“That’s my Mom,” I said finally breaking the comfortable silence that had fallen between us.

“Ok,” he answered. Standing up, he reached down and helped me to my feet. Still not speaking we went back to the ladder and climbed down. He walked me to the barn door, bent down and pressed his cheek to mine and whispered, “See ya later,” in my ear. I found myself unable to speak, yet again damn it, and opening the door went out to the car.

“How was Lil Miss today?” my mother asked.

“She was just fine,” I answered. I didn’t tell her anything about Jim, my first kiss or watching that spectacular sun set in way I had never watched the sun set before. I wasn’t ready to share just yet. Plus, being the ever negative person that I was, I didn’t want to tell in the event that I never saw him again. One can never tell you know. I shouldn’t have worried.

The next time I went to see my horse, he was there….and the time after that and the time after that. “How do you always know when I am here?” I asked him one day when he appeared about ten minutes after I had arrived.

“I live down the road knucklehead. You always show up at the same time so I watch for you. When you go by the house I head down here,” he told me.

“Awwwww…that’s sooo sweet…” I told him. “I can just imagine you watching for me out the window just like a cute, cuddly puppy with your tongue hanging out. That’s just tooo cute,” I teased him.

“Oh really?” he asked. “I am just THAT cute huh?” he said walking toward me. “Want to tell me how cute I am again?” he asked moving closer and closer. There was something about the way he was looking at me that told me I was in trouble, so I turned around and ran….and ran fast. Well, at least I THOUGT I was running fast. Turns out he could run waaayy faster than me.

Within about six strides he had caught me and scooped me up in his arms. I was delighted he had. It made me feel so petite. When your father tells you that you aren’t fat, but you ARE built like a “French shithouse,” feeling petite is something that doesn’t happen often. My delight however, was short lived. Walking to the front of the barn, he unceremoniously threw me into the watering trough which was nice and full of fresh, ice cold water. The cold water washed over my head and filled my nose and mouth. I hadn’t expected to get thrown in the tank. When I came up he was laughing and he was laughing very hard.

“YOU SON OF A BITCH!” I yelled at him. “WHY DID YOU DO THAT?”

Still laughing he asked, “Am I still cute?”

“Yeah your still cute!” I hollered. “But now you’re a cute asshole instead of just a cute guy!!!!”`

Laughing even harder, he came over to help me out of the trough. Not without a little payback though. When I was done splashing he was as wet as I was. “What am I going to do now?” I asked. “I don’t have any dry clothes here.”

“No problem,” he said shaking his head making water fly in every direction. The way he did that reminded me of how our dog did that every time we gave him a bath. This time I kept that thought to myself. One dunking a day was enough for me. ‘We’ll just go down to my house. My sister or my Mom will have something you can wear.”

I hadn’t even known that he lived right down the road until a few moments before and now he was telling me we were going there to change clothes. I knew he had a sister and a step brother that was older than him and I knew that his dad ran a sign shop from home, but I had never bothered to ask WHERE it was he lived. Now I was going to find out first hand.

Jim had a car, so we got in and went off down the road. It wasn’t the most impressive car I had ever seen or been in, but it beat a moped by a country mile so I kept my mouth shut. About a half mile down on the right hand side, stood a tri level house. The yard was trim and it had the look of a well kept home. “You live this close and you drive to the barn?” I asked him. “How lazy are you?

“Hmmmm…what can I throw you in this time?” he pretended to ask himself, his pointer finger tapping on his chin. “No barn, so no watering trough….hmmmm…what to do, what to do?

“If I threw you in a pool of water every time YOU got smart with me all you would do is swim!” I fired back.

“Very funny Carla,” he said . “Let’s go get dry…I’m getting cold.”

Getting out of the car, we went up the drive hand in hand. The front door opened and his mother came out on the step. She was an average height, weight woman with sandy blond hair. That surprised me because I had always envisioned Jim’s mother to be tan and dark like he was. While they had the same straight nose, their coloring was very different. ‘You must be Carla,” she said. Then immediately she asked, “What happened to you two?”

