Baby

get involved was beyond him. His desire to have a family sure overruled his common sense.
    Wil Capaccino was a quiet young man of twenty-one years, medium height but well-built with strong shoulders. His expression was sober and guileless, but when he smiled and those beautiful blue eyes lit up, he could melt the hardest anvil. Of course, he was completely unaware of this. He thought himself a fair carpenter and was not afraid to put in a hard day of work. And he was funny. He loved to make his friends laugh. He would miss them.
    He saved much of the wages from the last few years, only spending for presents for his ma and the occasional outing with Lexa when he could not avoid her. His ma had a hard life, caring for both of Wil’s grannies, the boarders, his brothers and his pa. He would really miss her. But he knew it was time. If he was to make a stab at finding a full life for himself, he had to leave the small predominantly Italian town he grew up in. Norris County was not big enough to escape the wrath of Lexa’s Neanderthal brothers so he thought he would strike out for Sussex County. A man could find plenty of work in the farms that surrounded the country towns. Hopefully, he would find the right little valley where he could buy himself a few acres of good bottom land and settle down.
    Saddling up his mare Maggie, he checked his bed roll and camping supplies. He wondered if he should bring another blanket, for winter hovered right around the corner. Dismissing the necessity, he mounted Maggie, tipped his hat to his boyhood home and took off down the trail.
    ###
    Events chugged along nicely for Netty as the end of the brutal winter neared. A single day did not go by for want of food to eat. Netty loved to go down into the deep root cellar she paid to have dug last summer. It was extra-large to handle all of the labors of her canning. She felt rich and accomplished. Her shelves gleamed with glass, reflecting the beautiful deep colors produced by her fertile field with her vigorous plants that amazingly produced sizes and quantities of fruits and vegetables never before seen in this part of the country, or maybe even the world. She prayed that the seeds she collected for next season’s planting would be just as prolific.
    As the news of her successful farming spread, townspeople would show up at her door looking to trade goods for a sample of her home cooked goodies. As a result, the cabin looked much warmer and more cheerful. Bouncy chintz curtains at her windows, braided hooked rugs on the polished wooden floor. A stunning quilt lay across her bed; a gift for herself that she purchased from the church ladies on her last trip into town. She now owned her own horse and wagon, a huge extravagance but a necessary one. She found it so much easier to carry her wares into town to sell rather than risk someone catching sight of Baby. It was bad enough she took chances whenever she traded her crops and pies for repairs or construction around the cabin. Baby developed a set of horns that were becoming more pronounced. Mature and elegant, they took on the sheen and hardness of solid gold. They sprouted up in such a growth pattern that they were growing through his crown of crystal antlers. When she stroked them, they felt warm and alive, way too tempting for many local hunters. She was afraid Baby might catch someone’s fancy and when she turned her back, he would be gone.
    Her relationship with Baby grew closer than ever. Most of the winter they stayed lost in their own world. Baking by day and enjoying the fire, curled up on Baby’s straw bed near the fireplace that roared all day into the night. There had been only one strange incident.
    It was the afternoon before the Sabbath. She dragged a rug outside to beat it over by the woodpile, sneezing as the dust rose from the rug to tickle her nose. Baby joined her, lying in the snow doing his normal eating . It seemed to be a common practice. She now took it for granted, realizing it must be necessary. Baby said he was eating and she believed him. She figured it must have something to do with the sun. Baby once sent whispers and golden rainbow colors to her mind, attempting to explain something about molecular biology, kinetic energy and the evolution of organic chemistry and electrical current conversions. The terms were so foreign; she gave up trying to understand.
    Completing the beating of the rug, she carried it back into the cabin. As she gathered up another rug