Read Online House of Earth by Woody Guthrie - Free Book Online Page B

the tips of Ella May’s ears. He kissed her left eye, then her right eye, then down along her nose, then he kissed each corner of her mouth. As he took a lungful of air into his mouth and nose, he held her bottom lip between his teeth and smelled the hay and the barn. He felt a slick juice on the fingers of his hand between her legs, and as she moved her face from side to side and her heels and toes dug into the hay, his kissesturned into little soft, easy bites that nipped her neck and her armpits, her breasts, her stomach, and her whole body.
    â€œKnow what kind of a kiss this is here, down across your belly?” he asked her.
    â€œI can’t guess,” she said. “What kind?”
    â€œShotgun kiss.”
    â€œWhy do you call it a shotgun kiss?”
    â€œâ€™Cause. It spreads out all over everywhere, an’ it gets ever’thing in th’ brush.”
    â€œTike.”
    â€œYes, Miss Lady.”
    â€œIsn’t it about time that the little man came in out of this awful bad weather?”
    â€œThis weather bad?”
    â€œOhh. Mmm. It’s something terrible. Just something terrible.”
    â€œHa ha ha. Mebbe so. Mebbe so.”
    â€œWhere is he?”
    â€œHere he is. Don’t you recognize ’im?”
    â€œOhhh. Easy. Tike. Baby. Ohhmm. Tike. Honey. Easy, Tikey.”
    â€œHurt?”
    â€œTeeny-weensy bit.”
    â€œNow? Lady?”
    â€œNoooo. It’s. No. It’s all right now. Just don’t. Push too. Too hard. Too. Fassst.”
    â€œHurt now?”
    â€œHuh-unh. Here. Lay down and hold me and be mygood warm blanket if you please again. And. Let’s stay here a long, long, long time, what say, Tikey? You know I’m just thinking about something.”
    â€œYeah. What?”
    â€œOhh. About how nice our earth house is going to be.”
    â€œYeah. Me too. When we get it.”
    â€œYes. When we do get it. I wonder how long it will take?” She moved under him and talked with her eyes on the shingle roof. “How long?”
    â€œHow long to build one?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œI don’t know. Gover’ment book tells. Where’s th’ book at? Didn’t mess aroun’ an’ lose it already, did you?”
    â€œNo. It’s here. Right here at my elbow. I had it stuck in my apron pocket and it fell out.”
    He looked at the book at her elbow. “It’s fell out there, yeahh. It’s okay. Ahh. It’s turned to page five. Ain’t no readin’ on th’ page. Just some pictures. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven pictures. Guys a makin’ th’ bricks. Gosh. Look what big ones. We could have our walls two feet thick if we just wanted to. Whew.”
    â€œWind certainly couldn’t blow any dust and dirt through a wall that thick, could it? Hmmm? Ohh. Tike, honey, baby, sweetie pie, sugar dumpling, gosh, I love you. Did you know that? Or did I ever tell you? Did I, honey, ever, ever, ever, ever, tell you how much? Gosh.”
    â€œMixin’ th’ soil. Fillin’ th’ brick forms. Smoothin’ down th’ top. Takin’ off th’ forms. Washin’ out th’ forms. Layin’th’ bricks out to dry. Stackin’ up th’ bricks to let ’em cure out good. Big stacks an’ stacks of ’em with big flat boards on top. I guess that’s to what? What?”
    â€œWhy, I don’t know. But I would just suppose that they were covered over with boards to keep the rain from washing your bricks apart. Move closer. Move a little closer, Tikey Ikey. Is that a good name? Like it? Tikey Ikey. Tacky Wacky. Huhh?”
    And he rubbed his chin against her forehead and laughed as he said, “Lissen, Miss Lady. Let me put you sorta wise to a thing or two. Just a little thing or two. Ahh. Just as long as you let me be your blanket like this, an’ keep you all warm an’ ever’thing like this, I don’t care what name