“I am Carla and HE happened to me,” I said pointing the finger of blame at her son.

“I didn’t do anything. SHE did it,” he responded pointing the finger of blame right back at me.

‘Well whoever did it you both look cold!” she exclaimed.

“Yes Ma’am, I am cold,” I told her.

“She doesn’t have any clothes to change into, so I thought she could borrow something of yours or Becky’s,” he explained.

“I am sure we can find her something,” his Mom said. “Come on in,” and turned to lead the way into the house. Both of us followed her in. Jim went down the hall that led off the kitchen area we had walked into and left me alone with his mother. “OH GOD,” I thought . “I AM ALONE WITH HIS MOTHER.” Since I never expected to have a boyfriend, I never expected to be in a situation where I was talking to their mother. I was completely unprepared and scared as hell. She must have noticed because she smirked a bit and said, “Relax, I don’t bite.”

“Yes Ma’am,” I said. My mother had taught me when all else fails you, manners will always be there. As it turns out, she was right.

“What size do you wear?” she asked.

“Excsuse me?” I aksed startled. I NEVER told anyone what size clothes I wore. It wasn’t the size six or eight that my sisters wore. I didn’t even tell my mother what size I wore. I was embarrassed and felt that I was fat…I never told what my size was.

“Your size…what is it?” she repeated. “I need to know so I can find you something to wear.”

I must have been having a brain strain moment. In the splashing in the water and wrestling with Jim, in the car ride there, in meeting his mother, it had never occurred to me that I was going to have to tell someone what size clothes I wore. Even though the ones I wore were dripping wet. NOW, what was I going to do?????

“The Third Sister” is on every Wednesday at 9am EST. Please participate in the show by leaving comments and suggestions about the show or what you think it should happen next! Our author might consider your ideas for the next episode!

I looked at him and I have no idea what he saw in my face that made him smile. But he did and then tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear. That gesture made my heart melt. I hadn’t realized until that moment how frozen I was, how truly unattractive I felt compared to my sisters. I knew that I had always felt forgotten compared to them. They were so loud, so emotional. Everything they did was so “BIG,” that I often felt in the shadows and unnoticed. I didn’t try to compete with them in their way; I competed with them in my own.

My grades went up. I tried my hardest to use the biggest words I learned at school. I became a voracious reader, not a hardship as I liked to read all the time anyway. I tried so hard to be the well behaved girl at home and the model student at school. I nurtured my natural love of music knowing it would create a tighter bond between my father and me. In one way my plan worked. My parents did notice and praised me. In another it didn’t. As soon as the praise was over, you could almost see a tangible relief in their faces and hear their mental sighs as they turned away to handle an older sister relieved they did not have to handle me. Perhaps that’s why I wanted a boyfriend so badly…because I wanted to be a part of something that noticed me… ONLY me. There in the barn that day, it was ME that was being noticed, it was ME that was being liked for who I was. It was ME that was being kissed because I was kissable, not because they thought if they kissed me they could get to a sister. I stood there wrapped in the warm arms of a virtually unknown boy and felt my heart thaw…just a bit.

He continued to look down at me for a long moment and leaned back, loosening his grip, but not letting go. I felt like I was being studied. While it was not the most comfortable moment being stared at by the person who had just given me my first kiss, I kind of liked it to…kind of.

“What are you going to do with you, Carla?” he asked me.

“What would you like to do with me?” I innocently asked. Immediately I blushed red hot. I truly had not meant to ask such a loaded question. It occurred to me that I still had much to learn about flirting. I thought to myself that I had better learn it fast before my face melted off my head. Instead of bursting into laughter as he had been doing, he smiled at me.

This time his smile was different. It wasn’t the kind of smile that made me think he thought I was funny. After I got to know him, I learned it was the smile he smiled when I had done something sweet or innocent. At that time, I didn’t know what kind of smile it was. I knew that I liked that kind of smile as well. To be honest, there probably wasn’t much he could have done or said at the time to make me think anything bad about him. Other than “you suck,” or “your breathe smells like horse shit.” THOSE things would have made me hate him no matter how good a kiss I just got. However, he didn’t say those things….he just smiled.

