16. Jesse
JESSE
And when I graduated third in my class, Dad’s praise once more over it along with his invitation to come home and work right under the ranch foreman so I could get a feel for where we were at and get the other hands used to taking orders from me, well, that led me right into the trap that had been set by she whose name I will no longer speak and her snake in the grass husband, Ted.
My solution to that had seemed simple too - with the job offers I’d had straight after college, I’d thought finding a job in an office would be a breeze.
Turns out, not so much. The three years between meant three more years of new graduates, all with job offers for what I was looking for.
I really began to feel like a pariah when I didn’t get so much as a call back for an interview from fast food and retail places either.
I probably could have applied as a hand elsewhere in the state, but those fellas all knew Dad one way or another, and it felt like I’d seem as if I was merely being a pouty brat by taking a regular ranch hand job when I could have stayed on and been assistant to the foreman before moving up to take his place when he retired.
I’d ended up working for a temp agency, cleaning offices with no guarantee that the next temp job they had would pay well or if they’d even have something I could do.
So, I’d decided there was another way to earn the money to get my horses - I’d start my own damned ranch by signing up to be a colonist.
Simple, right? