One Hour Stories: A New Day
Nov. 7th, 2011 10:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
This morning my bedroom doorknob refused to turn. Lucky for me, my husband was on the other side of it, so he could pass under a screwdriver.
Title: A New Day
Status: Complete
Series: One Hour Stories (written in one hour)
Genre: slice of life, frontier, m/m romance
Rating: PG-ish
Length: about 1.8k words
Summary: Nathan finds that leaving home was for the best. (or Sometimes even the quiet ones get noticed.)
Notes: I’ve heard that most of the people who moved out onto the American frontier had no previous farming experience. And, Skimbli, this is the story I mentioned the other week.
Nathan woke naked, hundreds of miles from home. Logan stretched beside him, rubbing their bodies together, waking Nathan up all the more. This farm might have been far from where Nathan was born and raised, but the place felt more like home than his real home ever had, especially with Logan beside him.
Logan laid his arm across Nathan’s waist and snuggled closer. “I’m glad you’re here.”
Nathan was glad too.
Six weeks ago Nathan had been like any farm boy who wasn’t as manly as his brothers, uncles, and cousins. He worked twice as hard as everyone else, bailing hay, mending fences, and hunting food for the table. Or at least it felt that way.
Nathan’s brothers got praised for hitting any of the inner circles during target practice, but the first time Nathan had put all his bullets into the bull’s eye, his father had just shrugged and then ignored the teasing of the boys Nathan’s age that he’d rather be in the kitchen with the women because he was such a girly boy.
He thought his life would never change. Every day was like the one before.
But one day his family noticed that no smoke was coming from his uncle’s chimney across the valley. Nathan had gone with the men to investigate. He almost wished he hadn’t. As much as he hated some of his family’s actions, he hadn’t wanted to them dead.
Not one person in the household had survived.
While Nathan’s family was trying to figure out what happened, a group of men rode up. They had been chasing the bandits who had done this for weeks and this was the closest they had gotten to them.
Nathan’s father invited the men over for a meal for them and their horses before they restarted the chase. One of Nathan’s cousins asked the sergeant about his gun and bragged about how good a shot he was. Then he’d taken the sergeant out to the shooting range while Nathan was sent back to his chores.
But just as Nathan was finishing them, he was dragged out to the shooting range and less than an hour later he found himself on his father’s second best horse with his horse trailing behind in the midst of a group of grim men. But for all his lack of sleep and the grizzly scenes as they chased the bandits across the country, the men didn’t care if Nathan waved his hands while he talked, or even if he talked to much, and they appreciated his cooking, which he turned out to be good at despite being hounded out of the kitchen by the womenfolk when he was eight.
Then yesterday the commander had told them to press ahead, not stopping to sleep even for a few hours in the dead of night. They had long since stopped taking the time to bury the dead or to eat—they lived on hardtack and jerky. And like always the commander was right.
A little after midday the bandits came into sight. The troop chased them hard, trying to stop them before they could take refuge anywhere. But as the troop rounder a corner into a valley, they heard shots. The bandits had found a small farm. A man lay bleeding in front of the house and by the cries of children, the bandits must be inside.
In an effort to distract the bandits from the family, the commander told the troop to start shooting, but to make every shot count. Nathan picked a window and whenever a face or a gun barrel appeared he shot at it. He hoped the family was safe somewhere inside. When no more guns appeared in that window, he moved to another.
The bandits filled the air with bullets, but they didn’t shoot very straight. The odor of blood from the fallen man mingled with the sulfur and cow manure and smelled like the worst butchering day ever. Nathan tried not to remember it was human blood as he knocked off a bandit, which was the first man he’d known for sure he’d killed, but he didn’t have time to throw up; other guns were pointed at him.
Then all the sudden the bullets stopped. The farmwife came out waving a dishcloth. The commander and sergeant followed her back inside. She’d killed the remaining bandits with her husband’s rifle.
The troop was given order to help restore the farm. Nathan had already volunteered to dig the grave, hard work but less gruesome than dealing with dead bodies, when a boy his age practically tumbled down the steps in an effort to get to the fallen man. As he watched Logan fuss over his father, Nathan felt as if he’d finally come home.
That day went by quickly as Nathan concentrated on digging because where he really wanted to be was back at the house, but then Logan brought Nathan lemonade halfway through his job and stayed to talk.
Logan was what Nathan had always wanted to be. He pranced around and giggle instead of laughed and he spoke almost like singing and waved his hands and had all those gestures that Nathan had been teased for.
