Fast Fiction: Village Scenes
Something is going on which shouldn't be going on in farmer Stykes's barn, as Richard Mallinson recounts in this story.
When I was nine I used to visit a small farm in our village. The farmer was Ted Stykes and he had a thin sad wife called Madge.
There was a girl of about 16, called Connie, who ‘lived in’ and worked for them.
One day I was helping her in the dairy when Ted appeared. ‘Cum along to the barn, Connie,’ he said.
She followed him into the barn and I stayed where I was.
About ten minutes later they came back. Ted was buckling his belt. Connie looked shaken and her blouse was hanging out of her skirt.
‘Naow get on with the work, you two,’ said Ted and went across to the house. We heard Madge shouting at him and then all was quiet.
‘Why’d you go to the barn, Connie?’ I asked.
She looked at me. Her eyes were really bright. ‘Never you moind,’ she said, ‘you’re too young to know what shaggin is.’
*
A few days later there was a fight in the street between Connie and Madge. Quite a few of us, young and old, witnessed it.
Madge slapped Connie across the face and yelled, ’You little slut.’ Connie hit back and they began to kick and scratch each other.
Then they went down, pushing, pulling and swearing.
‘Who are they?’ asked a stranger.
‘Don’t ask me,’ I said.
‘All right, then,’ he said, ‘I’ll ask somebody else’ - and he asked Ted Stykes who told him to bugger off.