“What I want to do with you right now is finish feeding these horses,” he said. “I think they have waited long enough to eat, don’t you?” I had been so intent on him that I hadn’t heard the noises of the hungry horses in their stalls. They were stamping their feet, bumping their stalls doors and snorting in anger. To sum it off, they were one pissed off and hungry bunch of equine….

“OH!” I exclaimed. “They are really hungry!”

“Yes they are,” Jim agreed. “Let’s get them fed and then we will have more time to ourselves.”

“Ok,” I said. Then I tried to figure out what it was I had just agreed to? What exactly did that mean, more time to ourselves, I wondered? My imagination flew as we hurried back down the hall to get the grain and finish feeding the very hungry horses. I have to be honest and say that my anxiety grew as we fed those horses. I found myself being somewhat grateful that it was a big barn and that there were more than a few horses to feed. You can only feed horses for so long though and sooner rather than later the only sound to be heard was the munching of several horses as they crunched grain with their big, strong teeth.

“All done,” I said brushing my hands off on my jeans. “Remind me not to be late feeding them again. What a grumpy bunch of horses!”

“Horses are animals of habit. They learn a routine and they stick to it. They don’t really like it when it changes,” he explained.

“Must be kind of nice,” I mused to myself.

“What’s nice?” he asked.

“Having a regular routine that has been the same so long…Might be nice for humans to have that,” I answered. I don’t think anyone really knew what it felt like to be in the midst of hysteria all the time but not be part of the hysteria. It was unsettling to say the least.

“Come on,” he said grabbing my hand. “I have something else to show you that never changes. I think you’ll like it.”

“Where are we going?” I asked and then saw where he was leading me. “Oh No, not back in the hay mow!!!

“Don’t be a chicken…You’ll like it, I promise,” he said. Perhaps foolishly, I trusted him and went back up that damn ladder into the bales and bales of hay so high above the barn floor with Jim right behind me. That part I liked…again. Both of us got to the top and I stood there. He started toward the back of the barn and stopped when he realized I wasn’t walking with him.

“Come back here,” he said. “You have to climb up some bales to see it.” With that he scrambled over a tall stack of hay and disappeared from site. I stood there for a moment and decided, “What the hell!” and followed him over the pile. What I saw when I hit the floor made me speechless.

There was a door at the top of the loft that he had opened to reveal the setting sun. The light was so brilliant and full of the reds and yellows it was almost blinding. A shadow covered the light for a moment and I blinked with surprise.

“Let’s sit over here and watch it,” he said. Taking me by the hand he led me over to a shorter stack of bales. We sat down and he put his arm around my shoulders. “Just watch,” he said looking out the door and at the twilight sky and the sun beyond. “Just watch,” he repeated. Both of us sat together saying nothing, looking out at the sky and the beauty of the setting sun. It would have been wrong to say anything. To speak would have somehow diminished the moment. As we sat there, his arms around me, my leaning back against his warm, strong chest with his heart beating steadily against my back, I once again felt a little thaw. Ever so slight, a thawing of my heart…and it was good.

To be continued……………

“The Third Sister” is on every Wednesday at 9am EST. Please participate in the show by leaving comments and suggestions about the show or what you think it should happen next! Our author might consider your ideas for the next episode!

“Where are you going?” Jim asked.

“Down,” I said shortly.

“But we’re not done throwing bales,” he protested.

“I AM done and if you don’t let go of me right now you are gonna learn how a hay bale feels when it flies off the side of this mow!” I responded very deliberately. My oldest sister had been very hard to live with. Since I was the youngest sister she could always thump me when she had a bad day. But on the positive side of things, I wasn’t afraid to dish it back either. What did I have to loose after all?

