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Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
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Published:
2020-11-05
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824
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Fat Dipping

Summary:

When I was pregnant with my daughter, I committed my last act of utter irresponsibility and went skinny dipping

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

Fat Dipping
by Sarah Saint Ives

When I was pregnant with my daughter, I committed my last act of utter irresponsibility and went skinny dipping. Only at that time, it could not, in fact, be truly called 'skinny' dipping as I was sporting fifty extra pounds. So I called it Fat Dipping and had the time of my life. I did cannon balls off the high banks of Bender's Creek into the coldest, deepest water in Kentucky. I dog-paddled and floated on my back, uncaring of passersby on the country road above me. Totally in the buff, I was leisurely enjoying my swim on the seventh day of August in 1979.

Amanda Lee was born there on the creek bank, a beautiful baby with brilliant blue eyes and blonde curls. One look at that tiny bundle and I was in awe. I could see right then and there that she was destined for great things.

I washed the yukky stuff off her, wrapped her in my panties and jogged home to our cabin in the woods. My dog, a lovable St. Bernard named Tiny, greeted us enthusiastically at the mudhole by the front gate.

Tiny's favorite sport was riding in my Chevy pickup truck, getting snooter tracks all over the windshield and hanging his big head out the passenger window, tongue lolling and slobbers stringing out in the wind. His favorite TV show was the Dukes of Hazzard although there were no regular dogs on the show. His favorite song was 'Amanda' by Waylon Jennings. His favorite food was fried bologna, but he would go for fried squirrel, too. He liked to fancy himself a hunting dog. We did a lot of squirrel hunting together, Tiny and I. Other than being a bit easily distracted by flying insects, he was a damn good squirrel dog.

Amanda's father didn't come home until four days later, on the eleventh. I was busy that day in the tobacco field, cutting our dwarfed crop and getting it ready for housing. Tiny was keeping vigil over the baby in the shade. I got a quick peck on the cheek, and the acrid odor of stale, second-hand liquor as he greeted me. "Hey, sweetie." he said, giving me his sexiest glassy-eyed, swaggering grin. "How's about you and me go check out the bedroom a while? Mmm? Whatcha think?"

I shook my head without so much as looking at him. "Got work to do." I said. "Your supper's on the table. Been there a week now. You didn't come home."

"Oh, I was busy. You know. Work."

I nodded and gave the next tobacco stalk a vicious whack with the axe-like knife. "Yeah. Work. I keep forgetting you 'work'. I guess maybe because I haven't seen any paychecks."

He sauntered into the cabin to eat. Moments later, Amanda woke and decided she was hungry. She began to wail, and Tiny began to howl. I took a break to feed her and was astounded by my husband's sudden charge out of our cabin and to my side. "What the hell is that?" he demanded.

"What the hell is WHAT?" I sat staring up at him, shirt hitched up and baby sucking away.

"That. That little tiny....thing there on your lap. It's moving! What is that?"

"That, dear husband, is our daughter, Amanda."

"Oh." He looked at her for a long time. "She's not very big, is she?"

"Well, no. She's a baby."

"When did she come?"

"The seventh. You see? When you don't come home, you miss out on important things."

He nodded in agreement. "Could I...."

I waited.

"Could I hold her?"

I thought about it. "No. I don't think so."

He nodded again. "Okay. Well. So. What are you gonna do with her?"

"Right now, just feed her. Later, I don't know."

"Well." He stood, kept nodding like the idiot he was. "She'd be okay if she didn't get any bigger."

"Well, she'll get bigger. Believe me."

Then he went back in the cabin and went to bed. The next morning, he got up and left, and never came back.

I never thought to replace him. Amanda seemed content without a father and I was extremely content without an asshole, sorry, I mean husband.

Amanda will be graduating from high school on Sunday, May 24, 1999, and will be joining the rest of us in the working world. She is a beautiful girl with a wonderful personality. She has never had to cut tobacco.

She mentioned going swimming this morning and I asked her where she planned to go. She said Bender's Creek. It brought back some fond memories. So I told her about Fat Dipping. So we hopped in the old Chevy pickup and off we went, she, I and Tiny, who got snooter tracks all over the windshield again. Damn dog still barks every time he sees a squirrel and we haven't hunted now for years.

end

Notes:

This orphaned work was originally on Pejas WWOMB posted by author Sarah Saint Ives.
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