Pleasantries Under the Porch Light

For the first time in a long time, I'm joining Delores at Under the Porch Light for her meme called Wednesday's Words.  Each week she presents six words; the idea is to craft a literary something- story, poem, memoir--whatever you want. You don't even have to post on Wednesdays, and there are no rules.  Sweet.

This Wednesday's words are: insinuate, method, reverse, pleasantries, donkey and darker.

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Sixteen-year-old Colleen pulled her long, red, frizzy hair into a tight knot on top of her head as she leaned  against a fence post on the north side of the pasture.  It was the quickest method of getting her messy tresses off her neck.

"Sure is hot out here!" she moaned to her friend Shaniqua, whose short, wiry cornrows made Colleen jealous sometimes. "I wish I had your hair today!"

"White skin, freckles, and cornrows.  Girl, you crazy!"  said Shaniqua.  She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, gazing out over four acres of flat fields.    "You know I never get to see this much grass--I mean the green kind sticking up from the ground--where I come from.  All this land. All this sky. All this fresh air. Girl, you don't know you good you got it."


Such pleasantries were a treat to exchange between city girl and country girl, who had become friends four years prior, when Shaniqua's grandparents bought the adjacent farm . Every summer , Shaniqua would spend two weeks here, enjoying the company of Colleen O'Neal and her six brothers and sisters and their parents.

Shaniqua folded her much darker arms on top of the whitewashed fence and gazed out at the two horses and one lone donkey in the field.

"Ever wonder what they're thinking?" Shaniqua asked.

"All the time. But honestly, I think they only think about food and sex.  In reverse order." said Colleen.

"They all guys?"  Shaniqua laughed.

"No, just Martin, the donkey. Goldie's a mare,  Dotty's a filly, her daughter.  But are you insinuating that only guys think about food and sex?"

"Of course! Everybody know we girls think about all kinda stuff, not just that!"

"Speak for yourself," Colleen quipped. 'Why do you think Irish women have so many kids?"