Kin to the Saboteur - Ch. 15
Adam did not go straight home after his encounter at Halona’s house. Nor did he seek after her, since it was obvious that she needed to be alone for a while to sort through her feelings. He also needed some time alone to think. So where did Adam go? Nowhere. He stayed right there in Halona’s empty house and waited around for her to return. After all, this was as good a place to think as any.
While Adam waited, he cleaned up the mess in the dining room, tidied up the kitchen, and even put away any excess food. Afterwards he feed her dogs, who’d come in from playing in the fields, and then sat out on the back porch to watch them eat.
The whole time, Adam thought long and hard about his life, particularly about his life before and after meeting Halona. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that he’d been much happier since meeting her and coming to work on her farm. And the fact that he no longer cared about his law practice in New York or about starting a large newspaper verified how much he’d changed over the last few months.
As a result, Adam knew exactly what he needed to do, no matter what the consequences. With that burden off of his mind, the peaceful man soon fell asleep right there on Halona’s back porch.
~~<<>>~~
Leaving the waterfall well after the sun had set, Halona returned home the same way she’d left – on foot. However, there was something slightly different about her. Her denims were now shorts and the missing pants legs had been used as a towel and a turban to dry her body and thick head of hair.
Putting up her rifle, Halona went over to her piano, pulling off her makeshift turban along the way. She didn’t want to go anywhere near the dining room or the kitchen since she knew the mess that was waiting for her there. She had enough mess to clear out of her mind.
After putting the denim fragment on top of the piano, Halona just stared at the black and white keys below for several long moments. She marveled that they seemed to get along all right and were quite capable of making beautiful music together. Unlike people, who seemed to want to remain separated forever solely based on color.
Then Halona began to play. She played out her feelings of rage, her feelings of loneliness, and her feelings of despair on the black and white keys below. Why must she feel this way? Why must she be in love with a man that she could never legally have in a place that was so near and dear to her heart? Halona could not leave this farm when so much of her blood, sweat, and tears had gone into the land. Not just her blood, sweat, and tears, but also her father and mother’s before her.
With nimble fingers that flew over the keys, Halona continued to play with such fervor, such passion. She had no idea that she was silently being watched from the parlor’s archway by the man who’d quietly reentered the house from the back door. The same man that had created such turmoil in her life and made her love him so.
Still so engrossed in her playing, Halona did not notice that Adam had come further into the room. Nor did she sense his presence until she was at the end of her spontaneous recital and draped over the piano keys in a ball of tears. That’s when she felt comforting hands about her shoulders. That’s when she heard Adam’s deep voice speaking oh so tenderly in her right ear.
“Sakari, my sweet,” Adam said, calling Halona by her rarely used middle name. He pulled her to her feet and scooped her reluctant frame up in his arms. It was time to reveal his secret. A shameful secret that he’d keep hidden inside for so long that he really didn’t know how to began telling it. Yet it was one that Adam finally would reveal since it was now a means to a very delightful end.
“Don’t look at me,” Halona said, turning her tear-stained face away from his gaze. Being held so tenderly by a man was just too unfamiliar to the woman who’d been raised a tomboy. Halona’s father had often carried her on his back. She couldn’t remember ever being cradled in Gordon’s arms the way Adam was cradling her now.
Adam smiled and nudged her head back towards him with his chin. “My sweet, I have seen you look much worse, believe me. Besides, your tears are precious to me. I treasure each one that you shed for me,” he said, sitting down on the piano bench with her still in his arms.
“Who ever said I shed these tears for you?” Halona retorted, revealing some of that fiery temper that Adam had grown to love. Even still she felt those familiar flutters in her belly, tingles in her fingers, and slight light-headedness at his presence.
Adam simply chuckled at her flame of temper. “I’m sorry. You must have dust in your eyes then,” he replied. Suddenly his eyes and tone grew very serious. “I need you, my sweet. And I want to be with you…in marriage.”
“But we can’t get married, remember? Too many technicalities.”
“Oh yes we can, my sweet. For you see, I am part Negro,” Adam confessed. It was interesting that saying that hadn’t been as bad as he thought it would be.
Halona’s eyes grew wide. Her mouth dropped open in shock. “You are? But how? All those freckles, this fine red hair,” she said, touching his face and head as she sat upright in his lap. “I don’t understand.”
