A Mountain
Woman’s Dream
By
S.G. McKinley
A Mountain Woman’s Dream
Copyright 2012 S.G. McKinley
Published by Sharon Watson
Smashwords Edition
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Chapter 1
Meagan Daniels has helped in the family business since she became old enough to learn. She’s become quite adept at it, storing the recipe away in her mind and never mentioning it.
“Nobody will ever get the recipe from me. It belongs to the family only. My lips are sealed.”
Her family lives on the old highway that is outside of the town of Live Oak and close to the larger mountains of Kentucky. Meagan loves the wild animals, and she spends a lot of her time not only with the still, but giving out tiny amounts of crumbs or nuts or other edibles to the animals that roam around.
The young girl’s mode of dress usually consists of overalls and t-shirts, but she mainly goes barefoot even on the rough stalks of hay and grasses that lay on the ground. Her long brown hair hangs in braids or tails along the sides of her head, accenting her youthful looking forty years. Most of the time she wears a cap or bandanna, with the cap turned backwards.
Meagan never goes to town with her brothers and father; her place, drilled into her all of her life, is to stay with the still and keep her eyes open for anything. Meagan always keeps her shotgun handy as well…never too far away from her.
The family owns a small cabin that Meagan lives in so she can be close to the still. The only furnishings inside are the basic necessities Meagan needs to survive.
She grows a small garden behind the shack and when her father and the brothers come in to check, they bring her a gallon of fresh milk and some butter when she gets low.
Her father built a small lean-to bathroom onto the place. They keep the still in a barn about a thousand yards from the cabin.
Today she stood testing the liquid, making sure the moonshine will be a good batch. She grinned upon taking a sip, and she nodded her head.
“It tastes perfect! This is the best batch yet! Papa will be pleased. Papa and Elmer are due sometime today. No telling what they will be bringing me. I guess I should just relax and sit back to wait for them. The liquor is all right at the moment.”
Meagan walked outside and went to the cabin, where she sat on the ground next to the small building with a blade of grass in her teeth. There she waited for them to appear.
Normally, she didn’t get visitors out here, but as she sat there, her cap down over her eyes, she vaguely heard the sound of men’s voices talking to one another. They didn’t sound familiar.
“What the Hell? Who is comin’ out here when it’s off the beaten path?” she murmured as she listened closely.
She stood from the ground, taking hold of the trusty shotgun lying next to her, and she waited to see who seemed to be coming to invading her space. She leveled the shotgun in the direction of the rustlings she heard.
As the voices grew closer, Meagan watched. By now she knew where the men were, and they began getting louder. Their shapes began to appear.
Both looked rather big, with medium to shoulder length hair. The one rambling on with his voice had brown hair that he wore in a tail, with a cap over his eyes. The other’s hair seemed more blonde and full and lay around his shoulders. He, too, wore a cap.
The one talking didn’t look to be paying attention to where they were going. He sounded disturbed about something.
The other listened, with his eyes roaming over the area; then he looked up and saw her! He stopped short, catching a glimpse of the gun in her hands.
“Umm…Mason! Hush up a minute. Stop!”
Mason kept talking.
“We’re lost. Can we even find the way back to the car? We need to do something!”
As Mason glanced over at his companion, he saw the man’s face and stopped dead in his tracks.
“What is it, Brady? Damn it, we need to get out of here! I don’t even know where the hell we are!”
Brady pointed to Meagan, his eyes not leaving the gun in her hand. Mason finally looked around to see what he stared at, and he, too, saw the woman with the gun aimed at them. He sighed, rubbing his eyes.
“Damn, we sure don’t need this!”
Watching the woman for a few moments, wondering how to make her relax, Mason shrugged his shoulders.
“Ma’am, we need help,” he told her calmly, “please…lower the gun! We won’t hurt you, and we damn sure don’t want you to shoot us. Tell us where to go to get back to the road. Our car is out there with nobody to stay with it.”
Meagan’s eyes roamed over them. She frowned, and stepped out closer to them, her gun raised more.
“Mister, how come you took off walkin’ in the first damn place? I’ve heard some dumb excuses, but yours about gets it! Why don’t you try again?” she spoke in a slow country accent.
Mason folded his arms across his chest. This is not helping!
