Paroled on Love Read online

  Paroled on Love

  Rita Hestand

  Paroled on Love

  Rita Hestand

  Smashwords Edition

  Copyright© 2016 by Rita Hestand

  All Rights Reserved

  ISBN # 9781370005987

  “Cover art by Swoon Worthy Book Covers”

  License Note

  This book, Paroled on Love is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be copied or reproduced in any manner without express written permission of the author. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy or copies. If you did not purchase this book or it was not purchased for your use, please go to Smashwords.com to purchase your personal copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Paroled on Love is a work of fiction. Though some of the cities and towns actually exist they are used in a fictitious manner for purposes of this work. All characters are works of fiction and any names or characteristics similar to any person past, present or future are coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  About the Author

  Rita's Other Books

  ~Dedication~

  Lots of kids get into trouble these days, sometimes quite innocently. Sometimes not so innocently. But a lot of them don't realize that they can make a choice as to which direction they want to go from there. It's making that choice in life that determines the rest of their lives. I hope some of you read this and take heart. All is not lost. You can still make a good life for yourself, but you have to want that good life first. Good luck

  God Bless

  Rita Hestand

  Chapter One

  They aren't here! They couldn't even make it to my trial.

  "Leah Malone, you are hereby sentenced to twelve weeks on the Douglas farm. You will work for Mr. Douglas for eight hours a day, and report to him once a week on your progress. If you have not done your work or caused any problems, you will go back in to juvenile for not less than three years. At which time if there are any more outstanding arrests you will be tried in an adult court and sentenced to prison time. Is that understood?"

  "Yes sir," She glanced around for her parents. They weren't there. She should have known, they wouldn't be. They sent Mr. McFarland to see to her. It figured. Little good he would do.

  "Ms. Malone, this is a relatively new program we are trying out in this court and we hope that this experience will give you pause for thought and perhaps put you on the right track. Do you understand?"

  "Yes sir." She replied.

  McFarland sat there staring a hole through her, not even cracking one of his 'I told you so' smiles. Nothing to encourage and everything to discourage her. Why did she let it get to her? All her life her parents had been too busy for her, nothing was going to change if it hadn't in seventeen years. But she couldn't bury the hurt completely.

  She also had to acknowledge, begrudgingly that they were sending her to some stupid farm to work. How lame was that. A farm. She knew zilch about farms. How was she supposed to work on one?

  She wondered who Mr. Douglas was. Would he look and act like a warden?

  She smacked her gum and the judge made a face at her. "Bailiff escort Miss Malone to Mr. Douglas' care."

  "Yes sir."

  The Bailiff motioned for her to follow him.

  McFarland caught up to them. "I'll report this to your parents. It really is a shame. They aren't going to like this, Leah. You sure should have known better. What an embarrassment for them."

  "Nice to see you too!" Leah spouted. She blew a bubble and popped it nearly in his face. He moved backwards and frowned. The Bailiff turned to introduce her to Mr. Douglas.

  Unlike what she expected, Mr. Douglas was a very pleasant looking man in his early fifties. He had brown hair and warm brown eyes that actually twinkled when he smiled. He was the first person that had smiled at her since she'd been arrested.

  "Hello Leah, I hope we can be good friends." Mr. Douglas was saying.

  Aside from sounding like a character off the television, he was nice, and Leah hadn't had much nice lately. At least he greeted her.

  "I don't know anything about farms." She told him right off.

  "That's alright, no one does when they first arrive, but by the time they leave, they have had a small education in farm life. And it's not all bad Leah."

  She tried not to react, after all this dude was friendlier than anyone she'd been around in a long while. She shrugged, "Okay. I'm game if you are. But I gotta warn you, I know nothing about animals either."

  "That's alright, not many do that come to our farm," he said as they walked to his vehicle, which turned out to be an old truck. "Now I hate to start off with this, but you must understand. We have rules at the Douglas Farm."

  "Sure, everyone has rules." She nodded woodenly.

  "Fine, you understand rules then. Well, I can tell you this. If you obey the rules and do your work and stay out of trouble, then you won't be going back to juvenile."

  "Where will I go?" She asked suddenly perplexed. Her eyes widened with something close to fear.

  "Home, I suppose."

  "Oh," she said dully. There was no home for her anymore. That was almost as bad as juvenile to her. What he didn't know, was that she couldn't go home, she wasn't welcome. McFarland proved that to her, today. Home was a lost word to her anymore. She had no place to belong.

  "You don't want to go home, Leah?"

  She shrugged her shoulders, "Doesn't matter to me."

  He seemed to look at her strangely then.

  "Alright, you must get up at six-thirty every morning, eat your breakfast and go to work. Lunch is at noon to one. Then you'll work until four-thirty and the rest of the day is yours." He told her.

  "Sounds reasonable except the six-thirty in the morning, isn't that kind of early?"

  "Not for the animals on our farm it isn't, and you'll learn to tend them. Actually my wife and I get up earlier than that. You see the chickens can wait for their scratch a bit, but the cows have to be fed early. They will expect it, and we feed them."

