyes, not seeing but feeling Rusty as his weight pushed the bed down. The light switched off.

“Good night,” he whispered in the dark.

“Good night,” I replied. It was a long time before I finally fell asleep.

---

Author's Note - erm. I hope you like how this is coming along. It took me forever to write this chapter, but I've had this idea floating around forever. It's gonna be about 3 chapters long, and the next chapter is longer than this.