• Home
  • Fine Living
    • Start Here—Welcome to Tweetspeak!
    • Read
      • A Poem a Day with Every Day Poems
      • book club
      • Poetry Newsletter!
      • poetry reviews
      • T. S. Poetry Press
      • Quote a Day
      • VerseWrights Journal
    • Write
      • A Book of Beginnings
      • Become a Better Writer
      • Fiction Posts & Prompts
      • Memoir Notebook
      • Poets and Writers Toolkit
      • Writer’s Conferences
      • Writing Prompts
    • Live
      • Art and Disabilities
      • Artist Date
      • Eating and Drinking Poems
      • Journey into Poetry
      • Literary Tour
      • Poem on Your Pillow Day
      • Poetry at Work Day
      • Random Acts of Poetry Day
      • Take Your Poet to Work Day
    • Play
      • Coloring Page Poems
      • Mischief Café
      • Music Playlists
      • poetry humor
      • Quote a Day
      • Shop
      • Twitter Poetry Parties
      • Videos
    • Learn
      • A Poem in Every Heart, a Story in Every Soul
      • Infographics
      • Poetry Classroom
      • Poetry Units for Teachers
      • Writer’s Conferences
      • Writing Workshops
    • Grow
  • Poets & Poems
  • Writers’ Resources
  • Daily Poem
  • Teaching Tools
  • The Press
  • Workshops

13

Adjustments by LW Lindquist cover

13 • At the Ranch

Back to Contents Page

Will loved trips out into the Coteau. He lived in the bottom of a bowl, in the Arbon Valley. But once he got out onto the highway, he could see the blue-purple Coteau ringing the lip. Today, he would drive right into it and with any luck (and Barbara’s snippy cooperation), he’d not get lost in the hills.

He took the interstate part way, then defied Barbara’s histrionics just for the fun of it and exited to take a county road to the north. After three or four minutes she stopped recalculating and conceded to the new route. Will mused over the dilapidated farm buildings that cropped up in fields near the highway, one of his favorite parts of being on the road. He wondered when a certain swayback barn had last held livestock, or what year a granary with half a roof was last stocked. He always saw an old farmer in his mind, blue and white striped Dickey overalls buckled over a belly grown round on a certain farm wife’s meat and potatoes at every meal. He pictured him there touching the splintered boards starting to give way on the old building, thinking about just one more harvest before moving to town.

Entering the hills was like driving off the map into an other-world with all the spaciousness of the prairie but with the rich contours of softly rounded peaks and deep bottomed gullies, dotted with tree groves filling out with the green of spring.

After a couple of hours following Barbara from one lonesome, winding gravel road to another, Will arrived at Northwind Pastures, a horse ranch and supper club a good hour’s drive from anywhere else. It was the kind of place a guy could take his wife because she thought the Death by Chocolate dessert really was to die for. Only the early reservations could get a seat by the window of Northwind’s log cabin lodge, where he could watch the chef grill him a 20 ounce steak at the end of a pitchfork over the nightly bonfire, in some sort of primal tradition.

He parked in the gravel lot between the lodge and the horse arena and walked around to the entrance. Waiting at the counter, he felt the stares of five junior high girls wearing bed head and their nighties in the dining room, looking at him over bowls of oatmeal and blueberries. Will fidgeted at the counter, rolling the round knob on the silver toothpick dispenser until he had discharged the makings of a doll-sized raft, if he only had a length of dental floss to lash the toothpicks together. He’d learned years ago never to turn around but it did not stop him from feeling the stares keenly.

After a minute that felt like twenty, a short, rotund woman came out of the kitchen in Roper boots, dark blue jeans and a white apron. The food service head covering made her look like she was on her way to surgery.

“Can I help you?” she extended a plastic-gloved hand with bits of ring macaroni stuck to the fingers.

Will hestitated, then pulled a business card from his briefcase and slipped it between two of her fingers in place of a pasta-laden handshake.

“Will Phillips. I’m here to see Amos Bruner on an insurance matter.”

“Oh, right. Amos said you’d be coming. Have a chair by the bar, and I’ll let him know you’re here. Can I get you something? Coffee? Water?”

“A cup of coffee would be great, thanks.” Will sat down at the bar, positioning himself so the girls were in his line of sight. If they could sense the awkwardness of their continued staring they might go back to their oatmeal.

The cook returned with a cup of tepid coffee. “Amos will be right out. Cream?”

Will looked into his cup. “No need, thank you though.”

He pulled his phone from the holster. None of the messages required his attention but he flipped through them a few times to appear busy and important for the sake of the preteens. Reprieve came in the hard footsteps against the wood floor. Amos Bruner, owner of Northwind Pastures, was a tall, slender man in his late 60s. He wore thick-heeled Durango boots with a sharp pointed toe and weathered Levi 501s. A leather holster hung off his western belt, holding a black handled pair of pliers, standard issue for any respectable cowboy. He tipped his hat toward the back of his head and clapped a hand on Will’s shoulder.

“Mr. Phillips? Sorry to make you wait.”

