My brother and I were very young, probably still in grade school and sometimes, our grandparents went visiting. It did not happen a lot, but sometimes, they would gather my brother and I, we would load up in that Dodge Colt, and go visiting neighbors or a family member. They lived by the golden rule, kids were to be seen not heard. Therefore when we got to our destination, we had to be outside playing while they visited.
Mr. Zeb, a cousin of ours, he lived on a farm. Well I would like to say that he lived on the closest idea of a ranch that any family we visited came too. So my brother and I were shuffled out the door to occupy ourselves while the adults visited.
Maybe I was a mean sister, but I wanted to think, I was just mischievous. Mr. Zeb and his wife did not have little children anymore, so there were no toys, inside or outside. There was a lot of mischief to get into though.
We were warned before we ventured out that the fence was an electric fence, not to touch it. My brother and I, mainly me, was interested in this fence. We walked down the length of it, seeing horses on the other side. I loved horses but I was somewhat afraid of them. I kicked the leaves by the fence, kind of upset that none of the horses could be coaxed over to the fence.
In the process of kicking the leaves, my foot caught an old windshield wiper. At this point, I think my grandmother would have regretted letting me listen to all those stories of when she was growing up. Especially on this day. I remembered the story she told about how it was a game of theirs to grab the electric fence after grabbing another person. The current would travel through the first person and flatten the one on the end. The more people, the worse the last one got. Maybe I believed her, maybe I had the natural curiosity to prove to myself if this was the case or not.
Playing with the old wiper, which I knew would be just as efficient as me grabbing the fence bare-handed, I coaxed my brother over to me. Idly, I grabbed his hand as I was talking to him. Why in the hell he did not see this as odd, it was beyond me, but he followed along without question?
Suddenly I laid the metal wiper on the top row of fencing, my arm quivered, then my body, my brother flew out of my hand with this stunned look and landed on his back on the ground. He was stunned and then he started to cry and already I could feel the beating on my ass if they heard him. I quickly begged him to stop crying, promising anything he wanted. Finally he stopped crying....and told me he wanted an apple from the tree.
The tree was in the pasture on the other side of that same fence. The entire fence was barbed wire except for the top wire. Getting through the fence was easy and I felt bad that my brother cried. Even now, all these years later, I would do anything to make him smile, make him laugh. So even though I was rather afraid of the horses, I creeped slowly across the field to the tree. Climbing trees never bothered me, I was good at it, getting down was another story as I was terrified of heights. I was determined to get him that apple. I reached the tree and found that the limbs were low enough to steal the apple without climbing. By this point all the horses were watching me and slowly making their way over.
I swallowed hard, wondering why in the hell they chose now to come over to me when I was on the wrong side of the fence. I slowly walked back toward my brother, gripping the apple, refusing to look over my shoulder at the horses I heard coming up behind me.
The closer I got to freedom, the closer I got to my brother and the whiter his face became. He stood on the other side of the fence looking behind me. The horses frightened me and I kept walking, then he started pointing behind me. I really did not want to look and see all these horses behind me. Beautiful animals, but on separate sides of the fence. Finally I looked over my shoulder as he had become frantic pointing.
Mr. Zeb, a cousin of ours, he lived on a farm. Well I would like to say that he lived on the closest idea of a ranch that any family we visited came too. So my brother and I were shuffled out the door to occupy ourselves while the adults visited.
Maybe I was a mean sister, but I wanted to think, I was just mischievous. Mr. Zeb and his wife did not have little children anymore, so there were no toys, inside or outside. There was a lot of mischief to get into though.
We were warned before we ventured out that the fence was an electric fence, not to touch it. My brother and I, mainly me, was interested in this fence. We walked down the length of it, seeing horses on the other side. I loved horses but I was somewhat afraid of them. I kicked the leaves by the fence, kind of upset that none of the horses could be coaxed over to the fence.
In the process of kicking the leaves, my foot caught an old windshield wiper. At this point, I think my grandmother would have regretted letting me listen to all those stories of when she was growing up. Especially on this day. I remembered the story she told about how it was a game of theirs to grab the electric fence after grabbing another person. The current would travel through the first person and flatten the one on the end. The more people, the worse the last one got. Maybe I believed her, maybe I had the natural curiosity to prove to myself if this was the case or not.
Playing with the old wiper, which I knew would be just as efficient as me grabbing the fence bare-handed, I coaxed my brother over to me. Idly, I grabbed his hand as I was talking to him. Why in the hell he did not see this as odd, it was beyond me, but he followed along without question?
Suddenly I laid the metal wiper on the top row of fencing, my arm quivered, then my body, my brother flew out of my hand with this stunned look and landed on his back on the ground. He was stunned and then he started to cry and already I could feel the beating on my ass if they heard him. I quickly begged him to stop crying, promising anything he wanted. Finally he stopped crying....and told me he wanted an apple from the tree.
The tree was in the pasture on the other side of that same fence. The entire fence was barbed wire except for the top wire. Getting through the fence was easy and I felt bad that my brother cried. Even now, all these years later, I would do anything to make him smile, make him laugh. So even though I was rather afraid of the horses, I creeped slowly across the field to the tree. Climbing trees never bothered me, I was good at it, getting down was another story as I was terrified of heights. I was determined to get him that apple. I reached the tree and found that the limbs were low enough to steal the apple without climbing. By this point all the horses were watching me and slowly making their way over.
I swallowed hard, wondering why in the hell they chose now to come over to me when I was on the wrong side of the fence. I slowly walked back toward my brother, gripping the apple, refusing to look over my shoulder at the horses I heard coming up behind me.
The closer I got to freedom, the closer I got to my brother and the whiter his face became. He stood on the other side of the fence looking behind me. The horses frightened me and I kept walking, then he started pointing behind me. I really did not want to look and see all these horses behind me. Beautiful animals, but on separate sides of the fence. Finally I looked over my shoulder as he had become frantic pointing.
In all honesty, if I had known the word "Fuck" at the time, I would have screamed it. What in the hell was that? The bull was trotting toward me, snorting. My heart dropped, my breathing came to a screeching halt.
Sometimes I like to think that I am smart, and that I use my head, but I am not sure why I thought an electric fence was in place for horses. Seeing this huge monster heading toward me, I knew then that it was to keep this crazy looking bastard in. I slowly turned back to my brother and walked even slower, it seemed to take forever to reach that damn fence. Then I heard it. The sound of hoofs hitting the packed ground behind me, faster...faster...my feet moved faster...I was running, I could not scream...I lost my voice.
I reached the fence, going through barbed wire, hitting the electric wire, getting jolted from the electricity and the barbs ripping into my skin. I finally got through it, the bull skidding to a stop a few feet where I was just at, looking down on me, covered in blood and ripped clothes, trying to get my scrambled head straight..like he was laughing at me. He turned and trotted away.
Later, when it was time to leave, none of the adults said one word to me, but they knew..they knew I had met the bull and had disobeyed what they had told me. It was not the first time, and over the years, it would not be the last time either.
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