Juston has a crush on me. 26 years old, attractive, with a six-year-old son. He is a good man in a rut in a way a drinker and a drunk. He likes how I handle Mikey, likes that I told him to respect his daddy, likes my strength and activity, likes my energy, likes that I can beat him up but won't ( Read more... )

Larry wants me to stay here on the farm with him. Pay the bills, take care of the house, put food up for the winter, garden. Chris is leaving--going back to Alaska. Separating. Her seams fall apart right in front of me. I remind her how homesick she really is--and she bolts. Becomes physically ill the day after I arrive. Nausea, she says. ( Read more... )

I'm worried about Chris. She's homesick and ill, got the shakes, depressed. She mentioned today she may move back to Alaska and when I woke up Larry was asleep on the couch ( Read more... )

SOLANUM CAROLINENSE: "Horse Nettle, Bull Nettle ( Read more... )

I must learn to speak in something other than a dishonest seductive slut voice ( Read more... )

I meet Willow in the morning-half black lab, half unknown. We greet each other with play. Larry smiles indulgently and introduces himself. “You’ve got to meet Chris,” he says. “If you don’t go down right away, she’s liable to come up here ( Read more... )

Sammy has a beautiful lot, about 15 miles down a dirt road off the highway. Trees, wild forest, and a tastefully overgrown garden with exotic plants and rock-work berms and walls ( Read more... )

We stop at a local crystal shop off the highway near Crystal Springs. Several long tables outside hold rocks of all description. I find an agate, polished on one side, with a rough protruding nipple on the pink raw side. It looks like a titty. Too small to be a breast. I call it “The Titty Rock”. I buy it for a quarter ( Read more... )

Shaggy and Spider Monkey pack up at the gas station to hitchhike. They share warm embraces and exchange phone numbers with Wagner and Fabio. They pointedly do not look at me. They say nothing to me. As if I am not there ( Read more... )

In the morning, when I wake up, the parking lot is disorienting. I still think we’re in the field ( Read more... )