  "Oh that has to be a downer," she tried not to sound one way or another, but it frightened her. She'd never taken care of animals in her life. She never owned a pet. Her mother insisted pets belonged outside.

  "Let me go over some of the rules for you, and get that out of the way. So we can talk about more pleasant stuff. Now, no smoking, no pot or other drugs, no cigarettes, no drinking alcohol. And we prefer no cussing." He chuckled over the last one. "You can have healthy snacks any time you want them, just ask my wife for them. You can have one coke a day, no more than that. Our drinking water through the day while you're working comes from a well, you will draw it up and drink from the dipper. This eliminated the going in the house twenty times a day. Supper is at five-thirty, lights out at ten. You'll have a radio in your room, a small laptop and a television. None of which can be used after ten. But I can assure you, by the time you've worked a few days ten o'clock will feel late to you. I think I've covered everything. Now, how does that sound?"

  "Really," she drawled. "You have laptops on a farm?"

  "Well, we decided to invest in a few as most kids like to shop on line and stuff. Oh, I forgot to tell you, as long as you do your chores, you'll make ten dollars a week. We go to town on Saturday and you can shop for things if you like. Once a month there is a dance for kids your age. It's a barn dance, but the kids seem to enjoy it. A lot of old folks play music at the dance, so please be kind to them as the
y put time in on this and it is appreciated."

  "You're kidding."

  "No, I'm not." He didn't smile at her outburst.

  "You're going to give me money, let me shop and take me to dances?" She asked a brow going up. "What kind of place is this, anyway?"

  "It's rural life out in the sticks. Some actually like it at Douglas Farms. You see, unless you are going shopping or to the dance, there is little other contact with the rest of the world."

  "Well, it's certainly different." She let her voice fade as she added. "A lot better than I ever expected."

  "We hope you enjoy your stay with us, we aren't tyrants. If there are problems you need to talk over, we listen."

  "What kind of chores will I have to do?" She asked curiously.

  "Muck out the stalls, feed the animals, collect eggs, keep the barn clean and brush down the horses daily. And milk the cow."

  "What kind of animals do you have?"

  "Horses, pigs, chickens, ducks, a lazy cat and a riff-raff dog named Hobo and our milk cow too. You'll see to their food and water every day."

  "Doesn't sound too hard. Except I don't know much about animals. I guess I can learn though."

  "The worse chore is mucking out the stalls."

  "What exactly is that?" She asked turning up her nose a bit.

  He seemed to study how to tell her. "You pick up dried horse poop, scoop it into a wheel barrow and carry it out to a place that we store them."

  "You store horse poop?" She asked scrunching her nose up at that. "That sounds kind of disgusting."

  "We use it for other things, yes. It usually becomes fertilizer for the garden, sometimes you will distribute it in the garden for the Misses."

  "Why doesn't she do it?"

  "Mrs. Douglas does many things on the farm. Among the most dutiful is bookkeeping, and paying bills. Ordering supplies when needed. She also does the wash, cooks the meals, cleans the house and handles all calls that come through to the farm."

  "Does anyone else work at this farm?"

  "Yes, me and my sons."

  "You have sons?"

  "Yes, three actually. The two oldest do the hard work of handling the cattle, vet work and they slaughter for us and take our animals to market to sell every year. The only one you'll work with is Jeremiah, he's the youngest. In fact, he's just a bit older than you. A lot of your work will be together, so you should try to get along with him. He'll be training you for your work the first week, then it's up to you to do it."

  "Is he hard to get along with?" She asked.

  "No, most of the girls really like him."

  "Can I ask you a question?" She asked, running her hand down her jeans methodically.

  "Sure, go ahead."

  "Why am I being sent here? Not that I'm complaining, but why didn't I go to juvenile.?

  "Well, you were with a boy that stole a car. That made you an assessor to the crime. Since you didn't actually do the stealing, you aren't getting a full sentence like the boy did. I understand he's of age and went to adult court anyway. You are essentially working off your debt to society at the farm. It's a better job than cleaning trash off the side of the roads and highways. When that debt is satisfied, you will either go home or to juvenile. Whichever is recommended."

  "And you are the one doing the recommending?" She asked.

  "Yes, that's correct."

  "Have you had others out here, before me?" She asked.

  "Yes, as a matter of fact, three. Two girls, one boy."

  "And how did they do?"

  "One girl went back to juvenile, she totally didn't cooperate and she broke almost all the rules. Purposely I might add. The way she went at it, I could have sworn she wanted to go back to juvenile. The other went home. The boy finished out his sentence in Juvenile and went home."

  "Well," she stared out the window, "I might as well tell you right now. I don't care which I go to. Going home isn't an option for me. Not that I'm going to give you any flack. I'll do what you ask of me. You seem like a nice person."

  "Why is that?" He asked glancing at her. "Why can't you go home, Leah?"

  She glanced at him, sizing him up.

  "My folks are never home…" She said in a mumble. "They don't have time for me. I'm alone most of the time. But, that's not why I can't go home. You see, they threw me out, six months ago and have had nothing to do with me since."