His hand instantly rose off my shoulder and he asked with surprise, “What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing…absolutely nothing…I am perfectly fine,” I said and climbed down the ladder leaving him alone at the top. The fear that had been with me when I was climbing up wasn’t with me when I was climbing down. It was replaced with anger and disappointment I think. When I got down I did what I always did if I was able. I went back to my horse. She was there waiting almost as if she knew I would be needed which of course she was. I buried my face in her warm neck and tried to calm down. Her presence worked as it always did and magically my anger faded. I tried to understand my reaction.

Here was a guy I had just met, that I found very attractive that didn’t seem to return my attentions. This was certainly not an unusual occurrence, rather it was almost a daily one. It wasn’t that I found guys so attractive on a daily basis that made my hormones scream, I just noticed couples every day and despaired of ever being IN one. My reaction to Jim was the strongest physical attraction I had felt in my short life and not knowing what to do with it when it wasn’t returned made me angry. I was angry at myself for not knowing what to expect but expecting it anyway. I was angry at him because who asked him to interfere with my barn time anyway? Even though I was young, logical thinking seemed to make the most sense to me. Perhaps it was the way that my sister was hysterical about this and that, constantly reacting to anything and everything. What I do know is that when I got mad, I got angry at myself for getting mad. This was a very convoluted way of thinking which of course made me mad for thinking that way. While I was standing, back in the stall AGAIN, trying to rationalize my angry reaction, I failed to pay attention to the sound of footsteps that were again approaching my stall.

“Hey,” came his voice. I really did not want to make eye contact at this point so I just kept my head by my horses.

“Hey,” I said back.

“Gonna help me feed all this hay?” he asked.

“Just give me Lil Misses, I’ll feed her,” I answered.

“Ok,” he replied. Instead of throwing her hay over the stall door, he instead unlocked it and came in the stall itself and threw the hay in the corner. Lil Miss abandoned me in her desire to eat and I was left standing in a stall with Jim between me and the door. I was trapped. I was also speechless.

He just stood there for a moment with his fingers once again stuck in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. Those eyes, those goddamn eyes, were focused and intent on me, assessing and measuring.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

I kept my eyes trained downward and said, “For what?”

“For hurting your feelings,” he said back.

Now I did look up and with defiance asked him, “What make you think you hurt my feelings?”

He smiled again, damn him, and said, “I think it was something like being told I was going to experience the joy of flight hay style that gave me the hint.”

I decided to take the high road and ignore his charm. “I’m sorry too,” I said. “I never should have said I would do something and not done it.”

“Your right,” he replied. “It wasn’t very nice to tell me you would help me feed all these horses and then not do it.”

“I wasn’t talking about feeding the horses Einstein. I was talking about throwing you off the hay mow!” I sweetly responded. He threw his head back and laughed and laughed. What could I do? I just stood there and observed how his throat and chest moved in communion with one another when he laughed so hard. I found it so sexy damn him to hell!!! Finally , after a century of watching him laugh his ass off, he slowed and eventually quit.

“Done?” I asked.

“You are so funny!” he exclaimed.

“Yeah, I get that a lot,” I said with resigned bitterness. “I’m smart and strong too…remember?” and I looked down at the floor, tears filling my eyes. I hated it when I did that. To show weakness in private was one thing, but to show it to a virtual stranger who you feel has rejected you is the worse of the worst. I don’t recall him moving toward me, but suddenly he was there. I could feel his body heat he was so close. Before I had a chance to look up on my own, his hand was under my chin gently lifting it.

“Being smart and strong is just two of the things you are.” He said.

“Oh really?” I asked struggling to maintain my composure. My pulse was leaping out of control, I didn’t know what his intentions were, and I only knew that if he was NICE and sympathetic I was going to have to fight the urge to choke him and I was going to have to fight it hard. “What else am I then?” I asked.

“Kind and loving or that horse wouldn’t love you for one thing,” he said.

“Great quality to have isn’t’ it?” I quipped. “I bet all the girls would just envy the fact that I can make a HORSE love me!”

Ignoring my little outburst, he raised the hand that was on my chin and cupped my cheek with it and said quietly into my ears. “You are also very, very pretty.”

