The Farm At Maple Hollow - 25. Chapter 25

Previously

We all laughed and returned to make short work of the cake and pie. I jokingly threatened anyone who came near my man’s creation. Once I had my second piece, I let Sam steal the pie away from me with a few good-natured threats of retribution. Earl brought out the hard cider and we drank several toasts to the farm’s and all our futures. As the evening came to an end, I spoke with Ernest and Ezekiel; I needed to thank them for all their hard work and to confirm the first of our interviews tomorrow. It would be early but we would manage. I asked if they had any further thoughts as to where I could send Earl and Marge on vacation. They promised me they would give it some more thought now that things had quieted down. I had seen an article about Italy and thought it would be nice. We agreed to discuss it further after the interviews were over and we had hired a farm manager.

The next week, for that matter the next two weeks, flew by with a blink of an eye. I don’t know where the time went but every time, I turned around there was something that demanded mine or Ethan’s attention. We had settled on a farm manager and hired Luke Swenson. His parents had been farmers and had seen their future and sold out. Luke was devastated, he had planned on taking over the family farm and had graduated top of his class and looked forward to the day when he would own his own place.

The Swenson’s were originally from Atkinson’s Hollow a small farming community west of Hutchinson, located in a town called Prescott. Their family originally settled there in the mid-1700’s. Birger Swenson son of Ake, took part in the failed Shays’ Rebellion, resulting over taxes on individuals and their trades in response to increases by the state government’s response to a debt crisis.

After that the family lived in relative obscurity until Boston’s thirst for evermore drinking water doomed the Swift River Valley. Two reservoirs closer to Boston, built much earlier, were no longer adequate sources of supply for Boston’s explosive growth. The state legislature ‘condemned’ the Swift River Valley, and in the state’s largest depression public works program in the 1930’s. In all, four towns and several small hamlets were systematically razed and all traces, including cemeteries’, were removed. An aqueduct was built to link up with others closer to Boston and thousands of acres of additional land and watershed around this aqueduct as it traveled east were taken by eminent domain. Forced to relocate they took the money from the forced sale of their farm and found a similar farm in New Hanover.

Like their surrounding neighbors, their farm prospered through WWII and the early 1960’s when the advent of corporate, factory farms sprang up, to cash in on an exploding national population. The end didn’t come with a bang, it was more like a whimper as the handwriting on the wall became clearer. It was difficult to compete with the northern New England farms sending their milk down the interstate to the new processing plant on the other side of Worcester. While the farm was paid for and not in debt, the current operating model was unsustainable.

There was no avoiding the handwriting on the wall, with a son disinherited and not spoken of, and the other just out of college, difficult decisions needed to be made. An offer for the land was too much to pass up. A good year of farming would follow a bad year or two, followed by another down cycle. The very nature of the business of farming precluded a sustainable retirement plan, and if they were going to afford the retirement years, then the farm would have to be sold.

Luke knew we were looking for someone to spend four to six years with us as we got up to speed and through college. We told him we were close to placing an offer on the Jansen’s, we had an agreement in principal and the right of first refusal. We were impressed with his honesty and candor and in discussions with everyone after, it was clear we had all picked him as our first choice. Ethan and I had a quiet talk with him before we offered him the job and explained our plans for the farm and of our life together.

Luke was plain spoken and simply told us that his older brother was gay, that he loved him dearly even after his parents disowned him. While he had moved to New York City, they managed to keep in touch and he was proud of his work with a theater group on Broadway. He let us know that he wasn’t worried and wished us well if we decided to select another candidate. We told him he had the job and he could room at the farm, there were plenty of bedrooms and if he chose to get married, while working for us we would figure something out.

We managed to finish the tent platform as well. Pietro was invaluable as he took it upon himself, along with Sam’s help to organize the lumber pile. As I cut the needed materials from the scrap lumber pile, both boys managed to move what we needed, and get it organized up at the work site.

Mr. Hopkins had asked us to come down to the library one evening to talk about our progress and to meet the folks who ran the small museum in New Hanover. He asked that we bring along Sam and his stone which meant Pietro came as well.

It seemed as if the two of them were as thick as thieves and joined at the hip, where there was one, the other was right around the corner. They were inseparable and did everything asked of them without complaint. I am not sure how he did it, but Pietro managed to convince his folks to let him stay up at the farm. I saw a lot of myself in Pietro and could understand if there were some subterfuges involved. It had gotten under his skin, the dirt of this farm and just like me; he had become one of the family.

