Innocence

"I did it last night, Danny." Linda told Dan as they sat on the soft well kept lawn at the local park.

"Did what?" He asked her, flipping a page in the book he was studying.

"You know. Davey and I....we went all the way." She said, glancing sideways at him for a reaction.

"No shit?" He was surprised at that. Linda and Dan had talked many times about what it would be like to be grown up and living by themselves, on their own.

Yes, the subject of sex with someone had cropped up a few times. They both wanted to be married with kids and a good job, escape the farm and all of the constant work.

"No shit." She said, then she giggled.

Dan felt a sudden flash of anger pour over him.

He didn't even really understand why.

+++

That might sound like a strange conversation between a couple of barely 18 year old kids, but you would need to understand that Linda and Dan grew up together.

As babies they slept in a basket together under an umbrella while their parents worked in the fields. Linda's Mother had a much prized photo of the two of them happily suckling on each others fingers, framed and hanging on her living room wall. Born just days apart, Linda had a shock of brown hair and little Danny was born completely bald.

As children they splashed in the pond formed by the creek that ran between their family farms, forming what was a loose property line.

Livestock wandered back and forth whenever they wanted to. Of course they could have put up fences but that meant surveying to figure out where the lines actually were, and money to build thousands of feet of them, so they just never bothered.

The only fence lines they had were protecting the higher fields, the low lying bottom land was always used for grazing. Neither family was really sure where the property lines were up there either, it didn't matter because half the hay went into one barn and half went into the other.

At haying time, and during any harvests, both families were right in the middle of everything.

When the kids were bigger, they worked with the Sheep they raised, the fat Ewes sometimes had troubles delivering a set of twins. More than once they had their hands right up inside a big old Ewe to turn a lamb and drag it out of there.

It was like the bigger of the twins always came out first, the smaller and weaker of the two was crammed back into what space was left.

Then it was constant watching because the Ewe sometimes parked the weaker one in the brush and then would wander off with the stronger lamb.

That meant grabbing the lamb by it's leg and get it to hollering, the mother would appear without fail out of the flock and reclaim it, then it would start all over.

Plus the other half of the time one of them would lie down and then be so fat they couldn't get back up, legs frantically kicking in the air as they loudly bleated for help.

Or they would be in a ditch up to their noses in muddy water.

Contrary to what some might think, Sheep are very smart animals, if a gate was left open the entire flock would just have to investigate. Whichever one was the lead Ewe at the moment would study the situation, if there was a way in she would find it.

Linda's Mom loved to grow flowers and Sheep love flowers, that was a never ending battle. They unlatched gates, untied knots, worried holes in the huge blackberry bushes that served as fences.

If they managed to breach the fence around the gardens, they went right down the Lettuce row first, eating them to the ground, then they would begin on the Corn plants, one row at a time in what seemed to be an orderly fashion.

If any of the Cows got in there, they just stomped on everything. The Sheep were far more orderly in the way they fed.

Danny and Linda liked the Sheep best, it was fun to watch their little mouths nibble away at an incredible pace.

Every morning the lead Ewe took off, the entire flock in single file right behind, creating worn trails meandering across the fields.

Sometimes there were huge fights over which one was the boss, those went on for hours until one finally won the right. The next day it would start all over again as another Ewe stepped up to try and claim the boss position.

The Rams would sometimes follow along, but usually unless some of the flock was in heat the Rams mostly kept to themselves.

Linda and Danny's job was to check up on them, keep them out of the mud and on their feet.

Once in a while Coyotes would get in there and take one down, or a big Cat would come down from the hills. Both of them wore pistols on their hips by the time they were ten years old, and Dan had managed to get two of the Coyotes.

Predators were not that much of a problem, sending a pistol round their direction kept them skittish so most of the time those stayed in the woods.

People's pet Dogs on the other hand were a problem, if a pack of them hooked up and got into the flock they would kill until stopped.

Linda had knocked down a young Cougar one day that was dragging a fat Ewe away, that one lay in their living room as a carpet.

