by Autumn Brown
Spencer shook his hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“You too.” my dad said to him. “We’d better get to it, Taylor. I’ll bring up the first herd.”
As Daddy left to go get the first herd of cows, I showed Spencer how to get the stalls ready. Daddy showed up with the herd and we let the first three cows in. We washed the cows and put the automatic milkers on them. Spencer learned quickly and helped out a lot. I’d better watch it or my dad would be hiring him today.
We let three cows into the other side of the barn, and took care of them. Spencer was full of questions. He was definitely a city boy. His questions made me laugh, and his expressions made me laugh even harder. A few of the cows were downright contrary, but Daddy took care of those. I wasn’t allowed to mess with the cows when they were being stubborn. I’d been knocked out by a bull that didn’t want a shot once. Since then, my dad took care of the stubborn cows.
We were finished with two herds in record time. After Daddy brought in the third herd, he asked me and Spencer to go feed the calves. Feeding the calves was the best part of milking. We mixed a bucket of milk with their vitamins and prepared the bottles. As we climbed the fence to the babies, Spencer told me that he hadn’t had this much fun since he moved to Arizona. I had to laugh at that one.
“You don’t get out much. Do you?”
“You don’t think it’s fun doing this?” he asked me seriously.
“This part is.” I told him and I held out a bottle for a baby calf. He took it immediately. They almost always did. Spencer fed one, seeming to enjoy it thoroughly. We talked as we fed them all. There were six calves today. They stayed in this pen until they were old enough to eat on their own. I explained the entire process to Spencer. He really seemed interested in everything. None of my boyfriends had ever actually been interested in any of this before.
Daddy walked outside carrying a bucket with some more milk. We refilled the bottles and went onto the next babies.
“Are you coming to the house for dinner tonight?” Daddy asked Spencer.
He looked over at me. I smiled at him. I wasn’t sure if he was checking to see if it was okay with me before he answered, or what.
“Sure.” he answered my dad.
“Great.” My dad said with enthusiasm.
I could tell Daddy liked Spencer. Maybe too much. I wished he’d tone it down a little. I wasn’t really excited about Spencer seeing my house either. It was way smaller than his. I hoped he wasn’t one of those stuck up guys. That wouldn’t go over well with Daddy.
After we finished, we washed up. It was fun spraying each other off with the water hose. We stood out in the sun for a few minutes to dry off. I showed Spencer the milk vat. It was completely full. He was astonished that so much milk came from those cows. Of course, we’d just milked almost three hundred cows. We each drank a glass of the freshest milk available to anyone in the world. He was really impressed with the taste of fresh milk. That’s the only way my family drank milk nowadays. We didn’t buy it from the store any longer.
At the house, I was a bit uneasy to take Spencer in. Introducing him to my sisters and my mother, and my newly acquired brother would be eventful. I knew it but I had to go through with it now. My sister Cheryl felt like she owned him, since she knew him already. He had to sit next to her. He was really nice to her the entire time.
I hadn’t warned my family about Spencer’s face, only my dad. I had no clue he’d be meeting my family tonight. I was really embarrassed about our dinner. Beans, potatoes and cornbread. My mother was from Arkansas originally and this was considered a great meal in our house. It was country cooking, my mom called it.
Spencer ate a plateful, but didn’t ask for seconds. My dad drilled him about California and his life there. While my mom drilled him about his classes and what he wanted to do after high school. He surprised me when he said he wanted to be a teacher. I couldn’t imagine him in front of a class of kids, but he was doing pretty well in front of all my sisters. They laughed and talked with him during the entire meal. You would have thought he was a rock star the way they were all carrying on with him.
He was even nice to my brother, telling him how he was living with his aunt and uncle as well. They seemed to kind of click on that level. They talked about cars some, too. My brother liked cars, and apparently so did Spencer.
After dinner, I drove Spencer home. “I’m sorry about that.” I apologized to him on the way.
“About what?” he asked seriously. “That was fun.”
“Fun?” I asked him. “Were you at the same table I was just sitting at?”
“Yes. Your family is cool. It must be nice to have so many people that love you.”
Oh. I didn’t think about that. I probably didn’t appreciate my family because I’d always had them. Spencer lost his parents, and he didn’t have any brothers or sisters. For the first time, I realized how lucky I was to have my family. “It is nice. I can’t imagine my life without them now.” I agreed.
I pulled into the driveway of Spencer’s house. “I had fun today. Thanks for showing me where milk comes from.”
“Thanks so much for all of your help. My dad was really impressed with how fast we milked all of those cows with your help.” I teased him.
“Do you want to come in?” he asked me.
What? I wasn’t prepared for that. Was he asking me to come in and meet his aunt and uncle? I looked terrible. I looked like I’d been milking cows all day. I probably smelled like it too. No way. I didn’t want to come in looking like this. “Sure.” I said. I didn’t want to miss my chance to see the inside of his house, or to spend more time with him.