It was a great evening at the library and we all learned a lot about the Indians that once lived here. Sam was enthralled and delighted when Mr. Hopkins asked if he could have Sam’s stone, on loan of course, for display. I think what sold Sam was the fact that there would be a tag identifying his ownership and his generosity in loaning it to the library museum. We were allowed to see several rare items that were not on display and to handle them as well. Along with several stone implements we saw handmade baskets, wampum and other such artifacts that had survived from the original settlers of the area. Most of these items had been passed down from generation to generation until they had found their way to the library. We discussed the students that would be coming over to the island to conduct the dig and search for artifacts. They were going to be seniors at state university in Amherst and one of the students was a local and the other from upper New York. They were both girls and serious students. Mr. Hopkins wanted to know if that would pose a problem and if so, to let him know.

I looked at Ethan and noticed Sam and Pietro had wandered off and I wasn’t surprised, as I spotted them huddled in a corner of the museum examining the various displays. I didn’t have a problem and neither did Ethan and I was sure the others wouldn’t either. We might have to wear our shorts a bit more often, but it was only for a couple of weeks. In short order everything was settled and we departed for ice cream cones at the local shop before heading home. As we were leaving there were a group of older kids gathered around a nearly new pickup truck. They were what you would call ‘townies,’ kids whose parents had or held jobs outside of town and were all back from college for the summer. A few words and insults were tossed our way, the mildest being some variation of dumb shit kicking farm boys. A couple more barbs were tossed my way as these kids knew I used to live in the center of town. I could see Ethan getting red and hot under the collar but not letting them getting to him or giving them the satisfaction of a response. One of them threw something at Sam and he yelped. When I turned to Sam, the front of his shirt had ice cream all over it and Pietro had been hit with the splatter.

I started to see red and lost my composure. Mind you I wasn’t a fighter or one who would start something for the heck or fun of it, but I was gonna be damned if I was gonna let this slide. Three years of working on the farm gave me what Marge and Earl called a quiet, determined build. I can toss ninety-pound bales of hay with the best of them. At six foot tall and one hundred-sixty-five pounds I can handle the worst day of haying and come back for more.

Like I said, I wasn’t gonna let four punks mess with mine. I flew over to the one who had tossed the crap at Sam and Pietro, as I pulled my tee shirt off and I was on him in an instant. I grabbed him by his shirt collar and belt and tossed him off the pickup and out into the road in front of the shops. I yelled at him to get up and pick on someone his own size. I hadn’t noticed but Ethan had my back, keeping the other three in check. The punk was unsure of what to do, he kept looking at his friends and then back to me. He kept trying to feint as he tried to get back to his pickup.

That was when I saw Ethan keeping the others at bay. His reputation was simply enough; no one wanted a piece of him. The punk tried to talk tough and I simply said to him to apologize to the boys and we’d be done. He indicated he wasn’t gonna do that as he took a swing at me. As I ducked out of the way of his fist, and as I sidestepped him, I landed a solid right hand to his midsection. As he bent over, I turned and landed a left to his side just below his ribcage. He dropped like a sack of potatoes gasping for air. I stood over him and asked one last time as I made it clear, it was time to apologize or we could keep on going for as long as it took.

He held his hands up and indicated he was done, he’d had enough. He sputtered an apology to Sam and Pietro. As I walked away, I noticed a damp spot in the front of his pants. Sam had found my tee shirt and handed it to me with a stunned look of appreciation on his face. Ethan told the other three we’d be going and expected no further trouble. They just stood there with their mouths open catching flies.

Ethan took the keys from me and told us to get in the car. As we pulled out of the center of town, he turned to me, smiled, and asked me to give him fair warning if I thought he was pushing my buttons. He had seen enough he laughed jokingly. Pietro wasn’t sure what he had seen and was confused; he didn’t know what to say. I don’t know what had come over me but as the adrenalin wore off, I started to shake a bit, I bit my lower lip and softly shook my head. I had to force myself to unclench my fists and to calm down. Ethan stopped at the end of the driveway and turned the car off so we could all talk for a bit and let me cool down.

