To the Ranch

The little girl sat in her fifth grade classroom. She was staring out the window. They had taken a test and she as usual finished hers as fast as possible. Tests were actually one of her favorite parts of school. She didn't find them especially hard. It was usually just answering questions that were from the text book. She always read the books whenever she got to a new school and they were given to her then she knew most of the answers, at least enough of them to pass the tests. That was good enough for her she was not interested in being a "good" student she just didn't want to do any grades over. Reading the books ahead of time gave her lots of free time. She had time when everyone else was reading the assignment in class. Usually she just used that time to read her library book. But sometimes she found other things to do, sometimes those things got her in trouble and she would be sent out into the hallway. That was fine with her she would bring her library book and read it out there were it was quiet.

This day she just wanted the bell to ring. It was springtime and the sun was shining and school was the last place she wanted to be. She knew exactly where she wanted to be and she knew that they were going there as soon as the bell rang. The clock seemed to be slow today, she was staring at it willing it to speed up. It wasn't working. That morning when her dad dropped her off at school he told her that after school they were going to the ranch.

The ranch was her grandparents house. When she was a grown up she would learn that it was about 40 square miles big and that it was about 4 homesteads combined and that part of it was her great-grandparent's homesteads that they had given to her grandparents as a wedding gift. But as a little girl it was just her grandparents house. It was a place she always felt safe and loved. It was a place she dearly loved. The sky would meet up with the prairie grass at the horizon and the clouds would sail past in different shapes and she would see all kinds of things when she stared at them, boats, spaceships, elephants . You never knew what you might see when you looked up.

The bell did eventually ring of course. The little girl ran out the classroom door as fast as she could, down the hall and out the school doors. Then she just had to go down the long stairs to the street and there was her dad and her brother waiting in the truck. It was a warm sunny spring day so the little girl and her brother jumped in the back of the truck and they were on their way. They stopped at the Big D gas station and her dad filled up the tank and bought them each a snickers bar and a coke. The little girl loved the drive to the ranch. They lived in the Black Hills and the ranch was out on the prairie. So they wound their way out of the hills and onto the prairie. She loved the feeling of going fast in the back of the truck out on the prairie. After a couple hours they would get to the turn off for the ranch. Then they would drive 9 miles on the dirt road. There were cattle guards to cross and gates to be opened and shut and her brother would jump out and get them. You never ever open a gate without closing it out on the prairie, especially when the gates belong to your grandparents neighbors.

When they pulled into the house yard her grandparents were always waiting by the gate. "Howdie! Howdie!" her grandmother would say. She would hug the little girl and tell her she was getting big. Her grandmother was really short so the little girl knew everyone looked tall to her grandmother. Her grandfather would reach out his arms and the little girl would step into them for a big hug. He would say something like "you are looking beautiful" . The little girl knew that her grandfather had something called glaucoma and that he could only see her outline in the bright sun. But she knew it meant he loved her.

They had gotten there at dinner time and her grandmother had it ready for them. The thing about her grandmother was that she was not like other kids grandmothers. She was not really warm and fuzzy but the little girl knew she loved her. She had rules and you just knew you had to follow them. Like when you came in the door of her house you had better take off your hat. And it was never a good idea to use remotely bad words because she would clean your mouth out with soap. The little girl had never had her mouth washed out but she had seen it happen to her brother.

The other thing about her grandmother was that she was not a good cook. And the rule was that you had to eat everything you put on your plate. So the little girl had a plan. She took just a little bit of everything. She knew she could eat a bite or two of even bad things, then she could always take more of things that she liked. You had to be careful because sometimes things she made looked normal but they were not the thing you thought. One time she made what looked like fruit salad. It did have grapes and pears in it. But it also had vegetables and most fruit salad had some kind of whipped cream for the dressing, hers was Miracle Whip. It was always better to test things out before you committed to a large serving.

After dinner they played games. Her Grampa loved to play games, her grandmother never played. Only sometimes was the little girl allowed to play, but she loved to watch. Her Grampa had versions of games for people who couldn't see well. His cards were huge and his scrabble game had giant tiles.

The little girl was getting excited. This trip was special, she was going to get to go fishing at the river, at night. She had always been too little and had always had to stay with her Grandma before. But not this time she was big enough. Her grandmother was still worried. She asked both her and her Dad if maybe she should stay this time. But before she knew it the games were put away and they were on their way to the river. It was a fun drive across the ranch to the river. The stars were out and the road was bumpy.

When they got to the river her Dad told her that it was her job to take care of her Grampa. She thought he was probably taking care of her but she loved her Grampa so she was happy to be with him. They got their lines into the water and sat down. Her Grampa had a bell on the tip of his poll so he would know if he got a bite. They sat together in the moonlight. He told her stories, sang her songs and passed the time with riddles.

In the whole night she only caught one fish. But it was a giant catfish and it took her about half an hour to reel it in. When she got it on the bank it was almost as big as her! After she caught the fish she went to sleep in the truck. When it was daylight they loaded up and went back to the house. Her Grandma had oatmeal waiting for them. She made good oatmeal and the girl was hungry. After breakfast they cleaned the fish and and headed back home. Reversing their way back to the Black Hills and their little bit of land with the trailer on it. They only had 77 acres. The next day she would have to go back to school.

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