“Let me help you understand.” Then Adam began to tell Halona about his family history, leaving very little out. “My full name is Adam Brion Thorpe. My mother was a Creole woman named Angelique Brion from Louisiana. She got pregnant by a red-haired, married Irishman from Texas. Although my father never completely disowned me, he never had much to do with me, either. Thus my mother ended up raising me basically alone.”
“Did she treat you well? Did you love her?” Halona asked, staring intently into his eyes. She didn’t want to miss not even one of his emotions as he told her this shocking tale.
His honey-brown eyes grew glossy. “Yes, my mother treated me very well and I loved her very dearly.” Adam’s eyes suddenly took on a hard glint. “But I hated how other people treated her because of her complexion. I especially hated how they treated me when they found out I was her son. One minute I was acceptable, the next I wasn’t fit to spit on. And even though I did not deny my mother all the days she was alive, I did deny that part of my heritage when she died.”
“Why? When you loved her so.” Halona couldn’t imagine ever disowning either of her parents.
Adam took a deep breath and blew it out. “It was just easier to pass for white. I got into the best schools that way, the best neighborhoods, even into the best law firm that way. I feel so ashamed of myself now. Especially when I’m around someone like you who is proud of both sides of your heritage even though you suffer constant rejection because of it.”
Now Halona understood why the rude boys in front of the general store had affected Adam so much. Now she understood a lot of things about him. When Adam was finally finished with his tale, including the part about his father changing his last name from Brion to Thorpe in order to make him even more acceptable, Halona couldn’t contain her tears. She also couldn’t contain her happiness as she leaned her head against his left shoulder and snuggled, actually snuggled with him.
“You’re very silent, my sweet. Does this mean you need time to think about marrying me? Or is the answer a flat no?” Adam asked, after several quiet moments had passed between them.
Wiping her tears away, Halona lifted her head to look into his eyes. “My mind is already made up. I’d be honored to marry you as soon as summer and fall harvest is over,” she replied, thinking about her agricultural timetable. Halona knew that she needed to get married in either late spring or sometime in winter in order to avoid the seasons of planting, heavy field work, and harvest. Most farmers planned their lives, work or play, around the seasons.
“Why so long, my sweet? I want you to be my wife immediately,” Adam inquired with impatience showing upon his face.
Halona actually giggled, which is something she had never done in her life. Not even as a child. Yet it seemed so natural to do so now. “I want to be your wife as soon as possible, too. It’s just that I won’t be able to fully concentrate on being a wife until after this year’s harvest and all the troubles we’ve been having with it are past. Plus, with more time on our hands, we can take a real honeymoon. Go somewhere that color doesn’t matter as much.”
Adam smiled. He was appeased by her words. “All right. We will wait until after harvest is over. In the meantime, I will do whatever I can to help this harvest go smoother and quicker.” Adam would also use that time to conclude what remained of his life in New York and conclude his business with his father. He wanted nothing standing in the way of his union with Halona.
Now Halona was appeased. To show her satisfaction, she lifted her lips to his and sealed the moment with a kiss. That kiss turned out to be kindling to the dry wood of their suppressed desire. Soon Halona found her legs being repositioned so that all the special places on Adam’s body were now aligned with all the special places on hers.
Halona appreciated Adam’s aggressiveness and responded with equal aggression as she wrapped her legs about his waist and began to move against him like an animal in heat. The fact that her pants were now shorts provided Adam with access to areas of her body that he’d only dreamed of touching. In fact, his exploring hands were rapidly reducing her to putty.
Normally Adam prided himself on behaving like a gentleman at all times and certainly on his ability to always remain in control. However, every time he was around Halona he struggled to contain himself. In fact, every time he was around her, he actually wanted to devour her. This was one of those times.
Running one of his hands up the back of her shirt, Adam found next to nothing underneath. He inhaled sharply and moaned with pleasure as he encountered even more bare skin. He wasn’t sure if Halona had left some garments at the waterfall or if she just hadn’t put much of anything on after church. Either way, he was glad for the extra access.
With Halona’s legs still wrapped deliciously around his waist, Adam turned both of their bodies towards the piano, lowering the keyboard cover in the process. Then with Halona’s back to the piano and with her oversized shirt and tighter undershirt pulled over her head and back behind her neck, Adam’s steadily exploring hands began to play a tune of his own.
First, he played in Halona’s long, only slightly damp hair which confirmed that she’d been in her secret place swimming. Next, his fingers cascaded along her throat and collarbone, marveling at how delicate they looked in contrast to her hard biceps and triceps. His lips took a moment to play as well as they eagerly traveled the path that his fingers had, causing Halona to arch like a cat towards him, causing her to move with even more hot abandonment against him.