Shocked, my eyes lifted to his and I found I was unable to move. His head came down, down, down until his lips touched mine. I was so shocked I was being kissed I forgot to close my eyes… until I tasted mint that is. Then I closed them firmly and settled in to enjoy my long awaited, much anticipated, thought I would never have one….first kiss.

To be continued………..

“The Third Sister” is on every Wednesday at 9am EST. Please participate in the show by leaving comments and suggestions about the show or what you think it should happen next! Our author might consider your ideas for the next episode!

My mouth went dry. My heart took off and it felt like it was going to pop right out of my chest. I was sure I was going to faint. I couldn’t tear my eyes off of his. They were so intent…so focused. The way he was looking at me reminded me of the way I used to look at chocolate when I was a little girl. Like I wanted to eat it and I wanted to eat it NOW. My pulse throbbed in my neck and I found myself swallowing…HARD. Just then a horse stomped its feet and I startled. Embarrassed once more I looked down and felt my ears throb with heat.

“Damn,” I thought. “I’m clashing again,” When I looked up, Jim was still looking at me but the intensity was gone.

“You ready to climb up there now?” he asked tilting his head back to look up at the hay mow. Instead of answering right away I looked at the sleek lines of his throat. I fought the urge to close the distance between us, snatch him by the shirt and see if that skin tasted as good as it looked. After a brief look I answered, “Yes. I’m ready. But who goes up first?”

“You do.” he answered. “That way I can make sure I catch you if you fall. Don’t want anything bad to happen ya know.”

I wasn’t too sure how I felt about me going up that ladder first. While I had enjoyed all of the long looks I had taken at his ass, I didn’t want him taking that same look at mine. I was positive if I went up the ladder first an accident would happen all right. The seam of my pants would rip wide open and my pale, white ass would be the biggest moon in daylight hours he had ever seen.

“Can’t I go last?” I asked. “I mean, I am going to go slower than you and I don’t want the horses to have to wait for their hay just because I am a slow climber.” I was impressed with my fast thinking. There was no way he could have a problem with what I just said. The horses had been stamping their feet and snorting since they had finished with their grain. It was obvious THEY didn’t want any delays in being fed.

“I think you’ll climb just fine. Your legs look nice and strong. That’s what a good climber needs…good legs.” he said.

“Oh my God…he is looking at my legs!” my brain screamed out. A split second later my sane brain said, “Why would he be looking at my legs? Shouldn’t he be noticing my boobs or my hair or my favorite asset, my eyes?”

Out loud I said a slow, “Oooookkkaaaay. But I am going to climb slow…just warning you.”

“Just get on the ladder Carla,” he said with that same twinkle in his eyes.

Going over to the wall, I grasped the rung above my head and started climbing up. On the second rung, I noticed something…something good..very, very good. There were arms beside mine on the outside of the ladder. Nice strong arms attached to a chest that was pressed into my back. His legs were behind mine and the heat that flared between us should have started a barn fire. Each step I took, he took with me. Each time my leg moved to climb his muscular thigh bunched behind mine. I slowed my climbing wanting to savor every touch, every movement. I hadn’t ever felt body on body before and I liked it. I liked it a lot. Since I didn’t know if I was going to get to feel it again, I made it last as long as I could. Unfortunately, the top came into sight and almost as one we swung our leg over and got off the ladder.

His chest rose up and down as if he had just run a marathon. My breathing matched the pulse in his neck I could see beating strongly and I wondered if there was anywhere else on that body I could feel his heart beat. We stood there for a moment, catching our breath, neither one of us speaking. I looked around.

“Nice place, this hay mow of yours.” I said.

“It’s very private up here too,” he fired right back.

“Why would hay need privacy?” I asked.

“It doesn’t,” he replied. “But the people who come up here like it.”

“Oh,” I said lamely.

