Mitzi stepped closer to her father and showed him her ring.

“It’s stainless steel. I don’t believe in coincidence. I found a stainless-steel pipe in the Barn, that was almost the right size, so I lopped a quarter inch piece off the end and worked it down to three sixteenths wide and swaged just a tad bit more diameter, and polished it up and it fits perfect.”

“How long did it take you to do that?”

“About forty-five minutes.”

“When’s the wedding?”

“We’re picking up the Marriage License tomorrow on our way through town from field A to field B.”

“Did you hear that Ann?”

“What?”

“They’re getting a Marriage License tomorrow.”

“The sooner the better!”

“I get first dibs for Mitzi’s room!”

“You’re not getting Mitzi’s room, April. “Your Dad and I already decided to use it for our master bedroom lounge.”

Without any discussion at all, Mitzi and I packed two big boxes of her stuff out to the pickup and said we would be back for the rest later. Mitzi gave her Dad and Mom a kiss, and I gave Mitzi’s Mom a half a hug and shook hands with her Dad, “Congratulations, Son.”
It was my turn to blush. “Thank you Dad.”

Mitzi and I talked on the way to my parent’s place.
“It feels like we have only known each other twenty minutes. I don’t know if surreal is the right word Paul, but it also feels like we have been living together a year already.”

“Surreal is like irrational, or a fantasy dream. That was what I wondered too when I told you there was a new toothbrush in the right-hand drawer, and start the shower, I’ll join you in a minute. You just nodded your head and walked buck naked into the bathroom.”

“In spite of how wild the intercourse was, you were gentle with me. You didn’t pinch or grope or hurt me in any way except for that initial push into me, which I didn’t blame you for. If you were kicking my butt, I would have dodged through a bonfire to get away.

“One of the boys at school was trying to feel me up and pinching me. I told Dad, and he called the boy’s Father. First time I saw the boy after that was a week later limping off the school bus. He walked over to me and apologized for mistreating me. I guess he warned a couple of other boys, because none of the boys bothered me since.”

“I missed the first semester of my freshman year, because we were short handed on the farm. Dad normally works six hours a day when we are behind, helping us catch up, but had a big lawsuit on his calendar that was giving him no slack at all, Aunt Lucy was no help, being seven months pregnant, Mom and I were working 16 hour shifts on the farm.

“Janice took care of everything at home, made ready-to-eat meals for us, laundry, housekeeping, made sure Mom and Dad saw all the bills that came, so they would get paid. Janice did better than any twelve year old I can imagine. Top that off she kept up in school and got good grades. Dad put Janice on payroll at his firm, so she has been working there part time, and full time during the summers.

“It was crazy how fast the crops were growing that year, we got four cuttings of alfalfa and grass hay. We always considered the third cuttings our bonus for the year.

“We harvested a hundred and twenty acres of corn at 40 bushels an acre, tilled the foliage under, and planted winter wheat on top.

“I worked twenty-four hours straight four times that season, because we had to repair equipment to stay caught up. We were a week behind for three months, which made for a heavier harvest, an added bonus needless to say.

“Uncle Bill was busy maintaining equipment, ordering supplies, buying, selling, trading, scheduling work, so Mom and I were more efficient. We couldn’t hire anybody to help, because we didn’t have time to supervise them.”

“Uncle Bill worked thirty hours straight a couple times, then thirty-six hours on six hours sleep once, and ended up in bed two days straight recovering.

“Fortunately Dad won the lawsuit two days earlier, and came out working six hour shifts at night, and all day on weekends, besides what he had to do at his law practice, while I did as much of Uncle Bill’s work as I could, and did five hours field work each night. Everything slowed down, so we caught up during the second week of December.

“I got a good deal on a two year old pickup, and bought forty acres next door to The Barn from a hungry farmer, so that was a good deal too.”

“The Barn?”

“Grandpa incorporated the farm, and called the business ‘The Barn’, because everything on the farm revolves around the Barn, later you’ll realize how true that is. Aunt Lucy claims their first child was conceived in the Barn.”

Mitzi laughed as we arrived at my parent’s house.

It was my turn to holler as I opened the door, “Everybody decent? We have company!”

“Just a minute!”

We heard somebody scurry up the stairs, probably Janice.

“Ready now?”

“Yes!”

We stepped in not knowing what to expect, and found Mom and Dad relaxed in the living-room
I introduced Mitzi, and handed the Thesis to Mom.

“Mitzi, I remember you when your Mom and I shared the same hospital room when you and Paul were born.”

Mitzi stared at me purely amazed.

“I’m two days older than you, Mitzi.”

“Actually you were born five minutes before midnight on the fifth Paul, and Mitzi was born five minutes after midnight on the seventh, if I held on a little longer and Ann pushed a little harder you two would have been born on the same day. “That means you two are twenty-four hours and ten minutes apart in age.”
Mitzi stammered, “I, I thought you were a year younger than me. “I thought some people were going to call me a cougar!”

“Cougar?”

“It’s a woman that has a younger significant other, usually much younger.”
It was Janice picking up on the last of what we said about age difference as she descended the stairs.

“You know too much Janice, I suggest you seriously pay attention to what Mom and Dad are saying to you.

“You have no idea how a little trouble can mess up the rest of your life.”

“I’m not your business Paul!”

“I am my sister’s keeper Janice, whether you like it or not. Dad? I suggest you start her researching farm land within five miles of the Barn, because Uncle Bill and I are going to build another Picker for a baler just like the last one, and we need to justify the investment of time and money by working more acreage.

“Tell us about your new ring Mitzi.”
It was the smart, sly, slick, and sneaky Janice. You can trust her to get a jab in after I got the last word.

Dad finished reading the Thesis, “Watch yourself Janice!”

“Yeah, but the ring?”

“A smart lawyer knows the answer before he asks the question.” Dad handed the Thesis back to me, and shook my hand, “Congratulations son, congratulations to you too Mitzi.”

Mom gave us both a hug, then Mitzi and I went up to my room, and loaded a couple boxes of my stuff.

Mom was waiting at the bottom of the stairs with a 12″X12″X4″ box. Mom opened the box and showed Mitzi the folded sheet inside with the blood stain centered, “This is your token Mitzi, proving your virginity given to Paul. Your mother called after you left them, and told me about the ring and Marriage License.”

Mitzi hugged Mom, and we loaded the boxes in the pickup, Mitzi brought the little box into the cab with us. “I love your Mother Paul. She made this very sacred for me.” I handed her a Kleenex for her tears.

Mitzi and I got home at 11:30pm. Yep. That’s right, HOME in our cabin.

We changed the bedding to give Mitzi a fresh start in our bed, and we talked a bit while we took a shower together.

“There’s no way I would have taken a morning-after pill Paul, I kept remembering what God said in the Book of Jeremiah. You made it easy for me to accept what happened.”

“What impresses me about you is, you haven’t done any whining at all. You have had a long day with almost no sleep, and you haven’t been upset about anything, except when your Dad was trying to stare us down you got a little shaky.”

“That too was amazing, because you gave me a reason to turn away from Dad and kiss you. I haven’t had so much fun yesterday since kindergarten.”

“Yesterday?”

“It’s five after midnight.”

“Ouch.” We toweled off and went straight to bed, cuddled up, I kissed her forehead and zonked out.

Day 2 7/10/??
The sun shining through the window didn’t wake me up…

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