The Stars in the Sky

Chapter 4: How Many Acres?

"Good night, John Boy," I called to Janine, who laughed at "The Waltons" reference. I think she was old enough to have seen that show on television.  I had never actually seen it. My parents had always said that to me before I went to bed. "Good night Ma," I sang to Stephanie, who giggled.

There was no drunken late night binge for us tonight; at least, not the first night. Ranch life meant that you went to bed early and got up early. I had brought up some beer, and a bottle of tequila with me, but I just left the beer in the staff fridge and the tequila in my box of vegan food in the kitchen. I made sure to get the kind with no worm in it.

Given the atmosphere, instead of having a nightcap, I finished unpacking, put on my jammies and crawled into the bottom bed of my bunk. Janine and Stephanie beat me to sleep, Janine sleeping in a long sleep t-shirt and Stephanie sleeping in hilarious, long-sleeved, flannel, granny pajamas.

It was wholesome. Quite. Novel, really, for me, to be so wholesome. I normally drank a beer before bed and slept nude if I could pull it off. Not here, though.

As we got dressed for bed in the old-fashioned, white painted room, Janine and Stephanie had filled me in on the ranch sleeping arrangements. We were essentially the entire female staff, so for now we had the whole bottom floor of the bunkhouse to ourselves. The male wranglers and farm hands slept upstairs, while Cookie slept in a room off of the kitchen, I guess for easy access in the morning.

Other people, whom I had not yet met, lived in other buildings in the compound. For example, Will's parents, Bill and Margaret Thrash, retired, lived in one of the newer ranch houses in the compound. A family, which included a ranch foreman, a housekeeper, and some children, lived in another of the newer ranch houses.

Will lived in the old ranch house; no wonder he was so pissed about me barging in on him in the shower — it was his home. I didn't feel that bad, though; it was a foxy show and he got even with me later. I couldn't help but think of his impressive body as I lay in my bunk bed in the dark, but thinking of it kinda made me tingle in some funny places on my body. Unfortunately, there was no privacy.

I must have been worn out from the day because I fell asleep immediately and did not dream.

The insistent clanging of a triangle — seriously, a fucking metal triangle straight out of the old west — woke us up the next morning, and the wranglers grumbled and put on jeans and went to take care of the horses. I slipped on some shorts and a t-shirt, pulled my hair in a ponytail, splashed water on my face, and headed out. Cookie had set out coffee for us in urns in the chow hall, and after eating breakfast and taking a cup of Joe to go, I went to work in the bunkhouse office, planning programs for the upcoming weeks.

While the office was small, it was comfortable, and it had a nice window to look out, so you could see what was going on around the ranch. An oak tree shaded the room, and it stayed pleasantly cool. I fired up the computer, logged on with the password Janine gave me, and started creating timelines and notes of activities.

Janine had given me schedules from past years, and while I consulted them for guidance, I did not feel constrained to follow them exactly. I liked some of the ideas, though. For example, having a great big campfire the first night, with marshmallows and singing sounded like fun, and so did tie-dying and some other activities that they did in the past.

The schedule of the summer was such that every week we would get a new group of kids, who would arrive on Monday mid-day, and leave Friday morning. I officially had weekends off, although I would probably stick around the ranch on weekends, unless I wanted to drive down to Santa Barbara and see Amelia or visit my apartment.

The schedule alternated weeks between special needs and disadvantaged kids. For example, the first group to arrive this Monday was special needs, and I researched ideas for visually impaired students, who could range in age from 5 to 22. I wasted time on Pinterest and came up with all sorts of tactile and verbal games that we could play that had to do with the ranch and the outdoors. I figured that we could even make musical instruments out of recyclables and things we found around the ranch.