As we got out of the car, I told the boys I was sorry I had reacted that way. It was wrong that I let them get to me but I wasn’t gonna stand for what they did to kids younger than them. What they did was wrong but there were better ways to handle it. Sam came up and gave me a hug followed by Pietro. Ethan followed by saying fighting should be the last resort and only done in order to defend yourself or someone with you. Once the boys let go of me, we got back in the car and went down to get cleaned up.

Earl was sitting on the porch and as we told the boys to go change, he motioned for us to sit with him a spell. He allowed as how he had gotten a phone call from the owner of the ice cream parlor. The owner gave him the details and made sure to let him know that we didn’t start anything, we just stood up for our own. I stood there feeling embarrassed, that I had let everyone down. I started to explain myself and tried to apologize for my actions. Ethan wrapped an arm over my shoulders and gave his version of what happened.

“You should have seen him Dad” Ethan exclaimed “He was on Bobby Jeanette in an instant after he threw the ice cream on the boys. No sooner as he tore his tee shirt off, he tossed him like a sack of potatoes out into the street. Bobby took one swing and it was over. Squirt dropped him with a combo right and left to the body and made him piss his pants from the punch to the kidney. He asked Bobby to apologize and if he didn’t want to, they could go all night and he finally did apologize. All I did was tell his friends to stay out of it, it wasn’t their fight.”

Sam and Pietro had come back down and were in their nightshirts and were listening to Ethan as he finished. They just kept nodding their heads and staring at me, Sam looked at Pietro and they both grinned as they bolted forward and dragged me down from where I was standing on the porch step and gang tackled me on the lawn. I let them have their way with me and as they got off from me, Sam looked at his grandfather, placed his hands on his hips and said “He ain’t so tough.” Pietro flexed his arms in victory and started giggling. I put my hands up in mock surrender and told them “I give…uncle!”

Earl was laughing at the boys and their antics as he told them it was time for bed, and he wasn’t so old to give them a whupping. They both laughed and hugged us all goodnight. Earl called me up on the porch and had me sit beside him. As I sat down, I was feeling low again, I was sure I had disappointed him, let my temper get the best of me. My eyes started to water as he placed a hand on my thigh.

“I’m proud of you son, you stood up for your family, defended the youngsters against an older bully. You ended the situation quickly and made sure your family was ok. Fighting isn’t always the answer and you should have asked him to apologize before you tossed him in the street, it’s the only thing I can fault you on. On the other hand, I seriously doubt he would have done so and you would have lost the element of surprise, I mean the jerk is older and bigger than you so I guess I can’t blame you for taking advantage of the situation.

I’m sure I’ll be getting a phone call from Chief Woods tomorrow; you know Jeanette’s father owns the grocery store and is a bigger asshole than his son. We’ve never liked each other because I make him pay the same for our dairy products as everyone else. Ralph at the ice cream parlor told me he was going to call Chief Woods in the morning. I can tell you’re beating yourself up over this…don’t, what you did was right, just don’t go making a habit out of it.”

Earl took his hand and rubbed the top of my head and chuckled softly and told me he wished he had been there and seen it. He wanted to know where I had learned to fight and I honestly couldn’t tell him, all I could say was that it was the first time I ever hit another person. Earl wanted to know what I was thinking as I tossed Bobby Jeanette out into the street, and all I could say was that he looked like a bale of hay at that moment. Both Ethan and Earl burst out laughing at the thought. When they calmed down, I told them the rest was just a blur, simply instinct I guessed.

With that and an admonishment to keep Marge out of the loop Earl made his goodnights. I sat on the porch with Ethan for a while longer.

“Jesus Christ Squirt, I didn’t think you were gonna react that quickly. You beat me to the punch and Jeanette’s is lucky for it. I don’t think I would have been so kind. I’ll never understand why he thinks the way he does. Where does he get off thinking he can pick on kids younger and smaller than him?”

“You’re not upset with me?” I asked. “When he tossed the ice cream cone at Sam, all I saw was him and Pietro being threatened and I wasn’t gonna stand for that!”

“Hell no, not in a million years” Ethan replied “I just never expected you to end it like you did. Like Dad said, I am proud of you, you stood up for the little guys against an asshole who had it coming. What surprised the living crap out of me is what you did and how you moved so fast.”

