“Get over here and make yourself useful,” Nate said with a grin, and Ted killed the engine on the ATV. He took the clean sheets inside and started making the bed while Nate replaced the trashcan liners and swept the floor. He started the dishwasher as Ted marveled that this cabin at least a mile from anything else in the world even had a dishwasher.
After Ted had run a duster over everything and Nate had scrubbed the bathroom, they went back outside, only to go to another cabin to do the same thing all over again. They repeated it two more times, and Ted found himself on a part of the ranch he’d never visited before.
Ginger claimed this ranch wasn’t nearly as big as some others out there, but to Ted, it felt massive. He’d spent most of his time in the stables and working with the horses, except for earlier in the week when he’d gone out to the pond to help clean up the carnage caused by the blooming algae.
Bill had been working on a solution to neutralize the water to stop the algae from spreading, and they’d put a fence around the pond so no animals would drink from it again.
His phone rang while he was running the duster over the windowsill, and Ted pulled it out to look at it. “It’s Martin,” he said, dropping the duster in favor of swiping on the call. “Hey, Martin.” He looked at Nate, who barely glanced at him and kept working.
“What does Wednesday look like for you?” Martin asked.
“It’s fine.”
“I believe you said afternoons are good. say, four o’clock?”
“Sure.”
“Great,” Martin said. “I’ll be at the homestead at four. See you then, Ted.”
“Yep.” Ted hung up, suddenly more nervous than before. This was a new step for him along this journey. He’d never met with a parole officer before, and he wasn’t sure how it would go.
He’d met with Ginger every day for the first week, and after that, she’d only checked in with him once a week. On Monday, he’d start his fourth week on the ranch, and as Ted got back to work in the cabin, he realized how much he liked the ranch.
He hadn’t anticipated that, because he’d come from a desk job, to prison, to this. He’d worked hard as a lawyer, and he’d often returned home exhausted. This was just a different kind of exhaustion.
“Okay, done,” Nate said. “Let’s loop around to the east here, and that’ll take us to the homestead to get this laundry done.”
“Lead out,” Ted said, and Nate swung himself behind the wheel of the side-by-side. He took off, and Ted thought perhaps his vehicle just went faster than Ted’s ATV. He didn’t mind being left in the dust, and he could see Nate just fine, so Ted knew where to go.
He enjoyed the sunshine on his skin, and the wind in his face, and the presence of the dogs on the back with him. Out this far from the epicenter of the ranch, Ted felt like the only person in the world, and he knew why people rented these cabins. To get away from everything, and be with people they loved, and experience the stillness of the air in a way few people did. All of that appealed to Ted.
The river bordered this side of the ranch too, and Ted slowed to look at it on this side of the property. One of the dogs jumped down, and Ted applied the brake. “Hey, Randy,” he called after the canine. To make matters worse, Paula jumped down too.
“Okay, guys,” he said, thinking they’d just run to the river and grab a drink. Instead, Randy started barking.
Ted looked out into the trees, but he couldn’t see anything. The dogs were trained to chase wild boars, and maybe Randy had caught a whiff of something. Ted turned off the ATV and got off, walking toward the two dogs.
Randy had quieted, and Ted kept looking out into the brush and trees that grew alongside the river. He couldn’t see anything.
His heart pounded in his chest, but Randy and Paula didn’t seem concerned now. They trotted at his side, and he looked down at them. They both looked up at him, and Ted asked, “What did you see?”
He stepped past the first tree, and came to a complete stop. Something blue loitered on the other side of the fence. Ted approached the fence much slower now, holding out one hand to keep the dogs back.
The truck wasn’t on; Ted couldn’t hear the engine idling. He’d have to jump the fence to see if anyone was in the vehicle, and he wasn’t allowed off the ranch. He didn’t wear an ankle bracelet or anything, but he wanted to be obedient to the terms of his reentry program.
He stood several feet back from the fence for what felt like a long time, undecided about what to do. No one got out of the truck, and there was no movement inside the cab.
“Come on, guys,” he said to the dogs. “Let’s go.” He edged backward a couple of steps when he heard the tell-tale sound of another vehicle. It came from the left, which was the road that went around the back of the ranch. Ted didn’t actually know where the road went. It could diverge at any point, or have another road connect to it, and he wouldn’t know.
This new truck was black and shiny, obviously recently washed. It was a king cab, and much, much nicer than the blue truck parked on the road.
Ted fell back even more, pausing when the leaves and branches started to block his view. “Come on,” he whispered to the dogs. “Come.” He ducked behind a tree trunk and crouched down, glad when Paula and Randy came to his side.
The black truck pulled to a stop behind the blue one, and the passenger door opened. So did the driver’s side door,
