Harvest Moons

by Melisse Aires

  “You can sell them in town for good coin.”

  “Oh.” She watched as he took a persicheri and ate it slowly, savoring the sweet juicy flesh. His lips were full, not too full. Just right.

  “Are you saving the pits?” He asked. She showed him the bucket she used to collect the pits. “I bought the vines as cuttings before we moved here. They were dry roots, so I soaked them and planted. Turns out my bundle was about twenty plants. I didn’t have much fruit last year but I started the pits in the fall and kept them in the house. Those have a bit of fruit, but my older plants are heavy with cherries.”

  “I have new seedlings.” She beckoned him to the back wall of the enclosure. “You should take some and try a fall planting. I gave some seedlings to the Skazi, well I left them in a basket. I’m not sure if they garden since they migrate. But maybe some would do all right in the wild, especially if they fenced it.”

  “Where did you get them? I’ve never heard of them before.”

  “I bought them at the trading market in Kurvash, the big city on Jiang. There are lots of small booths full of unusual garden varieties.”

  Fallon grinned. “I’ve heard you can find interesting things there, but I have never been. We moved here five years ago from Sageterri. We’ve been ordering all our seed through the Celstar Collective, but they don’t carry much variety.”

  They left the enclosure and walked back to the house.

  “The clan has a fall festival, not this month but next month on the first two moon night. Everyone is invited and brings a dish to share. You should come, meet some neighbors,” Fallon said.

  “Sounds lovely. But I can’t leave the Synths…they are too young to leave alone.” She would not lock them up somewhere like animals.

  “Bring them. There will be children everywhere.”

  Polly smiled. “Then I will come and bring persicherri pie.”

  Fallon’s white teeth gleamed in the dim light. “I do love a good pie. Not much pie on our Steading since Maureen passed. None of us have the knack.”

  Fallon took his leave and she wondered briefly if the seedlings and the fruit would fit in his clothes satchel. She was tempted for a moment to slip up to the loft and peak into the front yard, to watch him disrobe and shimmer into horse shape. She restrained herself. Her interest was mostly in seeing him nude again, and those kinds of thoughts lead to nothing but trouble.

  ~**~

  It was late, but the two bright moons flooded the farm with light and Polly could not sleep. The grain harvest was done, thanks to the Shimmer boys, and the Grain Collective had landed on her dirt port this morning, weighed her grain, studied its purity and paid her a nice sum. All the hours she’d spent weeding her crops had paid off, her variable seed was under five percent. She was so excited about the extra thousand credits she could not calm down.

  Chortlers whistled their evening calls in the brush land that bordered the garden and a sweet scent from her fruit vines, was carried on the warm breeze. Contentment flooded her heart. She loved this land, this home, fiercely, and it was hers now. Tonight she would pick fruit until she felt able to sleep. The vines were heavy, she would be pitting and canning for several days. She’d sent the boys home with two large bags of fruit after the grain was loaded and she still had several hours of work ahead of her.

  Polly picked for some time until her arms and shoulders ached, when she heard a thud of horse hooves. Fallon! She went to the front of the enclosure and looked for the Shimmer who was on her land.

  The large black stallion on the edge of her harvested grain field came to a halt, head raised high, the nostrils wide, testing the breeze.

  “Fallon?” she called.

  The horse cantered into her yard and stopped at the enclosure. He shimmered into human form, naked in the moonlight. Polly’s tiredness vanished, replaced by a deep awareness of his body. She couldn’t help but stare, he was perfection, every hard muscle calling to her to touch.

  “Polly. I didn’t think you would be awake. Or picking fruit this late.”

  She dialed down the light in the enclosure and grabbed the tub of fruit.

  “I was just finishing. I need to get these into the cooler. Tomorrow the girls will help me pit them. I’ll can most of the but was thinking of drying some of them, for baked goods.” Her words were rushed and breathy as she tried to disguise the sudden rush of heat that engulfed her.