“Look! We took off walking to see if maybe we could find a farmhouse close by where we might get some directions. Now we got ourselves lost in this place! Can you help us or not?”
“Nope! That one won’t work either. Try again!” Meagan told him, shaking her head.
This began to make Mason angry. He frowned at the girl, and pointed to the gun.
“Then why don’t you use that damned thing, and then we won’t have to walk back to the car! Shit! You probably can’t shoot the side of a barn anyway!”
Without a word, Meagan pulled the trigger and shot, barely missing his foot. Mason jumped back, then glared over at her.
“Damn little heifer! You almost shot me!”
A smirk crossed her face.
“You said I couldn’t shoot. I thought I would show you I can! Now...tell me something. Did you see any houses around when you got out of your car?”
They did have to admit that they didn’t.
Then she asked them, “And did you hear any noises other than your own jaws flapping?” she asked.
Seething, Mason again said, “No…we didn’t.”
“Then try again!” she smugly told him, “‘Cause Mister, you are two inches shy of a polecat’s tail of getting some lead in your ass.”
Brady told Mason, “Let me talk to her for a minute or two.”
Mason grew quiet, and Brady cleared his throat.
“I don’t know why you’re out here alone with that gun. I honestly don’t care. All I want is to sit somewhere, take these shoes off, and rest. We’ve been walking for I don’t know how long, and my feet hurt. So does my back. We did get lost. We took a wrong turn on the highway, and ran out of pavement. Then we didn’t see any signs of life. I guess we should’ve turned around, but we kept on going, hoping we would hit a street soon. We ran out of luck, but we don’t want to give you any problems. Obviously, we came upon something we shouldn’t have, because otherwise you wouldn’t be after us this bad. All we want is something to drink and to rest some, and then we’ll head back the direction we came. Maybe we’ll get back to the car in one piece. We are truly sorry for disturbing you.”
A voice spoke up from behind them, making both jump.
“Mister, you might as well sit for a spell, then. You done came up on us. I sure hope you don’t mean us no harm.”
Both the men turned to see who walked up behind them so quietly.
An older gentleman in old overalls and boots wearing a straw hat on his head walked by them. A younger man with him watched them, and he wore overalls as well, but with a bandanna on.
Both the men were haughty, unyielding, and that woman still pointed her gun at them! The older man walked up to her.
“Sister, put the gun down. You might’ve shot one of them, but the other would’ve took you down. You ain’t this damn badass you think you are. But we do know you try.”
He turned to the men.
“I can let you sit a spell, but I don’t have anything to drink you’d want. Sorry.”
Mason sighed, and he looked around. He saw there were no chairs, but he felt as exhausted as Brady, therefore they both sat on the ground. Brady slid his shoes off, while Mason rubbed his eyes. The boy saw how tired they were and spoke.
“Where you fellers from?”
Brady lifted his eyes to look at the tall boy.
“We’re from Lancaster. Our work there is construction. We’ve been on our way to Brush Popper for the fair, because we heard we could see a lot of old things there. I wish I knew where we took that wrong turn.”
He sighed, leaning against the tree. The woman walked up to him and kicked out her foot, still pointing the gun in their direction.
“Yeah, right! You expect us to believe you took a wrong turn? Bull!”
The older man walked up to her and gave her a stern look.
“Meagan Cole! Quit being like that! I heard what they said, and they’re right! We saw their car when we came up. I think they’re telling the truth! Why would they lie? Especially with a dang shotgun aimed at their hides!”
He took the gun away from her and walked over to the cabin, setting it against the porch step before turning back to the men.
“Make yourself comfortable. Sorry for not having you any water to drink. We do have something, but you’d have to keep it between us.”
“We can do that,” Mason told him.
When the old man went close to the barn, Meagan ran over to him, ranting and raving.
“Papa! Them men don’t need nothing to drink! They need to git!”
She stomped her foot, shooting a look back towards the two strangers. Her father rubbed his face.
“Sissy, they’re tired. They’re hurting. Don’t you think I know a bad one when I see one? I think you like them. That’s the reason for this attitude of your’n. Go back to the cabin and sit your butt down. Behave for a while. I’m getting them something to drink.”
He walked into the barn, and Meagan quickly walked over and grabbed her gun again, stalking over to the men and raising it back up.
“You two need to git! Now! We don’t want you here!”