Will put out a hand. “Mr. Bruner? Nice to meet you. And no problem. I think I’m a little early. I didn’t get lost.”

Amos chuckled. “Let me show you around and then we can go talk in my office.”

Will closed his briefcase and tucked it under one arm, following Amos into the dining room.

“You met our campers? It’s our girls intermediate week. Cassandra was here two weeks ago for our advanced camp.”

Will smiled at the girls as he walked past, which they took to mean they should resume staring. Amos pointed to the loft, accessed by a rough-hewn wooden staircase. “We’ve got bunks up there for about 20. House campers in the spring and summer, hunters in the fall and winter. Serve ’em meals in the dining room and then open the supper club to the public on the weekends.”

He stopped by the door to the kitchen and waved a thumb. “You already met Darla, our cook. At night she supervises the campers. And down the hall here is my office. Let’s go sit.”

Amos eased behind his enormous pine desk while Will took a seat opposite and opened his briefcase. “Mr. Bruner, what I need to do is photograph the grounds and in particular where Cassandra fell. I’ll need to meet the horse she was riding and interview any of your staff who were present. I’ll also need any paperwork you have on the horse. Registration, purchase records, vet records, you name it.”

“Well, she was riding Pharaoh. Bought him about a year ago; never had a problem.”

Amos picked up his phone and dialed. “Cade, I need you to come to the office and talk to the insurance guy about Cassandra Mills.”

He opened a drawer and pulled out a stack of yellow and blue papers, rifled through and pulled out Pharaoh’s paperwork. “I’ll go make a copy of this for you. Cade will be in here any minute to talk. He’s my ranch hand and runs the riding camps.”

Will sat back and looked at the photographs framed all over Amos’s walls—cowboys and ranch hands and horses at shows and rodeos. Amos came back in with a young cowboy.

Caden Carson stood nearly six feet tall. He took off his Stetson and shook his blond hair that was tousled in an intentional way. If he lived in California instead of the Dakotas, the muscular young man would surely be a surfer, not a ranch hand. A silver belt buckle as large as a tea saucer—not one earned at a rodeo but designed to look like one—held the ends of his embossed leather belt together, clearly not needed to hold up a starched,  tight pair of dark Carhartt jeans that could stand up in the corner on their own.

He put his hat on the desk. “I’m Cade, the head wrangler. Amos said you needed to talk to me?”

“I do, yes.” Will motioned to a chair. “I need to interview you about the facts related to the Cassandra Mills matter.”

Cade blinked. “Am I being sued?”

Will smiled at Cade, who couldn’t have been much more than 20, leastwise far too young to be facing a lawsuit for doing his job. He should be sued for flashing that sparkly white grin and winking those deep blue eyes in a room full of teenage girls, though.

“Not that I know of, Cade. As best as I can tell, she was treated and released from the ER with a mild concussion and has recovered nicely. I’m here because the insurance company is taking precautions. You never know which way the wind might decide to blow.”

Will set his digital recorder between them and questioned Cade Carson, verifying that he took all the usual precautions when Cassandra Mills rode Pharaoh. He confirmed that Cade was standing nearby, as he always did, and that it appeared she had pulled the rein too tight on one side when she mounted, so that Pharaoh began to spin, as he was trained to do, when the rein was pulled. Rather than loosen her grip, Cassandra reached for the other rein, and Pharaoh reared up, throwing Cassandra to the ground and then falling back on top of her. According to Cade, it all happened too fast for him to intervene.

The ranch hand took Will out to the barn and arena where the incident occurred so he could photograph the scene. Pharaoh wandered up to the fence and aside of sneezing on his hand when Will reached to pat his nose, he seemed to be a gentle horse that got pulled the wrong way.

Will was pleased to see a bright yellow sign on the fence advising patrons of South Dakota Codified Law 42-11-2 that exempted equine professionals from liability for injuries or death due to inherent risks of equine activities. Meaning, the horse owner or trainer isn’t going to be responsible for things that horses do in the course of being horses. Will snapped a photo of the sign for his file.

After a couple of hours at the ranch, Will had gathered the information he needed. He couldn’t help thinking, though he had no idea why he thought it, that Joe Murphy would enjoy this place. He packed his gear and the file away and stopped back at Amos’s office to tell him he was finished.

“Feel free to call me if anything comes up. And if the family contacts you, best to refer them to me for any questions. That way you can keep running your business and be well thought of, and I can be the bad guy if anyone needs to be.”

“Thanks for everything, Mr. Phillips. Stop by some weekend for a steak.”

“I might just do that, Mr. Bruner.” Will smiled and shook the rancher’s hand. “Have a great afternoon.”

He passed through the dining room on his way out, happy to see the girls had dressed and gone to the barn for a grooming lesson. He went out to his truck and drove off the ranch in a direction that felt like south but without plugging Barbara in to be sure.

(to be continued)

Back to Contents Page

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

Free with tweet

Welcome All the Goodness

Welcome all the
patron-only goodness,
when you become a part of a place
that brings joy to the world.

