Dark Night
In her room, Maria turned on her computer. It was too late at night to call Dad, but she texted him: “Dad, please say prayers for a bunch of ranch problems. Tim got hurt, and Grandma Austin and I had a bad disagreement. I’ll tell you about it in the morning. I’m coming home soon.”
There, that was that. Now she’d better get some sleep. In the morning, she would have to figure things out.
Of course, sleep wouldn’t come. Maria lay in bed, mulling over everything that had happened.
It could hardly have been more awful. Tim was hurt—they hadn’t even heard if he was going to be okay, although the paramedics had seemed confident—and Maria now had a clear picture of Grandma Austin’s real personality.
How could somebody be so uncaring about her own grandchildren?
How could she be so insulting and angry?
It wasn’t as though Maria was doing anything bad.
It was reasonable to want to live in the place she had grown up.
Wasn’t that the very reason Grandma Austin was upset at the rest of the family, that they wanted to sell their childhood home?
She had come out here hoping to get to know her mom’s family heritage, and she had found selfishness and fighting and stuck-up behavior instead.
Everything was about the ranch and the importance of the family name to Grandma Austin.
But the rest of her adult family members were absorbed with their own interests, too.
Didn’t the Austins realize that there were other people in the world besides themselves?
At least Uncle Russell had tried to speak up for Maria.
But he was ruled by his mother. The family was used to bowing to her every whim.
There was no getting along with her. How did Maria’s mom—who, by all accounts, was sweet and gentle—grow up with Grandma Austin as her mother and never inherit those tendencies?
Maybe she took after Grandpa Austin, whom Maria had never met.
In his pictures he looked stern. Maria missed her sweet, friendly grandma back home.
At least she’d be back with Dad and Grandma soon, and she wouldn’t wonder what Montana was like.
But now, instead of a blank space where that half of Maria’s life should be, it felt like a gaping hole.
The two halves would never fit together.
There was no mending it. Her family’s finances would be as bad as ever.
She’d completely failed in her reason for coming out here.
Maria groaned and rolled over, trying to quiet the tumult in her mind.
She closed her eyes. In her imagination, curls of smoke rose above that burning shed while the Montana Rider, Tim without his mask, rode after the outlaws.
Neil argued with Annabelle. Savannah complained that nobody hung out with her.
Uncle Russell and Aunt Steph dreamed about money. Annabelle and Elijah egged them on.
This paradise was nothing short of a nightmare, and Maria had to get out of it. Maybe she could get a plane ticket on short notice. Maybe Jessie and Rob could manage by themselves for a few days.
In any case, she had to leave. She would pray for the Austin family—she would hope they repented of their selfish ways and grew to love each other and the people around them—but she didn’t have to stay with them.
§
The next morning, having managed to get out of the house without running into any Austin relatives, Maria found Jessie in the kitchen and pulled her aside.
“Can I ask you a question?” she said.
“Anything,” Jessie said. “What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Is it Tim? Have you heard how he’s doing?”
Clearly the ranch hands had filled Jessie and Rob in. How much they knew, Maria didn’t know.
“I haven’t heard anything about Tim,” Maria said.
“I hope he’s okay.” This wasn’t the time to spill the beans about the Montana Rider.
“Jessie, I’ve got a huge favor to ask, and I don’t know how you’ll feel about it.
I can’t stay here anymore. Grandma Austin and I had a big disagreement, and I don’t want to stay under her roof.
I’m going to go back to Michigan sooner than I thought.
But I don’t want to leave you in the lurch.
Is there any way—could I stay at your house, at least for a few days, while I figure things out? ”
“Yes, you can stay in our upstairs guest room,” Jessie said. “I was afraid you and Pat might not see eye to eye. Especially when it’s been so stressful around here lately.”
“Thank you. I can pay for my board,” Maria said. “I just need to get away. Unless Grandma Austin decides to fire me and send me packing, I can work here a few more days.”
“I don’t think she would do something so drastic,” Jessie said. “She’s proud, but she’s not a monster.”
Wasn’t she, though? People’s actions showed who they were, and Patricia’s actions toward Maria and her family had been pretty monstrous.
“And you don’t need to pay us,” Jessie said. “We’ll be happy to have you. It’ll be nice to have a young person in the house again. I miss having my kids home.”
