Samson and Sunset

by Dorothy Annie Schritt

  “Oh,” I said, “kinky! We’re going to have kinky sex!”

  "Hold that thought, princess.”

  All was quiet for a few minutes.

  "What are you doing, Shay?"

  “I'm just standing here looking down at you,” came his voice from somewhere in the room. “Your flawless bronze skin, your platinum hair, your slim, tiny body, your beautiful perky little breasts. Everything about you is perfect,” he said. “God you’re beautiful, woman. Did I ever tell you how much I love you, princess?”

  He ran his hand gently down one of my legs. Then I felt him get into bed on his side and reach for me with the gentlest hands. I could feel his strong arms moving me closer to him. I slid easily on the satin. He held me for a few seconds, touching my breasts, then moved his mouth gently around my nipples.

  Finally he brought his lips up to my mouth and kissed me with both hands under my head. With the mask on, every sense was heightened, my attention undivided. I could feel his body over mine. He wasn’t lying with his full weight, just touching the surface of my skin with his chest.

  “Come here,” he said, pulling me gently toward him, cradling my neck in his right arm, my head near his shoulder on his chest.

  “Lay back on the pillow, babe, put your head back.”

  “What are you doing Shay?" I asked.

  “Lie there and relax,” he said, rubbing my arm softly.

  “Shay, I'm getting a little dizzy, I think it’s the mask. I feel like I'm moving,” I told him.

  “It must be the mask, darlin’. You’re okay. Just listen to the music and relax.”

  After four or five minutes that felt like forever, Shay said, “I’m going to take your mask off now, princess. You just lay there looking straight up.”

  I could feel him gently removing the mask. At first, I was night-blinded from the mask, but as my sight started to clear, I could see stars, millions of stars. I realized I was staring up at the night sky.

  “Are we outside?” I raised myself up on one elbow, looking with amazement at the scattered strings of constellations.

  My Shay had made a moving bed for my anniversary surprise so that we could make love outside in the night. I could see now that he’d rigged a whole pulley system, with wheels on the bed and rails that ran all the way out onto the balcony. He could just lie in bed and all he had to do was put his hand down and crank a handle, and the whole bed would slowly move outside onto the balcony. And now we were under a star-blanketed night sky, in the comfort of our own satin-sheeted bed. My Indian spirit was going to love this!!

  Shay brought out a tray with two stemmed glasses, wine for him and sparkling grape juice for me. I felt so free outside under the stars, making love right there in the open, the touch of the breeze against our skin. Our house wasn’t near any of the other houses on the ranch. No one could see us but God.

  After one round of making love, he handed me a red rose with the thorns cut off.

  I’ll always remember that rose. Its silky petals made their way around our bodies during lovemaking throughout the night and morning.

  Around dawn, the rose was beginning to wilt and so were we. So as the sky began to turn pink at the edges, Shay rolled the bed slowly back into the bedroom. After rolling it in, he rolled the carpet strips back down and it was once again a flush level floor.

  Shay closed the doors and pulled the curtain over the windows, making the room like night. There was just a little wall sconce, casting a soft, pearly light. He put his arms around me and we fell asleep in the afterglow.

  The Straw House

  We just had a fantastic summer. I had a big garden, and Mom came out and helped me in it several times a week. My mom was my best friend. I just adored being with her. She spent a lot of nights with us, staying in the guest room. She enjoyed helping me clean and play with the kids; we’d can vegetables. She always cooked special German foods for us. I did get a young babysitter, sort of a mother’s helper, a seventeen year old, darling Hispanic girl, the daughter of the people who had moved into Cookie’s old house. Her name was Yolanda, but we called her Yonnie.

  Yonnie was a big help with the kids. She took them for walks and watched them in the back yard while they played. Wessy was too young to walk, but she took him out in his stroller. She always came over in the afternoon when the kids were napping, so Shay and I could go horseback riding. The ride was, without a doubt, the most relaxing time of my day.

  ***

  One morning, in mid-September, Shay looked out the window and said, “That mist has been coming down since midnight. It’ll be too slippery to ride today, princess.”

  I looked out the window at the pale gray day.

  “I’m just going to work all afternoon,” he said, kissing me goodbye. “I’ll see you around 6:00. Think we’re going to move some cattle today,” he remarked, and was out the door.

  Well, I wasn’t going to have to fix lunch for Shay. Usually on a busy day like this the guys all ran into Westover and had a beer and a burger, then went right back to work. I was about to call Yonnie and tell her she didn’t have to come today, when I reconsidered: I could just go groom the horses. That would be nice. I’d just brush their beautiful coats and pamper them a bit. Sunset and I had forged a bond. She’d follow me everywhere when I let her out of her stall. Sometimes she’d follow me instead of Samson.

