Holly

by Andrea

  

My cousin Holly arrived from Houston on the bus and Pa and Ma went to pick her up. I'd wanted to go into town and maybe hang around with some of the boys from school but Ma said no, there'd not be enough room in the pickup. So I'd hung around helping Uncle Eddie in the barn most of the afternoon. I saw her getting out of the car. She was sixteen, just three years older than me, or so Ma had said. I'd been expecting someone younger looking, but the girl in the belted blue dress standing there in the dust of the yard, with Pa's horny hand on her shoulder looked much older, nearly all grown up. She was almost as tall as Ma, but paler and thinner. with an oval open face and big blue dolls' eyes under the longest eyelashes you ever saw. Her hair was swept up at the back under a silly little hat. She was looking at me intently, as if she was appraising me, and I didn't really like that. I felt like I'd somehow done something wrong. But I stuck out my hand and said 'How you do?' and she took it and held the fingers briefly and when I looked in her eyes she looked kind of sad. Then she whispered 'Likewise I'm sure.' and then she grabbed Ma's arm and the two of them went up to the house leaving us men standing there kicking the yellow dust till Uncle Eddie said that the feed bins weren't cleaning themselves, so we went into the barn and got back to work.

I have to tell you I was a lonely kid. Especially at times like these when school was out. Pa and Uncle Eddie farmed cotton in Brazos County about fifteen miles from Bryan. There were no kids near my own age within five miles. Well there were the Bleacher boys from over the way but they was trash, so Ma said, and always in trouble with the law. Anyway, Gary, the youngest, was all of fifteen now. So during the vacations when I wasn't at school I had no one my age to hang out with. It had been very different a few years back when Randy, my elder brother, had been around. He was a great guy and I surely did miss him greatly.

I'd been about ten when Randy had his accident. I'd been at school and when I got home Eddie had given me a hot dog and told me Ma and Pa had taken Randy to the hospital. They got back late the next day. Pa didn't say much. Ma sat me down and told me that Randy had had 'complications' and was being transferred to a larger hospital in Houston, so I'd have to stay at Aunt May's for a while. I stayed there for two weeks and then finally my parents came and took me home. 'Randy' my Ma explained, 'wasn't with us any more. But we would remember him in our prayers.'

Having Holly around was interesting and frustrating at the same time. She spent a lot of time with Ma talking and such and that was boring. But she was just being friendly I guess. And she was good to look at, especially when she wasn't wearing that stupid hat. She had wavy brown hair which hung over her shoulders and the cutest turned up nose – she looked just like one of the girls you see in movie posters. Uncle Eddie's friend Marvin, at the gas station, said she was a real peach and I heard that one of them Bleacher brothers had been warned off by Pa for staring at her and making wolf whistles. Looking at Holly seemed to be the best entertainment around for the men of the district that summer. We seemed to get more visitors up at the farm and it didn't seem to do my popularity no harm when I walked into church with her on Sunday.

I must say I started to take a more active interest in Holly from that point but, what with having no sisters, nor any close female kin of my age I was still pretty shy of girls. So I found I couldn't talk to Holly. Every time I tried I got tongue tied. But that doesn't mean I wasn't thinking about her. I was attracted to her like a bear to a honey pot and I just couldn't help looking at her. I kept ogling her from a distance and trying to look down her front and stuff. She was well developed for a sixteen year old and the view from the hayloft was pretty impressive when she was standing down in the yard. She caught me out a few times. I remember Pa asked her to pass the biscuits one night at dinner and I just couldn't stop looking at the way the elasticised material of her peasant style top was straining as she leaned forward. Her eyes met mine briefly and she just smiled. I must have flushed redder than a radish. Despite the fact that other than at mealtimes I suppose I didn't say more than ten words to her all that week, that didn't stop me thinking about her real hard, especially when I was tossing and turning in bed.

That next Saturday was hot, very hot. By mid-afternoon no one wanted to do much of anything. Pa and Uncle Eddie did a disappearing act into town in the pickup. Like as not they'd be at Crazy Tom's drinking beer till well nigh dinner time. Ma took herself off to bed. I lay down on the bench in the yard and squinted into the sun. I closed my eyes and watched misty shapes drift like dead snakes over the inside of my eyelids. Then, when I looked up I saw that Holly was sitting on the porch steps, leaning backwards on her hands, her back slightly arched. Her breasts didn't look so prominent from this angle. Just little mounds straining up against the cotton of her dress. I pushed up on one elbow and shaded my eyes with my hand, cutting off my view of her head. Her bare legs were parted and her skirt was hitched up over both knees. It hung loose between her legs in two large scoops like window drapes. I looked for a bit but couldn't see nothing 'ceptin the brown skin of her legs, so I rolled over and lay on my back.

When I opened my eyes again she was standing on the patch of grass near the gate fanning herself with one hand. She was holding a bag with a towel in her other hand. The sun was behind her now and while I couldn't see much of her face I was very much aware of the translucency of her dress and the curves of her body underneath.

'Your Ma said something about there being a swimming hole nearby' she said. 'I surely do need a wash in cool water. You reckon you could show me where it is?'

Sure I could. 'It's about half mile down the track by the barn. Just take the path at the dip past the big trees with all the Spanish moss.'

'I said you should show me.' She said.

I thought for a minute. 'Why?'

'Cos I don' wan' to go on my own. I might get lost in the trees.' She smiled a wistful girl smile that made me feel like I was a puppy dog, 'You gonna come and show me?'

'Might as well.'

