Free The Legend of Garison Fitch (Book 1): First Time by Samuel Ben White Page B

"Could I maybe sleep here? On the hay or something?"
    Finneas, hanging up his apron and putting on a long, woolen coat that hung to his mid thigh and had large buttons up the front, said, "I gathered ye had nowhere to stay and little in the way of gear or clothing. My wife and I have a little shed out back we fixed up to be a room for when her sister comes a-callin'. Ye can stay there until ye get on ye'r feet or until me sister-in-law arrives, whichever comes first." With a wink, he added, "Stay a long time, for I'm hoping she won't visit for some time."
"I'd really appreciate it," Garison told him gratefully.
"And ye'll take ye'r meals with us."
"Oh, I can't put you to all—"
    Finneas held up a hand and said, to placate Garison's pride, "It's just until ye get ye'r feet under ye. Besides, based on the work I've seen ye do this day, I don' think I'll be able to pay ye ye'r worth."
    Garison was at a loss, having rarely met such a generous person. He mumbled a heartfelt thanks as he slipped into his jacket and helped Finneas close the great doors.
     
    After a hearty supper of entirely homegrown vegetables and part of a cow Garison was willing to bet the family had once known personally, Garison was shown to the little shack out back. It was cozy and well-built, letting no draft in from the outside, though big enough only for a bed and a wooden chair. Finneas Franklyn and his eldest boy had built it about a year before and the work had obviously been done by skilled hands.
    Garison had been invited in to share the evening with the family (Finneas, his wife Galena, three boys, and two girls), but he had declined in favor of going to bed. Before he left, though, he asked, "Would you have something to read? I like to read before bed."
    "We've got the Bible," Galena offered. The whole family perked up, thinking that a person's reaction to the Bible would tell a lot about their character.
    "That would be wonderful," Garison said, not even realizing he was under scrutiny and had just passed a monstrous test. He took the large volume with a word of thanks and headed out to the little shack.
    While preparing for bed by the light of a coal oil lamp, he found some paper and a stub of a pencil. The journal entry he scribbled out that night—and later transcribed into his computer journal—shows clearly what occupied his thoughts that evening. Not time travel, or particle physics, or even the socials ins and outs of the eighteenth century, but...
     
     
    March 15, 1739
    Girls have never been my area of expertise. In college, the years when most men were choosing their lifelong partner, I had not yet reached puberty. My interests were in my work, not something with a skirt. Oh, I enjoyed fantasizing about girls, but I never really had any other men to talk to to ask questions of, resulting in what was, most likely, a skewed view of the female race. Most of my fellow students considered me a freak, I think, and probably would have met my inquisitiveness with derision. I always guessed that girls thought of me in the same way, but was afraid to get close enough to find out.
    I was also somewhat uppity at that age. I did not enjoy socializing with people who I deemed inferior (which was everyone who didn't share my I.Q.). As I got older, I came to see that no one was inferior, they were just talented in other areas. But, in those early days, I felt like everyone ought to understand particle physics and those who did not were dumb. I believe that is a stage many children go through—thinking everyone else ought to share their interests. My stage was just accentuated by the genetic accident of a mind that seemed to retain most everything introduced to it (except, of course, history).
    As I entered the teen years, I was unable to socialize with girls adequately because I had not had much contact with them in my formative years. At least, that is the excuse I used. In truth, I was scared of them. For one thing, all the girls in my classes