Weeds - Joy Barnes (good books to read for adults txt) 📗

No, my mother won't miss me, why would she?” I answer her questions, feeling like I am being interrogated.
“She's your mother, dear, of course she'd miss you!” Shiphra exclaims.
“No, we never meet our parents. It's not permitted.” Her eyes widen in horror.
“That doesn't sound like a nice place.” She says, wrapping up my clothes in a messenger bag and handing them to me.
“See why I don't miss it?” I say, for the first time noticing that I wasn't missing my home at all. I hardly even thought about it. And I knew that I would never agree to go back.
More customers walk into the store. Including a dazed looking young boy. He is wearing a uniform. I feel bad for him. I left by choice, and he was thrown out.
“Well, there's all you'll need for clothes here.” Shiphra says. “Enjoy your freedom, my dear, and come back 'n tell me all about life in the city some time, hmm?” I nod in agreement and she turns her back on us to tend to her new customers. Shannon and I exit the store and he leads me to a street where they are selling food. We shop for quite a while, buying fruits, meats and veggies. I look forward to meals with Shannon, because food here tastes so much better than any food we ever had in the city. Food in the city was always bland.
After shopping we walk home. I can't stop staring at the mountains in the distance. They're so beautiful. And sometimes, when the sun sets, it casts a pinkish tint across the snow. Sunset is one of my favorite times of day. I feel eyes on me, and notice that Shannon is watching me, grinning.
“What?” I demand.
“It's fun to watch you marvel at everyday things.” He says.
“Well, they may be every day to you but to me they're brand new!” I say with a laugh.
“You have a good point.” He responds, chuckling.
“Your eyes look exactly like the sky.” I point out a moment later, suddenly noticing the similarities in color. He grins.
“I'll just take that as a compliment and say thank you.” He says. We walk in silence the rest of the way.
When we get home, it's time for Shannon to make dinner. I decide to go groom Fay and Rae, his horses, while I wait. I can't believe creatures like them existed without my knowledge. I love them so much. I like the way their velvet noses feel on my skin, I like the silky feel of fur between my fingers, and I like the softness in their eyes. They're my favorite animals.
Fay lifts his head from grazing and wickers in greeting. I smile and duck into the tack shed, fetching the brushes. Rae is ignoring me, but she's just like that. I ignore her and halter up Fay. He stands still as a rock, and his eyelids begin to droop as I run the curry comb over his neck and back. As I reach his chest he stretches out his neck as if to say “”Ooh, yeah, that's the spot”. I laugh at him. I start humming one of my new favorite songs as I switch to the mud brush. It's a tragic love song, and I wonder why it appeals to me so much. Fay seems almost asleep as I continue to run the brush over him, carefully working the mud out of his fur. Once finished with that I take a comb to his mane and tail and patiently pull out the knots. He's a hair less relaxed, but tolerates the treatment without a fuss.
I'm just turning Fay back out as Shannon calls me for dinner.
“I'll be right up!” I yell back from the tack shed. I run up the hill into the house and wash my hands. “What's for dinner?” I ask over my shoulder. Whatever it is smells really good.
“Fried chicken, ever had it?” He replies.
“Nope, but it looks great!”
“It's one of my favorites.” Shannon tells me. We sit down to eat and I can immediately tell why it's one of his favorites. It's delicious! We discuss various topics over dinner. At one point Shannon asks me if I would like to go to the beach with him tomorrow.
“What's a beach?” I look at him curiously. He smiles.
“It's hard to put to words, maybe I should just show you. But I think you'll like it.” He says. I nod my head. So it's set, we're going to the beach tomorrow, whatever a beach is.
As soon as dinner is done, I take my music player outside and lay down in the grass. With music playing in the background I could just stare at the stars for all eternity. I jump as Shannon flops down beside me.
“Watcha doing?” He asks me.
“Looking at the stars,” I answer, even though it's pretty obvious.
“Do you know what stars are?” He asks me.
“Yes, you taught me about that two days ago. Did you forget?” I say.
“Oh...I guess I'm getting old...” He jokes. I chuckle and hand him an ear bud. As we lay there watching the stars and listening to music his fingers wrap around mine and an electric heat rushes through my entire body. I begin to wish this night will never end.

“Wake up, lazy.” I hear Shannon, but I decide to attempt to moosh myself back into the covers instead of listening. “Dayna,” He knows I can hear him. I blink my eyes at him groggily, and snuggle back into my pillow. This results in him tickling my foot, which was protruding from the blanket. I scream and end up on the floor. Shannon is laughing. I glare at him.
“That's what you get for bein' lazy...” He says.
