Raised in a Barn

Charles Lette was always a happy child.Despite the challenges any kid faces growing up on a farm.Charles always did his task his dad charged him with to the best of his abilities.It was hard work and took great dedication on his part.Charles was just a kid but he found out fast what being a man was about.Still when all his work was done he would retreat to the old barn.

Charles loved that red barn that withstood the test of time.He spent so many evenings with the horses and pigs and the mice.They all became his friends.Charles loved his mother and father like all little boys do.He was especially fond of his mother probably because she was a source of inspiration.Where as Charles’s father only showed him how hard life was and how hard Charles would have to be to survive it.Charles ‘s mother was a glimpse of something different.She represented hope for change.She taught Charles he could have any life he could imagine.She read him all sorts of books.Books about this and that.From the Amazon to Antarctica.From being a veterinarian to being deep sea diver.Regardless if it was real or fantasy ,if it was in a book she showed it to Charles.

Charles’s mother was not just a farmer’s wife but she was a wife that also happen to be a farmer.She worked hard as any man.And when she had to she worked even harder.However just like Charles when her day was done and her duties to her family were accomplished she loved to play.

The way she played was a little bit different.She loved to dance in her favorite green dress.And when Charles’s father saw her move he was hypnotized.He fell in love like it was the first time he ever laid eyes on her.He fell in love for the second time and third time and hundredth time.He never felt worthy enough to dance with her though she tried so often to convince him.He declined and she continued to move.She moved him over and over again and Charles watched.

Charles learned what true love was.Charles was in his own way hypnotized beholding such a display of art in motion.Watching his mom dance so gracefully and his father look upon her so graciously he realized how you should see the one you love.Charles saw both his mother and father with loving eyes.He too was thankful for the experience he was given watching his parents run a farm from sun up till sun down but still made time to rediscover each other whenever the chance presented itself.

Charles was faithful to do all that was required of him.Then he would head to the barn to discuss the day he had with the animals.He ran and played by himself as if he had 100 other children amongst him.He kicked the ball around and climbed up and down the ladders.Then he napped in the hay stacks. Charles loved to hide and make his mother have to find him in the barn.

Charles could be very still and almost seem to disappear in that old barn.His mother would give up and call his name.He would tell her to close her eyes and then he would come out of his special hiding place.They hugged and she would tell him how she was amazed that she never found his spot even after all the times she searched for it.

When Charles was a teenager his life changes drastically.His Father fell in love with his mother once more but she fell sick.It was something incurable.One thing they didn’t do was fall apart.On a calm dark night Charles’s mother collected the strength to dance in her green dress.She spent most of her energy just getting out of bed and putting the dress on.But she did it and made her way to the kitchen where she danced her frustrations away time after time.

She brought Charles close to her and spun him around and around till she almost collapsed.She was smiling and Charles was laughing.His Father watching rushed over to her and caught her before she touched the floor.She winked at him and said got ya.She finally got him out on the dance floor .He knew this would be the last time he could have a chance to dance with his soulmate.He wouldn’t just stand back and fall in love like it was for the first time that night but he would hold her close to his chest and move ever so slow with her.As if dancing as slow as possible would delay the inevitable.

Charles’s father chose to dance that night and fall in love for the last time.

Charles’s father held her in his arms breathing heavy enough for the both of them.She was no longer spinning around.It was the slowest dance anyone could ever imagine.No more movement.Charles ran to the place he felt the safest.Where nothing not even grief could find him.He went to his special hiding place.The old red barn.

Time went on and Charles became more serious.He was no longer that little boy who played in the barn but he still retreated to his hiding place.He still talked to the animals but mostly talked to himself .Charles’s father needed his heart to heal or he wasn’t going to make it.He needed his eyesight rid of any memories of her.He began to throw away her clothes but Charles asked for the green dress.His father told him no but Charles snuck it out to the barn.

Charles would disappear many nights.His father not really curious where he would go.Charles’s father died too that day in the kitchen.Charles spent a lot of evenings in the barn.His father could hear music playing but ignored it.One evening Charles’s father needed him to help with fixing the tractor.

He couldn’t find him in the house but it wasn’t a mystery where he could be.His father went out to the barn and looked inside.He saw his son spinning around and around in the green dress.Instead of his father being angry he saw Charles’s mother dancing her frustrations away.He fell in love yet once more.Charles father began to heal that day.He went over to his son and grabbed him tight.With tears in his eyes he told Charles he didn’t mind him dancing in the barn but the dance floor was in the kitchen.