  So when Yonnie got there I was all ready to go. I had on my tight blue jeans, western shirt that snapped shut—my breasts were so perky, in a plaid shirt I didn’t need a bra. I sat on the bench in the “mudder and fadder room,” as we had taken to calling the mudroom. One time I’d called it the “mudder room,” and Kelly had taken the ball and run with it, calling it the mudder and fadder room. Well, that just stuck. I put on my western boots, slipped on a jean jacket, yelled to Yonnie that I’d be back about 4:00, and skipped out the door.

  It was around 3:00 when I left. I wasn’t planning on staying out in the damp much longer than an hour. My back was giving me trouble; ever since the fall I’d taken on the curb when I was pregnant with Wessy, it seemed to ache whenever it was rainy out.

  I was off to the stable; happy I’d decided to still go out. Sunset got so excited when I came into the barn. She knew my voice and called out through the stable when I called her name. She knew I’d be bringing a small bag of raw brown sugar, her favorite. Of course I always gave some to Samson, he was a big spoiled baby for a stallion. Sunset was with foal—now how exciting was that? The baby would grow up to be Kelly’s, we’d decided.

  Lucas, the stable foreman, was gone that day, but I was going to work with my horses anyway. I was brushing Sunset vigorously when I heard a voice behind me.

  “Samson kicked up quite a fuss last night in his stall.”

  I turned around, startled, and saw Frank, one of the hands. He was tying up a grain sack. “Could be we have a coyote or a wolf in the area,” he added.

  This was alarming. I made a mental note to tell Shay. I didn’t even want to imagine what a wild animal might do to these precious horses. They had become such a big a part of our lives.

  Well, I finished up with the horses and grabbed my jacket.

  ***

  I didn’t get to the house until around 4:30. My back was hurting horribly. As I entered the house I was sick, just plain sick to my stomach. I stood in front of the big kitchen window looking out, so I could put my head down in the sink if I threw up. I was gagging.

  Yonnie came in, and asked if I was okay.

  “I’m just sick,” I said. “I’ll be fine.”

  To which she responded with those four words I most dreaded:

  “Kathrine, are you pregnant?”

  “Oh, heavens no,” I told her. “I’m just sick.”

  I went to the phone and called Mom. I told her I was feeling ill and asked if she could come out and be with me today. Of course, Daddy brought her out right away.

  ***

  Yonnie said she’d stay until my mother got there. I told her
I was going to go soak in the tub. I was soaking when Mom got there. She made us hot honey tea, I got out, put on some warm PJs and we sat by the fireplace, sipping our tea and visiting a while. I still felt sick and went to the bathroom to throw up again, though by then there was nothing left.

  “Kathrine, are you pregnant?” Mom asked as I came back into the room.

  “No, Mom, I’m just sick,” I said firmly. “I want to go to bed now. Will you fix supper for Shay and the kids?”

  I could always depend on my mom. She spent several nights and I stayed in bed all day, with the darken curtains shut so I could rest.

  ***

  Thursday evening Mom asked if I was feeling better, and I said probably as good as I was going to feel, so Daddy came and got her. That night, Shay brought me some chicken soup. After putting the kids to bed, he came to bed himself and said through the dark:

  “Hey, I miss you, princess. I want to do more than just hold you. Do you think you’re up for some lovin’ from your hubbin’?”

  I thought for a second. “My eyes hurt,” I said. “As long as you don’t turn the bright lights on, you got yourself a deal, babe.”

  Shay turned on one of the wall sconces. It had such a soothing glow. We came together like shadows in the dark. It was good to have Shay inside of my life again, as he still always called our lovemaking. Two nights without Shay was torture.

  ***

  About 3:00 in the morning I was taking another soak in the bath when Shay came rushing into the bathroom.

  “Callie! The Straw House is on fire! You stay here; don’t come out. There could be toxic smoke. I’ll be back later!”

  He dressed quickly and rushed out the door. I must have soaked another hour. Every time the water would start to cool, I’d let some out of the drain and add more hot. I went back to bed for a while and got up at 6:30 that morning. Shay came in about 7:00 and showered in the mudder room. I think he was surprised to find me up and dressed. I had decided to rally today.

  “Well, what happened?” I asked

  “Gone,” he said, sadly. “The Straw House is gone. It burned to the ground.”

  “I know, I can see from the kitchen window. It’s all just ash.”

  “Guess you don’t have to look at that old eyesore out your window anymore,” he said, sitting down. “Still, I’m going to miss it. It was a longtime fixture of the family.”

  “I know, sweetie,” I said soothingly. “Well, Maggie will be happy, at least.”

  “Yeah, it’s always about what makes Maggie happy isn’t it?” Shay said darkly.

  We had some light conversation over breakfast. Then Shay got up and said he’d like to sleep a couple hours. He asked me to wake him around 11:00 so he could help Sterling when the insurance adjuster came out.

  ***

  Several nights later, when Shay and I were lying in bed, about to go to sleep, I asked him if his dad would get enough money from the insurance to build a smokehouse where the old Straw House had been. There had always been talk about turning the old building into a smokehouse, and I thought it was a cool idea. Shay said, yes, they would be getting enough from the fire to rebuild.