Jim started walking toward me and I was frozen into place. I watched him coming step by step by step until he was right in front of me. My palms got wet, my mouth parted slightly and I licked my lips with my tongue. He had only to lean forward and I could finally claim my first kiss. I inhaled deeply and my eyes could only see his face coming toward me as if in slow motion. I was excited, I was terrified. I didn’t know what to do, but I knew what I wanted to do. Finally he was so close all I had to do was turn my head slightly to the side, lean forward and our lips would touch. Closing my eyes and tipping forward I waited for that first sensation of warm lips on mine. And I waited. After a few moments, I opened my eyes. He had leaned toward me and then continued on leaning past me bending deep at the waist to grab his first bale of hay.

“You always start with the bales closest to the edge so you make more work space up here.” he explained. Grabbing the bale of hay with his hands, he picked it up and pitched it over the edge of the mow where it tumbled to the floor below. “Use both your hands and grab the two strands of twine, pick it up and throw it.” he ordered.

“I’ll throw it alright,” I said to myself. I grabbed that bale of hay and threw that mother over the side so hard it landed by the watering trough. It felt good. I was imagining it was Jim I threw over the side. I didn’t realize I had just had my first exposure to sexual frustration. It wasn’t fun and I did NOT like it.

“Wow, your strong!” an impressed Jim said. “Looks like your legs aren’t the only strong thing on you.”

“Gee thanks!” I practically snarled back. “I always wanted to be known as the strong armed, muscled legged girl from the hay mow!”

To be continued………….

“The Third Sister” is on every Wednesday at 9am EST. Please participate in the show by leaving comments and suggestions about the show or what you think it should happen next! Our author might consider your ideas for the next episode!

“His name is Jim,” I repeated in my head. I didn’t say anything out loud. For some reason it appeared that my lips were glued together and I was unable to speak.

He leaned back on one hip and stuck the tips of his hands in his pockets. “You gonna tell me your name or are we not speaking today?” he asked. There was a twinkle in his eye when he spoke and you could tell he thought the fact I wasn’t talking was kind of funny.

As usual I blushed beat red. I always hated it when I blushed. I was a redhead and blushing made my skin clash with my hair and my clothes. “My names Carla” I finally managed to choke out.

“Well hi Carla,” he said. “What ya doin here?

“This is my horse,” I answered, hugging Lil Miss to me closer. Holding her close made me feel more secure and her body was partially shielding mine from full view which was just fine by me. I didn’t want him taking the same kind of “up/down” look I had taken of him. I was positive he wouldn’t find the experience nearly as enjoyable as I had.

“They sold her to you?” he asked with surprise. “I didn’t know she was up for sale.”

“They didn’t and she’ not,” I told him. “We are leasing her because we live in the suburbs and we don’t have the room for a horse.” I would have died before I admitted to him that we could not afford a horse even if we had sixteen acres, never mind just the one required to have a horse.

“Oh,” said a relieved Jim. “That makes more sense. So what are you leasing her for?” he asked.

“Saddle club,” I replied. “It’s a 4-h club for horses.”

“I know what it is. I belong to 4-h too,” he responded.

“What club do you belong to?” I asked.

“I show beef” he proudly stated.

“What’s that?” I asked. Somehow in my mind’s eye I had a vision of a beef sirloin wrapped in plastic and was struggling to understand how in the hell you could be in a 4-h activity with saran wrapped meat.

“Cows Carla…COWS” he laughed. “I show cows.”

Again came the wicked blush I so hated. I think he could sense that I was embarrassed and changed the subject.

“Wanna help me feed the horses?” he asked. “Bob and Jeanie asked if I would feed today. They had some errands to run and weren’t sure they would be back in time.”

“I don’t know how,” I answered.

“It’s ok..I’ll show you how,” he said.

Nodding my head ok, I picked up the brush I had been using to groom Lil Miss and left her stall making sure to latch the door behind me. Going to the tack room, I put the grooming tools away and went back down the aisle to the stall where Jim had remained waiting for me.

