The glaring sun shined down on my back, soon to make my farmers tan more noticeable, not that I minded. A farmer’s tan was sexy to some girls. Being a girl myself, homosexuality wasn’t common around my town, so my parents were not very accepting of it; therefore, they were oblivious to my shunned characteristic. My name is Christina but they call me Chris, and I am a farm hand on my dad’s plantation. I’m tough for a girl; thus, I bail hay, spread mounds of mulch, plow the fields, and handle the horses and cattle. My pickup Ford is a gas guzzler from 1967, and I work minimum wage, so I do what I can to get myself to school and to do my racing on Saturday nights. I wiped the sweat from my face with the red bandanna from my back pocket, and went to clean off for the first race of the season.
I looked in the mirror; my green eyes glowed like my mother’s and grandmother’s, and my blond hair was pasted to my head with sweat, but would soon volumize with curls when it dried. At seventeen I didn’t weigh but 130 pounds, and I was a tall 5’7”, and my C38’s were huge, compared to all the girls around here. Their chests are so flat, they need to make sure they wear makeup and fix their hair, or they’ll look like a scrawny man. My mom isn’t here for me to thank for those attributes, because she died while giving birth to my youngest brother Henry, and he is five. My dad, known to others as Big Joe, is always gone till the end of the day, working at the side-stand off the highway, selling our produce and hay. He used to be a professional bull rider until last year, one of the bull’s hooves crushed his leg bone and now all he can do is that, I run the farm. Dad has a major limp, so my older brother Thomas fashioned him a cane, because he is a woods craftsman. Thomas is now nineteen and engaged to my best friend Dana, and they make the cutest couple. If they have kids, no one could say one looks more like the other, because both of them have black hair, brown eyes, and a pale complexion. Now if one of those future nieces or nephews of mine inherit the blond gene, I got dibs on spoiling him or her. Just as I spoil henry, he is my blond midget. Jake is my twelve year old brother, and he is brown haired and has the muscles of a horse. He is a big help on the farm if I uncommonly can’t carry something. Not only is he strong, but also very bright. He always brought home the best grades, and I am very proud. Henry on the other hand, is a little hellion who will cause much trouble in his near future. I can hear the phone ringing already, the school calling to inform me he has bit another child or glued crayons to the wall.
Turns out it really was a phone ringing, my cell lay on the bathroom counter and I reached from inside the shower to answer it. It was Dana.
“Hey girl” I answered.
“Okay I need a serious opinion! Should I carry red roses in my bouquet, or just a lily and daisy mix?”
“Lily and Daisy, we have the yellow and blue cake, remember? We don’t need clashing colors”
“Oh yeah, girl you are my life saver! Wait, are you in the shower?”
“No I am under a waterfall, genius.”
“Okay lieutenant sarcasm, I will see you at the race tonight! We gonna kick some ace!”
“You can bet your boobies on that! Oh that’s right, you gotta have some first” I exploded in laughter.
“Okay now missy, you’ll pay for that later” she hung up.
Dana and Thomas are the only ones that know my secret, and think nothing of it. Dana, I can tell anything to without her getting weirded out or disgusted. She’s been trying to find me a girlfriend for a long time, but we both know there are none in this town. Try speaking of evolution here, your ass would get smacked with the Bible harder than daddy’s belt. So no one would dare “come out” around this place. I knew I would have to leave the county, or the state to even find the girl of my dreams. Dana and I had a few flings when we got drunk, back when we were preteens, but she grew out of it and wanted my brother. It didn’t bother me none, and I guess what we had back then is what makes us so close today. She could go streak in my house and I would be the only one thinking she is still normal. My brother knows about it, and he just laughed. So I guess being weird just runs in the family. They always come to my races to watch me win. They would see me do it once again tonight.
Saturday nights are what keep this crusty old town exciting. When football season is over, the racing starts. Westville High, my high school, is one of the best in the state. We won state championship three years in a row, but twenty-nine totals, in the fifty years it’s been running. But racing, that’s much more important. It sets your status in this town; hence, you get all the glory, pride, and respect. That’s me; I am the winner five years in a row. People just leave me be, cause I am the top dog in this town, youth-wise. My best friend Andy and I, raced together, but he still never could beat me fairly. I let him win once out of pity, two years ago, but soon regretted it. You learn quickly who your real friends are. Once you are stripped of your pride and dignity, you are alone, because everyone wants a piece of the winner. He ditched me and soon after betrayed my cousin, which betrayed me. Just two months ago, my little cousin Lauren, who was only thirteen, was easily wooed in by his popularity, and looks, and age of eighteen. He stole her innocence and chunked her like yesterday’s newspaper. Now there’s a way to get me heated up. We never spoke again, until this summer, when we did our annual “shit talk” before the race, to get things started. Tonight, he was going to eat my dust, my cousin would have some dignity again, and I would make history.
