Wallflower Girl

Chapter 9

Anne had never even had an offer though. There had never been a man intent on looking into her eyes; looking into them with desire. She hated the pity. It was like a cloak she had to wear. She limped and had messed up skin on her leg. So what? Just look at me! At me! The person!

A tear dripped from her cheek as she waited at a red light. She wished she at least had a date for the wedding. It felt totally pathetic going alone, but she could not imagine the man she could have realistically asked to accompany her. Even a male friend would have done, but she had no male friends who were not the man of their house; family men. Well, except for Graham, but arriving with her spoiled and ill-mannered brother would have been worse.

Tears streamed for a while, but Anne was tough deep down. She wound through the Friday afternoon worker traffic and onto the expressway headed out of the city. It was about a three hour drive to Hammond, the small town her friend Kelly had moved to after meeting a guy from there and falling in love and all that stuff. Anne sniffled as another tear rolled down, and she drove on.

There was an expressway exit that left about half an hour of travel on a minor country road with cows and horses grazing, and fields sown to sunflowers and corn. One field was interesting. It was strewn with bales of straw. They were absolutely everywhere. The scene struck Anne with a weird familiarity; almost a poignancy. She slowed and pulled over to watch a farmer loading the bales onto a huge trailer. They were the big round bales, and he had a tractor with two prongs that speared underneath and lifted.