PURSUIT: A Novel – 30.1: Ranch – Arrival

The Kansas Ranch – Saturday Morning, March 18,1989

Lisa Meier rinsed off the black, cast iron skillet, and gazed out the kitchen window. A plume of dust rose above the field of flint grass that lined both sides of the quarter-mile gravel drive. She had hoped that her son would have arrived last night so that she and his dad could catch up on his college life since they last saw him over Christmas break. Jerry had now missed the hearty breakfast that had been the sunrise routine for their household since she had married Richard, thirty years ago. She hung the skillet on the overhanging rectangle made of old branding irons and wiped her hands on a dish towel, excitement apparent as she anticipated seeing her only son again and the reminder of the miracle he was.

Jerry slowed the car to a crawl as he approached the roundabout. The early spring thunderstorms, typical of Kansas, caused the tall prairie grass to flourish, and the tufts of new, green growth were a sharp contrast to the last picture he had of the homestead around Christmas. During the holidays, his mom enjoyed the extensive hanging of the greens. Three trees cut from the pine woods of the ranch were ornately decorated with homemade heirlooms some of which dated back seven generations to the homesteader, Noah Meier. Now, the approach to the Ponderosa-style ranch house looked naked without the décor. The gardens that surrounded the grand wrap-around porch were waiting for longer and warmer days before showing off their blooms, except for the daffodils that seemed to multiply like a litter of cats continually in heat. As he rounded the circle, the massive front door opened.

Lisa was a petite woman, but what she lacked in stature, she made up with her strong will. Her natural expression was with a gentle smile, not one of those toothy, full-faced, pasted-on glamour shots. Her joy for life shined through like a radiant beacon of hope for anyone who would receive it. She stepped out on the porch in the edge of the sunlight that broke under the roof and paused as she watched her son round the turnabout and stop, his front wheels skidding a bit in the loose gravel. The kicked up dust moved by quickly as the morning spring breeze swept across their prairie grass pasture.

A young girl stepped into the frame of the door. Her long, jet-black hair cascaded over the front and back of her black western shirt embroidered with a design of ropes and roses. Dressed in snug hip-hugging black jeans tucked in her boots, a pencil-thin red belt accentuated her slim waist. A seventeen-year-old senior with the innocence of a girl that loved the beauty of nature and the slow turn of a day, her face beamed with joy as she shouted, “Jerry!” She took the porch steps in a dance staccato with her boots stepping sideways to speed her descent to the flintstone tarmac that led to the gravel drive.

Jerry stepped out of the car and looked over the top, his mirrored aviators resting atop a smile that beamed from ear to ear. Emily continued her gallop to greet her brother and with open arms both embraced.

“Missed you, college boy!”

“Missed you too, sis.” He held her out at the shoulders to look into her face. “You’re more beautiful every day. If I wasn’t your brother, I’d take you out on a date.”

The tall stature of her brother, chiseled face like his dad, allowed him to hold Emily in the crook of his shoulder as they walked around the car to greet his mom, dressed in a ribbed top and custom fitted jeans that exemplified her lifestyle of healthy prepared meals, not typical of a “home on the range” family. Lisa, watching the love of brother and sister, smiled as she stepped down from the veranda porch, arms open to hug both of them, the thought of ever losing either of them now only a fear that remained in the dark closet of the recesses of her heart.

† † †

Copyright 2017  © Jeff Cambridge

Excerpt from PURSUIT, a novel by Jeff Cambridge, a writer of transformational fiction with real characters in real-life tell stories that change lives in the readers as the characters transform.

This is a pre-published scene.

To read the scenes sequentially, begin with

“PURSUIT: A Novel – Prologue”

You will find the previous episodes in the monthly archives. Click on them and enjoy.

Your comments are welcomed and appreciated. Simply check one of the reaction boxes below, write a comment, or email me at bycambridge@gmail.com.

This novel is a work of fiction. Any references to real events, businesses, organizations, and locales are intended only to give the fiction a sense of reality and authenticity. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

v v v