My Gothic-Southern Romance

When I was 13-ish, we lived in a trailer on some property in Louisiana. For my 13th birthday, I got a horse-- his name was Hobo cause the day I got him he made a run for it along the railroad tracks. He was a smallish brown gelding with black mane & tail. He was very sweet-- like all horses, he loved teenage girls-- who else would spend hours and hours brushing him and feed him sugar cubes and apples?

I did not really know how to ride a horse, though. I was horse-crazy from books-- having read every horse + girl adventure book I could get my claws into. I had horse photos scattered around my walls the way most pre-teens have pictures of some boy-band. So I was pretty nervous about horseback riding. Mostly, Hobo and I walked around very slowly, gently. He was pretty content with that arrangement, actually. He used to take a big, deep breath whenever I tightened the saddle on him so that the saddle would be nice and loose, like a pair of horsey-Dockers. Loose fit. :) When he spotted a piece of something in the road, he would eye it suspiciously-- certain the black hefty bag on the side of the road was a dangerous snake that would eat him any minute now.

Our trailer backed up to the highway, on a small road called Plantation Road.... (which is important-- wait for it) but a short distance away was the levee. In Louisiana, there is a levee system-- hills artificially built along the Riverbanks to cut back on flooding of the surrounding low lying areas. The levee was a great place to ride Hobo-- along the grassy parts, up and down the fairly quiet roadway. In this one spot, right across the winding road, by the levee was a long gravel driveway/path hidden mostly by droopy trees covered in Spanish moss and willows. You could just barely see a Gothic-arched white house with a big front porch, second story balcony. It wasn't in pristine condition-- but it was a big old Plantation house like you see in those Faulkner books. There was a beat up shed type house in back. The yard was very green and picturesque. There were small run-down shack-houses not too far away that at one time were probably the sharecroppers' houses back when this plantation was a working plantation (they could have been slave quarters at one time too, but probably not-- they seemed a little too new). It was no longer really a Plantation, but at one time, it would have been a good-sized one. Since those days, the surrounding land had probably all been sold off. The land I lived on was probably part of it, to tell you the truth, cause it wasn't all that far away.

One day, I spied a handsome blond boy about my age, riding by on a white horse. Yes, dear readers, a white horse. He was commanding in his ability to ride. He sat sure-saddled, straight and tall, gently tapping his horse's butt with a riding crop (I had no such fancy gadgets).

On another day, as I was riding Hobo, the boy on the white horse came up to me and said hello. Here was my Heathcliffe!! My romantic lead! We rode together for a while, several times. We talked and developed a little bit of a friendship. He was very nice, lived in the house that was basically an old plantation with his family. He didn't go to my school; he went to private school in town. When Hobo spooked at something in the road and took off running, as I frantically smacked him on the butt with my reins, he yelled out to me "if you hit him like that it'll make him run faster".... Duh.! I felt so stupid as I calmed Hobo down to a slow walk and the boy (whose name has been lost with time, sadly) caught up with me.

I was very prepared to fall madly in love with this knight on a white charger. But alas! One day, he told me he had a girlfriend! And she went to my school!! And her name was Nancy!!! I knew Nancy!! She of the perpetual red, flaky crust around her lips from licking her lips too often! She of the nose-picking habit that earned her the nickname "Booger." She who frequently told people who picked on her to "Go f#%k your mother"..... such a lady. Such a rival.

Oh, dear readers. I was crushed. My dream boy, the one on the horse, who I was already imagining being friends forever riding our horses into the future (one that looked something like those horse-crazy books which were one part adventure story, one part teen romance), was dating Booger!!!!! Surely he was not the man I had dreamed he was. His fall off the pedestal was earth-shaking.

It clearly had to end.

I guess that he was a little put off when, after telling me that his girlfriend's name was Nancy, (he apparently knew her from church) I sort of crinkled my nose and said "Oh, yeah, I know her... but I don't really, well, know her all that well." He frowned a little at the clear lack of enthusiasm I shared for Nancy.

I didn't see him again. I don't remember anymore if it was just before we moved, or if he had moved cause the summer was over, or what. But we just never saw each other again, and didn't ride our horses together.

But it is a fine story, do you think? Me, little red-headed girl from the wrong side of the tracks, living on the old plantation's property (which, by the way, was haunted-- I'll tell you about that someday). Meeting the lord of the manor, a blond boy on a white horse. And my rival, Nancy, his girlfriend--she of the crude habits and disgusting justly-earned nickname! I wonder what ever happened with them? Maybe they got married and have several crusty-lipped children. Maybe they are even riding horses on the old property right now. Maybe, every now and then, he remembers the poor little red headed girl who was clueless about how to ride horses.

If he doesn't, it's certainly his loss.