“It's not even light out yet!” I exclaim, throwing my pillow at him. He starts laughing even harder and flees the room. “Just get dressed woman!” He yells on his way out. I sigh and do as he says.
Once dressed I go looking for him. He's not in the kitchen, his room or the bathroom, wandering into the living room I see him through the window. He's tacking up the horses. I wonder exactly what that man has planned at such an ungodly hour. Pulling on my coat I wander outside to join him.
“Good morning sunshine!” He greets me with an overly enthusiastic smile. I glare at him some more.
“Where are we going.” I demand.
“I told you, I'm taking you to the beach.” He answers, tightening Rae's girth.
“At this hour?” I exclaim.
“You'll see why sooner or later.” He mutters. “For now, let's ride!” He holds out a hand to me. I take it and he brings me over to Rae's side. Apparently I'm going to ride all on my own. Shannon must notice my apprehension.
“Rae's the calmest, slowest horse you'll ever meet. She'll take good care of you.” He reassures me. I nod my head. “Put you're foot in the stirrup.” I do as he says. “On the count of three, jump and swing your leg over her side. One...two...three!” Just like that, with a lot of help from Shannon, I'm on Rae's back. He swings up onto Fay's back and pushes the other horse close so that he can instruct me.
“Pick up your reins,” I do, and he rearranges my hands. “Hold them like this,” He tells me, “It'll be more secure. Now when you want her to go nudge her with your heels, if you want her to stop say 'whoa' and pull back on both reins, but for the most part you'll just be following me.” I nod and he nudges Fay forward into the lead. I find that Rae does just follow them and I relax and let her do the navigating. She isn't the most affectionate horse, but she is calm and it's infectious. Presently I hear a strange whooshing sound.
“Hey Shannon?” I say.
“Yeah?”
“What's that sound?”
“That's the sound of waves.” He replies. Waves? I wonder what waves are. As the trees give way to what can only be the beach, I get my answer. Water is rushing to the shore and then retreating, these must be waves. Shannon dismounts, and I clumsily follow suit. We lead the horses to a large, tan log.
“Driftwood. It floats in on the tide and is left here.” Shannon explains, tying the horses' reins to it.
“What is the tide?” I ask.
“That's when the ocean water either flows towards the shore or away from it. Right now the tide is coming in.” He says. “Come on, let's have some breakfast.” He pulls a blanket out of his saddlebags and spreads it on the sand. Food containers appear from the saddlebags as well, and plates too. He lays them out on the blanket and settles down to eat. I take off my shoes and sit down as well. Wrapped in tin foil are bacon and pancakes still warm. I love bacon. Pancakes are good too, but I love bacon. As we're eating he points out over the water. I look towards where he is pointing. It's gorgeous. The orange, pink and purple sunrise is reflected perfectly on the water below.
“Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.” He chuckles.
“What?” I ask without looking away from the beautiful sunrise.
“It's a saying. A red sunrise is supposed to predict bad weather, but I don't believe it.” He answers. Slowly, morning turns into afternoon. We look for shells, ride the horses through the surf and eat lunch. As we are wading through the shallow water, gazing at some of the unique sea creatures living there, I notice that the sky is darkening. When I point this out to Shannon, he looks up and examines the incoming weather.
“What was that about not believing that old saying...?” I joke. He smiles.
“Maybe we should head back, eh? Don't want to be caught in a rain storm.” I agree with him so we put our shoes back on and mount up for the ride back home. I keep casting glances and the ever darkening sky on the return trip. We just barely manage to get the horses in their stalls when the rain hits.
“Great timing!” I say.
“Yeah,” Shannon agrees. “We managed to beat the rain!” We toss some hay into the horses' stalls and try to run between the raindrops as we head for the house. Needless to say, it didn't work, and we are wet and cold by the time we reach the door. We burst into the foyer, laughing and shivering.
“Man! The weather sure can turn fast here!” I say to Shannon.
“I think it's possessed.” He replies as he peels off his wet sweatshirt. I pull off my own wet coat and my hair is laying wet against my tee-shirt. I shiver.
“Maybe you should take a shower.” Shannon suggests. I can't help but agree, so I shiver my way up the stairs and into the shower. The warm water feels good and quickly chases away the cold.
Regretfully, I climb out of the shower and dry myself off. With a towel still around my neck, and just wearing my pajama pants and a dry tee I wander downstairs. I find that Shannon has dried himself and is dressed similarly, except he's decided that the shirt is optional. He's in the kitchen, preparing dinner for tonight. I can't help but stare at his strong shoulders and back. His arms look sturdy and well muscled too. I wonder if he works out. I shake such thoughts away, not understanding them, nor having any idea what they would lead to.