Page 2 of Return to Telegraph Creek

“Oscar—”

“I will.I’ll make sure you’re happy every day, Jimmy Downing.”

I covered his hand with mine and squeezed it.

“Oscar, I can’t even imagine bein’ unhappy with you by my side.You do make me feel wonderful every day, Oscar Yates.Every fuckin’ day I wake up next to you and every day I go to sleep beside you, I’m content—more content than I have any right to be.”

* * * *

“We goin’ into town?”Oscar said a few days later.“We ain’t got no more potatoes, and the sugar’s gettin’ awful low.”

“You and your sweet tooth,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Don’t you mean my sweet ass, Jimmy?”

“Sure.”

I glanced o’er at the plain wood dining table we’d helped Tim make.Oscar was sitting in the chair with his bare heel up on the seat like a ten-year-old.I expected he was still stuck somewhere in his childhood in a lot of ways because his older years had been so rough.I didn’t care, and, in some ways, I found it charming and sweet.

“How are those sentences coming along?”

“I’m almost done.I think I’m gettin’ the hang of it.”

He stood and brought the slate to me with a smile.

I looked o’er his work with some satisfaction.His penmanship was getting better.I’d buy him some paper and a proper lead pencil in town so he could practice on that instead of the slate.

“That’s very good.”

He nodded and gazed at me with a hopeful expression.“Can we get another book?Since we’re finished t’other?”

“Sure.Or we can borrow one from Irene and Clarence.They’ve got lots.”

He frowned.“Well, wecoulddo that, but then how are we gonna build up our library here?”

“Ourlibrary?My goodness, I got you reading and now you want your very ownlibrary?”

He laughed.“Well, just a small one.I never knew books were so much fun, Jimmy.I’m glad you taught me to read, e’en though I was grumpy about it at first.”

“Yeah, you were pretty grumpy…until I promised to reward you with a spankin’ if you did good, rather than use it as a punishment.”

Oscar winked.“What can I say?I like bein’ over your knee.”

“And I like havin’ you there—and havin’ you everywhere else in this house.”

The house had been mostly complete for a month now, and we’d gotten up to mischief in almost every damn room.There still wasn’t much furniture, but we made do, and we did have an old settee of Clarence and Irene’s in the parlor and a chair that Carson had given us.

Seein’ as we’d fucked o’er saddles and tree stumps on our journey, ’twas a far sight more comfortable in our own home, even though it might not be the coziest of setups just yet.

“Now Idon’twanna go to town.I wanna stay here and have a tumble,” Oscar said.

I gave him a stern look.“I reckon that’s what you wanna do most of the time, and most of the time I indulge you.But we need to go to town, so you best get ready and go saddle that fine horse of yours.”

He grinned and sighed.“Yes, sir.I will.But…if I’m a good boy in town, will you fuck me later?”

“For certain.”

“And maybe spank me?”