the tips of Ella Mayâs 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.
âKnow what kind of a kiss this is here, down across your belly?â he asked her.
âI canât guess,â she said. âWhat kind?â
âShotgun kiss.â
âWhy do you call it a shotgun kiss?â
ââCause. It spreads out all over everywhere, anâ it gets everâthing in thâ brush.â
âTike.â
âYes, Miss Lady.â
âIsnât it about time that the little man came in out of this awful bad weather?â
âThis weather bad?â
âOhh. Mmm. Itâs something terrible. Just something terrible.â
âHa ha ha. Mebbe so. Mebbe so.â
âWhere is he?â
âHere he is. Donât you recognize âim?â
âOhhh. Easy. Tike. Baby. Ohhmm. Tike. Honey. Easy, Tikey.â
âHurt?â
âTeeny-weensy bit.â
âNow? Lady?â
âNoooo. Itâs. No. Itâs all right now. Just donât. Push too. Too hard. Too. Fassst.â
âHurt now?â
âHuh-unh. Here. Lay down and hold me and be mygood warm blanket if you please again. And. Letâs stay here a long, long, long time, what say, Tikey? You know Iâm just thinking about something.â
âYeah. What?â
âOhh. About how nice our earth house is going to be.â
âYeah. Me too. When we get it.â
âYes. When we do get it. I wonder how long it will take?â She moved under him and talked with her eyes on the shingle roof. âHow long?â
âHow long to build one?â
âYes.â
âI donât know. Goverâment book tells. Whereâs thâ book at? Didnât mess arounâ anâ lose it already, did you?â
âNo. Itâs here. Right here at my elbow. I had it stuck in my apron pocket and it fell out.â
He looked at the book at her elbow. âItâs fell out there, yeahh. Itâs okay. Ahh. Itâs turned to page five. Ainât no readinâ on thâ page. Just some pictures. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven pictures. Guys a makinâ thâ bricks. Gosh. Look what big ones. We could have our walls two feet thick if we just wanted to. Whew.â
âWind certainly couldnât 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
âMixinâ thâ soil. Fillinâ thâ brick forms. Smoothinâ down thâ top. Takinâ off thâ forms. Washinâ out thâ forms. Layinâthâ bricks out to dry. Stackinâ up thâ bricks to let âem cure out good. Big stacks anâ stacks of âem with big flat boards on top. I guess thatâs to what? What?â
âWhy, I donât 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?â
And he rubbed his chin against her forehead and laughed as he said, âLissen, 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, anâ keep you all warm anâ everâthing like this, I donât care what name
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