Full of beans at Wallace Creek
((Adolescence) (1965))

Preview: In the spring of 1965, Wallace Creek was full of mud and fresh cool water, due to a cold winter melt, when summer came the creek flowed almost like the river it connected to, it was high; the sun liked the fire of a winter plantation hearth, which made for a great creekside summer getaway. The bees were buzzing, the birds were singing and the dogs were barking, and there was a warm wind swirling their way, through and around the thin branches of the trees, loosening the leaves clinging to those thin branches, and they broke free and fell. drunk. on the floor; Cassandra was eleven years old and looked thirteen, if not older and growing; Langdon was fourteen years old and as handsome as any Hollywood movie star.

Those summers before 1965 were happy summers for the most part, and this summer for Cassandra and Langdon would be no less, with a few surprises, but the last. As usual, he came to visit Abernathy Plantation for three months, sometimes staying the full three months, sometimes less, and Caroline and Langdon staying a summer or two at Hightower House in New Orleans. They had the whole system and it put an end to the boredom of life, although Caroline only stayed a few weeks and left Langdon in the care of Betty Hightower, and in the same way, Betty left Cassandra in the care of Caroline at her plantation, outside. from Fayetteville, North Carolina, after a few weeks and they were gone, and they would get a break from the kids, and the kids would get a break from their parents. And Langdon and Cassandra grew up together, in harmony, with a relative almost their own age.

At eleven, she was quite developed, so Langdon would find out this year when they skinny dipped in the creek. Her body was smooth and hard, with a flat stomach, and Langdon had an iron stomach to match, and once they donned their bathing suits in Wallace Creek, on Wallace’s estate, it was show-and-tell time. . They both swam together near the river that the creek connected to, it was deeper there, and Cassandra liked to watch Langdon when he floated on her back, she wasn’t shy by any means and even asked him to, and neither was Langdon, at all. case. both of them were a little surprised by the development of their bodies. They sneaked a look at each other, checking each other’s limbs and movements, and the upright way Cassandra now walked (only eighteen months earlier, Cassandra had asked her mother for a bra, but was told flatly, ‘not yet! ‘not until she got something to wear, and it was a sad day to say the least, but twelve months later, she had her first bra, and something to wear, and now there was so much more to put in it, even though her mother had for the moment, he stopped paying attention, but Cassandra didn’t, and Langdon, now eighteen months later, could verify that he would soon need a new one).

This summer, both of them swam almost every day, and they no longer sought the deep, deep waters near the river, any place would do to get wet, and they lay half naked, and sometimes a little more than half; they lay down next to each other and fell asleep on a blanket. It was perhaps the best of their growing up years, the best summer they would ever remember, the calmest without a doubt, no problems without a care in the world, in fact if you had asked them about growing up I’m sure not. I didn’t want this summer, they liked it the way it was. But the Wallace brothers saw them swimming and sleeping by the creek, they were on Wallace land and they created some rumours, gossip that went from Wallace Plantation, to Stanley Plantation, to Cole and Caroline Abernathy, and even to Betty Hightower. in New Orleans. Aside from the exploration, nothing had really happened, I mean, nothing had really happened between the two cousins. The closest one can get to Adam and Eve, in sheer innocence, before they ate the apple, Cassandra and Langdon did. But Cassandra’s childhood had ended this summer, and she knew it, it was blossoming, and Langdon knew it, I guess.

Minnie Mae, Frank and Wally’s cook, met Cassandra and Langdon by the creek one afternoon, told them that the two brothers had aroused suspicion among the plantations, and even called Cassandra’s mother in New Orleans and told her that they were sleeping together. half naked on a blanket by his stream; If it had been a year ago, it wouldn’t have been fishy news, it wouldn’t have mattered, but this year was different. So Betty Hightower told her daughter on the phone, “This is the last summer you’ll spend on the Abernathy plantation, without her gift,” and she was definitive on that point.

Betty was wise enough not to blame anyone in particular, for fear of starting a family feud, and did not point her finger in any direction, in fact she said very little on the subject, although one thing she did say to Caroline was: “I think that children, they are not children anymore, they are adolescents, young people who are changing, and until now their lives have been uninterrupted, but with unknown factors and uncontrolled hormones, I think I have to give Cassandra a little more personal attention. , so if we visit, we’ll do it together, if you don’t mind.

It fostered a noticeably cooler relationship between the two families and, to be honest, it was the last summer that they, Langdon and Cassandra, really enjoyed uninterrupted in their entire lives.