I smoothed my hair back into my ponytail better, trying to look sort of presentable. Please don’t let there be a big blob of cow poop in my hair. I walked in behind Spencer through the front door.
“I’m home.” he yelled out as he closed the door behind us.
This was such a nice house. Wall to wall carpeting and the walls were decorated with things other than pictures of sisters. Nothing at all like my house. I took off my shoes inside the door. My cousins had a nice house like this and they always insisted that we take our shoes off at the door.
I heard a voice coming from another room. “How did you like milking cows?” she laughed after she asked, as she walked in the living room where we were. “Oh. I’m sorry. I didn’t know you brought her back with you.”
The lady was really pretty, perfect make up, with long blonde hair, wearing a pair of shorts and a fancy tank top. She was wearing a lot of gold jewelry too. I felt very small all of a sudden, very inferior. This lady was gorgeous.
“Aunt Janel. This is Taylor.” Spencer introduced us.
“It’s nice to meet you.” I said to her. “I don’t usually look this bad. We just milked cows.”
I was really nervous. I stood waiting for her assessment of me. I never saw her face waver though. Maybe I didn’t look as bad as I thought.
“It’s nice to meet you. Spencer was excited about learning how to milk cows today.” She laughed. She turned around to see her husband walking toward the living room now. “Oh Todd. This is Taylor, Spencer’s friend, who showed him the dairy today.”
He was a big guy. He was really good looking for an older guy. He held out his hand to me. I shook it. “It’s nice to meet you.” I said. I wanted to add that I usually didn’t look this bad, but I didn’t want to sound paranoid and insecure.
“So, how did the milking go?” he asked Spencer.
“It’s pretty cool how it all fits together. They had electric milkers, so we could milk three cows at the same time. It was really educational. And fun. And, the milk tastes really good. I’ve never tasted milk that was so fresh before. It tastes a lot better than the milk from the store. Her dad said we could come over and get some any time. We even fed the baby cows a bottle. That was really fun.” Spencer acted excited about his day. So excited that you would have thought he visited the zoo today instead of w
orked his butt off milking cows.
“It’s hard work. Isn’t it?” Todd asked me.
“I think so, but Spencer kept telling me it was fun.”
Todd laughed at me, as did Janel.
“I’m going to show her my room.” Spencer told them.
I smiled. Oh boy. I wasn’t ready for this. Jose showed me his room once last year. He expected me to strip down and have sex with him right there. Surely Spencer didn’t expect that. We’d just met a few days ago.
“Okay. But leave the door open.” Todd warned him playfully.
Spencer laughed. “You’ll be asking me to close it in a minute.”
Why did he say that? I followed Spencer down the hall to his room. It was in the furthest end of the house. After he opened the door, I couldn’t believe what I saw. It was filled with musical instruments. I never would have guessed that. He had a nice keyboard on a stand, a guitar, and a drum set. He had a computer on a real desk in the corner. And, the most impressive part was the size of his room. Everything fit in it with room to spare.
“Wow!” I said, very impressed. “You play all of these?”
“Yes. All of these were my dad’s. He used to play in a band on the weekends. They were pretty good.”
I looked around at his room. Very nice comforter that matched the pillow cases. He had a full size bed. I had a little twin in my room. Wow! He had a few pictures of what looked to be his parents. I could see the resemblance between his mother and his aunt right away. I sat on his bed. “Can I play your keyboard?”
“You play?” he asked.
“Some. I have one of these, but it’s really little. I got it a few years ago for Christmas.” I explained to him as I stepped up to his keyboard. I looked at his sheet music. It looked funny. It was in pencil. I’d never seen music like that before. I started playing it. I’d never heard the song before. I started singing the words that were on the paper. I sang and played the first verse.
“You sing regular songs well, too.” he said as if he was impressed with my voice.
“Two years of choir.” I told him. “What’s this song? I’ve never heard it before. It’s catchy though.”
“I wrote it. I’m always writing songs.”
“Really? This is good.” I asked him. I was so impressed. The song was really good. “Are you going to finish it?”
“Soon. The hardest part is finishing one. They have to have an ending that pulls it all together.”
“What do you do with them after you finish them? Have you finished any?” I asked, full of curiosity.
“I’ve finished a few. I send them in to Nashville, hoping someone will record one. That’s what my dad did. He actually had one recorded by Reba McEntire. He still makes money off of that one.”
“Really?” I was very impressed and it was coming through my voice loud and clear. “That is so cool. Can I hear one that you finished?”
“Sure. You play the keyboard. I’ll play the guitar. Zane and I do this all the time. He plays the guitar though.”
