Full of Beans in Wallace Creek ((Adolescence) (1965, Chapter Fifteen, Summer 1965))

Full of Beans in Wallace Creek

((Adolescence) (1965))

Trailer: In the spring of 1965, Wallace Creek was full of mud and fresh cool water, due to melt from a cold winter, when summer came the creek was flowing almost like the river it connected to, it was high; sun liked winter plantation hearth fire making for a great summer getaway by the creek. The bees were buzzing, the birds were singing, and the dogs were barking, and there was a warm wind that was swirling its way, through and around the thin branches of the trees, loosening the leaves attached to those thin branches, and they broke free and fell. drunk. on the floor; Cassandra was eleven years old and looked thirteen, if not older and developing; Langdon, he was fourteen years old and as handsome as any Hollywood movie star.

Those summers before 1965 were happy summers for the most part, and this summer for Cassandra and Langdon would be no less, with some surprises, but the last. As usual, he came to visit Abernathy Plantation for three months, sometimes staying the full three months, sometimes less, and Caroline and Langdon stayed a summer or two at Hightower House in New Orleans. They had the whole system and it took the boredom out of life, although Caroline only stayed for a few weeks and left Langdon in Betty Hightower’s care, and likewise Betty left Cassandra in Caroline’s care on her plantation, outside. from Fayetteville, North Carolina, after a few weeks and they were gone, and they would have a break from the kids, and the kids would have a break from their parents. And Langdon and Cassandra grew up together, in harmony, with a relative almost their age.

At eleven, she was quite developed, which Langdon would find out this year when they went skinny dipping in the creek. Her body was smooth and hard, with a flat stomach, and Langdon had an iron stomach to match, and once they changed into their bathing suits at Wallace Creek on Wallace’s property, it was time to show and tell. . They both swam together near the river that the creek connected to, it was deeper there, and Cassandra liked to watch Langdon when he floated on his back, she wasn’t shy by any means and even asked him to, and neither was Langdon, at all. case. both of them were a bit surprised by the development of their bodies. They peeked at each other, checking each other’s limbs and movement, and the upright way Cassandra now walked (just eighteen months earlier, Cassandra had asked her mother for a bra, but was told flatly, ‘not yet! ‘not until she got something to wear, and it was a sad day to say the least, but twelve months later, she had her first bra, and something to wear, and now there was so much more to put on it, even though her mother had for the moment, he stopped paying attention, but Cassandra didn’t, and Langdon, now eighteen months later, was able to verify that he would need a new one soon.)

This summer, they both swam almost every day, and they no longer sought the deep, deep water near the river, any place would do to get wet, and they lay half naked, and sometimes a little more than half; they lay down next to each other and fell asleep on a blanket. It was perhaps the best of their growing years, the best summer they would ever remember, the calmest without a doubt, without problems without the slightest worry, in fact, if you had asked them about growing up, I’m sure they wouldn’t. I didn’t want this summer, they liked it the way it was. But the Wallace brothers saw them swimming and sleeping by the creek, they were on Wallace’s land and they created some rumors, gossip ranging from Wallace Plantation, to Stanley Plantation, to Cole and Caroline Abernathy, and even to Betty Hightower. in New Orleans. Apart from the exploration, nothing had really happened, that is, nothing had really happened between the two cousins. The closest one can get to Adam and Eve, in sheer innocence, before they ate the apple, Cassandra and Langdon did. But Cassandra’s childhood had ended this summer, and she knew it, she was blossoming, and Langdon knew it, I guess.

Minnie Mae, Frank and Wally’s cook, met Cassandra and Langdon by the creek one afternoon, told them that the two brothers had aroused suspicion among the plantations, and even called Cassandra’s mother in New Orleans and told her they were sleeping together. half naked on a blanket by his stream; if it had been a year ago, it wouldn’t have been suspicious news, it wouldn’t have mattered, but this year was different. So Betty Hightower told her daughter over the phone, “This is the last summer you’ll spend on the Abernathy plantation, without her gift,” and she was final on that subject.

Betty was wise enough not to blame anyone in particular, for fear of starting a family feud, and she did not point a finger in any direction, in fact, she said very little on the subject, although one thing she did say to Caroline was: “I think the children, they are not children anymore, they are adolescents, young people who are changing, and up to now their lives have been uninterrupted, but with unknown factors and uncontrolled hormones, I think I have to give Cassandra a little more personal attention, so if we visit each other, we’ll do it together, if you don’t mind.”

It promoted a noticeably cooler relationship between the two families and, to be honest, it was the last summer that they, Langdon and Cassandra, really enjoyed without interruption in their entire lives.