And he smiled at Nathan like he was the best thing ever.
On their way back to the house, Nathan noticed a cow leaning on a tilted fence post. The post would need to be replaced soon or the whole fence might come down. A couple of shingles had fallen off the roof, maybe during the storm a few days back, and the barn was in need of a fresh coat of wash.
Nathan stepped into the barn, which was warm and dry. The animals looked well taken care of, but for how long with the farmer bleeding in the house? Nathan did the chores he would have done at home, plus his brothers’ chores, while Logan brought the cows in and milked them. One of the other men had stabled the horses, which numbered twenty now that the bandits’ horses were with theirs, but he hadn’t mucked the stalls first and old straw was as bad as dirty straw.
The tired horses didn’t want to move, but with Logan’s help and some apples from his cellar, Nathan was able to head for the house with his conscious clear.
The men were eating in the yard. The farm wife’s cooking smelled delicious. When Nathan asked where to wash up, he was directed to a beautiful porcelain sink that was too clean for the other men to have used. He was embarrassed of all the brown smudges he left on it, but Logan’s mother said that’s what the sink was for as she directed him to the table.
He tried to protest, but she wouldn’t hear of it. Logan’s younger sibling kept the table lively and his mother kept Nathan’s plate full. And she smiled at him a great deal. But then she smiled at Logan, too. Despite the dirt under his clothes and the bone tired ache of his body and not knowing any of the people the children spoke about, this was the most pleasant meal he could remember.
The doc came out of another room and said that the farmer’s life wasn’t in any danger, but that his missus should feed him as much meat as he could hold for the first few weeks. He’d be himself again by haying time.
Logan’s mother pressed her lips together and wondered aloud if they should slaughter any of the calves. But the farm had room to grow, so obviously that hadn’t been the farmer’s plan. Nathan volunteered to see what he could shoot before the sun went down.
The children told him of a place they’d seen wild rabbits. Nathan picked up his guns and headed out. He only caught two rabbits, which didn’t seem a fair exchange for all their hospitality. Especially when Logan took the rabbits from him to clean and Logan’s mother insisted he take a bath that she’d warmed just for him.
A bath had never felt so good. He washed until he was pink and stayed in the water until after his fingers wrinkled as he ignored the growing layer of grit in the bottom. But just as the feeling of being warm and clean was dragging him into a stupor, he heard Logan’s mother tell Logan that they wouldn’t be able to make it on their own. They needed someone who knew how to farm at least until his father was up and about and maybe longer. Logan should do whatever he had to, to keep Nathan at the farm.
Nathan pulled himself awake. Why him? Why not one of the older men? True, he was the person who’d most recently lived on a farm, but he was also the youngest by many years.
He toweled off and pulled on the night shirt the farmwife had laid out for him. Logan met him at the kitchen door and instead of going outside, he was led upstairs into Logan’s room.
Nathan hadn’t stayed in the nightshirt long. Logan was very persistent and his hands on Nathan’s skin felt like heaven. Nathan push away the memories of his brothers’ and cousins’ taunts and did with a man what he’d never let himself think about outside of dreams.
Logan ran his hand up Nathan’s side. “You hungry for breakfast?”
Nathan returned the caress. “I’m hungry for something.”
Logan giggled. “So am I, but the cows will start complaining if I don’t get up soon.”
Nathan followed him out of bed. The world looked different this morning. It smelled different too, better. He put on his cleanest clothes and walked down to the kitchen. Logan’s mother kneaded bread without looking up. “The men are leaving after breakfast. You going with them?”
Nathan wanted to shout no, but that wasn’t the way he was raised. “You have a nice farm. It feels like home.”
“More like home since you arrived.” She grinned at him.
Nathan blushed. “I like it here.”
“We like you here, Logan and I. Tom will get used to it when he’s up and about. He isn’t the most…experience farmer around. I’m sure your help will do him good.”
“Thank you.”
“But are you staying?” demanded Logan’s little sister.
“I’ve been thinking about it.”
“Don’t think about it,” said the other little sister. “Just stay.”
Nathan smiled. “You agree?”
“We do,” said Logan’s mother. “Logan does too.”
“Well,” said Nathan. “If he asks me, I won’t say no.”
Logan’s three younger siblings looked at each other then raced out the door.
Logan burst in the house a moment later, breathing hard. “You’re staying, right? With me?”