The other man walked over and stood over her, mumbling something to her. She glared up at him, then started seething between, gritting her teeth together.
“I don’t know what the Hell you are talking about! Earnest, git off my back! They don’t belong here. They’ll talk. We’ll have to move. Git outa my way, and let me make them leave!”
Her father came walking out of the barn, shaking his head.
“Dang it, girl! What are we gonna do with you? You need to settle down. Here Son, give these jars to them. Young fellers, don’t drink it. Sip it. Goes down better that way. Don’t say where you got it.”
Both Brady and Mason took the jars that Earnest handed them. It seemed like she would not help at all!
“Don’t freakin’ spill it, neither! It’ll kill the grass!” she spat out at them.
Her father walked up to her, staring down into her eyes. She backed off, twirling her hair in her fingers, then she handed him the gun. He turned to the men, seeing that they are watching her.
“Narry mind her. She’s a little tyrant at times.”
Mason lifted the jar to his lips, taking a small sip like the man said. His eyes grew huge. He shot a look over at Brady, who saw him, and Brady also took a small drink. He, too, knew what they are drinking. It’s moonshine! No wonder the woman sounded this angry and hostile! Brady smiled and looked over at her, shaking his head.
“Miss, we won’t tell. We see now what we came up on. This is your home, not ours. We won’t make trouble for you, but we do want to rest some, and then we’ll leave. There won’t be any revenuers, no suits, or any other people. I don’t blame you for being careful. You’re a spunky little thing! I’ll give you that! I did tell you the truth. We did get lost.”
Earnest burst out laughing. “That’s easy to do around here!”
He walked over and shook their hands, then sat beside his sister, who earlier sat on the ground after getting stared at by her father. He patted her on the knee, which resulted in her slapping him on the head.
“You need to get laid, girl!”
That caused her to hit him on the head twice, and their father shot a look at them.
“Earnest! Meagan Cole! Quit it right now. I swear…you two will drive a papa to drinking! Meagan, listen to your brother. Lord knows there’s been plenty to ask. You won’t give.”
The old man sat alone off to the side, and he struck up a conversation with the two strangers. They talked honestly with him, but while they did, Brady couldn’t help but glance over at the young woman every now and then. He thought she looked pretty. She didn’t take any crap. He lived with a woman though; therefore he needed to put all such thoughts out of his mind.
As he watched her, Meagan stole some looks of her own. She liked this man, but she still didn’t like them coming along the way they did. Thus far, the family had no problems. Now they might. She couldn’t let her guard down.
Her father told the men, “My name is Jacob. You two men can sit for a while, then you really need to go on down the road so my daughter will settle down.”
She heard this, getting up and walking over to the barn. Meagan stopped at the door of the building, shot the two men a harsh look, and went inside so she wouldn’t have to deal with the men.
Jacob watched her go in, although he kept talking. He saw Brady lean his head around to watch her go over to the building. He visited with them some more, seeing that Brady didn’t listen much. He chuckled.
“Why don’t you go in and see what she’s doing, young feller.”
Earnest shot his father a strange look, then cast his eyes about for the gun. Seeing it beside him, he relaxed.
“Pa, she’ll kill him. Don’t throw him to the wolves like that. He seems nice.”
“Calm down, Son, Meagan won’t hurt the man.” Jacob chuckled.
“Are you sure about that?” asked Brady.
“Go on in there. As you go through the door, look to the right in the back, and you will find her.”
As Brady eased up from the ground and walked to the barn, Mason gazed over at the two men sitting with him.
“What’s going on?”
“Young feller, my daughter likes that one. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been so irate with the two of you. She usually goes on, fires a warning shot, and sits and says nothing else, but with you two, she wouldn’t shut up.”
Mason saw the problem, but still!
“Brady’s with someone! He can’t give her what you think she needs.”
Earnest didn’t smile, nor did he get up from where he sat. He shook his head at Mason.
“That don’t stop up no holes. He’ll find that out soon enough.”
Mason realized what the boy meant. He burst out laughing. She’s going to be all over that poor guy!
“Has she been with a man lately?”
“Nope! Last one’s been near five years ago. She took him in the cabin, locked the door, and he didn’t leave for pert’ near two weeks later, but she got a better mood! I’m hoping this does the same thing. She’s been moody lately,” Jacob mumbled.