I decided to start at the end of the fence down by the cow barn. I hauled my wagon down there, pried the lid off the paint can and started stirring it. I knew I had to get it stirred real good or the oil wouldn't be mixed in with the paint and it wouldn't look white and it wouldn't stick on very good and, it wouldn't last. If I did the job wrong, I'd just have to do it over.
"Better to do a job right the first time," Mama said many times. "Do it wrong once and then you'll have to do it right twice."
I dipped the wide brush into the paint and stroked it across the bare wood. It smelled all oily and strong in my nose. The smell wasn't unpleasant. It smelled "new".
As I painted, I thought about what Danny and Ellen were doing today.
Danny was probably outside shooting starling birds with his B.B. gun and Ellen, well Ellen was a lot like my city cousin. Ellen was probably sitting in the shade of their front porch playing with her dolls or reading a book.
I heard a truck horn and looked up to see Mr. Baxter, our neighbor from around the corner, stop his truck on the road in front of the barn.
"Well Emmy Lou," (he always called me that) "when you get done there, I got a nice stretch of white board fence that needs painting. You can come on over and do mine," he laughed as he drove off.
I didn't think it was all that funny and I hoped that he wouldn't ask my Papa if I could paint his fence!
Dust from his truck hung in the air. I hoped it wasn't going to get on the wet paint and ruin my job. This was a job I only wanted to have to do once. I layered the paint on pretty thick so I wouldn't have to do a second coat.