Chapter 38

After a quick breakfast, Andi and the twins took Wonka to the cabin while Paul took Yi to the Johnson’s Feed Mill to get the high protein winter feed for the chickens and other supplies. For her part, Yi was fascinated with the quaint, old-time layout of the store. There was even a pot belly stove surrounded by a few wooden chairs where the locals could meet and stay warm during the winter squalls. Yi’s life was full of new and modern things, even Paul’s house, that was over a hundred and fifty years old, had many modern devices and was updated and renovated throughout his years of living there. But this beautiful old store was Yi’s first exposure to life 100 years ago.

As the pretty Asian slowly walked through the store, an old fellow came up behind her. “Can I help you find anything, ma’am?”

“Huh? Oh no, it’s just I’ve never been here before and it’s like a museum!”

“I hope not,” he said with a grin. “We aim to sell these works of art. Museums kind of frown on that.”

Yi smiled, “I was thinking of a history museum. It’s like this stuff has been stored here for ages, like this,” she held up a washboard.

“That’s brand new,” he said, “they still make ‘em and we still sell ‘em. Just not as many as we used to, but folk use them for crafting a lot now. Just because it’s an old design, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a use.”

“And what’s this?” she asked, pointing to what she thought was the world’s weirdest wheelbarrow. The wheel was a huge, spoked affair with no rubber tire, and the bowl was tiny and high sided. “That’s a seed planter. You put the seeds in the hopper and as you push it along your furrow the seeds drop out of the hopper on to the wheel, and the wheel pushes them into the dirt,” he showed her how the little blades behind the wheel close the furrow over the seeds.

“That will work on things like corn and radishes?”

“It works on everything but potatoes.”

She almost asked why when she remembered potatoes are not started from seed, they’re started from the eye of a cut up potato. A large chunk of potato would clearly not go through this machine. “You almost got me,” she grinned and wagged a finger at him. As she chatted with the old man, she discovered he was Archie Johnson and had run the store for 65 years. He was retired now. His son and his grandson, who recently got out of the Army, were running the store, but he comes in to “help the young folk out.”

All the while they were talking, Yi noticed a young man who wouldn’t take his eyes off her, and the more he stared, the more uncomfortable she got, and she never realized that she was staring at him too. She thanked Archie for the tour and decided she was going to give that young man a piece of her mind. A haughty “Take a picture, it will last longer!” should do it. She was used to horny men staring at her in Florida, stares brought on by her tiny bikini and her well-tuned, well-tanned body. Here she was in a parka that was clearly too big for her, so what was he staring at? “Probably never seen an Asian before,” she muttered to herself.

That question ate at her as she got closer. She soon lost her resolve and walked past him, staring down at the floor ahead of her, her stomach tied up in knots. She probably would have kept walking right to the back wall of the store where she would have had to pretend to be interested in rat traps, but Paul found her in time. “There you are,” he caught her arm, “let’s get our feed and head out.” He had a small box of what looked like machine parts under his arm.

“‘k,” she mumbled and, keeping her eyes on the floor, they headed toward the front of the store and that young man.

“Hey Kenny!” Paul called out. “Can you get that sack of feed for me?”

“I sure can, doc,” said the young man.

Yi felt it coming, but before she could bolt for the door, Paul’s grip on her arm tightened and he said, “Kenny Johnson, this is Yi-jin Carlson. She’s our twin’s new governess.” Both mumbled a quick hi, but not satisfied, Paul tried to egg them on a bit. “Imagine that! You both have Norwegian names.”

“Yeah, but my mom is Irish,” muttered Kenny.

“My mom is Korean,” said Yi, not looking up.

Her admission seemed to loosen up Kenny a little. “God, I loved Korea! Doc and I spent time on the same base over there...” his voice trailed off. Then, as if to hide his embarrassment, he effortlessly swung the 50 lbs sack of chicken feed up on his shoulder and headed for the door.

Yi suddenly had an image of him scooping her off the ground and carrying her off to do whatever he wanted with her, and that thought gave her tingles in some interesting places.

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