Maria hugged her. “Thank you. You’re the best. I’m going to miss you when I go back to Michigan.”
“I’ll miss you too, honey,” Jessie said. “Now let’s get some breakfast going. These cowboys are gonna be here any minute, and we don’t even have any pancakes made.”
§
After work—and while talking on the phone with Dad and Grandma, filling them in on her woes—Maria packed her things and managed to evade everyone else as she left the big house.
Rob and Jessie’s house was small but comfortable. It was a log house with two bedrooms on the first floor and one bedroom upstairs. Maria followed Jessie, lugging her suitcase, up the stairs and into a sunny bedroom with a sloped roof and a big window.
“Oh, this is so pretty!” Maria exclaimed.
A cheery yellow quilt covered a twin bed near the window. A dresser was set up as a little shrine with a crucifix and a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The closet was full of clothes—winter clothes, by the looks of them. A rag rug covered part of the wood floor.
Jessie smiled. “It was our girls’ room,” she said. “Sorry the dresser and closet are full. I keep telling them to go through their old things, but they never do.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Maria assured her. “I’ll be just fine. I’ll leave my clothes in the suitcase. It’s not like I’ll have occasion to wear ballgowns or anything that would get too wrinkled.”
Jessie laughed. “I’m just glad you’re staying with us,” she said. “We’re pretty quiet, but the cowboys drop in to say hi. Rob plays his banjo now and again. And I can take you to the church ladies’ meeting on Monday nights, if you want.”
Jessie and Rob’s house felt like a refuge, a friendly haven from an uncomfortable world.
As far as Maria had seen, Patricia never bothered to come down to the ranch kitchen.
Maria could avoid her, staying here and figuring out what to do next when she got home.
She ought to get a job lined up. She had a little money saved from her time here—she certainly hadn’t been running around spending it—but she did want to have something ready to go when she got back.
§
Over the next few days, Maria bought a plane ticket for the following week, worked hard, and spent time with Jessie and Rob. They were a lot of fun. She wished she’d hung out with them more from the beginning instead of spending so much time bored with the Austins.
Grandma Austin must have heard where Maria was, but surprisingly, nobody from the family approached Maria. Maybe Grandma Austin was still mad. Had she told the others not to talk to her? Maria didn’t know.
According to Jessie, Tim was doing all right. They had gotten the bullet out and set the arm. He’d be home soon.
Maria was glad he wasn’t going to be permanently injured, but she was still mad.
Why on earth hadn’t he seen fit to confide in her about the Montana Rider business?
Why had he tricked her on so many occasions?
Why did he talk about trust when he was, in his own way, as untrustworthy as Seth?
It made Maria angry. Men! Even when they seemed like romantic book heroes, they would still disappoint you.
Maria was doing dishes in the afternoon, the day before she was flying back to Michigan, when Savannah appeared in the kitchen.
“Hi,” she said. “Are you mad at me?”
Savannah always came right to the point. Poor girl—Maria hadn’t considered that Savannah might take her disappearance personally.
“Of course not.” Maria put down the pot she was scrubbing. “Grandma Austin and I had a big disagreement. I thought maybe none of the family were supposed to talk to me, because I haven’t heard from any of them since.”
Savannah shook her head. “I don’t think so,” she said. “Where have you been staying? At Jessie and Rob’s?”
Maria noticed her eyes were red. Poor Savannah, she was probably even more at loose ends than usual with her family in uproar and Tim laid up.
“Yes. They’re really nice. You could come and hang out with us tonight. Rob’s going to play his guitar.”
“Thanks. I might,” Savannah said. “Did you hear about the ranch?”
“What about it?”
“Did you hear Grandma agreed to sell it?”
Maria put her head on one side. “You mean because the others made her sell it?”
“No,” Savannah said. “Grandma decided to sell it herself. She doesn’t want the ranch to be the thing that got somebody else hurt or tore the family apart.”
“Wow.” Maria looked around for a place to sit down. This wasn’t the kind of news to take standing. She dropped onto a kitchen stool. “So what’s happening now?”
“She hasn’t told Tim yet,” Savannah said. “She made us promise not to tell him until he was home, because it’s gonna stress him. She’s going to tell him herself. Tim’s gonna hate it.”