I didn't know if I really wanted to show her the hole. I'm sure everyone in the county knew about it but it was on the boundary of Pa's land and too far from the road for any but our family to use it. Far as I knew Randy had discovered it and he'd taken me there when I was little. Since he'd gone I'd hardly ever visited it. Frankly it was a dark an mysterious place. The sort of place that, for no apparent reason, sends little shivers up your spine.

I'd have taken her somewhere else if I could but, what with the weather that summer being so hot, the water in the creek was low and the hole would be the only place for miles it would be more than knee deep. We walked in silence for a while. I showed her the path and realised it was so overgrown she mightn't have found it on her own. We pushed our way through long undergrowth until we got to the creek. Maybe some trees had fallen on the far bank but the pool wasn't nearly as dark as I'd remembered. The water surface was lit by dappled sunlight and the water itself looked cool and inviting. I hoped Holly was impressed.

'Jack, would you be a darlin' and go up the path and be my lookout while I bathe?'

I hadn't guessed that this might be the catch. She probably didn't want to risk being watched by them Bleacher boys. At least I could take comfort in the fact that she trusted me. I said 'sure' and turned to leave.

'And Jack' she added 'Don't you be peekin' now.'

I blushed. Then I walked back to the track. To Hell with that. I wasn't going to let the opportunity to watch a grown girl bathe go to waste. I crawled back to where I was close to the creek and climbed into the lower branches of a tree. From my vantage point I could see the bank and most of the pool. I saw Holly's clothes and bag soon enough. Her dress was spread out in a circle on the bank like she'd just stepped out of it. I couldn't see her for a minute. Then I saw the water swirl near the far bank and her head appeared. She lay on her back with her hair floating out on the water. Her body was barely visible. Occasionally she would kick her legs and her knees and toes would break the surface. Eventually she swam to the near bank and stood on the bottom. Her shoulders broke through the surface. Then slowly she waded towards where I was hiding. As she did her boobs broke the surface. She stood there, only yards in front of me, waist deep in the water making paddling motions with her hands. Water ran from her hair and over her breasts, dripping from her nipples. She looked up and I ducked behind the branch but it was obvious she hadn't seen me because she looked away again and then touched her breasts. For a moment she seemed slightly puzzled. Like someone who wakes up in a strange place and wonders where they are. It was as if she was staring into space. Then she smiled again and started to touch her breasts with her hands. I could see the nipples harden and stand firmly out from the flesh. She turned and slowly waded to the bank. I watched, scarcely daring to breathe, as she stood ankle deep and massaged her thighs and legs. I could clearly see the patch of damp dark hair between her legs. I made my retreat as she walked towards her clothes. My prick was a little bit hard and it was difficult to clamber out of the tree. Inside I was elated and just a bit frightened of what I'd done. I'd seen everything! I had barely got to the track when I heard her call that it was time to go back. She was drying her hair.

'Did you like what you saw?'

'What?' I knew I was blushing.

'I know you was peeking.'

I was flustered and very much aware of the tightness in my pants. I could feel myself go red.

She laughed 'It don't make no never mind to me. I'd have been surprised if you didn't.'

I turned to walk back. Holly grabbed my upper arm and turned me slowly towards her. She was smiling. 'Did you like what you saw Jack?'

I could help but feel sheepish 'Reckon so.'

'That's alright then. I'm all finished here I guess. Let's get back to the house.'

I suddenly didn't want to go back just then. 'No' I said 'You go. I'll reckon I'll wait here a bit.'

She looked at me curiously. It was the sort of look that I got from Ma when I was doing something I shouldn't. 'Are you sure?'

'Yup. I'm sure.'

She shrugged. 'Suit yourself' Then she turned and walked back up the path.

I waited till I could hear her off in the bushes then stripped off my shirt and jumped in. I was sure she'd gone but no way was I going to stand there butt naked in case Holly had decided to stick around and get her own back. I slipped out of my shorts and underpants underwater and threw them up onto the grass. Holly was right about the water cooling me off. I never had realised just how peaceful this place was. The water had a silky smoothness and my mind seemed so relaxed. I drifted about for what seemed like hours. Eventually I snapped out of it. I looked around suspiciously and checked the trees a few times. Then I made a dash for my clothes.

They weren't there! I could hear noises in the bushes and I knew Holly was coming back. Panic gripped me and I hid behind a bush. Holly stopped beside the pool holding something in her hands.

'Listen Jack , wherever you are' she said 'I think you'll need these clothes to get home. I got them at the house. I'll leave them here on the bank.' Then she disappeared again.

I looked. Then I looked again. She'd laid out a print gingham dress and a pair of white girls' pants. What a lousy joke. Then I caught my reflection in the water out of the corner of my eye. No, that wasn't me. It was a naked girl.

Eventually I checked it out. It was me. A twelve or thirteen year old girl, with pert little boobs and a snatch to prove it. My prick was gone and that was for sure. How the blazes it had happened I have no idea. So I put on the pants and dress and dragged myself slowly to the track. Holly was waiting under a tree.

'How do you feel?'

'Like shit. Look, did you know that this was going to happen?'

She looked at me with a concerned expression. 'Not really. Ma thought it might but she didn't know for certain. It happened to me when I was thirteen as well.'

A funny thought came to my mind 'So what was in the bag with your towel?'

'Just old boys clothes. Just in case. I thought that somehow it might be, you know, reversible or something.'

That figured. I sighed. Then I looked up at my big sister and shrugged.

'So I guess this means we'll both be going to school in Houston in the fall?'

  

  

  

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