Nathan nodded and wrapped his arm around Logan’s waist. “There’s nowhere I’d rather be.”
Title: A New Day
Status: Complete
Series: One Hour Stories (written in one hour)
Genre: slice of life, frontier, m/m romance
Rating: PG-ish
Length: about 1.8k words
Summary: Nathan finds that leaving home was for the best. (or Sometimes even the quiet ones get noticed.)
Notes: I’ve heard that most of the people who moved out onto the American frontier had no previous farming experience. And, Skimbli, this is the story I mentioned the other week.
Nathan woke naked, hundreds of miles from home. Logan stretched beside him, rubbing their bodies together, waking Nathan up all the more. This farm might have been far from where Nathan was born and raised, but the place felt more like home than his real home ever had, especially with Logan beside him.
Logan laid his arm across Nathan’s waist and snuggled closer. “I’m glad you’re here.”
Nathan was glad too.
Six weeks ago Nathan had been like any farm boy who wasn’t as manly as his brothers, uncles, and cousins. He worked twice as hard as everyone else, bailing hay, mending fences, and hunting food for the table. Or at least it felt that way.
Nathan’s brothers got praised for hitting any of the inner circles during target practice, but the first time Nathan had put all his bullets into the bull’s eye, his father had just shrugged and then ignored the teasing of the boys Nathan’s age that he’d rather be in the kitchen with the women because he was such a girly boy.
He thought his life would never change. Every day was like the one before.
But one day his family noticed that no smoke was coming from his uncle’s chimney across the valley. Nathan had gone with the men to investigate. He almost wished he hadn’t. As much as he hated some of his family’s actions, he hadn’t wanted to them dead.
Not one person in the household had survived.
While Nathan’s family was trying to figure out what happened, a group of men rode up. They had been chasing the bandits who had done this for weeks and this was the closest they had gotten to them.
Nathan’s father invited the men over for a meal for them and their horses before they restarted the chase. One of Nathan’s cousins asked the sergeant about his gun and bragged about how good a shot he was. Then he’d taken the sergeant out to the shooting range while Nathan was sent back to his chores.
But just as Nathan was finishing them, he was dragged out to the shooting range and less than an hour later he found himself on his father’s second best horse with his horse trailing behind in the midst of a group of grim men. But for all his lack of sleep and the grizzly scenes as they chased the bandits across the country, the men didn’t care if Nathan waved his hands while he talked, or even if he talked to much, and they appreciated his cooking, which he turned out to be good at despite being hounded out of the kitchen by the womenfolk when he was eight.
Then yesterday the commander had told them to press ahead, not stopping to sleep even for a few hours in the dead of night. They had long since stopped taking the time to bury the dead or to eat—they lived on hardtack and jerky. And like always the commander was right.
A little after midday the bandits came into sight. The troop chased them hard, trying to stop them before they could take refuge anywhere. But as the troop rounder a corner into a valley, they heard shots. The bandits had found a small farm. A man lay bleeding in front of the house and by the cries of children, the bandits must be inside.
In an effort to distract the bandits from the family, the commander told the troop to start shooting, but to make every shot count. Nathan picked a window and whenever a face or a gun barrel appeared he shot at it. He hoped the family was safe somewhere inside. When no more guns appeared in that window, he moved to another.
The bandits filled the air with bullets, but they didn’t shoot very straight. The odor of blood from the fallen man mingled with the sulfur and cow manure and smelled like the worst butchering day ever. Nathan tried not to remember it was human blood as he knocked off a bandit, which was the first man he’d known for sure he’d killed, but he didn’t have time to throw up; other guns were pointed at him.
Then all the sudden the bullets stopped. The farmwife came out waving a dishcloth. The commander and sergeant followed her back inside. She’d killed the remaining bandits with her husband’s rifle.
The troop was given order to help restore the farm. Nathan had already volunteered to dig the grave, hard work but less gruesome than dealing with dead bodies, when a boy his age practically tumbled down the steps in an effort to get to the fallen man. As he watched Logan fuss over his father, Nathan felt as if he’d finally come home.
That day went by quickly as Nathan concentrated on digging because where he really wanted to be was back at the house, but then Logan brought Nathan lemonade halfway through his job and stayed to talk.
Logan was what Nathan had always wanted to be. He pranced around and giggle instead of laughed and he spoke almost like singing and waved his hands and had all those gestures that Nathan had been teased for.
And he smiled at Nathan like he was the best thing ever.
