Chapter 1

Time on a farm is irrelevant. At least it is when it comes to the outside world. On a farm it matters only in the sense that there is work to be done. Sleep comes shortly after the sun sets and morning when it rises. Then it’s time to feed the animals, mend broken fences and check on the crops. When the sun hits high in the sky then it is time for lunch. Other than that time is irrelevant. There is not even a clock on the wall in the house.

For Emily Elizabeth time is relevant because time marks the passing of her life here on the farm. Just three more years and she will be free to do as she pleases, free to leave this place to see more of what there is in the world. She has visited other farms, but besides them and town, she has never been anywhere else. There has never been a vacation taken, never even a visit to a relative’s house. And as far as men go, she doubts any that she has fucked even know who she is. If they do, they certainly haven’t told her father about their coming and goings. Sometimes she almost wishes one of them would say something. With a sigh, the girl dumps the rest of the slop into the trough for the hogs.

She looks over the fence at the piglets. They were born only weeks ago, so they are still cute little creatures trapped in a small place, looking out to the world beyond that is just out of reach, much like her. She thinks of Charlotte’s Web and that little pig Wilbur. He managed to live happily in his little world, but Emily Elizabeth isn’t like Wilbur. She can never be happy staying stuck in hers. She pushes off the fence and turns around. And this is when she sees the most beautiful man she has ever seen. Crazily he looks just as she imagines what Jake looks like.

The man is standing next to her father and another of the farm hands. He steals a glance at her, but it is quick and goes unnoticed by the other two men. Shyly, Emily Elizabeth ducks behind the fence post, trying to conceal herself while stealing away glances at him. It is uncanny the way he looks just as she imagined him to look. But it can’t be Jake. There is no way he could just magically come to life. Unless he is real. She thinks back to that small print at the beginning of each book about the characters and events and blah blah ... could Jake have been based off some real life guy? Could this be him and he just so happens to end up on the farm a few weeks after she wished upon a star?

The girl blushes and smirks at her own thoughts. Wishing upon a star. Now she is thinking like some little girl believing in the magic that one company wants everyone to believe in. She may not have seen any of the movies, and she may not be up to date with the current pop culture, but she has read the books, at least those her parents would by her outside their select classics. But what if it is true and what if her wish has been granted? Feeling the heat rising in her cheeks as well as the burning between her thighs, she peers around the post. And right as she does, the man catches her graze again. This time he smiles. The smile is brief and miraculously goes unnoticed by her father and the other man.

With curiosity on her side, Emily Elizabeth wants to get a closer look at this mystery man. She needs to see him up close. She needs to hear his voice to see if it too is like she imagined. Most of all, she doesn’t need her father or her mother to see her doing it. So she places the bucket on the ground softly and slips around to the other side of the pen. It takes her a little maneuvering and a bit of time, but luckily when she gets a respectable distance from the man, the trio is still there. Her father is giving him instructions, telling the man to listen to what Randy, the other farm hand tells him to do. Unfortunately with her father doing all the talking, it’s not giving the man a chance to speak and thus depriving her from hearing his voice. It doesn’t stop the girl’s imagination from running wild though.

She imagines sitting in her favorite spot, beneath the large oak tree just a way up from the main barn. From there she has a view of the entire farm. In the summer it is a great place to get out of the heat. In the winter she can usually avoid the chilling winds that roll through from the valley. It is a hearty tree, one that she is sure her father would have built a tree house in if she were a boy. In a way she wishes she were born a boy because she knows she would be treated a little differently yet at the same time she is glad she wasn’t. Because she is a girl, her father doesn’t work her as hard as he does the men that work for him. If she were a boy, he probably wouldn’t need so much help. And of course that doesn’t stop her mother expecting her to help with all the household chores. About the only chore she doesn’t do is the cooking. For some reason she just hasn’t been able to pick up on that. And it’s not for her mother’s lack of trying either. She knows she has to learn it to become a good wife, but maybe that’s the reason why she hasn’t.