Going even further downward upon her frame, Adam’s roaming hands and equally roaming lips touched Halona in places no man had before. He tasted her in those same places. His tongue caused her belly to quiver as it playfully swirled in her bellybutton and lapped at her like a tasty summertime dessert. It was a good thing the keyboard cover had been lowered; otherwise all kinds of notes would have been hit off key as Halona delightfully squirmed in ecstasy against it.
With her arms spread wide across the front of her piano and with her eyes closed in ecstasy, Halona experienced what it was like to be a sexual being for the first time in her waking hours. For this was definitely no dream. And although the gate of her secret garden hadn’t been breached, the rivers flowing from that garden had been called forth by a red-haired man with amazing hands and lips.
“Are you sure you want to wait until harvest is over?” Adam asked as he lifted his head from her delectable torso. He was ready to take her now, despite his usual gentlemanly resolve. Seeing her eyes flutter open and closed in ecstasy like that made him want to ‘have supper before he said grace’ which was just another way of saying that he wanted to have sex before marriage…with Halona. Desperately.
Before Halona could answer either way, there was suddenly an urgent knock on the front door. She stopped all movement and her eyes snatched open just in time to see Adam’s passion-filled pools take on an inquisitive look. He was obviously curious about the source of their distraction, as well.
“It can’t be Marilu. She would have just walked on in or else used her key if the door was locked,” Halona said in a low tone as Adam helped her upon her feet again.
“Well, we’ll never know who it is, if we don’t ask or at least go see,” Adam whispered back, standing to his feet as well as the knocking persisted. “Do you want me to answer the door? Or shall I make them wait for you?” he asked, quickly fumbling with his clothes to set them to rights again. Fortunately, his passion had swiftly weaned at the first knock and all evidence of his desire was rapidly fading away.
“You can get it while I go to my room and make myself decent again,” Halona said, heading towards the back of the house even as she spoke.
However, what Halona and Adam heard next would make them both stop short in their tracks. “Miss Halona, somebody done set the field on fire again!” Henry yelled, shouting above his knocking after hearing hushed voices in the house.
Suddenly Adam and Halona started to move at the same time as they raced for the front door. Although he got there first, they both knew that they were in for a long night.
While Adam waited, he cleaned up the mess in the dining room, tidied up the kitchen, and even put away any excess food. Afterwards he feed her dogs, who’d come in from playing in the fields, and then sat out on the back porch to watch them eat.
The whole time, Adam thought long and hard about his life, particularly about his life before and after meeting Halona. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that he’d been much happier since meeting her and coming to work on her farm. And the fact that he no longer cared about his law practice in New York or about starting a large newspaper verified how much he’d changed over the last few months.
As a result, Adam knew exactly what he needed to do, no matter what the consequences. With that burden off of his mind, the peaceful man soon fell asleep right there on Halona’s back porch.
~~<<>>~~
Leaving the waterfall well after the sun had set, Halona returned home the same way she’d left – on foot. However, there was something slightly different about her. Her denims were now shorts and the missing pants legs had been used as a towel and a turban to dry her body and thick head of hair.
Putting up her rifle, Halona went over to her piano, pulling off her makeshift turban along the way. She didn’t want to go anywhere near the dining room or the kitchen since she knew the mess that was waiting for her there. She had enough mess to clear out of her mind.
After putting the denim fragment on top of the piano, Halona just stared at the black and white keys below for several long moments. She marveled that they seemed to get along all right and were quite capable of making beautiful music together. Unlike people, who seemed to want to remain separated forever solely based on color.
Then Halona began to play. She played out her feelings of rage, her feelings of loneliness, and her feelings of despair on the black and white keys below. Why must she feel this way? Why must she be in love with a man that she could never legally have in a place that was so near and dear to her heart? Halona could not leave this farm when so much of her blood, sweat, and tears had gone into the land. Not just her blood, sweat, and tears, but also her father and mother’s before her.
With nimble fingers that flew over the keys, Halona continued to play with such fervor, such passion. She had no idea that she was silently being watched from the parlor’s archway by the man who’d quietly reentered the house from the back door. The same man that had created such turmoil in her life and made her love him so.