  He came closer as she opened the door and set the tub down, wiping her hands on her grubby apron.

  “It is probably not safe for you to be out here alone so late.”

  Polly couldn’t help it. She couldn’t take her eyes off his mouth, his eyes…

  “I…I couldn’t sleep.” Looking deep into his eyes, his face shadowed, with the glow from the double moon lighting his blue eyes, deep pools that mesmerized her. Neither spoke, staring at each other in the moonlight. His presence was overwhelming, and all her plans and decisions fled. She raised her hands and slid them up his firm, hot chest to his shoulders, reveling in the smooth skin and hard muscles under her hands.

  His arms clamped around her and his mouth found hers, tongue rushing to her, devouring her in a rush of electric passion.

  “I wanted to see you.” His mouth nuzzled down her neck, making tingle, making her knees weak. The heat of his hard flesh pressed so tight against her, seeped through her clothes to her skin, making her hot, making her want to be naked, skin to skin. She slid her arms around his neck and he lifted her, setting her on the sturdy worktable by the door. She pulled open her shirtwaist, kissing him with desperate hunger that he matched. Then her apron was untied, her shirtwaist off and his mouth was at her breast. He captured a nipple and sucked it deep, flicking her with a wet tongue, each movement causing waves of delight that pulsed through her.

  “So beautiful,” he murmured against her neck, his long fingers exploring her breasts.

  Polly wanted more, wanted him closer. She yanked her skirt up and unbuttoned the center panel of her pantaloons, yanked, uncaring of ripped buttonholes. His hand found hers as she worked her pantaloons open and then his fingers found her wet swollen nub, and caressed her firmly.

  “Can you get pregnant?” His raspy tone thrilled her.

  “No.” She almost paused her exploration of the hard muscles of his stomach. Shimmers could have part-human children?

  “In me,” she whispered reaching for his hard length, gliding her hand up and down, circling the head testing so thickness and strength.

  “Yes.” And he was inside her, a deep thick filling that suited her in every way. She wrapped her legs around his hips and moved within him, seeking a fulfillment that swept though her in an exquisite rush.

  Afterward they rested together, breathing hard, still joined. A rustle startled them. Polly flipped her skirt down and dragged on her shirtwaist.

  A Skalzi female, wrapped in along gauzy robe and hood, and two Sklazi children lifted the tub of fruit Polly had left outside the enclosure. The female looked at them, her reflective eyes lit by the moonlight even through her gauze. She paused as though startled to see them and pulled both children closer. The three froze.

  “It-it’s all right. You may have the cherries,” Polly said, pointing to the tub. She wasn’t sure the woman understood. The woman stared at her, then bowed low. She lifted the tub and the three glided away.

  “That’s the first time I’ve seen one. I know they visit, but… Hoggart had seen them before. They didn’t worry him.” Polly bit her tongue for bringing up her deceased husband when she’d just been intimate with Fallon.

  He dipped his head for a moment then looked right into her eyes. “I am so sorry. Didn’t think… you just lost your husband.”

  There was a tinge of anguish in his voice. He’s remembering losing is wife. “It is all right, really.”

  “Maureen’s been gone five years.” He looked away from her out into the night. “This was the first time…” his words trailed away.

  “The first time y
ou were with another woman?”

  “Yes.”

  She felt the need to be honest, at least with something, to ease his sadness in some small way. “Hoggart and I…we were not a love match. We married because it was advantageous to us. He needed help on the Steading, I was tired of cooking in a restaurant... He drank heavily these past months…I did not know that about him when we married. So things were difficult. I do not mourn him like you mourned your wife.”

  He was silent then nodded. He turned to her with a slight smile and her breath caught, once again at the sheer male presence of him. “You lost a whole tub of fruit.”

  She waved back toward the vines. “I think I will still get two more tubs like that from these vines. Unless the weather changes abruptly.”