Both families had a party together over that one, the Cat had taken five head before it made the mistake of coming too far out into the open in daylight.

Linda's Dad had been hunting the animal without much luck, then one day Danny stopped to reclip a wire to a post and Linda went on down the hill. He heard her fire five rounds rapidly so he jumped on his ATV and went down there.

Four rounds of the five had found their mark.

Things like that were rare, most of the time it was dragging the Sheep out of the ditches which was a messy and muddy job but one that had to be done.

Linda and Dan would both just peel off their clothes and go in after them, she would get behind and push and Dan would grab a fistful of wool and pull.

With both of them naked, they would then dash for the riffles above the pond and wash off the mud, jump up and down to keep warm until they were mostly dry, then get dressed again.

Linda was a girl and Dan was a boy but that was no big deal, they saw animals making babies all the time. They knew all about sex and all about naked, all of the animals were and the two kids weren't a hell of a lot different.

Dan would have to say he never saw Linda's breasts actually grow, that happened so quickly one Summer that he didn't even realize until she climbed out of the pond one day and there they were.

Then he noticed she had a wisp of brownish pubic hair.

That was the first time he got an erection from looking at her. That had been happening anyway at home sometimes, but he knew what it meant from all the animals around all the time.

Linda saw that and began to laugh hysterically which pissed him off, they ended up in a scuffle and she managed to dump him right in the pond. At that stage of their lives Linda was bigger and stronger.

Then she told him she was sorry for laughing at him and everything was all right. She looked down and told him it was cute like that, which made his face flame.

After that he kept his under pants on when they had to drag a Sheep out of the mud, Linda noticed but didn't say anything. She kept hers on also from then on but she didn't cover up her chest which just kept right on getting bigger.

Barely a year later, things had changed, Dan began to grow like a weed and kept right on growing until he hit a full six feet and 190 pounds. Linda seemed to stop getting taller at 5'4".

There were no more scuffles, either, it was obvious who was bigger and stronger now.

One day they were tearing across the big hayfield on the ATV's looking for some of the flock that were missing. There always seemed to be a few that loved to hide and they had to go find them.

Three of them were through the line fence that was supposed to keep them out of the garden, one was stuck in the ditch, of course. It wasn't in trouble yet, just stuck so they piled some limbs in the hole where the three had nibbled their way through the berry bushes. They chased the strays out of there after clapping their hands rapidly.

The animals knew very well they were not supposed to be in there so they quickly ran out and rejoined the main flock.

The limbs were just a bluff of course, but most of the time the Sheep could not figure out how to get past them.

The rest were lying down as flat as they could get, thinking they were hidden but stark white against the green fields was easy to spot. It only took a bit more clapping, and some arm waving and they jumped up and ran after the rest.

Dan stripped down and went in after the stuck one, Linda just sat there.

"Hey, give me a hand!" He yelled. A completely wet full grown Sheep weighs one hell of a lot.

"I..I can't." Linda said.

"Why not?" He was pushing and the fat old Ewe was heavy as lead, it was muddy, Dan was nearly naked and the water was freezing cold and Linda was just sitting there.

"I...I am wearing a..pad." She told him.

"What?..OH!" It hit him what she meant. Finally he got a shoulder under the Ewe's behind as she struggled with her front feet, out she came. She went about ten feet and fell down, got up and fell down again. Then finally as enough of the water drained off, the Sheep took off running with a wobble.

"She will be fine." He told Linda. Then linda got off her 4 wheeler and pulled a bucket out of the back compartment, went and got some clean water. Dan stood there as she washed him off.

That was the second time he got an erection at her, but she didn't say a word, just washed him, averting her eyes. At least he had his underpants on, but there was no hiding his reaction to her hands rubbing mud off his arms and legs.

It felt kind of good to have her touch him like that, to be honest. He got dressed and they rode back to the house in silence.

They both understood that the certain magical innocence was now lost.

+++

DAN.