  "I see…."

  She glanced at him. Had he already figured her out, it sure sounded like it. The rest of the ride was in silence.

  Chapter Two

  "Carol?" Mr. Douglas called as they went inside the big two story ranch house.

  A lovely lady came through the doorway and stared at her for a second then looked at her husband and smiled. "Who do we have here?"

  "This is Leah. She'll be here 12 weeks. Is the bedroom upstairs clean?" He asked.

  "Just finished it up this morning. Take her on up. And Leah I'm glad to meet you hon. I hope you enjoy our little home." She smiled at her.

  Leah nodded, "Thanks." She managed weekly. This was a better greeting than she ever got at home, so she wouldn't be mocking these people. They obviously were a different breed than her folks. She realized quickly this was not some sterile home she'd come into. This was really a home. She could smell the difference in the dinner cooking, and the homemade touches, like a quilt draped over the sofa and potpourri in the living room. It would be eye opening to see how a real family lived, she was sure.

  Mr. Douglas told her to follow him. Mr. Douglas like his wife was pleasant looking. He wasn't dressed fancy, just clean jeans, a white shirt and a corduroy jacket. He did wear a cowboy hat though. Nice touch. "Let's get you settled in. Oh and one other thing I forgot to mention, while you're working you wear overalls, furnished by us. The work is sometimes messy and overalls stand up better than some things. You'll dress decently around here too and make-up is used only when going to town or to a dance."

  "Yes sir." She answered. She tended to wear jeans and t-shirts more than anything so that shouldn't change.

  He took her down a long hall and stopped at the last room. "This will be your room for the next 12 weeks. I hope you'll enjoy learning a lot here and maybe even relaxing. The work is hot, tiring and probably hard for a girl like you to get used to. By that, I mean you are a city gal. Although it might seem I'm barking a lot of rules at you, we operate as a real family and I think you'll learn to relax pretty quick around us. You'll get off early enough in the afternoon to enjoy yourself some and we want you to feel comfortable here. So if there is anything you need or want just let us know. If we have it, or can get it, we will. We want you to work, but we also want you to relax and understand that this is just everyday living around here. We haven't changed the rules because we have you here. We'd operate the same way whether you were here or not. It's just our way of living and it works well, you'll soon realize."

  "Fair enough." She answered.

  When he finally opened the door, she was surprised to an extent. The room was old fashioned, with a quilt on the bed, and lace curtains on the windows. A window was open and a breeze came in. It was kind of nice. The air was clean and fresh and she felt she could breathe in deep and it wouldn't make her cough like in the city.

  "Another thing, the first day of your arrival you are off, but I will take you on a tour of the place so you can get kind of acquainted with it and know where things are. So are you hungry?"

  "A little. Smells wonderful."

  "Lunch is in about an hour. We'll see you downstairs then. Unpack and get acquainted with your surroundings. We eat at regular times. We don't have time to fix you something whenever you feel like it. So if you get hungry in between grab some fruit off the kitchen table. There is no cost to you for anything around here."

  She nodded. "Thanks." She said meekly.

  He seemed to stare now, and he came to stop just a bit in front of her, not trying to intimidate but there was genuine concern in his face.

  "I no
ticed there was no family in court for you. Is there a reason, I mean the file said you had two parents? I saw and heard that man talking to you. He certainly wasn't a pleasant sort."

  Leah hung her head, "McFarland, is my father's business manager. And I suppose I've been reduced to business instead of family now. But no matter. They are busy people." She replied with a tight lip. "They just didn't have the time to come down and I'm sure it would be a slap in the face to have to come to court for me. They sent McFarland, as far as they are concerned, their obligation was taken care of long ago. He'll give them a full report, no doubt." She couldn't keep the sting out of her words, but the hurt she'd buried deep inside her.

  "I see. Look, I don't know your entire circumstance, but we don't judge you here, Leah. And we have good ears, if you ever need to talk to someone. Just wanted you to know that."

  "Thanks, I'll try to remember that. But don't worry, I know how parents are. There just isn't enough time in the day to worry about it. No sweat." Leah tried to smile but mentioning her parents brought emotions up. She couldn't deal with emotions just yet.

  "What I'm telling you is, around here, we have the time to talk to you. Feel free."

  She felt a hot tear sting her eye, but she forced it not to fall. The man was so nice, she couldn't hardly stand it.

  When he left her alone, she sat on the edge of the bed, it was a soft mattress and bounced when she bounced a bit on it. She had an old dresser with a mirror. There was a small desk where she had a small eleven-inch laptop, and radio and a small Television set close to her bed. Truth be known, it was kind of homey. That was the word she was looking for. Homey was unfamiliar to her, but it looked friendly. And that fact, stabbed at her heart.

  She opened her small case of clothes and put them in the drawers.

  She went out in the hall and wondered where the bathroom was. But as she opened her door she bumped into a tall young man with brown hair and eyes, that was cute when he smiled. He had a squared off chin, and eyes that twinkled. "Sorry, I was looking for the bathroom."