  “Sterling should have burned that old building down years ago,” I commented.

  “Yeah, it was pretty ugly,” Shay admitted. “But if he’d have burned it down on purpose, he couldn’t have collected on the insurance. That would be insurance fraud, and Sterling would never do something like that.”

  Shay was right about that. Whatever else they may have been, the Westovers were an honest family, a proud family.

  ***

  Every time I looked out the kitchen window for the next few days, I could see the burned mess.

  “Shay, why aren’t the hands clearing the junk away?” I asked.

  “Because first the insurance company has to give their okay. It will be gone soon. Out of sight, out of mind—for the rest of your life, babe! By the way, your dad called. He’s coming to get Kelly this morning.”

  It was one of my daddy’s favorite things to do.

  “You going to be here for lunch?” I asked Shay.

  “Nope.” He told me that their insurance man, Delmer Meyer, was coming out that afternoon to finish the paperwork. “I’m just going to eat at the Big House before the meeting,” he said.

  “I want to go with you, Shay.”

  “You don’t need to be there, princess. It’s just family business.”

  Now that hurt. Wasn’t I family? I started crying.

  “Callie, are you pregnant?” Shay asked, “’cause you were kind of like this when you were pregnant with Wessy.”

  Finally, Shay realized I felt left out. “Call Yonnie to watch Wessy,” he said. “You can come.”

  I went to the Big House at a quarter to twelve. Shay’s car was already there. Everyone ate in the informal eating area—Maggie, Sterling, Grandpa and Grandma Westover were all there. The guys did a lot of reminiscing about the good old days, inspired, no doubt, by the disappearance of the old Straw House.

  After lunch everyone moved to the formal dining room for tea and coffee. Around this time Delmer Meyer and Mac arrived. Mac’s real name was Doug McMillian, he was the Westover sheriff, and a friend of the family, so naturally he came as well.

  There were eight of us around the big table. Sterling was at the head; Delmer, to one side of him, and Mac to the other. Grandpa Shannon had the head chair at the other end of the table. I was sitting across from Shay, next to Maggie

  “Well,” Delmer said, “I think you’re going to be a bit surprised at the check Sterling, it’s a bit more than we discussed because your farm is an official Nebraska Farmstead, so it’s covered under that act now.”

  “It must be my day,” Sterling grinned, “got rid of that old eyesore, made Maggie happy, and now, a check.”

  As Delmer was digging in his briefcase for the check, there was a moment of silence while everybody waited.

  “Stop! Just stop!” I yelled, suddenly. “I burned the Straw House down!”

  Well, all hell broke loose when I said that.

  “What in the hell are you saying, woman?” bellowed Sterling.

  Shay chimed right in behind him. There was so much disarray at the table; it all became a blur. Everyone spoke at once. Grandma Lila grabbed her chest, saying, “Oh, Lord, no!”

  By this time I had my head buried in my hands, sobbing.

  “Shay,” Maggie said. “Do something! Help Kathrine. She’s falling apart, help her!”

  “Hell no,” Shay said. “What do you mean, you burned down the Straw House? That doesn’t make any sense, Callie. Tell me you’re lying. I don’t want to believe you did this!”

  I couldn’t get control and Maggie put her arms around me. This was the first time I had seen such compassion from Maggie.

  “Woman, you’d better start explaining,” Sterling said with his high, angry voice. Then Mac stepped in and asked everyone to settle down. It took awhile, but Mac got everyone back into their chairs. Then he brought a chair around and sat by me.

  “Kathrine,” he said calmly. “Now, this is very serious. We need some answers. Do you think you can tell us what happened if everyone just settles down and listens?”

  “I don’t know,” I said shakily. “I just don’t know if I can.”

  Mac said I had to try. I looked around at the lynch mob facing me, including my own husband, the love of my life, and right then I knew that life as I’d known it with Shay was over.

  “Simmer down everyone, just simmer down,” Mac said. He asked Maggie if she’d ask the cook to refill everyone’s drinks, coffee or tea, and we could all have a couple swallows, then continue. Maggie called in the cook, and she refilled everyone’s cups.

  Mac patted my shoulder several times saying, “Kathrine, you really owe everyone here an explanation for what happened, don’t you think they deserve that?”

  I looked through tear-filled eyes at Shay. I could see a mixture of disbelief, anger and disappointment
on his face. The one thing I couldn’t see anywhere, and needed to see the most, was compassion. I took a few swallows of my tea. I knew they had the right to know. I thought to myself, who am I? Just a nobody who married Shay, against their better judgment, I’m sure. So I told them everything the way it happened. I wasn’t leaving out one detail, or sugarcoating anything. What difference did it make now?

  “Several weeks back,” I started, “around the middle of September, the night it had been misty from midnight on for the next several days, Shay said they were going to move cattle and he wouldn’t be home to go riding because it was too slippery.