Donkey Skin

Chapter 1

The wind was harsh that night. When it rushed past your ears you could almost hear its voice crying out. It was easy to feel deep inside that it was a warning. It was like the air had become something of a scared horse, restless and uneasy. It rippled through tree tops and around the trunk, not caring who saw. Some could say that the wind was dangerous that night, but I could tell you that it was a warning of something far darker than fallen branches. It couldn't have been the force of the wind to linger under skin or set stomachs boiling, though. Those were symptoms of what was to come.Even the animals were restless listening to the strong winds. They must have anticipated a storm. It was a storm we were sure to get.

I was a farmhand for a man and his wife who lived out in the country where all the news came about a day late. After that anxious night spent in the barn I was woken by the sound of hungry animals. I rolled over and swung off the loft landing hard on my boots. The horses began whining in their stalls more impatiently as if to tell me to get on with it. If they knew how hungry I was, I thought, they wouldn't be as hungry. Maybe they think the same to me when I take my time feeding them every morning. It's not that hard, fool, they would say,

As I think about the storm we had I am reminded that Mrs. Blathmac will surely have me take a bath. She always uses the rain water caught in a tin tub as a bathing mechanism. The minute I stepped out and sunk my foot in a puddle, I could feel the dirt built up in my hair and under my fingernails.

As I walked the path toward the Blathmac's home I noted many fallen limbs that I would need to get to picking up before Mr. and Mrs. Blathmac rode to church soon. As I neared the front porch I saw Mr. Blathmac having a smoke on his rocking chair. When I was within ear shot he said, "You better go 'round back and help that old woman drag up yer bath." Mr. Blathmac was humored in saying this because he found his wife's insistence to reuse the rain water for bathing to be in some ways quirky. I nodded my head, "Yes sir." and made my way to the back porch where Mrs. Blathmac was already dragging her tin tub onto the porch. She tried dragging it up the steps, but water splashed over the side onto the ground. "Let me help with that, ma'am." I insisted. I grabbed the other side of it to keep it level and we sat it gently back down. "You're just in time, boy. You give me your clothes so I can get 'em clean." I did what she said, took off my shoes first, then my pants, then my shirt. I had nothing but my under things on. Mr. and Mrs. Blathmac were pretty old folks, so they weren't so reserved about such things as bathing on the back porch. We were out in the middle of nowhere anyhow, so it didn't really matter to nobody. I stepped into the tub, which was about a foot deep and only wide enough for a child to be able to sit in. In fact, I did sit in it as a child. I've been with the Blathmacs since I was eight or so. I suppose I was a bit like a son to them. I used a worn out cloth to wash myself clean and waited for Mrs. Blathmac to return with my clothes. When she did return she had a bar of soap in her hand, which meant that she well intended to clean my hair. I took up a handful of water and threw it best I could at her, getting the front side of her dress wet. She yelled out, "Now you get your neck bent over this tub or I'll have you do the rest of the day's chores with nothing on your back!" I laughed at her strange threat, "You'd like that, wouldn't you, woman." I heard Mr. Blathmac, now in the kitchen, laugh out. Mrs. Blathmac was not so humored giving me a swift slap in the face dragging my head down by my ear. I fell to my knees and gripped the sides of the tub as she dunked my head under the water. She scrubbed my scalp harshly only letting me come up for air after she had finished. I whipped my wet head up gasping for breath and shaking out my hair like a dog for the sole purpose of getting her wet again.