*** I am not sure if anyone will even like this story, but please review and tell me if I should continue and where you want this story to go, please also read my other Fic " A New Year"… thanks!*** I WILL DEVELOP THE PLOT SOON SO DO NOT SAY IT IS NOT GOING ANYWHERE*** I don't own ANYTHING …don't sue.***
***HIT F5 to refresh****
**DO NOT COPY MY IDEA*** I do not own anything** ***
** I changed a whole lot of things about the story... I recommend you go back and read it over to see the changes... sorry***
________________________________________________________________________
Prairie Lakes, 1893
"Elizabeth dear, isn't it Miranda's turn to help put up the peaches" her mother asked
She dropped a peach into boiling water for a few second, then fished it out and removed the skin. Miranda was like her sister... ever since Miranda had moved in with them after her parent's death.
"You've been doing her chores all week" Her mother commented again.
Elizabeth cut the skinned peach into slices, discarding the pit and dropping the rest of it into a glass jars.
"It's alright, Mama. We made an agreement. Miranda will do all my chores for a week when it gets to cold and snowy to go riding."
Her mother raised and eyebrow.
" As long as you don't end up doing everything for both of you," she said " Somehow I seem to remember that last year we both ended up doing all the vegetables and fruit, and she didn't lift a hand" Her mother chuckled, Lizzie knew, her mother thought of Miranda as her daughter too
Lizzie laughed. "And Miranda went to work on the fruit, when it was time to eat it" Lizzie had been furious. She'd vowed not to let Miranda get away with it again. But Miranda had been so happy recently that when she had begged and cajoled and promised by the tail of her favorite horse that she really would, only please, please could she trade a week now for a week later, Lizzie just couldn't find the heart to turn down her best friend. Her mother poured a bit of sugar syrup into each of the jars of peaches.
"Miranda might do well to thank Gordo for your big-hearted mood" Her mother commented avoiding Lizzie's eyes.
"Mother! Have you been listening to our conversations!" Lizzie laughed. Since the month had passed Gordo and her had gotten a lot closer, faster. Lizzie busied her self closing up all the jars.
"You may not believe it, but I was sixteen years old once myself," Her mother went on. She had a glazed expression on her face. She seemed to catch Elizabeth looking at her. She gave her head a hard shake and laughed.
"But boys or no boys, we have work to do." Her mother told her.
She put the jars to soak in a bath of boiling water. Lizzie helped her. Later as they cooled the jars made a familiar pop, pop, pop as the airtight seal was formed. Now the fruit would stay good for the entire long, cold winter ahead. Lizzie had a feeling that it was going to seem a lot less long and a lot less cold now that Gordo was coming to call.
Miranda rode across the grassy plain. The wind rushed past her. The sound of her heart beat in her ears with the sound of her horse's hooves. Blue sky and green grass dances crazily as Miranda posted up and down, bouncing rhythmically against her horse's flank.
"Good, Wind Catcher, good boy" she coaxed the horse.
She rode out where the plain was cut by a wooded glade, and then gently tugged on the reins, steering Wind Catcher around and riding back to where she had begun. She heard a faint sound of a train... Wind Catcher's ears perked up. The circus.
"Go Wind Catcher, go" She nudged her horse and flew over the grassy plain. In about 20 minutes she had put Wind Catcher back in the McGuire's stable and coaxed Lizzie and Gordo, who happened to be over at the house, to go into town with her. She ran ahead of Lizzie and Gordo, who were holding hands walking extremely slow.
"Here it comes!" She announced.
She cold hear a distant clop, clip, and clop then a faint call of trumpet. She stepped into the middle of the street to get a better view.
"Miranda!" Lizzie yelled at her, tugging her skirt. "Don't stand in the middle of the street, for heaven's sake. You might get trampled by the horses!"
"More likely she'll end up leading the parade" Gordo said with a laugh.
Miranda stepped back into the row of town's people lining the street, many in their Sunday best. It was a big occasion when the circus train rolled into Prairie Lakes and the performers put on a parade to greet the town's people. Miranda and Lizzie wore new leg-of-mutton-sleeved dresses that they had sewn themselves. Actually, if Miranda thought about it Lizzie had sewn half of hers too. Miranda's dress was a deep brick red which made her brown eyes glow and her dark hair shine. Lizzie's was a lighter blue, setting off her deep blue eyes and her long blonde hair. The crowd buzzed excitedly as four ladies on horseback trotted into view, trumpets to their lips. Their feathered costumes and plumed hats danced to the horses' movements. Behind them came a band of musicians in smart green uniforms trimmed with silver braid. They played from their perch on a bandwagon pulled by a row upon row of horses.
Two, four, six… Miranda counted the horses, the numbers in her head taking on a rhythm of the brassy music. Cymbals punctuated the trumpet calls, throwing glints of sunlight into the crowd. A huge bass drum marked time.
"There are at least twenty horses..." Miranda shouted to her friends, over the music.
Following the musicians, two rows of elephants held one another trunk to tail. Around the huge beasts skirted a tiny clown, his hand above his eyes, looking up, up, up, as if he couldn't see high enough to take in the enormousness of all the elephants at once. Then came the lions and tigers in their cages. As the lion's cage rumbled past Miranda, one of the lions pressed close to the bars and let out a ferocious roar. Miranda noticed Lizzie jump toward Gordo and grab his arm. Gordo gave Lizzie's arm a squeeze and laughed loudly. Miranda laughed too as the snake wagon passed. She looked at Lizzie and Gordo, and slowly crept off, following the circus.
Lizzie laughed along with Gordo as the snake wagon passed. For the most of the crown, jus the picture painted on the side of the monstrous, scaly reptile was enough to draw loud oohs and ahhs. But the snake wagon reminded Lizzie of her imaginary picture of the lady snake charmer standing up at the front of the school, putting fear into Larry Tudgeman. It had been a running joke of Lizzie and Miranda's for many years now, since back in the days when the circus had come to town packed into horse-drawn coaches. Lizzie leaned past Gordo to give Miranda a tap on the arm and share their joke. But Miranda wasn't standing there anymore. Lizzie slowly rotated a full circle. She didn't see her friend anywhere. Oh, well, she thought, going back to watching the parade. That seems to be a circus tradition, too. As soon as the circus rolled into town, Miranda wandered off after it. By now, Lizzie knew not to worry. When the circus train whistled out of town, Lizzie had a feeling Miranda would come home looking like the world was about to end. She knew she would have to deal with weeks that Miranda would be moping around the house and sighing loudly at the supper table. But little, by little the spark in her friend's eyes would return. Miranda would start making deals at school for the contents of her dinner bucker, somehow convincing Ethan Craft to trade her piece of chicken and a large slice of his mother's blueberry cobbler for an apple. She would start flirting with all the boy again. Everything would return to normal. And then... the same think would happen again... next year.