When Love's Gone Country

Chapter Thirteen



It was four a.m. when Red came to wake the city slickers. He never told anyone he enjoyed ringing the traditional triangular dinner bell, especially when he knew how much they’d come to hate the sound.

He didn’t begrudge them their little vacation, but working the ranch for a couple weeks wasn’t the same as living it day in and day out. When it was time to leave, they’d boast that they knew what it was like to do a hard day’s work. They had no way of knowing what they experienced was just one easy slice of country life.

“Daylight’s burnin’. You got ten minutes to get down to the fire pit.” Red rang the bell for another minute, then went to wake Jacob. Word traveled fast about his rogue decision to stay in the old barracks. He gained favor in his eyes from that decision, not that he’d ever let him see that.

“Make him stop ringing that thing!” Courtney held her hands over her ears as she opened her eyes. It’s still night time. The rooster isn’t even up yet.”

“Complain while you’re getting dressed, we don’t have much time,” Brad said, placing his feet on the floor and shaking his head to help clear the sleep from his brain.

Diego jumped down from the end of the bed, ready to go for a walk.

“Not now, D. I promise we’ll go for a walk when I get back.”

The look of disappointment he received was palpable.

Court and Brad met up with Alex, Purity and Bobby in the hallway.

“Where’s Meg?” Purity asked. “I’m firing her as our vacation planner.”

“It’s only the first day. In a week, you’ll be waking up before the bell ever rings,” Alex said, placing an arm around her shoulders.

“This was your idea, of course you’re excited. I need sleep.”

“You can go back to bed, if you need to.”

“Oh no she can’t,” Courtney said. “All for one and one for all. Nobody gets special treatment.”

“But she’s pregnant,” Bobby said.

“There should be a limited number of times that excuse can be used.”

“And what number should that be?” Alex asked.

“For this vacation, I’d say once a day, maybe twice.”

“Very generous of you,” Purity said. “When you’re pregnant, I’ll remind you of this conversation.”

“Is everyone ready?” Meg asked as she and Jeremy joined the group.

“Why are you so chipper?” Court asked.

“It’s a beautiful day, we’re on vacation and we’re about to have an adventure!”

“How can you tell it’s a beautiful day? The sun isn’t even up yet.”

“Come on, Eeyore, we’re wastin’ daylight.”

“I think it’s burnin’ daylight and you didn’t answer my question.”

“Should we go see if Jacob is ready?” Bobby asked.

“Let’s head for the fire pit. If he’s not there, we can come back up and get him,” Meg said.

They all made their way down the path toward the fire pit in silence, taking deep breaths of air into their lungs and trying to focus on the experience rather than how warm they had been back in their beds.

Jacob was sitting around a roaring fire as they approached.

“You beat us,” Bobby said.

“Did you sleep okay, honey?” Meg asked.

“It was fine.”

“Did you see the rat again?” Purity asked.

“Yeah. You feelin’ okay?”

“Just tired, but who isn’t?”

“It gets better,” Frank said. “It don’t seem like it will, but it will. I know you’re cold and hungry and tired. Think about how the horses feel right now. How about the cows and chickens? They feel the same as you. You got a choice. They don’t. If they’re goin’ to eat, we need to feed ‘em. If they’re goin’ to drink, we need to provide water for ‘em.

The minute we took them in as ours, we made a commitment to put their care first. We’re second. And that’s how it is, plain and simple. So don’t waste my time by complainin’. I don’t want to hear it.”

“After all the mornin’ chores, you can go back to the ranch hand quarters and have breakfast,” Emma said.

“How will we know when that is?” Jeremy asked.

“We’ll tell you,” Red said. “We’re goin’ to split you into groups. Some will head down to the stables, others to the cow paddock, some to the chicken coop and so on. Each group will have a leader. There’s me, I’m Red. That’s Bart over there.”

Bart nodded his head.

“Next to him is Cal, Jake, Ronda, Bamma, Jessica, String, Sam, Miles, TJ and Joe Bob.”

“I didn’t know there were girl ranch hands,” Jeremy said.

“What do you think I am?” Emma asked.

Jeremy shrugged his shoulders. “Guess I never really thought about it.”

“The Double Y is a great place to think.”