Follow Tweetspeak Poetry

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café.

You’re a regular? Check out our February Menu.

Recent Comments

  • Jake Cosmos Aller on Writing, Paper & Quills: Ode to a Planner Prompt
  • L.L. Barkat on The Handwritten Letter: How To Tell A Friend You Adore Her
  • Anne Maguire on Writing, Paper & Quills: Ode to a Planner Prompt
  • Pranjulaa Singh on Poetry Prompt: Angry Poem Stacks

A Love Story to Teaching

The Teacher Diaires Front Cover with Lauren Winner

“Hilarious, heart-rending, entertaining.”

—KA, Amazon reviewer

GET FREE SAMPLE NOW

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The New York Observer

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

Tumblr Book News

Categories

Poetry for Life? Here's our manifesto on the matter...

Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches

Help make it happen. Post The 5 Vital Approaches on your site!

Learn to Write Form Poems

Whether or not you end up enjoying the form poem, we've seen the value of building your skills through writing in form.

One reader who explored the villanelle was even featured in Every Day Poems!

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

Featured Literary Analysis

Poem Analysis: Anne Sexton's Her Kind

Poem Analysis: Adrienne Rich's Diving into the Wreck

Poem Analysis: Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Order and Disorder in Macbeth

Tone in For Whom the Bell Tolls and Catch-22

Tragedy and Comedy: Why People Love Them

Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

Book Promotion, Platform, Publicity

Author Platform: Where to Start

Ten Surprising Secrets to Make Your Book Go Viral

How to Host a Successful Book Launch

Simple Tips on Finding and Working with a Book Publicist

How to Get Your Poems Published!

Pride and Prejudice Resources

5 Amusing Pride and Prejudice Quotes

Infographic: Simpleton's Guide to Pride and Prejudice

10 Great Pride and Prejudice Resources

Happy Birthday Mr. Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Playlist

Featured Top 10 Poems

Top 10 Chicken Poems

Top 10 Chocolate Poems (Okay, Minus 3)

Top 10 Fairy Tale Poems

Top 10 Funny Poems

Top 10 Laundry Poems

10 of the Best Love Poems

Top 10 Poems with Make or Break Titles

Top 10 Mirror Poems

Top 10 Question Poems

Top 10 Red Poems

Top 10 Rose Poems

Top 10 Summer Poems

10 Great Poems About Work

Children’s Poems, Children’s Books

Llamas in Pajamas and Ten Great Children's Poetry Books

A Children's Poem on the Playground

Come Again: Teaching Poetry to Children

Poetry With Children: What's in Your Journal

Teaching Poetry to Children: There Are So Many Blues

Take Your Poet to Work Day: Poet Treasure Hunt in the Library (Callie's Story)

6 Benefits of Reading Aloud to Your Children

Top 10 Children's Books and YA Books

Little Red Riding Hood: Graphic Novel

14 Reasons Peter Rabbit Should Be Banned (Satire)

The Latest Patron-Only Articles

Handwritten Letter

The Handwritten Letter: How To Tell A Friend You Adore Her

Braiding Sweetgrass Lost in Translation

Braiding Sweetgrass: Lost in Translation

Gratitude Together: Now Our Minds Are One

Braiding Sweetgrass book club

Braiding Sweetgrass: No One Asked the Plants

Featured Infographics

Infographic: How to Write an Acrostic Poem

Infographic: How to Write a Ballad

Infographic: How to Write an Epic Poem

Infographic: Ghazal for a Gazelle

Infographic: Boost Your Haiku High Q

Infographic: Pantoum of the Opera

Infographic: How to Write an Ode

Infographic: Poem a Day

Infographic: How to Write a Rondeau

Infographic: Simpleton's Guide to Pride and Prejudice

Sonnet Infographic: Quatrain Wreck

Featured Playlists

Playlist: Cat's Meow

Playlist: Doors and Passageways

Playlist: Fairy Tale and Fantasy

Playlist: Purple Rain and Indigo Blues

Playlist: Surrealism

Playlist: Best Tattoo Songs

Playlist: Trains and Tracks

All the Playlists

They Bring Poetry for Life

Meet our wonderful partners, who bring "poetry for life" to students, teachers, librarians, businesses, employees—to all sorts of people, across the world.

About Us

  • Our Story
  • Meet Our Team
  • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • Contact Us

Writing With Us

  • Poetry Prompts
  • Submissions
  • Writing Workshops

Reading With Us

  • Book Club
  • Dip Into Poetry
  • Every Day Poems
  • Literacy Extras
  • Quote a Day
  • VerseWrights Journal

Public Days for Poetry

  • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • Poetry at Work Day
  • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • Take Your Poet to School Week—National Poetry Month!
  • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • Give the Gift of Every Day Poems
  • Our Shop
  • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • Blog Buttons
  • Put a Poem in Your Heart, Or a Story in Your Soul
  • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2019 Tweetspeak Poetry · Site by The Willingham Enterprise · FAQ & Disclosure

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkRead more