Beautiful Rugged by Sara V. Zook

Author:Sara V. Zook [Zook, Sara V.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-11-27T05:00:00+00:00

TWELVE

Gideon

“Gideon, stop!”

The rain had subsided, the field and soil now turning to mud underneath me, but I didn’t care. I continued to work the horse and plow. I saw my cousin running toward me, but I chose to ignore him. I wanted to ignore everything today. Things were consuming me, getting the best of me. I wanted it all to stop—if only momentarily—and just do brutal labor, plow the field, and then go chop some wood with a heavy ax. I needed that right now. It was my only release, the only way I could run away from all of the turmoil fermenting inside of me.

“Come off there now!” he hollered.

When I didn’t respond, he jumped up on the plow and practically tackled me to the ground. Both of us were covered in mud.

“What did you do that for?”

My cousin wiped his hands off on his clean pants and gave me a look of disbelief. “What are you doing out here? It’s Sunday for crying out loud.”

I could feel my nostrils flare as I exhaled, the adrenaline surging through me. I looked down at my naked chest, the streaks of dirt across my stomach. “I just need to do something right now. I don’t want to be in there with all of them. I just want to be alone, so go away.”

My cousin was considerably smaller than me, albeit he was only eighteen. He put his hands on his hips. “What’s gotten into you, Gideon? Is everything okay?”

“Everything would be okay if you’d just let me be.”

“Aunt Lillith is worried about you. She sent me to get you. You’re missing lunch. You never miss a meal.”

I had to close my eyes so I wouldn’t take my frustrations out on him. I wanted to throttle him for trying to get into my business as if I would even say a word of it to him or anyone else in that house. “I’m not hungry.” I gave him a look of warning as I narrowed my eyes at him, my teeth gritting together. “Just let it be.”

My cousin held up his hands as if in defeat. “Fine. Fine. But Cora’s been asking for you, too. I think you’d better come talk to her—when you’re done out here doing whatever it is you’re doing. It is Sunday,” he repeated.

I spit on the ground and took one step toward him. That sent him stumbling over his own feet and scuffling back to the house. I flicked some mud from my hand and climbed back up on the plow.

I didn’t know how long I was outside, but I felt better once I’d chopped some wood and went to the creek to wash up a little bit. My pants were still covered in mud, but my shirt had dried, and I put it back on before heading toward the house for some leftovers. I wasn’t in the mood for a lecture right now from my parents. I just hoped they were smart enough to realize that for themselves.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.