“Any questions?” Frank asked. No one spoke. “You’ll all get a chance to work in the different areas, so don’t worry if you don’t get your favorite one right off.”

The ranch hands began picking the teams from among the group. Those without a team joined one of the already formed teams until they were all heading in different directions.

“See you later, Mom,” Jeremy said with a large grin. “I’m goin’ egg pickin’!”

Jacob and Bobby had been paired together and were heading toward the stables, much to Jacob’s displeasure. He had hoped to be teamed up with anyone except his family.

Emma had taken Purity and Meg by the arm and asked, “How’d you gals like to learn how to churn butter?”

Meg was delighted by the idea. Purity would have rather gone with Jeremy. The kitchen was not her favorite room in the house, as the moldy items in her refrigerator could attest.

An hour and a half later, the ranch was bathed in the glow of morning sunlight as they all found themselves at the dining room table back at the ranch hand quarters.

“It was so cool!” Jeremy declared. “I was scared at first. I mean, if I was a chicken, I wouldn’t want somebody stickin’ their hand up my butt. I’d peck at him ‘til their hand fell off.”

“Nice imagery,” Court said, passing a home-made buttered biscuit covered with strawberry jam to Jeremy.”

“Thanks.”

“I don’t know about you,” Brad said, “but it was totally worth it for this spread laid out before us. I thought we had a ton of food last night, but this is amazing.”

Scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon, maple sausage, pancakes, biscuits, fresh-squeezed orange juice, coffee and cream cheese Danish pastries made from scratch covered the table.

“Since I’m eating for two and all, I guess I can have more bacon, right?” Purity said.

“I’m eating whatever I want,” Meg said. “We’re only here for two weeks.”

“I have a feeling we’ll be burning off all the calories,” Court said. “I overhead String telling TJ that we’ll be working three times a day for at least as long as we did this morning.”

“How much does a ranch hand get paid?” Jacob asked.

“Not enough to clean stables first thing in the morning,” Bob said. “Are you thinking about making this your vocation?”

“Just curious. We’re paying to be here, but the real workers get a paycheck. If we weren’t here, more people would have jobs.”

“It probably helps the ranch out, though,” Meg said. “We’re not the most skilled work force, but maybe because we’ve paid a fee, it supplements the income of the workers.”

“I didn’t mind feeding and watering the sheep,” Courtney said. “Some of those rams were giving me the eye, though. Made me nervous. I was afraid I might piss one of them off and they’d take off a runnin’ and head butt me into the next paddock.”

“That would have been funny,” Jeremy said with a giggle.

“You think so, huh?” Courtney began to tickle him. “I’ll show you funny.”

“Stop!” Jeremy cried between fits of laughter.

“You’re going to make him choke. Let him swallow his food,” Meg said.

“He’s yelling, he’s fine.” She gave him one last tickle under his armpit. Jeremy squirmed and wiggled, then shoved the biscuit in his mouth.

“You don’t like those do you?” Brad asked.

“No, I don’t like ‘em. I love ‘em!” Jeremy said enthusiastically.

“I’ll take Diego for a walk, if you want,” Jacob said.

“I took him for one when we got back, but I’m sure he wouldn’t object to another one,” Brad said.

Jacob got up from the table and collected Diego’s leash. That was the only invitation he needed as he jumped from his comfortable seat on the sofa immediately, tail wagging in anticipation. Once the leash was hooked to his collar, they headed out the door.

Diego stopped every two feet to sniff and explore his new surroundings.

“Sure doesn’t smell like the city, does it?”

They meandered their way around the oak tree off to the right. It was surrounded by benches on all sides, making an octagon shape. Names had been carved into the aged wood. Jacob felt the indentions with his fingertip.

The ranch had history. He could feel it in his bones. He’d spent the better part of his life trying to escape his history. Jacob wondered how Red and the others could sing during the drought. He’d said they didn’t have any money, just food and shelter. That didn’t sound like much of a reason to live for.

Diego laid down, placing one paw on Jacob’s foot and then resting his head on it, almost as if he wanted to be sure he didn’t get up and leave when he wasn’t looking.

“I ain’t goin’ nowhere.” Jacob sighed. “Not right now anyway.”