My folks never blinked an eye when we headed off to State college. I guess they expected us to just end up together but Linda and I were not lovers, in fact, it hadn't even really crossed my mind.

She was just...Linda? She had always been there.

The fact that sometimes I became arroused was no big deal, I had seen Dad and the way he acted when Mom would come in and cuddle with him on the couch.

That was normal stuff, just life. Linda and I didn't do any experimenting, it just never came up.

She was just Linda.

Our parents may not have believed that part, but they never asked and we never thought to even talk about it.

We were friends, probably as close as siblings or even twins can get. We knew everything about each other. We had bathed naked together in the pond so many times we thought nothing of it, so when we found a studio apartment that actually fit our budget we rented it together.

There was just one bed.

We had slept together many times as little kids, it crossed my mind that this was different now.

"Maybe I can get a bedroll and just sleep on the floor?" I asked Linda.

"That wouldn't be fair, you pay half the rent. We can just do like we always do if you want."

I just shrugged.

So Linda and I slept together in the same bed, both of us naked except for our underwear.

There wasn't much of anything that could be called privacy anyway, the toilet had a curtain that drew around it and the shower was next to it, just a basin in an alcove with a shower curtain that drew across the front of it also.

Crude but effective, except we both had to shut off the water and step out to dry off. We just averted our eyes, there was nothing else to do.

We teased each other about how we lived in a little rat hole. In fact, the Rats that lived in the hay barn were probably doing a little bit better.

Our families didn't have any money, not really. Money came once or twice a year in what seemed to be a lot, but most of that went for fuel and seed for the next season. The lambs and beef were sold but most of that went to pay for the loans for the year before.

Next year was always the one that was going to be the good one. But really good years were few and far between.

+++

Linda woke up at 5 in the morning without fail and so did I. Habits from years of working on the farms, and our classes started at the same time, also. So we slept together, ate together, and basically lived together like brother and sister.

One evening I was sitting there working on my books for a test the next day and Linda got up, saying she was going to take a bath.

"Why?" I asked, looking at my watch. Hell, it was only 6:30.

"I have a date." She said.

"Oh." That was a surprise, she hadn't gone out with anyone up to that point except back in High School. She went to the senior prom with Billy Harrington and I took Donna Jarvis.

The reason was simple, if Linda and I went together we had no way to get there. Billy had a car so Linda flirted with him and that didn't take much effort.

I then asked Donna and was surprised when she smiled and said she would love to go with me.

We both giggled together at how well our clever plan at getting transportation had worked, except when I told Linda my date was Donna Jarvis she got a funny look on her face.

Danooa was very pretty and was best described as extremely female.

It was 38 miles down a single lane dirt road to our ranches, I didn't own a car and most boys preferred to date girls from town so Linda wasn't doing any better socially.

So when Linda more or less captured Billy Harrington, I paid for some gas and the four of us went to the prom.

Billy produced a bottle of something but I took one sip and that was it. I tasted like gasoline.

Then Donna turned out to be something less than interesting even though she was pretty. She made every effort to be witty and fell short by quite a bit.

Then our efforts at dancing was a struggle, we were constantly going in two different directions. I danced a few times with Linda while Billy danced with Donna, dancing with Linda was easy, it was like she was off the ground.

That was the very first time we had ever danced, I was way more comfortable holding her than Donna.

When we got out to the ranch after the dance, Billy scooted over and tried to kiss Linda, she let him lightly at first, but when his hand came up to touch her chest she pushed him away.

We had already dropped off Donna at home so I was sitting in the back seat by myself, Billy didn't care.

For just a second or two I thought about smacking him one for that but Linda beat me to it by slapping his hand and then pushing him back.

Later I laughed when Linda told me Billy's breath smelled like he had been eating Sheep poop.

+++

When Linda came out of the bathroom after telling me she had a date, she was drying herself off with a towel. Seeing each other naked after a bath was no big deal, it was usually just a brief exposure and there was nowhere to hide in our tiny little room anyway.

I nearly fell off of my chair, the mass of dark pubic hair was all gone.