This was so cool. He was so cool. I couldn’t believe he was so cool. He placed another sheet of music on the keyboard, then he strapped on his guitar. Man he looked good. He warmed up with a couple of chords. I started playing the song in front of me. I sang with him as I played, and as he played. I saw Janel shut the door, smiling at me as she pulled it closed. His song was amazing. I loved it better than anything I’d ever heard on the radio. His voice was amazing. Maybe I was a little biased though.
I felt like we were becoming buddies. The same way that Zane and I were. I didn’t want to be just buddies with Spencer though. I wanted more. I hoped that he wanted more too. After we finished his first song, he sat on his bed. I stayed on the stool in front of the keyboard, but turned around to face him. I was having so much fun with this guy, and I was really starting to feel comfortable around him. I could tell he was much more at ease with me than he was the other day.
“Hey. Can we finish your song?” I asked him.
“You write songs?” he asked as if he hadn’t heard me right.
“No, but I think it’ll be fun. You never milked a cow until today. You did okay for a city boy.”
He laughed at my joke. That great laugh.
The door suddenly opened again, startling me. Todd poked his head in. “Do you two want something to drink? Or a snack?” he asked.
I could tell that he was just checking to see if we were making out or worse. Parent patrol, I called it. They seemed like great parents, even though I knew they weren’t his real parents.
“Let’s get something.” Spencer said, as he tossed his head toward the door. “I’m kind of hungry now. Maybe it was more work milking cows than I thought.”
I stepped up and followed him to the kitchen. Man they had a nice kitchen. I was so happy he didn’t see our kitchen. I would have felt very inferior if he’d seen ours. I’d never seen a kitchen this nice in real life before. Janel was waiting for us in the kitchen. She smiled at us as we walked in. “What can I get you two?”
I shrugged my shoulders. I had no clue what they had to offer and I didn’t want to look rude. “I’m with him. Whatever he’s having.”
Spencer laughed at me. “Chips? Cookies? Coke?”
I was feeling very uneasy, and on trial basically. I never acted right in these situations. I don’t know why. I still felt funny at Sandy’s house when her mother offered me snacks or drinks. “A Coke.” I answered. We didn’t keep Cokes at our house, or cookies, or chips.
Janel handed me a Coke and a glass full of ice. “Here you go.”
“Thank you.” I said.
Spencer grabbed himself a Coke and some chips. He pulled two plates out of the cabinet and placed them on the table. He poured some chips onto both plates. In my house, if chips ever made it past the front door, they were eaten out of the bag in about thirty seconds flat. I filled my glass uneasily. I was so nervous that I almost overfilled it because it fizzed up so quickly. I didn’t want to do anything wrong, or anything to embarrass myself.
Janel sat at the table with us. “So Taylor… Spencer says you’re a cheerleader.”
I nodded. “Yes Ma’am.”
“Call me Janel please. That makes me feel old. I’m not really old enough to have a son as old as Spencer.”
I laughed. “Okay.”
“I was a cheerleader in high school and college. It’s been a few years back now.”
“That’s cool.” I said to her. That was cool. I could easily picture her as a cheerleader. I’d always had a respect for cheerleaders. That’s why I wanted to be one so badly this year.
“Do they still have competitions like when I was in it?” she asked.
“Yes Ma’am…Janel…Sorry. They won the statewide competition last year, but didn’t place at the national level. I wasn’t a cheerleader last year. I just started cheering this year. We’re competing again this year.”
“That must be fun.”
“We’re practicing all the time. It’s pretty intense. These girls are really serious about winning the competition this year. I didn’t really know what I was signing up for.”
“I’m sure you’ll do fine.” Janel tried to reassure me.
“She’s really good.” Spencer jumped in. “She can do a flip in the air.”
Janel was impressed. She raised her eyebrows in surprise. “A back handspring or a somersault?”
“A somersault.” I answered. I knew it was impressive. It was the reason I made the cheerleading squad I think. Usually when you’re a senior, you only make the squad if you’ve been on it for years, but I made it my senior year because I could outdo the other cheerleaders in gymnastics. I’d loved gymnastics since I was little. I’d never taken classes, but I practiced every day religiously. I watched it constantly on television to learn new moves.
“I saw a girl last night that was doing somersaults in the air while she cheered.” Todd said as he sat down with us.
“She was amazing. Are yo
u as good as she is?” Janel asked me.
“That was me.” I told her. It had to be me. I was the only one that could do a somersault in the air.
“No. This girl had long curly hair, and she was really pretty.” Janel said to me, then started stuttering. “Not that you’re not pretty.”
Janel’s face turned red. She had embarrassed herself.
“I look worse than I thought. Don’t I?” I asked Spencer.
He laughed. “The cows still loved you.”
I laughed at his joke. It was funny, even if it was my own joke tossed back at me.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by that comment.” Janel said quickly. “But I really don’t think that was you.”