Life on the Farm

Chapter 2

"I'm Aubrey." I hold out my hand. "My parents own the farm. They're the ones who hired you."
"Nice to meet you, Aubrey," The man replies. "I'm Hank." Hank shakes my hand. I see the boy walk up behind his dad.
"Hey." I say.
"Hey." Hey says. "I'm Dalton."
"Nice to meet you Dalton."
"You too."
We stare at eachother for a little bit. I have a good poker face-I'm good at not letting other's see what I'm thinking. I'm also good at reading body language, and facial expression. Dalton's looking me over, trying to remember if he knows me or not-he doesn't. His stiffened body relaxes the tiniest bit. He's calm. Trying to figure me out.
"So." Hank breaks the silence, and I blink and look at him. "Aubrey, your parents metioned that you would be showing us around and giving us the rundown."
"Yep. But at 11. I was just checking in to see if you guys were here or not." I smile. "Welcome to the farm. I'll be back at 11."
I turn on my heel and stride back to the barn. Thomas is cleaning off all the tools when I walk in, so I walk past him and grab a couple of rags and cleaning solution, and start wiping down the railing around the arena. When I'm done I get a microfiber cloth and leather cleaner, and go into the tack room to clean off the saddles, reins, and stirrups. When I finish I wipe off all the helmets and riding boots. Cleaning up the place. Seems small, but it's something we have to do to keep this place up and running.
The hay in the arena is old, so I grab a couple garbage bags and a big broom, and make a pile. I sweep all the hay into the bags, and take the bags out back to the trash. When I walk back into the barn, I'm startled to see Dalton standing there.
"Hi." I say.
He looks up. "Oh. Hi."
"Can I help you?"
"Just came to check out the place. I finished unpacking."
"Oh. Ok. Well I was gonna go get you at eleven, so..."
"Do you need any help?"
"What?"
"I asked if you needed any help. What? I'm a farm hand now. I'm supposed to help you."
"Oh. Right. Um. Ok. Follow me." I lead Dalton up the stairs to the loft, instead of the ladder, because we have to get hay. I turn to him. "This is the loft, where we keep the hay and extra feed for the horses and stuff." I point to yellow strawlike hay. "This is the stuff we spread on the floor of the stalls and the arena, because it's thicker, and more strawlike. It's not that the animals can't eat it, they do, it's just not the hay we provide for them to eat." I point to the softer, green hay. "This is the hay we put in feed boxes. It's organic, and higher quality, so it's what we give the animals to eat." I point out a blue bucket. "This is the extra feed for the horses. It's just regular grain feed, nothing special, but it's what we give them as well as the hay." I point to a red bucket. "This is what we feed the cows. Just extra feed for when their bucket downstairs runs out. It's slightly different from the horse feed, cause it has stuff mixed into it that will help them to produce more, better milk. The cows get the hay as well."
Dalton nods, taking it all in. "So what did you need help with? It looked like you were in the middle of something downstairs."
"Yeah." I reply. "Wanna make yourself useful, grab a stack of this." I life one of the stacks of yellow hay easily, and Dalton follows my lead, struggling with the weight of it a bit more than me. He'll get used to it. He follows me down the stairs, and we set the hay down on the ground. "Wait here." I tell him. I walk back to Thomas.
"Hey, I need the knife for cutting the band around the yellow hay." Thomas hands it to me, and I head back to Dalton. "Watch." I tell him. I show him the way to cut the string, and let him try it on his. He cuts it with ease, and hands the knife back to me. I set it down and unwrap the hay. "Spread it all over the floor of the arena," I tell him. We both work to cover the ground, and when we finish, I take the bands and throw them away. "And that's how we do it. Take the big broom-" I point to the broom I used to sweep up all the hay-"sweep up all the hay, and put it into garbage bags. Then it usually takes only two stacks of the yellow hay to cover the floor again.
I glance at the clock on the wall. 10:59.
"Let's go get your dad."
When Dalton brushes past me and into his house, his dad comes to the door.
"Wow. When you said you'd be here at 11, you meant it. Right on the dot."
I smile. "One of my special tricks."
"Ok then. I'm ready to go. Dalton?"
Dalton walks back into the room. "Let's go."
I give them the tour-the main house where my parents and I live, the several storage units, the silo, the other farmhand's houses, the gardens, the apple, cherry, plum, and peach orchards, and finally the barn. Along the way we've encountered other farmhands, and Dalton and Hank get to know them. I give them the rundown on the barn, all the horses, the cow, and the chickens.
"We sell a portion of the produce we grow at the farmers market on Satudays. Everything is grown organic. We'll feed you guys, and you'll have the chance to cook, but everything we can make from scratch, we do. Hank, you'll be working a lot with Mark and my dad. Dalton, with Lesser and Oliver. Everyone's really friendly. I've known Mark since I could walk. He's like a second dad to me. Thomas, I've known him since I was eight. Lesser and Oliver came around the same time, when I was ten. I'd trust them all with my life. And that's good. Because none of this works without trust. Without trust, without being there for someone when they need your help, none of this would work. So first things, by hiring you, we've put our trust in you. We expect that you're going to follow through."
"Yes maam," Hank salutes me.
I smile. "Chill. You'll want to save that for my mom. She's the big boss. And don't worry, she's not bad or anything, but you'll need to respect her the most."
Dalton nods.
"Ok. So right now most of the horses are grazing, but we need to bring them back in. Follow me." I lead Hank and Dalton out to pasture, stopping to grab some lead lines. I get my babies, my horses, Sugar and Raspberry, first, and lead them back, showing Dalton and Hank the right way. "Each horse is different. They all have different preferences to how you walk them, and such. This is Raspberry and Sugar. They're my personal horses. They're close, practically horse sisters. They're both very sweet. They are gentle, and the easiest to manage." I lock them in their stalls, and head back out to the pasture. I hand Dalton a lead line, and bring him up to Stan. "Here. Try leading Stan back." Dalton looks up. He looks terrified. Did I forget to mention that Stan is the biggest, most intimidating horse? Everyone's afraid of him at first. I laugh. "Don't worry. He's a sweetheart." I loop the lead over his head and hand the end to Dalton. "Just walk. He'll follow you." Dalton takes a timid step. Then another. Stan hasn't moved. I give him a shove, and he looks up from the grass, and starts walking. "See? Easy. Now keep going. His stall is the last one." I turn to Hank. "Here." I hand him a lead line. "Go get Kip." I point out the sandy colored mare next to the fence. Hank walks up and leads her back to the barn.
***
I pour ranch dressing over my salad, then munch down. Dalton picks at his quesadilla, and Hank chomps on a sandwich.
"So how are you guys liking the farm?" I break the silence.
Hank finishes chewing. "I like it. It seems like a great place, and I'm happy to be here."
"Yeah. It's nice." Dalton says.
I smile. "I love this place. My favorite part is the seven acres of forest out back. I've walked every step of it. I was practically bred in the wilderness. So that's where I spend a lot of my free time."
Hank nods. "Sounds peaceful."
"Yeah. Maybe someday I'll take you through the woods on horseback."
"That sounds like fun."
"It is. I'm doing that later. Around five."
"After you finish putting us to work?"
I laugh. "Yeah."
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A/N:
Heyyyyy guuuuyyyyyyssss<3
Two chapters in one day! OMG! I can't stop writing this book! I think I'm obsessed! Ah!
Haha. Anyways. What do you guys think of Dalton and Hank? Don't worry. Dalton may seem distant, but he'll warm up real quick. Thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoy!
<3