  “Come, I will walk you to your house. In case there are volves about this night.” He held her hand as they walked through the yard to her back porch. At her door he brushed a feather kiss over her cheek. “I will send the boys with my private call code. In case you need me for any reason.”

  She nodded, her throat suddenly tight.

  He shimmered into a stallion and galloped away.

  ~**~

  Polly loaded her pie basket into the flitter, then helped the girls strap on their harnesses. Her Synths were dressed in new clothes, one in a yellow dress with a blue striped pinafore, the other in a blue dress with a yellow striped pinafore. Polly thought they looked so cute, almost human except for their extra large purple eyes and shiny silken skin.

  Polly had a new dress also, tan with small persimmon flowers, fitted tight at the waist, with a fashionable back flounce, and new black boots. She had arranged her hair into a fashionable style, and wore a tiny straw bonnet, really more of an ornament, pinned to the top of her head at a jaunty angle. Excitement clenched her stomach as she flew to the Verdad Steading. She had never been there before and she was looking forward to hearing fiddle music, meeting her neighbors… seeing Fallon.

  She hadn’t seen him since The Night, though he had sent neighborly messages. Knowing the texts could possibly be read by others, Polly had answered the messages as one neighbor to another. Nothing personal. Which is good. I have no time for a hidden affair with a neighbor man. But as she neared the turn-off her heart speeded up . “Oh, I have squirbles in my tummy,” she said, and laughed as both girls grinned and rubbed their tummies.

  “You girls stay with me, you hear? There will be lots of people so it will be easy to get separated. We’ll stick together and eat some yummy food.”

  Ivy made a waving motion over cupped palm. The sign for dance. Fern imitated her. Since they could not talk Polly had purchased an entire signing education packet, along with a basic school course, and a solar powered com to go with it. The girls had learned a passel of new words every day. This winter, when there was far less work to do on the farm, she would begin teaching them schoolwork.

  Truth be known her own education had been cut short. She was pretty sure the curriculum for older children was well above her own knowledge. She also planned to learn to knit—she was going to be accomplished! The Skalzi –she was sure it was the woman who had carried away the tub of fruit—had left a huge basket of fine yarn at her back door a few days after the encounter.

  Fallon’s house was three stories. It was made of the same metal and crystiglass as all the buildings in the area, provided as part of the land package, but his house had a number of domes placed on top of each other. The girls signed, “Big, Big!”

  In a field beyond the house she saw a number of long legged young horses galloping. Shimmer children at play, she figured.

  She parked her flitter and she and the girls walked to the barn where ribbon streamers and flags lead the way. People dressed in their best smiled and nodded as she made her way to the huge double doors.

  The interior was just as festive and full of people. Yellow straw bales sat everywhere, many covered with casual woven blankets for those ladies wearing delicate textiles. A grouping of large tables was lined up on one side. “Come girls, let’s go add our pies to the food.”

  Funny how she was able to find Fallon in the crowd in just a glance.

  She set out her pies on the large table that had sweets.

  “You can just store your basket under the table, ma’am. That’s what we are all doing.” A thin woman with a small boy said. “Are your Synths twins? They are so precious.”

  “Yes, they are. A comfort to me since my husband passed. We had no children.” She had coached herself with replies and small talk, it being so long since she’d been around people.

  Polly knew they should say hello to the hosts of the party. “Let’s go say hello to the Verdad family and then we will find a place where we can eat and watch the dancing.” The girls smiled and made the sweeping dance symbol.

  Polly took a meandering route to the area where Fallon stood. She wanted to see him, yet she felt the wiggles in her stomach turn sour. He was with his own kind. The night with me was…a mistake. One wild thing… She clutched the girl's hands a little tighter.

  He looked at her and her heart, already racing, pounded. She could feel the flush on her skin as his eyes took her in, and she was ridiculously glad she’d bought a new dress and had it fitted by the local dressmaker.

  “Mrs. Avila, Ivy and Fern. I’m so glad you could come. You all look charming.” The little girls grinned and made the dance sign.