“Come on,” he said. “Feed rooms this way,” and he turned and walked away. That was fine by me because it gave me a glorious view of his butt. I was right when I had guessed it was a nice one. To cover it with denim was just a crime plain and simple. I couldn’t have picked a better person to walk behind if I had been asked. I was enjoying the view so much I almost bumped into him when he stopped at the feed room door. I managed to stop just in time and was very thankful that he didn’t appear to notice that my eyes had been focused on his ass for the better part of two minutes.

“See this bin here? “ he asked pointing to a wooden bin against the wall and latched firmly down. I nodded my head yes. “This is where the grain is. Each horse gets one scoop and only one scoop. If you feed them more than that they can get sick and that is one thing we don’t want to happen.” He explained.

“What happens when they eat too much grain?” I innocently asked.

“Sometimes their guts twist and the vet has to be called. Then they have to stick a rubber tube up their nose and down into their stomach and pour mineral oil in ‘em to make sure the grain passes through.” He described.

“Sounds wonderful,” I said swallowing a bit harder than normal. Again that wonderful white smile flashed and I got the sneaking suspicion that he had said that on purpose to gross me out. I silently resolved to make sure I did not let him SEE that he had yanked my puke chain again, even if he did.

Picking up a scoop and tossing it to me, he bent over and got another for himself. I seemed to have grown addicted to the site of his ass because my eyes went directly to it when he bent over. I hadn’t really spent a lot of time around guys my own age that talked to me. My sisters and my acne did a good job of keeping me away from them, or them away from me whatever the case may be. Now, it appears I had discovered I was an “ass chick” meaning of course that asses were an attribute I noticed right away. It also seemed I was developing a knack for knowing when to look away. By the time he stood up with his own scooper brimming with grain in his hand, I had already raised my eyes and had a patient look on my face. Apparently there are some things Mother Nature equips you with once you notice the opposite sex. Almost without realizing it, I was feeling like a girl for the first time.

We went to the stall farthest away from the grain room and he showed me where to dump the grain. Over and over we returned to the bin until all the horses were given their portion of grain for the day. When Lil Miss got her food, I made sure to give her an extra kiss so she wouldn’t get mad at me for spending time with Jim instead of her. After all the grain was delivered Jim turned to me and said, “Now it’s time to go get the hay.”

“Where’s the hay?” I asked.

“Up there,” he answered and pointed directly above us.

Raising my eyes I looked up to see that there was an attic of sorts in the roof of the barn and it was loaded with bales and bales of hay. I also noticed that it looked very high. “How are we supposed to get up there?” I nervously asked. I was afraid of heights but I was NOT going to show him that.

“We climb,” he simply said.

“Climb what?” I asked. Again he pointed and I saw a ladder had been built into the wall. The rungs went straight up and ended at the top where the floor started. There was no railing.

“Scared?” Jim said with a little smile on his face.

“No!” I replied. “Just haven’t ever climbed up into a hay area before.”

“It’s called a hay mow little girl, not a hay area,” he said.

“Thanks for letting me know what to call it and I am NOT a little girl,” I responded with some heat.

Tilting that black haired head to the side, he gave me the up/down look I had given him over an hour before. By the time his eyes made it up to my face I think I was so red I could have ignited myself. “No,” he said with a voice suddenly gone quiet. “I can see you are definitely NOT a little girl.

To be continued…….

“The Third Sister” is on every Wednesday at 9am EST. Please participate in the show by leaving comments and suggestions about the show or what you think it should happen next! Our author might consider your ideas for the next episode!

When I was developing within my mother as the third child in the family, I was supposed to be developing a penis. Someone forgot to tell Mother Nature that and I popped out with a vagina instead. So instead of being name “Carl” after my grandfather, I was instead named “Carla.” It is a miracle of the alphabet that the simple addition of one letter can change your gender isn’t it? As the youngest of the three girls, I got to grow up watching what the other two girls did before me. My middle sister was the beauty. My oldest the hellion. I found myself watching both with a morbid kind of fascination.

