big boob cowgirl vol. 18

part 1 of a short story + a failed review

Body by Hannah

Part One

I’ll tell you a story I’ve never told before, because my grandmother always believed that speaking pain aloud was inviting a ghost. It starts with death, many deaths, and a village.

This village, where I was born, as well as many generations before me, rested in the valley between two mountains, cold and dusted with snow, ice perpetually underfoot. Where I’m from, when you turned 16 you were tasked with making your own coat. My great-grandfather made his out of beaver, my grandfather’s out of coyote, my father’s out of black bear, and my older brother Abram’s out of raccoon. I was only 10 at the time, but I had already become enchanted with my brother’s soft and shiny racoon fur and knew I would follow in his footsteps once I was old enough.

The summers offered a reprieve from the icy winds and deep darkness of the winter, with hours of bright sun and even moments of warmth. My younger sister, Katarzyna, and I were allowed to play outside in the summer, and once we were old enough we were allowed to help with chores. She assisted with the washing and cooking and sewing, and myself the hunting and skinning and cleaning.

All that summer season, while Katarzyna and I played with our wood beads and stones, Abram and our father would disappear for days to hunt, and when they returned they had paltry pelts and meat to show for it. Our mother would spend hours boiling pots of brown water after the wells began pulling grit and oil. Our neighbor’s pigs grew lean, our cousin’s cow stopped producing milk, and after the equinox our chickens stopped laying eggs.

Then, the days became colder and darker, the snow began to come in smatterings, and our pantry of dry goods and our meat cellar were nearly empty.

That autumn was cold and harsh, and we spent many nights drinking weak, bitter tea in water that tasted of iron. My parents and Abram slept in front of the fire, while Katarzyna and I clung to each other on top of the stove. I went many nights without sleep, hoping I could hug my sister tight enough to disperse her violent shivering.

Then, slowly, one by one, our fellow villagers fell ill. Zowia Budny and her mother came down with a violent cough, then their neighbors, the Kaminskis and their five young children, and only a few days later the entire quarter of the village had fallen into fits of bloody coughs, anemia, and days-long headaches. Zowia and her mother passed seven days after their initial illness, and then like clockwork, the Kaminskis and the Chmiels and the Wojciks followed.

Family after family died, wiped out, and it snowed relentlessly. The snow piled so high that the homes of the deceased became buried to the windows. The village, eerily quiet in the silent snow, kept me up at night even more so than Katarzyna’s violent shivers. Despite our isolation from the rest of the village, our neighbors began coughing in the night, and after seven days they fell silent again.

In one of my fits of insomnia, I attempted to venture outside–see who remained. The full moon shone brightly down on the twinkling and pure driven snow, and for a moment I imagined I was on the moon’s surface, that this was no longer Earth, and that we had been transported to some foreign world. The wind bit at my face and nose, and within moments my eyelashes were frozen with ice. I had to admit defeat, and turned back towards home.

Outside my familiar door, I froze. Coughs, two of them, wafted from inside and fell on the delicate blankets of snow. Despite the cold, an icy numbness grew in my chest and I burst inside. My mother and my father, both expectorating wet mucus, ribs protruding and neck veins bulging with every cough.

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i’m turning 26! -Ashlon

Here’s twenty-six songs I really like and mean a lot to me.

Return of the Mack by Mark Morrison

Game of Love by Michelle Branch ft. Santana

Love Song by Sara Bareilles

I Wanna Be Down by Brandy

Binz by Solange

Dreaming of You by Selena

Together Again by Janet Jackson

I’m Like a Bird by Nelly Furtado

Bobby Pins by Cyberbully Mom Club

Linger by The Cranberries

Anybody Else But You by The Moldy Peaches (performed by Michael Cera, Elliot Page)

Can’t Fight the Moonlight by LeAnn Rimes

Superlove by Charli xcx

Best of My Love by The Emotions

Emotions by Mariah Carey

Sometimes by Britney Spears

Just a Girl by No Doubt

Head over Feet by Alanis Morissette

Pieces of Me by Ashlee Simpson

With You by Jessica Simpson

Let’s Get Loud by Jennifer Lopez

Snowqueen of Texas by The Mamas & The Papas

Black Sheep by Metric (Performed by Brie Larson)

Heartbreak Girl by 5 Seconds of Summer

Crazy in Love by Beyoncé

And the no. 1 song on January 28 1999

...Baby One More Time by Britney Spears

Comment the song that was no. 1 on your birthday!!!!!