The Story
My name is Ken, short for Kenneth. Some of my close friends and family generally call me Kenny. I was born and raised just outside a tiny little town in a deep southern state. I was raised mostly by my Mother, Caroline, and my Dad until I was about four or five years old. That was when it became my Mother only, as my Dad split from my Mother and me. After he up and left my Mother, my Dad left town and probably the state, too, for all we ever knew.
We never saw or heard from him again. We never had much even before my Dad split and after that, things got even worse. My Mother worked long, hard hours cleaning houses for different people. She did laundry and took in other people’s laundry into our home. Her work just paid the rent and kept food on the table and a roof over our head for the two of us.
That same year my Mother’s sister, my Aunt Emma, lost her husband in an accident on the farm where he worked. She and her daughter were in pretty much the same situation as my Mother and I were in. My Aunt Emma had one little Girl, Connie, who is a year or so younger than I am. They had about the same type of living conditions we had while her man was still alive.
After my Aunt’s man died in that accident, things got worse for her and Connie, too. Aunt Emma lived in a small rent house about a half mile down the gravel road from where we lived. She had to do much the same thing that my Mom did to pay the rent and keep food on the table for the two of them, as well. The times were really hard for all of us and it sure made us understand the old saying, “Root hog or die.”
We all sure had to live up to the idea of that old saying but, we survived by hard work and living very simply with very few if any extras. We sure as heck didn’t have many extras of any kind most of the time. I guess that is what made us work so hard. If we hadn’t worked so hard sometimes we wouldn’t have had anything to eat. That brings up another old saying. “You don’t work you don’t eat.”
With our hard times Mom and Aunt Emma decided that my Aunt Emma should move out of her house. She would move herself and Connie into our house and live with us. There was room for them even in our little house. Mom and Aunt Emma could split the rent, our food and the rest of the expenses.
Mom and Aunt Emma were very close in age and had been brought up to be close to one another by my Grandmother or Grandma as I always called her. So it made sense for them to live with us. It sure made life for all of us just a little bit more easy and a little more secure.
Aunt Emma brought what little furniture they had when she and Connie moved into our little rented house. She had moved her bed into Moms bedroom and moved Connie’s bed into the bedroom that I had been sleeping in.
Those little houses that we lived in were just slap together buildings. They had good roofs and siding but, they had little or no insulation and they were hot as an oven in the summer and cold in the winter. That was especially true because there was no central heating and we didn’t even know about air conditioning. When the wend blew the windows just rattled in their casements especially in the winter.
In the winter we didn’t need a lot of heat. All we had was an old wood fired pot belly stove that heated most of the house. However, the two little bedrooms didn’t get a lot of that heat and sometimes it got pretty chilly inside the bedrooms on some of those cold winter nights.
It was kind of strange, at first; having Connie in my bedroom even though she was sleeping in her own bed. However, we soon got used to it and we thought nothing more of it. Sometimes in the middle of the night Connie would come over to my bed and get into bed with me especially if she was cold. It was probably because she did that with her Momma before they moved into our house with us.
Then sometimes if there was a rain storm in the night with thunder and lightning, Connie would run over to my bed whimpering and crawl into bed with me. She would ask me in her tiny little voice, “Kenny, I’m scared. Can I sleep with you tonight while it’s storming?”
I would always tell her, “Sure, baby. Crawl in here with me.” And I would throw back the covers for her to crawl into bed with me. It was always nice to have her warm little body wiggling in my bed with me and I know that she enjoyed the warmth of my body next to hers, too, It gave her a sense of safety having someone else older than she to feel their protection — my protection.
She wanted me to put my arms around her and hold her until the thunder storm had passed by. I kind of liked holding her like that and keeping her calm and looking out for her. Connie would kiss me and tell me, “I love you taking care of me and I love you, too, Kenny.”
She was such a sweet, loving and pretty little Girl and I loved her very much, too. I always told her, “I love you, too, Connie.” and I squeezed her tightly before I relaxed. When the rainstorm passed on over us, I’d send her back to get into her own bed.
That is probably why we became so close during the time that we were growing up together. Connie was always fun to have with me in my bed with her always squirming and turning and kissing me and whispering to me as only a small child does. She just seemed to think that it was play time being in bed with me.
Sometimes, I had to tell her, “Connie, it’s time for us to go to sleep now, Honey.”
She would always quiet down after she said in her sweet little voice, “Ok, Kenny, let’s go to sleep now.” I thought that was so cute she just melted my heart to hear her say that.
Since our house was not well insulated, actually it was not insulated at all, or well heated, sometimes at night Connie would crawl into my bed and sleep with me if it was unusually cold outside. And I kind of liked it; too, as I think that we were both a little warmer in one bed together under our thin covers with our thin pajamas.
It was always fun having her sleep in my bed as we would play and talk. Eventually I would wrap my arms around her and kiss her, tell her good night and we’d both drift off to sleep. Mom or Aunt Emma would find us sleeping together in the morning and get us up in the morning for us to eat breakfast.
They didn’t see any harm in our sleeping together as we were way too young to even begin to think about having sex. We didn’t even know anything about sex in the first place. And besides that they thought that it was really cute to find us sleeping together those mornings.
Good, God, how I loved her and her child’s love for me, too. That was a children’s love that would remain with both of us long after we were children and all through our adult years. However, Mom and Aunt Emma told us one day we shouldn’t be sleeping with one another anymore. They didn’t say why. They just told us to quit getting into bed with each other.