The question I asked myself all the time when I looked at my middle sister was, “Who the hell is going to look at me when she’s around?” I sincerely thought that even IF I was able to snare myself a boyfriend that as soon as he saw the tall, leggy, long haired petite frame of my sister that he would be in absentee in a heartbeat. THEN I thought if my middle sister didn’t snare him with her beauty, my oldest sister would snag him with her sex appeal and her willingness to have sex with anything short of a marsupial. I was destined for spinster hood I felt deep in my heart. So it was I went through the first part of my awareness of being female feeling that I really should have been born a “Carl” after all.

Further along in puberty journey I experienced the joy of pubic hair, arm pit odor, my period and pimples. Ohhh were there pimples. When I hit high school there was virtually no skin visible on my face…it was canvassed with pimples. I was so ashamed I didn’t want to go to school. My father used to ask my mother, “Isn’t there anything the dr’s can do about that?” He never knew I heard him and again, I was too embarrassed to tell him I did. My mom took me to a dermatologist who used some kind of fire extinguisher to freeze the pimples off my face. In addition to that, he gave me a prescription for tetracycline which is an antibiotic used for acne. There was only one problem. It gave me hives. Now, not only did I have severe acne and braces, I had hives that made me look the “total” package.

The kids in high school were very, very kind. NOT…They called me pizza face, zitt queen and a dozen other cruel things. I despaired of anyone, a GUY, every looking at me with anything other than horror or pity. There was even one boy who was so cruel that he drove by my house one afternoon and screamed “Pizza face” out the window of his car. It was a proud moment. My middle sister went to the vice principal the next day and complained about it. That was back in the day when the schools cared about what happened to their students off campus. I know her intentions were to protect, but I was so numb with the name calling I didn’t know what to do. Thankfully, the acne started to clear up and the name calling stopped. Because I didn’t have much confidence in myself, I immersed myself in “Saddle Club” with my horse that my mother had leased for me. We couldn’t afford one of our own.

I used to drive my moped for forty five minutes to get to the farm that my horse, “Little Miss” was on. I had babysat a little boy for a whole summer to afford that silver mode of golden transport. I had to ride it through Amish country and the stares I used to get were long. I could literally FEEL the eyes of the country folk on me until I got past viewing distance. To be honest I felt wicked when I drove past their dark, silent homes and would rev my pitiful little engine as I went by. It was my own little form of personal defiance and rebellion. At that time in my life, being with my horse brought me a peace that I just wasn’t able to feel with any human being. Until one day when I thought I was alone in the barn. It turns out I wasn’t.

I was just standing there, nose to nose with my horse. She patiently absorbing my scent and loving me and I was just being grateful there was a living thing that did love me. When we were together, it was if time stood still and the world was quiet just for those few moments. Suddenly, I heard the sounds of footsteps in the hall. It startled me because I thought that Little Miss and I were alone in the barn. The footsteps got closer and closer and finally stopped right in front of the stall. I looked up through the chaff of the straw and sawdust to see a young man.

He was tall, that was obvious right away. He was wearing jeans that I just knew without looking were covering a nice ass. How I knew without looking I couldn’t say, but I knew it. His hair was black, his eyes were a deep brown and boots were on his feet. The flannel shirt he was wearing was tucked into the waist of his jeans and was open down to the third button. I was grateful he had chosen to tuck his shirt in that afternoon. It gave me the opportunity to see that he had broad shoulders and a tapered waist. I could see golden skin tanned by nature due to those three buttons being undone. His skin was smooth and I felt a wild impulse to press my face into the hollow of his neck and breath his skin. For the first time in my young life, I felt a tingle between my legs and my nipples tightened. Not having felt these feelings before, I could do nothing but stand there and stare. A few moments passed by and I realized that I was not the only one staring. He was also taking a good long look at me. I stared at him and he stared at me for I don’t know how long. Finally he smiled revealing beautiful white teeth and a John Travolta style cleft in his chin. His smile illuminated his entire face. “Hi”, he said…”I am Jim….who are you?

To be continued………

“The Third Sister” is on every Wednesday at 9am EST. Please participate in the show by leaving comments and suggestions about the show or what you think it should happen next! Our author might consider your ideas for the next episode!