CARBON COPY

Chapter 9: Sentimental Remembrance

Chapter 9: Sentimental Remembrance

The Master Bedroom, The Talton Residence, West Pasture, Keedon, Georgia (1992)...

        Panting and drenched in sweat from their previous collective efforts to ensure they had an extension to their little family, both Wilma Jean and J.W. Talton found themselves resting against the remaining pillows that lined their rather messy bed and covered by a slightly damp sheet as they basked in the afterglow of their latest love-making session. Wilma Jean pushed her wayward blonde locks from around her eyes and off her cheeks due to her hair being stuck to them. J.W. slicked back his wild hair and turned his attention to looking over his lovely wife.

She was everything a man could want in terms of an ideal wife, she was an excellent cook, kept a clean house, and managed to put up with him and his relatively random antics now and again. The older man marveled at how far his wife had come from being the scared teenage girl who had not known the first thing about being a mother let alone a wife to the woman who knew both her son and her husband better than anyone else in town.

Wilma Jean sighed as she rested her head against her husband's bare chest. He smiled beneath her as he ran his free hand along her back. She closed her eyes enjoying the simple feeling of being in such an intimate embrace with her husband reflecting on his previous absence once more.

They had been nearly inseparable since the first night they'd been together all those years ago in the old barn.

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The Old Abandoned Barn, The Jakey Property, Keedon, Georgia (1978)...

J.W. Talton was a drunk as a skunk as he stumbled amid the old abandoned barn located on the old Jakey property left abandoned when the last Jakey had died with no heirs. No one had been interested in it much and those connected had given up on it long ago. J.W. had used it as a hideout whenever he wanted to get away from the world and his mother who had been pregnant at the time. The loss of his father had hurt J.W. more than anything and the shaky future of his mother being pregnant for the first time in her life by her now-deceased husband meant a good deal of responsibility now fell on his teenage shoulders.

He had gone to blow off some steam after a heated conversation with his pregnant mother about his future now that his father had been laid to rest. J.W. had not wanted to stay in Keedon nor did he want to follow in his father's footsteps and work at the steel mill, but with little to no income with the old man gone, he had no choice in the matter. Seeing his plans for a bright future for himself go up in smoke, J.W. had taken off and gotten good and drunk by the time his girlfriend Mandy had caught up to him.

Mandy Porter had been quite the talk of the town as she clung to J.W. and his rebellious ways. His rage and attitude had been a sort of cosmic spark that drew her to him and as a result, they had engaged in a passionate affair that resulted in a lot of disagreements ending up in arguments and then ended with them rolling about in the hay in Jakey's Barn far from prying eyes and their respective parents.

This night had been no different as the heat and the thick scent of rain had been on the wind. J.W. had taken down a whole bottle of Wild Turkey by himself as he wallowed in his grief and plans coming to an end. Mandy, a lively redhead with freckles all over her body had been ready and willing to do a bit of tumbling amid the hay but J.W. was too much in his feelings to care.

"J.W. why won't you come on over here and let me make you feel better about being all hot and bothered," said Mandy stretched out on their makeshift pallet amid the hay in the old barn.