Still so engrossed in her playing, Halona did not notice that Adam had come further into the room. Nor did she sense his presence until she was at the end of her spontaneous recital and draped over the piano keys in a ball of tears. That’s when she felt comforting hands about her shoulders. That’s when she heard Adam’s deep voice speaking oh so tenderly in her right ear.
“Sakari, my sweet,” Adam said, calling Halona by her rarely used middle name. He pulled her to her feet and scooped her reluctant frame up in his arms. It was time to reveal his secret. A shameful secret that he’d keep hidden inside for so long that he really didn’t know how to began telling it. Yet it was one that Adam finally would reveal since it was now a means to a very delightful end.
“Don’t look at me,” Halona said, turning her tear-stained face away from his gaze. Being held so tenderly by a man was just too unfamiliar to the woman who’d been raised a tomboy. Halona’s father had often carried her on his back. She couldn’t remember ever being cradled in Gordon’s arms the way Adam was cradling her now.
Adam smiled and nudged her head back towards him with his chin. “My sweet, I have seen you look much worse, believe me. Besides, your tears are precious to me. I treasure each one that you shed for me,” he said, sitting down on the piano bench with her still in his arms.
“Who ever said I shed these tears for you?” Halona retorted, revealing some of that fiery temper that Adam had grown to love. Even still she felt those familiar flutters in her belly, tingles in her fingers, and slight light-headedness at his presence.
Adam simply chuckled at her flame of temper. “I’m sorry. You must have dust in your eyes then,” he replied. Suddenly his eyes and tone grew very serious. “I need you, my sweet. And I want to be with you…in marriage.”
“But we can’t get married, remember? Too many technicalities.”
“Oh yes we can, my sweet. For you see, I am part Negro,” Adam confessed. It was interesting that saying that hadn’t been as bad as he thought it would be.
Halona’s eyes grew wide. Her mouth dropped open in shock. “You are? But how? All those freckles, this fine red hair,” she said, touching his face and head as she sat upright in his lap. “I don’t understand.”
“Let me help you understand.” Then Adam began to tell Halona about his family history, leaving very little out. “My full name is Adam Brion Thorpe. My mother was a Creole woman named Angelique Brion from Louisiana. She got pregnant by a red-haired, married Irishman from Texas. Although my father never completely disowned me, he never had much to do with me, either. Thus my mother ended up raising me basically alone.”
“Did she treat you well? Did you love her?” Halona asked, staring intently into his eyes. She didn’t want to miss not even one of his emotions as he told her this shocking tale.
His honey-brown eyes grew glossy. “Yes, my mother treated me very well and I loved her very dearly.” Adam’s eyes suddenly took on a hard glint. “But I hated how other people treated her because of her complexion. I especially hated how they treated me when they found out I was her son. One minute I was acceptable, the next I wasn’t fit to spit on. And even though I did not deny my mother all the days she was alive, I did deny that part of my heritage when she died.”
“Why? When you loved her so.” Halona couldn’t imagine ever disowning either of her parents.
Adam took a deep breath and blew it out. “It was just easier to pass for white. I got into the best schools that way, the best neighborhoods, even into the best law firm that way. I feel so ashamed of myself now. Especially when I’m around someone like you who is proud of both sides of your heritage even though you suffer constant rejection because of it.”
Now Halona understood why the rude boys in front of the general store had affected Adam so much. Now she understood a lot of things about him. When Adam was finally finished with his tale, including the part about his father changing his last name from Brion to Thorpe in order to make him even more acceptable, Halona couldn’t contain her tears. She also couldn’t contain her happiness as she leaned her head against his left shoulder and snuggled, actually snuggled with him.
“You’re very silent, my sweet. Does this mean you need time to think about marrying me? Or is the answer a flat no?” Adam asked, after several quiet moments had passed between them.
Wiping her tears away, Halona lifted her head to look into his eyes. “My mind is already made up. I’d be honored to marry you as soon as summer and fall harvest is over,” she replied, thinking about her agricultural timetable. Halona knew that she needed to get married in either late spring or sometime in winter in order to avoid the seasons of planting, heavy field work, and harvest. Most farmers planned their lives, work or play, around the seasons.
“Why so long, my sweet? I want you to be my wife immediately,” Adam inquired with impatience showing upon his face.
Halona actually giggled, which is something she had never done in her life. Not even as a child. Yet it seemed so natural to do so now. “I want to be your wife as soon as possible, too. It’s just that I won’t be able to fully concentrate on being a wife until after this year’s harvest and all the troubles we’ve been having with it are past. Plus, with more time on our hands, we can take a real honeymoon. Go somewhere that color doesn’t matter as much.”
