That meant he needed to climb three flights of stairs, but he didn’t let that bother him, and sprinted up as fast as he could. By the time he reached the third floor landing, his thighs were aching, and his throat was dry as paper. Quickly he searched for the room with the same number as the key.
The building was simple, built of wood, but everything was sturdy and clean and he found the room at the very end of a long, narrow hallway. He dumped the plastic bag and the duffle bag on the floor and hurried to unlock the door to his new room, his new life, and, with a sigh, stepped inside.
The room was small with bare white walls and a plain wooden floor. It was a corner room with a window on each wall, each with a thin cotton curtain. A door led off to a little bathroom.
On the bed were clean sheets, with one corner of the bedclothes turned down as though inviting him to slide in and have a nap. His rented room back in Greeley hadn’t been as nice as this, nor as clean, or as quiet. The last time he’d slept in a place this nice was when he’d been living with his dad, and even then it’d not been as homey or as welcoming.
He went over to the window to peer out. His room occupied the corner of the building, overlooking a low hillside of trees and wild green grasses and a short row of small wooden cabins, each with a front porch. It was the best view he’d ever had access to in his entire life.
Sliding open the window, he could hear birds and see the breeze stir through the trees, and wanted to cry with happiness. He’d landed in a blissful bounty of wonderfulness, that was for certain. All he had to do was work his ass off so he could keep it.
He grabbed his things from the hallway and shut the door behind him, reveling in the quiet, simple space that was all his own. He put his straw hat on the bed, and stored everything away in the dresser and the narrow closet, and arranged his new toothbrush and toothpaste and other items in the small mirrored cupboard above the sink. Then he took a fast hot shower, and buffed himself off and dried his hair on a pair of fluffy, white towels.
He put on one of the new pairs of blue jeans, one of the new t-shirts from the packet, and then his new socks and boots, and a long-sleeved shirt, as Leland had instructed. Then he pulled out the wad of cash from the blue jeans he’d flung across the bed and looked at the bills as they unfolded in his hand. He stored the money in the top drawer of the dresser. He had a key to the room, and so the money would be safe until Leland helped him set up that bank account.
Satisfied with that decision, he put his straw hat back on, and went out, locking the door behind him. And then clomped down the stairs with his stomach growling in anticipation of the fine meal it would soon have. His life was turning out much better than he ever thought possible, and silently he thanked that un-named rancher who’d come to the meat packing plant, wanting special treatment for his grass-fed herd of cattle.
8
Leland
When Leland met Jamie at the bottom of the steps of the dining hall, he was struck by how well the young man cleaned up. He’d washed all the road dust off him, and was wearing a new white t-shirt and a pair of new, dark blue jeans. His dark hair curled around his forehead in a sweet way, glinting with bronze at the edges. He had his hands in his back pockets as he bounced on his toes and was very easy to look at.
“That room is great,” Jamie said with a shy smile, his green eyes sparkling from beneath the brim of his new straw cowboy hat. “So clean and nice. All my stuff fit in the two top drawers.”
Leland had to pause. The rooms were quite spartan and plain, but Jamie was talking about his room as though he’d moved into a palace all his own.
Maybe to a drifter like him it was a palace, but unlike any other drifter Leland’d chanced to meet, Jamie seemed to appreciate it. Maybe the ranch would be a new start for him and, if so, it was Leland’s job to help him make the most of it. And to make good Bill’s suggestion at repaying Jamie the favor he’d done them.
Jamie was quiet as he followed Leland into the dining hall, shadowing his movements as they hung up their hats on handy wooden pegs on the wall, and stood behind him in the buffet line. Usually, the ranch provided different ways of feeding guests, but since last season, they’d had to economize by having all buffet meals. At least, thanks to Maddy, it was all good, fresh food.
Leland took a plate, some cutlery, a cloth napkin, and nodded at Jamie that he should do the same. Together they went through the buffet line.
Jamie took a mound of everything, and then served himself another large spoonful of fried mashed potatoes, enough so that the food spilled from the plate and onto his tray. Where had the young man come from, what had he experienced, that he felt the need to take more than a man could actually eat?
“You can sit with me, if you like,” said Leland, gesturing with his tray.
His single thought was to save a newcomer from sitting by himself so he wouldn’t feel like a stranger in a new place. Jamie had a slight look of panic on his face, which he quickly covered up by looking away from Leland and at the dining hall, as though he was searching for somebody he knew so he could sit with them. But there was nobody he actually knew, so when his attention turned to Leland again, he looked flushed.
“Okay,” said Jamie. Then, “I’m sorry, I’m just overwhelmed.”
“Not a problem, Jamie.” It was obvious that Jamie’d been on his own for a while.
Leland led the way to one of the tables along the bank of windows, where he liked to sit for pretty much any meal, when he wasn’t sitting with guests or his staff. The view was of a lush green hillside. Along the other side of the dining hall, the long side, the spaces between the pine trees provided glimpses of other buildings, but mostly the view was of the rolling hills and a whole lot of sky.
“How about here?” Leland asked as he set his tray on the table. Jamie seemed to be hesitating, so Leland sat down and unfurled his napkin to show how it was done.
“This is nice,” Jamie said, as though he’d been provided with the best seat in the house. Then he sat down as well.
Jamie was focused on his food, so as they ate together there wasn’t much conversation. Leland had questions in his mind about why the young man had come all this way looking for a job, an uncertain prospect at best. But he seemed willing at the same time to learn something unfamiliar and new. Grit and determination had taken him this far, qualities Leland had always admired.
“We’ll give you an orientation this afternoon,” said Leland into the small silence, which seemed to have created a bubble around them amidst the general chatter and low sounds of the high-ceilinged dining hall. “Take you around, show you the layout of the place, spell out some ground rules. Then in the morning, after the general meeting outside the barn, we’ll put you to work.”
“Okay,” said Jamie between quick bites, finishing the last of what was on his plate in a hurry, as though he feared he’d never get another hot meal as long as he lived.
While Leland finished a slice of strawberry-rhubarb pie, homemade and locally grown, Jamie went and got another helping of the meatloaf and mashed potatoes, as if he’d not just had a huge serving. As he came back and put his tray down, his face turned pale, a sheen of sweat on his forehead.
“Are you all right?” Leland asked, unsure, in that moment, what was going on.
