Highway to Heaven

Oh , if these walls could talk what stories they could tell about families and relationships and secrets that could make your ears burn for better or worse. My story began in 1862 not far from the Missouri River in Dakota Territory when my family, the Burns, ventured out from a farm near Minneapolis in the new State of Minnesota hoping to find new riches in the call to “go west, young man go west”.

Ambitious , Jeremiah Burns stretched his legs, found an eye catching city girl looking for new adventure as a wife. With a buckboard pulled by 2 horses, and leading 2 cows , the couple set out settling on farm land near a town called Yankton in what would later become the State of South Dakota.

For 3 months the new couple lived in their wagon while Jeremiah built a small log cabin and where I would witness the life of a fledgling, eventually prosperous, new family. Elsie, a bit homesick, decorated my wall with pictures of her family and a painting she had done back home in Minneapolis. Hand made gingham curtains brought from home covered the one window . This room, the Burns bedroom, included a rare built in closet and a door to the kitchen that could be closed to company and kitchen noise. When it was open I could see Elsie cooking beans and potatoes and a fire to heat water for the luxury of coffee with sugar.

Jeremiah, exhausted from clearing the land for planting wheat and gardens , would drop exhausted into a bed next to Elsie, his wife looking for a hug that never came. Bored, homesick, longing to be a wife to her new husband, Elsie silently wept the nights away.

Every 2 weeks the couple would dress, Elsie with a hat and Jeremiah with a white shirt and string tie, their wedding clothes, and venture into Yankton. Occasional visitors to the farm would declare them the “handsomest couple so in love”. Little did they know how lonesome Elsie was or how little physical love was shared between the two.

But one night the pretense of “happy -in -love “ changed. After a dinner of chicken, Jeremiah hustled the depressed and demure Elsie into the bedroom. Closing the door, Jeremiah blurted out “take your clothes off Els”. Confused, hoping to please her husband, Elsie stood before him naked.

He gazed at her and than came close and bent to kiss her breast. Nipping at her nipples he proceeded to run his tongue down over her belly dropping to his knees . With his head in her crutch his tongue played music on her privates.

Aching and aroused and no longer able to stand Elsie fell across the bed.Now naked, Jeremiah stood over her, erect and hard, he pushed himself to her mouth insisting she take him orally. When he was about to explode he moved back and thrust his red large member into her virginus vagina…in and out, up and down , again And again until Elsie screamed “more, more” and he exploded in a shout that could have shook the horses in the new barn.

This passion from Jeremiah was new to me and the lonesome lady from Minneapolis. Initially confused about this sudden passionate encounter, Elsie experienced a height of awakening new to her and one she evidently liked.

A day later it was Elsie saying to her husband “take your clothes off”. While he stood naked before her she dropped to her knees and grabbed his loose penis into her mouth until it became hard and erect.” Jeremiah please , please take me again. I need to feel your passion “ . And so the fervor continued night after night until exhaustion overcame them.

One morning Elsie felt nauseated and discovered she was with child. The love-making didn’t stop until Elsie’s enlarged belly slowed them down. I heard her whimper “Hold me , Hold me. I need help”. And so Jeremiah, who grew up on a dairy farm , tended to the birth of his son, Jeremiah , Jr. Hugging him , tears lining his face “my Son, my son, 5 fingers, 5 toes, how handsome “, he placed the newborn he helped create on his mothers breast.

I witnessed the beginning of a growing family and a new love between the “happy-in-love” couple. The love making started again as passionate as the first encounter. While baby Junior slept In The cradle built by his father, the couple could not get enough of each other.

Before Junior was even a year old, Elsie was in a family way again. Jeremiah tended his crops, built another room for a growing family that needed to be a bit further away from the love- making of their parents.

A bumper crop of wheat allowed Jeremiah to ship his crop Down the Missouri. Now a man of 25 , he had more money than he ever expected. With Elsie heavy with child and her own birthday coming up, with affection Jeremiah splurged on a new flowered hat for his wife from Mustermans hat store in Yankton and a bunch of hand picked daisies. Not to be surprised with a birth this time He also searched for a midwife .

On a warm summer day, Dora arrived to help the very pregnant woman. Hot water was ready in the kitchen fireplace. towels folded nearby. Jeremiah paced as Elsie cried in pain until after hours of labor a head appeared. Helped by Dora a little girl with a head full of black hair was handed to her Dad. And then another head. The Burns were the parents of twin girls. “All five fingers and 5 toes” and one small cradle, the twins were placed to feast side by side on mama’s swollen breasts. An adoring father ,who clearly worshipped his wife , I could see was also eager to satisfy himself and pleasure her body once again.

The 3 young-ins grew occasionally sharing their parents bed where Elsie read them stories. Eventually , all in unison could sing “twinkle. Twinkle, little star” while gazing out the window at a nighttime of twinkling stars.

As the three Burns kids played and grew, Jeremiah prospered with the sale of his crops and his wood working skills.one night he whispered to his wife that he had been asked to be a member of the Yankton Bank board. Their love-making had less fervor but as long as they lived it never ceased as the two merged into the rare intimacy of one.

By the time Junior turned 16, the Burns family was a respected and prosperous family. Restless, Junior also had ideas for his future too. He wanted to sail the mighty Missouri. The conversation with his Father was a bit testy. Jeremiah wanted him to manage the farm And help in the family businesses. Finally Jeremiah agreed to the interests of his handsome son provided he would agree to learn to Captain his own boat that Jeremiah would help finance.

A year later, with hugs and Elsie’s tears and good byes, Junior headed out on the river. In time he would become a most respected river boat captain based in the rivers premier port town of Yankton.

He was here to take part in the double marriage ceremony of his sisters, The towns beauties married to Yanktons most eligible Bachelors . Molly and Polly, described in the Yankton press as “pretty as a picture”, Dressed in white satin In the room where they were born.

The room would soon be occupied by another family member , Molly and husband , who were managing the farm. Here I would witness yet again the healthy passionate love-making in the extended Burns Family.

Elsie and Jeremiah , now older citizens had moved into town. The Burns family , hard working, respected , prospered , were living proof that love conquers all. Originally on the verge of a collapsing relationship , they were held together by love -making and a physical coupling of two independent people whose passion merged them into one, an intimacy so deep that it could never be abandoned and with each new touch only deepened their feeling for one another.

Ellen Moyer, February 15, 2023