Free Giants (A Distant Eden Book 6) by Lloyd Tackitt Page B

house. Pa was on the porch with two cups of coffee, one for me. This time it was hot, un-milked and un-sugared, the way we normally drank it. The fixed-up coffee earlier that night had been for extra energy, and had been welcomed.
    This hot, stiff coffee was for waking up, and was even more welcomed. I was drowsy after riding hard most of yesterday and all night. But I was more hungry than tired, I’ll promise you that. Pa said it was natural to always be hungry at my age, and the only time I didn’t feel a gnawing hunger was for about an hour after a big meal. I could smell Ma’s breakfast and it was working a powerful magic on me.
    Pa just grinned and said, “Get in there and eat before your Ma throws it to the hogs”. If I hadn’t a full cup of hot coffee in my hands I would have run in there, but I could only walk fast without spilling it. Pa laughed out loud at me. He often does, and I generally laugh right along with him. I did this time, too.
    The table had been cleared except for a plate piled high with thick cuts of bacon, a pile of scrambled eggs, a side plate covered with biscuits and butter and syrup ready to be spread and poured. Ma and Pa had already eaten – they generally rose well before dawn, and today held excitement so they were up even earlier. Ma gave me that warm smile that made her eyes so beautiful that, as Pa often said, “Made a man’s heart just downright ache and would make a man kill a mad bull with his bare hands if that’s what it took to see it again.” When Ma looked at me like that I knew the depth of her love for me, and she looked at me like that most all the time. Even when she was angry at me, that love showed right through the anger. It made a fella want to never make her angry. But I gotta tell you, that sounds easier than it is ’cause she holds to a Mount Everest of high standards, and expects the same from everyone else she cares about. No sir, it ain’t easy keeping her peaceful and smiling. But it’s worth the effort when it works.
    I scarfed down my breakfast in great gulping bites, only slowing down to chew properly when Ma frowned at me slightly. She didn’t say anything, she didn’t have to. I knew better, and hard as it was to slow down I did. While I finished eating, Ma did the dishes and Pa was out feeding the chickens and slopping the hogs. I finished up and took my plate to the sink and pumped fresh water to wash it with, Ma put the butter and syrup up while I cleaned my dishes. Pa came in as I finished and we all sat down with the coffee pot and cups to talk about the giant coming our way. I was pure tired and figured I’d not be sleeping soon, but I was wide awake for this talk.
    Pa started out, “Robert,” he said – Pa and Ma always called me Robert and never Bob for some reason. I got called Bob a lot by some of the other folks I know, and it didn’t bother me a whit, but Ma and Pa always said my whole right name. “Robert, I’ve told your ma about the giant coming, and that we only have a few short days to move as much as we can as far as we can out of its path. I figure we need to spend about an hour talking about what we can, and should, move, then we’ll get to it.”
    That’s when Ma blew the ground right out from under our feet. She didn’t often put her foot down to Pa, but when she did it stayed down. And this time she put it down hard and she put it down fast. She looked Pa right straight in the eyes and said in a fierce tone, “I’m not moving from this house. You go out there and turn that giant away from here.”
    There was a long stunned silence as Pa and I stared at Ma, each of us frozen with a cup of coffee halfway to our gaping mouths.
    # # #
    “Ma?” Pa said with some discomfort. “Do you know what you’re asking? Hell, woman, I’ve never heard of anyone turning a giant from his path, and lots of folks have tried. Even cannon balls just bounce off their armor and only make ’em mad.”
    Ma remained iron calm in