I leaned into Ethan and we sat quietly for a bit. The fireflies were out and we watched them dance in the late evening sky. It was one of the infinite mysteries of nature that never failed to amaze me. I remember as a kid chasing after them with an old peanut butter jar. We had punched holes in the lid with a rusty nail and a hammer so our captured fireflies could breathe. We’d always let them go the next day after we let them amaze us. I would keep mine on the table beside my bed and would fall asleep watching them and wondering how they did it. It was one of those mysteries of the universe that made everything seem so brand new and special. In many ways it was how I looked at life, with an insatiable curiosity, a need to understand how things worked and to understand my place in the grand scheme of things.

As I was ruminating Ethan had guided me to our bedroom. I looked at him with a guilty look on my face and confessed to traveling again. He laughed and told me to go brush my teeth and pee. He did the same and joined me in bed. We lay quietly together. I needed to be held tonight and I think he knew it. We talked about tomorrow, we’d be heading back out to the cabin, our ‘guests’ were coming the following day, Saturday afternoon. He wrapped me in his loving arms and we drifted off to sleep as I could feel his heartbeat against my back.

I awoke the next morning feeling refreshed. I wasn’t as bothered by the incident last night as I thought. Having some distance and perspective I realized it was mostly an instinctive reaction on my part. I was simply protecting my own. I could hear Sam and Pietro waking up and running off to the bathroom. A few moments later they both appeared beside the bed smelling of freshly brushed teeth. Their hair was still askew and their nightshirts looked as if they needed a visit to Mr. Washing Machine. Seeing I was awake they scooted over to my side of the bed and clambered on. Sam was going a mile a minute about what we needed to do to get ready. I swear that boy was already out at the cabin he had planned so far ahead. Pietro lay quietly beside me with his arm across my chest and his head snuggled up over my armpit.

“We need to get the cooler packed and bring plenty of ice this time.” Sam started off, “better yet we need to bring two coolers and take both rowboats. There’s left over pie and cake in the fridge and we gotta have pork chops tonight with onions and potatoes. I saw fresh bacon too, Pietro and me will get some eggs and can we have burgers and dogs for lunch? Don’t forget the marshmallows and we need to bring peanut butter and some jam. We need to bring milk for our cereal and mom dropped off some story books for the cabin. We got a great new book about a boy named Mawgrim who saves his family from a volcano. Tomorrow those guys from the college are coming out, are we gonna feed them and do we need to do anything for them? I got some shovels and rakes from the barn; we gotta remember to bring those as well. Grandpa said we could take one of the old bureaus for the bunkroom so we got a place to keep our clothes and blankets, we should bring another one for the bedroom to keep the blanket and sheets in. We are gonna need fresh batteries for the Pooplight too. We need to bring toilet paper and napkins as well!”

Just as Sam was about to launch into another stream of directives Ethan rolled over and took a giggling Sam with him into a tickling frenzy.

“Just how full of plans for the weekend is that hard head of yours?” Ethan asked a squirming Sam.

“Well, somebody’s got to do the thinking for all of us; if we left it up to you, we’d be eating nothing but sandwiches and wiping our bums with leaves!” Sam screamed with delight as he tried to worm his way out from Ethan’s grasp.

“If you don’t stop, I’m gonna pee!” He giggled as Ethan relentlessly continued to tickle Sam. It was quite comical to watch the two of them go after each other. Somewhere along the line Sam had figured out that Ethan also had a sensitive spot or two. Ethan, while much stronger and far more able, would always let Sam get the upper hand at times. Once Sam was sitting on Ethan’s chest and pinning his arms back, he demanded that Ethan say uncle, I give.

“Never” Ethan replied. “I’ll get my boyfriend to beat you up, and then we will get you to say uncle!”

“He’s a wuss…you saw us take him down last night!” Sam countered sitting back on Ethan’s lap. Reaching below him Sam noticed some morning wood. Grabbing the blankets, he jumped off the bed and mischievously pointed out our pee boners.

“You guys better take care of those and get moving, we’ve got plenty to do if we’re gonna get out to the cabin for lunch. Let’s go Pietro, we’ve got some chores to do before breakfast.” Sam barked as he left the blankets in a heap on the floor as he left the room to go get dressed.

A very reluctant Pietro started to get up to follow Sam when he stopped for a second, looked me in the eyes and then to Ethan and quietly said “I love you guys so much, thanks for letting me stay here for the summer. I’m having so much fun I think I am dreaming sometimes.”