"What did you do?" I asked her stupidly, my face suddenly flaming.

"All the other girls shave it off, they were teasing me calling me "Bush" and "Bigfoot." She said. Then she turned her back, tugging the towel around herself.

"Does it look funny?" She asked, turning back when I didn't say anything.

"It looks a lot like it did when we were kids, except..." Linda was much fuller down there than she had been when they were growing up.

I think the expression on my face gave me away, because she actually blushed, then she quickly turned her back again and pulled on a pair of white panties.

+++

It was just a week later when Linda dropped the bombshell on me.

"I...I did it last night." She said.

I think I did not react well, for some reason I did not understand, I did not want her to be doing that.

Then she giggled, and that pissed me off. I closed my book and went over, hopped on my old bike and rode home.

"What's the matter?" Linda asked me when she came in about 15 minutes later.

"Nothing." I told her.

"Something is. You are upset that I let..that I did it with Davey, aren't you?"

"Yea, a little. The guy is a jerk, you can do a lot better than that."

"You are just jealous because you haven't had sex yet, is all." Linda stomped off to the bathroom, yanked the curtain over.

"I can have all the sex I want, if I want to!" I shouted after her.

"Oh, yeah? With who?" She shouted through the curtain right back.

I didn't have an answer for her.

Linda went out again a few nights later, the surprise was when an older man arrived to pick her up. I had expected it to be Davey and now I didn't like him, even though I had no reason at all in the world to dislike him.

The man looked at me with suspicion while Linda fiddled around in the alcove we called the bedroom. She came out looking beautiful in a long flowing light blue dress I had never seen before. Her big firm breasts were obvious through the cloth, she didn't have a bra on. That was no big deal, most of the time at our apartment she didn't bother.

I wanted to go over and cover her up but I managed to just sit there.

She introduced the man as Walt, we shook hands and I saw his face wince a little bit when I made my handshake rather firm.

Then they left, I tried to study but all I could see in my mind was Linda having sex with that man.

+++

"Wake up, Danny." Linda was shaking my shoulder. I had fallen asleep in the chair.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Just after midnight. Come on to bed, we have classes in the morning." Linda tugged her dress over her head. She carefully hung it up. It wasn't until she turned that I realized she had anything at all on underneath it, just a tiny blue matching thong.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" She asked.

"Sorry, I never saw that before."

"Oh, you mean the thong? I had to, otherwise my panties would show through the dress." She explained, then she stripped them down and off, turned her back.

She appeared to pose like that for a moment, a smile crossed her face, then she pulled on a pair of her normal white cotton ones and turned and hopped into the bed.

I undressed, keeping my back to her to hide the partial reaction. Then I turned off the light and slid in beside her.

"You have been acting funny lately." She said after several minutes.

"Oh? How do you mean?"

"Ever since I told you about...Davey..you have been different."

I didn't answer.

"Danny? Do you want to do it with me? Is that it?" She whispered quietly.

"I don't know. I never even thought about it." I lied.

"Well, I am taking those pills so I don't..anyway, if you wanted to....?" Linda was still whispering, her voice husky now.

"I...I don't think that is a good idea, and besides, you were out with that guy tonight so....?"

"Oh, don't be silly. We didn't do anything, he wanted to but I barely know him."

"You let Davey do it!" I said, instantly regretting sounding like I was accusing her of something.

"All of the other girls are doing it and I was waiting and waiting and you just sit there and ignore me! I think you don't even like me!" She jumped out of bed and ran into the bath stall, yanking the curtain closed.

I lay there, stupidly having no clue at all of what to say or do.

+++

LINDA.

Danny and I must have looked at a dozen places to live, counting the pennies we had between us really restricted our options. Mom and Dad gave me $500 the day we left, Danny had about twice that much.

It helped when he found the little studio, there wasn't much room but I wanted to be with him since I didn't know anyone else at all. He had always been there and for some reason now I felt like I still needed him.

Danny found a job quickly working in a gas station and the next week I got hired at a book store.