The Sky Never Ends

Indiscretion

Only three days into Selah's new routine and she completely was spent. Her hands ached so badly she could hardly close her hands into a fist, they were cracked and scraped. Her body was sore and weak from constantly bending over and kneeling in the dirt, and the sun's beating rays seemed to further deplete her energy. 

There was a substantial difference in doing farm work, and doing chores. At the moment, Selah would've begged to be reassigned to housework if someone asked her. Both Selah and Mae were not good at any of the farm work or milking the animals yet, which made it much harder for them. The animals would move and Selah would miss the silver bucket lying beneath the utters, often no milk would come out at all. Selah had been kicked in stomach by one of the goats and Mae had been knocked over by a calf. Needless to say both of them were surly and bitter near the end of the week.

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A shower of rain poured down upon the homestead, ending Selah's work day before sunset. It hadn't rained in months, but Selah couldn't be more grateful for the storm interrupting her chores. She cleaned up her area, covering her bucket with a towel, it was only a quarter full of milk, but she worked too damn hard to let it go to waste. She waddled through the rain, soiling the bottom of her brought the small bucket to Nora to see if she had any use for it. Luckily she did and promised to share the biscuits she would make with Selah. 

Although it was still raining Selah wanted to clean off before she retired for the day. She was tired and feeling rather cantankerous, she wasn't quite ready to head into a house with bustling children or arguing lovers. She was trying to bide her time, then hopefully when the sun went down she could slip into her room and pass out for the night.

Clara and Stephen had been bickering every day this week. Even when they would attempt to keep their voice low the conversation could usually be heard by everyone in the house. Clara started to have a back bone, but didn't seem to be getting far with Stephen's stubborn pompous attitude. Since Selah was out of the house most of the day she wasn't there to witness it all, but when she'd return they'd oft be in the midst of an argument. Stephen seemed to be even more overbearing, needy, and harsh as the days passed. Selah's heart felt for Clara and the children, but she couldn't be the one to do anything about it or make him change. She was getting fed up with all of his demands though, whenever he saw Selah he'd be just as demanding as when she'd' be working in the house. She was much more exhausted now working in the pins, and could hardly use her hands recently.

When the sun went down,  Selah felt apprehensive she headed towards Stephen's home. It was still raining, and she was soaked, there was no way she'd be able to get inside without making a mess. 

While she was on the porch, she lifted her skirt and twisted all the water out that she could get. She opened the front door and  attempted to speed walk to her room, but not before Stephen could stop her. He was sitting at his desk in the office adjacent to the kitchen reading over a document, he turned to Selah looking up from the papers in his hand.

"You're a mess aren't you?" he said snidely, referring to Selah's drenched body. 

"I'm sorry sir, I tried my best to get as much water from my dress as possible. I'll go change and then I'll clean my mess up." Selah said through her clenched teeth.

"Incompetent in so many ways aren't you Selah?" he patronized.

Selah fumed whenever he talked to her this way, asking her a list of rhetorical questions about her intelligence or what he believe was her lack of intelligence. It was as if he was enticing her to mouth off at him. Asking how far would she let him go on before she'd react poorly? Usually she was good about ignoring it and letting it go, she told herself that it wasn't worth it and he is the one who was miserable.