I was six years old when Jean became my best friend.
Momma was a midwife, and since we lived in a town where there weren't enough people to have a doctor, she was the one that was in charge of making sure all the women in town got through having their babies alright.
I knew a lot about babies and how they came into the world, even when I was just six, because my older sister had died when I was just a few months old, and my momma didn't let me out of her sight much after that. Since papa worked all day, momma took me to do housecalls with her, and I learned how to take care of a baby and soothe a mother who was gettin' ready to have one.
Mostly my job was just to keep the family busy though. Whoever was havin' the baby--her husband would help momma and I'd keep their kids from crying or running in and making a mess of things..
That's how I met Jean. Her mother was havin' a baby boy, and Jean's pa was out of town on business, since he was the only banker in town and had to go into the city sometimes. Jeannie was about ten then, and even though she was a whole lot older than me, she was awful sheltered, so she didn't know the first thing about babies and why her momma was screaming so much.
I took Jean outside and played with her, and kept her busy while her momma was screamin' and mine trying to get her to calm down. It took an awful while, but by the time Jeannie had her baby brother, I had a best friend.
Jean and I were inseperable for all those years to come. She stayed with my family and I stayed with hers, we played out in the fields during our free time and giggled together when they gathered all the kids up once a week for school. My papa was just a farmer, and Jeannie's was a banker, so we weren't the usual type of friends. But her pa was nice and liked me an awful lot, and her momma was grateful to mine, so we just kinda grew up together.
She taught me how to read, since neither my momma nor my papa could. I taught her about babies and sex, and I think most of the time I just did it because I loved seeing her cheeks get all red when she said, "Marie, you must be lying!"
I was twelve when my uncle died. I'd never really known him, and it probably wouldn't have affected my life at all except for that's when my cousin Scott came to live with us.
I didn't like him in the beginning. Uncle had been a real important man--a Senator back east, so Scott was all educated and smart, and I could tell he didn't much care for us illiterate farmers who he was forced to call kin. He was very serious and scolded me when I did things that he thought were unlady-like, and that upset me a lot until momma took me aside and told me a few things about how his parents had died and how he'd had to see it happen and how he'd be all twisted up inside. I guess it was natural for him to hate us because we weren't his real family, so I tried awful hard to be nice to him from then on out.
He got better, a little bit at a time. I was just startin to like him when he did the thing that I'd never forgive him for.
He stole Jeannie right out from under my nose.
I should have seen it coming. Jean had been all blushy around him ever since she'd first met him, and she was nearing on seventeen now--and her papa was gettin' awful antsy about getting her a husband. Scott was just about her age, and even though he wasn't blushy, he was a whole lot nicer to her than he was to me. Held open the doors for her and carried her books or her bag.
Then came the day I caught them kissing. Maybe I was being jealous, but I was only twelve years old and I couldn't understand why anyone would rather play with a boy than with their best friend. I've learned better since--but at the time I was just angry. I took off my shoe and threw it at them.
Scott had all the right education, so when he went to Jean's pa and asked for her hand, he got it right quickly, along with an apprenticship with her pa so that he could run the bank in a few years time. Everyone was awful happy about it but me--but that was just because I still didn't want to be losing my best friend to some boy.
Jeannie was awful nervous about her wedding night, but since I knew all the basics I didn't have much of a problem telling her what was going to happen, and she hugged me so hard and looked so relieved that I was talking to her again that even a twelve year old could get the hint.
I gave them my blessing, much as they needed it, and next thing I knew Scott and papa were off building a house for the newly weds to live in, and Jean was glowing and looking like a woman, and not a girl anymore, and I had to deal with spending lots of time by myself since momma said it was inappropriate for me to be going into their house until they'd settled down.
I was fourteen before momma told me it was okay to be playing with 'adults' again, and by that time I was getting more than a little nervous about the way she was sizing up the young men in town. I could tell she was thinking it was about time for me to be getting married, and it wasn't an idea I was looking forwards to at all.
I knew most of the boys my age. A few of them, Bobby and John mostly, were kinda nice. They let me play with them when Jeannie was off being a wife and usually didn't get all uptight about me being a girl. But John was already spoken for, even if he didn't know it, by Jean's cousin Kitty.
Bobby kinda acted like he might have a crush on me, but he was all embaressed about it because I was the town's little tomboy, and all the girls aside for Kitty and Jeannie made fun of me an awful lot. I kinda had the feeling that even if any of the boys in town were willing to take me to wife, they'd never have the guts to tell anyone else. And that made me feel awful safe.
I was sixteen when Jeannie finally got herself with child, and I could tell that momma and papa and Jeannie's ma and pa too were holding their breath until it happened. Scott was almost unbearable, strutting around like he was soley responsible and Jeannie hadn't had a thing to do with it. I kicked him square in the backside once for that, and it showed how good a mood he was in that he just laughed and hugged me.
Momma was nervous, I could tell though. She'd gone to check on Jeannie more than once, and even though she didn't look pregnant yet, even I could tell that she wasn't doing all too good.
Momma asked me to spend some more time there and keep an eye on Jean, and she must have said something to Scott because suddenly he was all too glad to see me every waking moment. I walked with Jeannie when she went to do errands and sat with her at night while she mended Scott's clothing. I cooked and cleaned for her, because I could tell how tired she was.
Two weeks later was when it happened--the thing that changed all of our lives for good, mine most of all.
