Summary:\u00a0 Little Joe does not heed Adam’s warning that Joe is skating on thin ice.\u00a0 rating: teen\u00a0 word count: 728<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Thin Ice<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cYou know you\u2019re skating on thin ice.\u201d\u00a0 Adam\u2019s voice had its own particularly chiding tone.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe.\u201d Little Joe\u2019s voice showed his lack of concern.<\/p>\n Adam shook his head. \u201cYou never worry, do you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAbout thin ice?\u00a0 I\u2019m lighter and faster than you; I don\u2019t need to worry as much.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLighter and faster, uh?\u201d Adam snorted.\u00a0 \u201cThat may help when the ice is physical; when it\u2019s metaphorical, not so much.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam had taught Joe the meaning of metaphorical years before. \u201cWhen it\u2019s metaphorical, there ain\u2019t no chance of freezing if the ice cracks, and you know I swim like a fish.\u201d\u00a0 A smirk settled on Little Joe\u2019s face.<\/p>\n Adam raised his eyebrow and gave the sixteen-year-old a look that had always sent a shiver down Little Joe\u2019s back.\u00a0 \u201cNo, when this ice breaks you won\u2019t have to worry about freezing beneath it.\u00a0 Your concern will be female daggers and the fire of our father\u2019s wrath.\u201d<\/p>\n Little Joe\u2019s chuckle was forced and slightly brittle. If Pa finds out I\u2019m trifling with two girls’ feelings and deceiving them both, the fire in my hindquarters won\u2019t be metaphorical.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cJust don\u2019t expect me to pull your irons out of the fire when Melissa or Ellie finds out that despite your sweet nothings, she is not the singular object of your affections.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAny irons I put into the fire, I can pull them out myself.\u00a0 Unless…\u201d Little Joe swallowed convulsively.\u00a0 \u201cYou don\u2019t intend to tell Pa.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, now that I\u2019ve done my brotherly duty warning you, I intend to sit back and watch the fireworks, and there will be fireworks works, baby brother.\u201d<\/p>\n Little Joe chewed his lower lip.\u00a0 \u201cWhy are you so sure…\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGirls gossip; on that you can count, Joe.\u00a0 There are no inviolate secrets when females, especially young females, are involved.\u201d<\/p>\n LJLJLJLJ<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cLittle Joe, it\u2019s so wonderful.\u201d Mellissa\u2019s eyes shone.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s so wonderful?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI can be with you at the church social after all.\u201d<\/p>\n Little Joe gulped. \u201cBut you said…\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMama changed her mind.\u00a0 We\u2019re all going, so you don\u2019t need to fetch me; we\u2019ll meet there.\u201d\u00a0 Leaning closer, she whispered.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ll find a way to be alone.\u00a0 It\u2019ll be wonderful!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, wonderful!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMama\u2019s waiting, so I\u2019ve got to go.\u201d\u00a0 Melissa blew Little Joe a kiss and dashed off.<\/p>\n Joe\u2019s oh, no<\/em> was audible as he considered if he could keep two girls happy and apart at the same social.\u00a0\u00a0 Then he shook his head and wondered if that was ice he heard cracking.<\/p>\n LJLJLJLJ<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt ain\u2019t that big a lie, Hoss. Not really a lie at all. You just tell Melissa and Ella that I\u2019m sick.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJoe!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI am sick every time I think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow could ya ask two gals to the social and think nobody including Pa would find out?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t really.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t ask Ella until I thought Melissa couldn\u2019t come!\u201d\u00a0 Little Joe\u2019s voice held a put-upon whine.<\/p>\n \u201cEven so…\u00a0 Melissa thinks you\u2019re courting only her.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, yeah, that\u2019s why I couldn\u2019t tell Melissa I had asked Ella when I thought she couldn\u2019t go.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss shook his head.\u00a0 \u201cWhat did you think would happen when some gal told another gal who told Melissa that she seen you and Ella together at the social.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI planned on nobody seeing me and Ella together.\u00a0 Her pa don\u2019t allow her to court!\u00a0 That\u2019s why I know she\u2019ll always be careful and won\u2019t say nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss shook his head.\u00a0 \u201cOnliest reason I\u2019ll do it is so those little gals don\u2019t get their feelings hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n LJLJLJLJ<\/em><\/p>\n Sitting on the porch, Little Joe sighed and took a sip of lemonade. He had had to tell his pa that he had a stomach upset and couldn\u2019t attend the social. He hated missing it, but he supposed it was a divine punishment. At least, Hop Sing\u2019s is visiting Hop Ling and not here keeping me in bed.<\/em> He sighed again.\u00a0 Maybe I should have tried to go and just kept the girls apart.\u00a0 Tucked Ella away one place and Melissa another.<\/em><\/p>\n At the sound of an approaching wagon, he looked out across the yard \u00a0\u00a0The ice broke beneath him when he saw both Ella and Melissa sitting on the wagon seat beside his glaring father.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Author\u2019s note: The following quote was the prompt for this little story: \u201cIn skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed.\u201d ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Summary:\u00a0 Little Joe does not heed Adam’s warning that Joe is skating on thin ice.\u00a0 rating: teen \u00a0 word count: 728<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":56477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full-width-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1007,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-joe-cartwright","category-short-stories","wpcat-1007-id","wpcat-8-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/roseLotta-21.png?fit=720%2C576&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}