On their way back to the house, Nathan noticed a cow leaning on a tilted fence post. The post would need to be replaced soon or the whole fence might come down. A couple of shingles had fallen off the roof, maybe during the storm a few days back, and the barn was in need of a fresh coat of wash.
Nathan stepped into the barn, which was warm and dry. The animals looked well taken care of, but for how long with the farmer bleeding in the house? Nathan did the chores he would have done at home, plus his brothers’ chores, while Logan brought the cows in and milked them. One of the other men had stabled the horses, which numbered twenty now that the bandits’ horses were with theirs, but he hadn’t mucked the stalls first and old straw was as bad as dirty straw.
The tired horses didn’t want to move, but with Logan’s help and some apples from his cellar, Nathan was able to head for the house with his conscious clear.
The men were eating in the yard. The farm wife’s cooking smelled delicious. When Nathan asked where to wash up, he was directed to a beautiful porcelain sink that was too clean for the other men to have used. He was embarrassed of all the brown smudges he left on it, but Logan’s mother said that’s what the sink was for as she directed him to the table.
He tried to protest, but she wouldn’t hear of it. Logan’s younger sibling kept the table lively and his mother kept Nathan’s plate full. And she smiled at him a great deal. But then she smiled at Logan, too. Despite the dirt under his clothes and the bone tired ache of his body and not knowing any of the people the children spoke about, this was the most pleasant meal he could remember.
The doc came out of another room and said that the farmer’s life wasn’t in any danger, but that his missus should feed him as much meat as he could hold for the first few weeks. He’d be himself again by haying time.
Logan’s mother pressed her lips together and wondered aloud if they should slaughter any of the calves. But the farm had room to grow, so obviously that hadn’t been the farmer’s plan. Nathan volunteered to see what he could shoot before the sun went down.
The children told him of a place they’d seen wild rabbits. Nathan picked up his guns and headed out. He only caught two rabbits, which didn’t seem a fair exchange for all their hospitality. Especially when Logan took the rabbits from him to clean and Logan’s mother insisted he take a bath that she’d warmed just for him.
A bath had never felt so good. He washed until he was pink and stayed in the water until after his fingers wrinkled as he ignored the growing layer of grit in the bottom. But just as the feeling of being warm and clean was dragging him into a stupor, he heard Logan’s mother tell Logan that they wouldn’t be able to make it on their own. They needed someone who knew how to farm at least until his father was up and about and maybe longer. Logan should do whatever he had to, to keep Nathan at the farm.
Nathan pulled himself awake. Why him? Why not one of the older men? True, he was the person who’d most recently lived on a farm, but he was also the youngest by many years.
He toweled off and pulled on the night shirt the farmwife had laid out for him. Logan met him at the kitchen door and instead of going outside, he was led upstairs into Logan’s room.
Nathan hadn’t stayed in the nightshirt long. Logan was very persistent and his hands on Nathan’s skin felt like heaven. Nathan push away the memories of his brothers’ and cousins’ taunts and did with a man what he’d never let himself think about outside of dreams.
Logan ran his hand up Nathan’s side. “You hungry for breakfast?”
Nathan returned the caress. “I’m hungry for something.”
Logan giggled. “So am I, but the cows will start complaining if I don’t get up soon.”
Nathan followed him out of bed. The world looked different this morning. It smelled different too, better. He put on his cleanest clothes and walked down to the kitchen. Logan’s mother kneaded bread without looking up. “The men are leaving after breakfast. You going with them?”
Nathan wanted to shout no, but that wasn’t the way he was raised. “You have a nice farm. It feels like home.”
“More like home since you arrived.” She grinned at him.
Nathan blushed. “I like it here.”
“We like you here, Logan and I. Tom will get used to it when he’s up and about. He isn’t the most…experience farmer around. I’m sure your help will do him good.”
“Thank you.”
“But are you staying?” demanded Logan’s little sister.
“I’ve been thinking about it.”
“Don’t think about it,” said the other little sister. “Just stay.”
Nathan smiled. “You agree?”
“We do,” said Logan’s mother. “Logan does too.”
“Well,” said Nathan. “If he asks me, I won’t say no.”
Logan’s three younger siblings looked at each other then raced out the door.
Logan burst in the house a moment later, breathing hard. “You’re staying, right? With me?”
Nathan nodded and wrapped his arm around Logan’s waist. “There’s nowhere I’d rather be.”