Once (Gypsy Fairy Tale) Read Free Page B

truck and when I looked up; my eyes immediately fell on the fairgrounds across the street. The gypsies had brought in trailers and campers of every sort, children were playing everywhere and laundry hung on makeshift clothesline. It was like overnight this odd little neighborhood popped up out of the dirt.
    Across the dusty clearing came the man that walked with the horses in the parade. He was carrying a heavy rope of some sort and he was shirtless. The sun glistened on his broad chest and shone through his damp, dark hair.
    He walked over to a group of men and dropped the rope from his shoulder as if it weighed nothing. Moments later he was hammering a stake into the ground. Even from where I stood, I could see each and every ripple of each and every muscle.
    I couldn’t help but, lick my lips, imagining the salty sweet taste of his skin.
    Now that’s the sort of man you don’t see every day...
    A tingling on the right side of my face told me that I was being watched. I glanced to my right, and sure enough, the tall man that led the parade was staring me.
    Even all the way across the street, he met my eyes. I shrank back, embarrassed as if he could read the lusty thoughts on my mind.
    It was me that looked away first. I lowered my eyes and went around to the other side of the truck and got in. I drove off without even looking back in the mirror once.

Chapter 3
     
     
    It was already dark when I got back to the feed store. Throughout Corydon, the businesses were dark and the sidewalks were empty. Because of that, it made it seem much later than it really was.
    Stupid old woman and her stupid chickens...
    As I parked and got out of the truck, I heard the distant rumble of thunder. Out of the West came a rain scented breeze, warning me of the impending storm.
    I unlocked the door and went inside. I told myself that it was just a quick stop, just long enough to make sure that everything was locked up, and then I could go next door and go to bed.
    The store burst into light when I flipped the switch, seeming so much brighter than it ever did during the day. My footsteps echoed as I walked toward the counter, making the room seemed so much larger than it was in reality.
    I locked the back door and then went to the counter and opened the register. I thumbed through the receipts and placed them under the drawer. It all seemed in order, nothing that couldn’t wait until morning. I grabbed my keys as another rumble of thunder came and shook the very walls.
    A loud bang made me jump and drop everything.
    What the hell was that?
    My heart was pounding as I stood in the center of the room. I waited, listening and trembling, until I heard the sound again.
    This time it was more of a slamming sound. I looked around straining my ears until I heard it again, and looked up where it sounded like it came from to see the upper window had come unlatched.
    Of course...
    I sighed, drop my keys on the counter, and went back into the store room. I was dead tired, tripping over boxes and bumping into barrels as I pulled the ladder out from the back corner.
    Every muscle in my body ached as I dragged it out to the front room and under the window. I climbed up, only to realize that it was too short to reach the latch.
    Why can’t anything ever just be easy?
    I was too tired to go out back into the barn and search in the dark for a taller ladder. Stupidly, I climbed the remaining two rungs and balanced on the very top.
    Stretching up on my toes and wobbling, I reached for the latch and grasped it as the bell on the front door rattled.
    There was no time to think, but yet it all seemed to happen in slow motion. I heard the ladder crash to the floor, I felt my stomach rise up to my throat as I fell, and then I stopped, cradled in a blur of black that smelled of clover.
    There was a low murmur of a voice I did not recognize in my ear, speaking words I did not understand. I wiggled free of the strangers grasp, wobbling on my feet as I tried to