Pietro leaned over and planted a kiss on Ethan’s shoulder and then kissed me lightly on my chest. Jumping up from the bed he adjusted his tented nightshirt and made his way out to Sam’s room. We got up, did the bathroom thing, got dressed and headed down to have our breakfast. As we were finishing a grinning Sam followed by Pietro joined us.

“I thought you guys were going out to do chores before you ate?” I asked.

“We ran into a slight problem” Pietro commented “But it’s better now.” He said smiling.

Sam turned a bright shade of red and for once had nothing to say. “Well, I’m glad to see it’s taken care of,” Ethan commented. “I hope it wasn’t too hard.”

“Nope, Sam was able to handle it just fine.” Pietro replied sweetly, looking over to an obviously embarrassed Sam.

“It didn’t take as long as I thought it would” Sam replied, smiling sweetly back at Pietro. Now it was Pietro’s turn to blush. The both of them were looking at each other with evil grins. “Someone lost a bet and tonight he’s gonna have to settle up, it’s gonna be fun.”

“O really” I commented. “And just what do you mean by that?”

“You’ll see tonight after story time.” Sam replied. “Let’s go Pietro, we got chores to finish, then we can eat.”

We watched them as they departed the kitchen and looked at each other wondering just what the boys were planning. I just shrugged my shoulders and started to clean up. I asked Ethan if he had made a list of what we needed to do and pack for the weekend. Reaching into his pocket he pulled it out and placed it on the table. I gave him a kiss and told him I would see him in an hour as I needed to go downtown to pick up some of the things we didn’t have. Ethan commented he would give Sam and Pietro the list when they came back from chores for breakfast and set them to loading the rowboats. He and Earl would bring the bureaus down to the dock and then he’d find Bobby and Eddy to see what their plans were. Grabbing my keys, I kissed him goodbye again and left to run our errands.

By the time I had gotten back the boys had finished their chores and were helping Ethan load the coolers. They grabbed what I had bought and started packing it way as well. Ethan handed the list to Sam and told him to get a move on and bring the rest of the stuff down to the dock. As they left Ethan let me know that Bobby and Eddy had been invited to a party and wouldn’t be out to the cabin till tomorrow morn. As we were talking, they came down to the kitchen and we chatted for a bit. Bobby was going to call his older brother for a ride and I suggested that they take my car, replace the gas they used and promise not to drink and drive. They both agreed and I suggested if they came back early enough, we would leave one of the rowboats for them and to come over when they came back home, either way we would see them in the morning.

The rest of the morning flew by; we made it out to the cabin and got everything unloaded. We needed to put the screens on the new windows on the additions, finish up the trim work and clean up around the area. We needed wood for the outdoor fireplace and I wanted to bring up some more firewood to the tent platform. I had Sam and Pietro give the cabin a good through sweeping and hang the carpet so they could beat the dirt out of it. The kitchen area needed a scrubbing as well. While the boys were at it, Ethan and I worked at our chores. When the boys informed us that they had finished they came over to help us. As we cut the firewood for the two fire pits, they hauled it to them. We all made a general sweep around the cabin and the area outside where we had worked on the additions.

Once everyone was satisfied as to our cleanup efforts we stopped for a light lunch and ate down at the outside fireplace. I had brought down the soap and towels so we could clean up after, as we all were a tad smelly. We waited the obligatory time before we jumped in. All of us having shucked our clothes were walking down to the dock when I scooped up Sam, threw him over my shoulder and went running towards the end of the dock. When I got there, he was screeching pretty loudly. I stopped, set him down on his feet and as he tried to get by me, I gave him a light push on his chest and he went backwards into the water. Ethan was right behind me with a frantic Pietro who also got the same treatment as we pushed him in. Ethan and I turned to each other, walked back up the dock a bit then ran down and each of us did a cannonball next to the boys.

We fooled around engaged in some horseplay. We played for a bit and washed up. After washing we got up and dried off by the outdoor fireplace. Spreading out our towels we chose to do a bit of sunbathing. All in all, it was a relaxing afternoon. After we had had our fill of tanning, we decided to check out the area where Sam had found his stone. Not seeing much or finding anything we headed back to the cabin. There was a Red Sox game on the battery radio and we decided to sit around and listen to it. I had tossed the blankets and pillows on the floor and was cuddled up to Ethan with my head in his lap. Sam had done the same with Pietro and was running his fingers idly through Pietro’s hair. The post-game show was ending when I woke, everyone else was fast asleep.