Adam smiled. He was appeased by her words. “All right. We will wait until after harvest is over. In the meantime, I will do whatever I can to help this harvest go smoother and quicker.” Adam would also use that time to conclude what remained of his life in New York and conclude his business with his father. He wanted nothing standing in the way of his union with Halona.
Now Halona was appeased. To show her satisfaction, she lifted her lips to his and sealed the moment with a kiss. That kiss turned out to be kindling to the dry wood of their suppressed desire. Soon Halona found her legs being repositioned so that all the special places on Adam’s body were now aligned with all the special places on hers.
Halona appreciated Adam’s aggressiveness and responded with equal aggression as she wrapped her legs about his waist and began to move against him like an animal in heat. The fact that her pants were now shorts provided Adam with access to areas of her body that he’d only dreamed of touching. In fact, his exploring hands were rapidly reducing her to putty.
Normally Adam prided himself on behaving like a gentleman at all times and certainly on his ability to always remain in control. However, every time he was around Halona he struggled to contain himself. In fact, every time he was around her, he actually wanted to devour her. This was one of those times.
Running one of his hands up the back of her shirt, Adam found next to nothing underneath. He inhaled sharply and moaned with pleasure as he encountered even more bare skin. He wasn’t sure if Halona had left some garments at the waterfall or if she just hadn’t put much of anything on after church. Either way, he was glad for the extra access.
With Halona’s legs still wrapped deliciously around his waist, Adam turned both of their bodies towards the piano, lowering the keyboard cover in the process. Then with Halona’s back to the piano and with her oversized shirt and tighter undershirt pulled over her head and back behind her neck, Adam’s steadily exploring hands began to play a tune of his own.
First, he played in Halona’s long, only slightly damp hair which confirmed that she’d been in her secret place swimming. Next, his fingers cascaded along her throat and collarbone, marveling at how delicate they looked in contrast to her hard biceps and triceps. His lips took a moment to play as well as they eagerly traveled the path that his fingers had, causing Halona to arch like a cat towards him, causing her to move with even more hot abandonment against him.
Going even further downward upon her frame, Adam’s roaming hands and equally roaming lips touched Halona in places no man had before. He tasted her in those same places. His tongue caused her belly to quiver as it playfully swirled in her bellybutton and lapped at her like a tasty summertime dessert. It was a good thing the keyboard cover had been lowered; otherwise all kinds of notes would have been hit off key as Halona delightfully squirmed in ecstasy against it.
With her arms spread wide across the front of her piano and with her eyes closed in ecstasy, Halona experienced what it was like to be a sexual being for the first time in her waking hours. For this was definitely no dream. And although the gate of her secret garden hadn’t been breached, the rivers flowing from that garden had been called forth by a red-haired man with amazing hands and lips.
“Are you sure you want to wait until harvest is over?” Adam asked as he lifted his head from her delectable torso. He was ready to take her now, despite his usual gentlemanly resolve. Seeing her eyes flutter open and closed in ecstasy like that made him want to ‘have supper before he said grace’ which was just another way of saying that he wanted to have sex before marriage…with Halona. Desperately.
Before Halona could answer either way, there was suddenly an urgent knock on the front door. She stopped all movement and her eyes snatched open just in time to see Adam’s passion-filled pools take on an inquisitive look. He was obviously curious about the source of their distraction, as well.
“It can’t be Marilu. She would have just walked on in or else used her key if the door was locked,” Halona said in a low tone as Adam helped her upon her feet again.
“Well, we’ll never know who it is, if we don’t ask or at least go see,” Adam whispered back, standing to his feet as well as the knocking persisted. “Do you want me to answer the door? Or shall I make them wait for you?” he asked, quickly fumbling with his clothes to set them to rights again. Fortunately, his passion had swiftly weaned at the first knock and all evidence of his desire was rapidly fading away.
“You can get it while I go to my room and make myself decent again,” Halona said, heading towards the back of the house even as she spoke.
However, what Halona and Adam heard next would make them both stop short in their tracks. “Miss Halona, somebody done set the field on fire again!” Henry yelled, shouting above his knocking after hearing hushed voices in the house.
Suddenly Adam and Halona started to move at the same time as they raced for the front door. Although he got there first, they both knew that they were in for a long night.
© 2006 Suprina Frazier
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