  “Oh, they are signing ‘dance,’” Polly explained. “I bought a school curriculum with signing.”

  “I’m sure that is opening a whole new world to your girls. Let me introduce you to my aunts.” They followed him to a table where two old ladies and several other women sat. “Aunt Zona, Aunt Shul, this is our neighbor, Mrs. Avila.”

  “Mrs. Avila, we so apologize for missing the death of your husband. We were in the South attending to Shul’s daughter—she had her first child last month,” Aunt Zona said.

  “And so we did not hear of your bereavement until we returned just a few days ago. But we have ordered an eternity bush, very lacy, and beautiful. We have a two in our courtyard, in remembrance of Fallon’s wife Maureen and my husband Just,” the other old woman said.

  “Perhaps Fallon can take you out to see them.”

  “I would like that. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one. They were not common in the city I lived in.”

  “Let’s go now, before the dinner announcement,” Fallon said. He led her out the far door of the barn, the Synths following them. The sun was setting now and on the eastern horizon the large silver moon of Jerashade was rising. Soon it would be followed by the smaller bronze moon, Mor.

  They entered a courtyard through a high gate. The courtyard as formed by several crystiglass buildings separated by hallways.

  “How many families live here?” To Polly’s eyes it looked enormous.

  “Only four families, but we have room for more. Horse shimmers like room, we feel closed in very easily.” He took her to a seating area in a green patch of lawn. Two lilac flowered bushes spread a sweet aroma in the area. Both bushes had been formed into heart shapes when they were small.

  “How did they do that?” She asked, running a hand over one heart shaped branch.

  “Prune all but two branches, and then you bend them and wire them together into the heart shape. After the first year the branches harden into the shape.”

  “I see.”

  “When the plant arrives, I’ll bring it over and help plant it. I can do the original pruning and shaping, also.”

  “Thank you.”

  A fluffy white cat strolled into the seating area and the Synths turned to her, eyes glowing. “Can they pet the cat?”

  “Sure.”

  “Gently,” she reminded them. The little girls sat in the grass by the cat and stroked her.

  “I wanted to visit you many times this past month,” Fallon said in a low voice, watching the children.

  She flicked a glance at him. “I …I wanted you to. And I did
n’t want you to…It was a month of changes. Adjusting.”

  “I understand. That’s why I stayed away.” He turned away from her, looking at the bush. “Part of why I stayed away. Shimmers—our clan—we have strict marriage laws. I am widowed, though my aunts would like me to remarry. Among our people, the older women arrange marriages. The boys who helped with your harvest, they’ll be married next spring, then off to university in the fall.”

  He shook his head slightly. “The young women of the clan seem like children to me. So it has been easy to resist my aunts’ plans.” He drew in a breath. “You, I find harder to resist.”

  “Another marriage seems so complicated to me. So many things that could go wrong.” Polly walked to the girls and squatted down to pet the cat.

  “Do not worry about your Steading. If you run into difficulties as a woman alone, contact me. I can either come and help, or send help.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  “If I come visit… I would want what we had that night. But—”

  “Your people do not accept affairs with outsiders?”

  “No. It would be a scandal.” H walked to the girls with the cat and showed them how to use a fallen twig to play with it. “See. Miss Trouble has claws, but she will chase your stick. Just keep your hands way so you don’t get scratched.”

  A scandal. Something she did not want. Especially when she had attained so much… the Steading, an unremarkable standing in this small community. Security, a future…Polly heard voices in the distance and knew they were being observed. “Thank you for showing me the eternity bush, Councilman.”

  “I believe Miss Trouble here will have kittens soon. Would your girls like one?”

  “Oh, I think they would love one.”

  “I’ll contact you so they can pick one out.”

  She’d see him two times in the near future. When the bush arrived, and when the kittens arrived. Neighbors.

  That hurt. She’d wanted more. The expectations, I had too many expectations. It is better this way. The years with Hoggart left me vulnerable to a kind word. A passionate touch.