Jeannie had been visiting her ma and pa, and I'd been with her because it was late and I didn't want her walking home after dark by herself. We should have taken the long way home, but Jeannie was tired and I didn't want to make her walk any farther than she had to, so I lead her down the shortcut between the backs of everyone's houses, where it was dark.
We lived in a small town, and criminals didn't have much place there. There were the occasional bands or robbers and highway men who preyed on the larger towns, but there wasn't much of value in our little village so we'd never had much of a problem.
We did that night. Half way home, just in the stretch where it was darkest and farthest away from anyone's house, we got attacked.
There were three of them, three men. One was bigger than any man I'd ever seen before, and another had these horrible beady eyes that were running up and down my body like he knew exactly what was underneath all of my clothing.
The third was well dressed--too well dressed for a bandit--and was smiling. "Now then, what are two little girls like you doing out so late?"
I hated him. From the minute I saw him I knew he was something horrible--something that wanted to hurt me and mine. I clutched at Jeannie's arm and tried to push her behind me. "We're going home." I tried to say it definatly, but I was terrified. Being a bit of a tomboy is one thing, but I was no warrior. These three men could take me apart and I wouldn't be able to do anything about it. The thought terrified me.
"You can go home if you want, darling," the older man said with a rough smile. "But I'm afraid that the Senator's wife is coming with me."
I didn't know what he was talking about, but I'm fairly sure Jeannie did at that point because she gasped and started shaking.
"Scott's no Senator," I hissed, trying to buy time as I looked around at where we were. Behind the old feed shop and next to the hardware store--but the lights were out in both buildings, so any hope that the owners were still there was gone.
I dropped to the ground and tried to look scared. "Please don't hurt me, sir. You can take her, but please don't--" Jeannie's betrayed gasp was all I had time to hear as I closed my fingers around the rock at my feet and arched my arm back.
Bobby taught me how to throw, and he'd been good. The rock flew true, smashing into the side of the man's face and dropping him to the street with a moan.
His companions looked torn between running to him or running at me. I didn't give them much chance to think either way--I grabbed Jeannie and dragged her around the side of the hardware shop.
"What are you--"
"Shhhh!" I pushed her down as I picked up another rock and, muttering apologies to Hank for destroying his front window, smashed in the glass on the hardware store display case.
Jeannie was moaning in pain now, one hand pressed to her stomach. I didn't want to think about what that probably meant, so I shoved her down into the corner against the door and gathered my skirts around my knees and jumped through the window.
Jeannie couldn't run. I couldn't leave her. That meant I needed to find one of the guns Hank kept in the back of the store--because it was my only hope of scaring them off enough until help came. Or maybe I could fire a shot off at the sky--that'd bring everyone running awful quick.
I saw the guns right as I heard Jeannie's scream for help. Snatching the nearest one, not caring that it was huge and unwieldy and that I'd never really fired one, just watched my pa do it the one time he took me huntin with him, I flung myself back towards the front of the store and stood at the window.
Jeannie was kicking at the man with the beady eyes, who had his hand tangled up in her hair. Raising shaking hands, I pointed the gun at them and screamed, "Don't move!"
The big man took one look at me and laughed. And then he reached throuh the window and grabbed me around the arm, brushing the gun away as if it were nothing.
"Safety, little girl. You can't kill anyone with the saftey on." He knocked the gun from my hands and wrapped an arm around my neck, keeping me tucked against the side of his body with no effort whatsoever.
As a hero out of a tale, I was a complete failure.
"What d'you wanna do with this one?" the man holding me growled, and I rolled my eyes to the side enough to be able to see the well dressed man, clutching a clean handkerchief to his face.
The man scowled. "She's an illiterate farmer. She's of no use to anyone." Shrugging one shoulder, the man spun on his heel. "Make her regret the little show she put on. But don't leave her around to tell the dear Senator where to look for his beloved wife."
If it had just been me--it would have been the end of me. But I wasn't just scared for myself--I was scared because I could hear Jeannie moaning in pain, and I was all too sure I knew what that meant.
That's when I got awful brave--or awful stupid, I haven't decided yet which one it was. The man who was holding me threw me at the ground fair hard enough to split my skull, but somehow I managed to roll enough so that I came up holding that gun in my hands.
He laughed--but not for long because it wasn't more than a second or two later that I managed to figure out how to take the safety off--and then the world exploded in more ways than one.
The big one screamed and fell on top of me, and I barely noticed because the gun had kicked back so hard that it had slipped up and neatly split my forehead open. Jeannie was screaming again, and I heard the well dressed man cursing as he turned to come back towards us.
I couldn't see much, with blood running into my eye--but I could see that the shorter man had dropped Jean and was coming towards me too--and that Jeannie was still well enough that she'd started crawling away.
That's when I heard the sound I'd been waiting for since it all started--the sound of townspeople pouring out into the streets and heading towards us.
The well dressed one grabbed my hair in his fist and pulled my face up to his. "You're not going to live another month if I have anything to say about it," he growled at me. "And trust me, girl--I have the power to destroy you and everything you hold dear."
He dropped my head so fast it smacked into the ground--and I think that was one hit too many because that time I passed out.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Status: This is a work in progress. I promise to do better with it than Donna is with Love Magic though. ;) Dedication: Loving snuggles to my Crew, my homegirls, the people who make it all okay: Nacey, Gowdie, Melly, Donna, Jenilou, Shaz, Jenn--and with loving apologies to my beta reader who hasn't even seen this. *ducks*