Jamie
Once they arrived in the parking lot, Leland patted Jamie’s knee again as he pulled Gwen right up to the porch of the office, where only a little while ago, it seemed, Jamie had read the sign about Maddy and Bill being gone and wondered what to do next. The sign was gone now, and beyond the screen door was an open wooden door, where he could hear someone talking on the phone. Then a woman came out and held the screen door open halfway. She wore blue jeans, and a pink cotton snap-button shirt, and her hair was in two blond and grey braids over her shoulders.
“There you are,” she said, jingling keys in her hand as though Leland had kept her waiting for hours. “Tie that horse up for a minute. This paperwork won’t take long. Then Bill said something about boots and a hat?”
“Thank you, Maddy,” said Leland. “Slide off, Jamie, and we’ll get you checked in.”
It felt like Leland was treating Jamie like a guest, and that he most certainly did not want to be. He was being given a chance to work on a ranch, just like he’d wanted, and he was going to prove he was worth the risk, even if he had to work from sunup to sundown to do it.
When Leland turned to see why Jamie wasn’t moving, Jamie scrambled down from the horse, his knees wobbling as he landed on solid ground once more. His ribs and shoulder ached from where he’d banged into the gate, but he kept silent about it, not wanting to let it get in the way of his newfound hope.
Stepping back, he watched the way Leland dismounted, studying how Leland balanced himself with a booted foot in one stirrup, not letting go of the saddle horn until his other foot touched the ground. Leland now loomed above Jamie, all length and muscle and surety, and he seemed to smile a little bit as he watched Jamie try to back up without falling over.
“Don’t worry, Jamie,” said Leland as he tied Gwen’s reins to one of the poles supporting the roof of the small porch. “Your legs will get stronger. The more you ride, the less they’ll wobble.”
They went inside the office, where Maddy made Jamie sit down in an old leather chair and pushed a pile of papers on a clipboard at him to sign. When she took his driver’s license into a little side room where a copier was to copy it, she looked at the date and madetsk tsknoises under her breath. As she came back and handed Jamie his license, she waved the copy of it in front of Leland.
“This expires tomorrow,” she said. “Can you help him get it renewed? He can’t drive any of our vehicles until it’s up to date, as insurance won’t cover it. And Jamie, I’m going to need routing numbers for your bank account, so I can send your wages there.” Maddy sat back down at her desk and opened a manilla folder, then wrote Jamie’s name on the tab with a black marker. “Jamie Decker,” she said as she wrote it. “Yes,” she said to him, shaking her head as though he’d been arguing with her. “Folders are old-fashioned, but they work for me. Don’t they, Leland?”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Leland. He’d taken off his hat and stood by the chair, watching Jamie fill out the paperwork. “That they do.”
Jamie finished the paperwork as fast as he could, populating little boxes with all the information about his previous employment that he could remember, and signing his name so many times his fingers began to ache. But he had a job, now, and his growling stomach, sensing that, sent up another rumble.
“I’ll take those,” said Maddy, reaching over the desk and taking the clipboard from Jamie with an efficient snap. “Bill says to take him to the store and get him boots and a hat, whatever he needs—and I’d say yes, within reason.”
“I-I can pay,” said Jamie, thinking of the thousand dollars in his pocket. He’d rather save it than spend it, but he also wanted cowboy gear like Leland had on. “But how much—?”
“Oh, no,” said Maddy, her mouth pursing as though he was demonstrating the worst manners she’d ever seen. “The first round’s on the company. That’s what Bill said. If you need anything after, we deduct it from your pay. So I really need that routing number; you didn’t fill it out.”
“Uh, I don’t have a bank account.” He looked up at Leland, anxiety tightening his shoulders because if Leland thought Jamie was too much trouble, he might just take back that job offer and send Jamie on his way. “I mean, I used to, but not anymore.” Not since he took all his money out so he could pay for a Greyhound bus ticket to Wyoming so he could take a chance on a wild dream.
“Leland, can you help him with that, too?” asked Maddy. “And I’ll need to add your name to the Friday announcements at dinner.” She scribbled in a small notebook, then looked up at him. “We usually have a sheet cake, and everyone comes up while we sing happy birthday to all the folks who had a birthday that week.”
“You don’t need to do that,” said Jamie, the words coming out a rush.
His face grew warm at the thought of someone going to so much trouble just for him. In fact, everything was overwhelming him with a small avalanche of kindness that threatened to undo him if it didn’t stop. Which it wasn’t because Maddy was still talking, mostly to Leland, about boots he needed, and what kind of hat. She was handing over a set of keys as she rattled on a set of instructions to Leland about which room Jamie was to have, and to make sure about those clean sheets.
The room seemed to spin a little and the sound of Maddy’s voice sank low until it was barely a buzz, and all Jamie could focus on was the shaft of sunlight streaming in through the panes of glass, where it settled on the corner of a display case beneath sepia-toned photographs arranged on the wall.
“Okay, Jamie?” asked Maddy.
She was standing up, so Jamie stood up, nodded at her, and then followed Leland out of the office. He thought they were going to get back on Gwen and ride to the barn or something, but Leland led him into the building next door, and together they clomped up the steps to go where Jamie hadn’t dared go before.
The store was a little different from he imagined it would be, a shiny, compact space that was longer than it was wide. It seemed to sell everything from chilled bottled water to beef jerky and other snacks, and included on its shelves boots and hats and touristy trinkets, as well as sweatshirts with the ranch logo on it, and snap-button cowboy-style shirts on hangers.
Every corner seemed packed with anything anybody visiting the ranch might need. Jamie watched as Leland picked out a pair of lace-up brown leather boots so new they almost squeaked when he put them on the glass-topped counter.
“Don’t worry,” said Leland, smiling at Jamie as he pulled two shirts from the rack. “We have cowboy boots in the barn that prior guests sometimes leave behind. Some are shiny enough for dancing, which is good because these days we need all hands on deck on dancing night. These boots are just for everyday.”
Overwhelmed again, Jamie couldn’t even find the voice to protest as the pile on the counter grew. It included new white t-shirts, a packet of underwear, a toothbrush, a thick dun-colored jacket. There was everything he might need and, in fact, did need, since his duffle bag, still hanging on Gwen’s saddle horn, only contained a single change of clothes.
Best of all, Leland asked the clerk to bring down several cowboy hats for Jamie to try on. Together they selected a crisp-edged straw hat with a narrow leather band and a twist of brass in the front that looked a little like a pine tree. Jamie felt a burst of excitement as the clerk put the hat back in its tidy box, and couldn’t wait to wear it.
“We better try those boots on, make sure they fit,” said Leland, then he turned to the young lady behind the counter. “Can I get some socks, too, please?”
When the young lady handed Leland a packet of socks, Leland handed the socks to Jamie, and grabbed the new lace-up boots.
“Over here,” he said, leading the way to a pair of chairs beside a rack of leather moccasins. He sat in one chair and patted the other one beside him. “We need to make sure they fit or else you’ll get blisters.”
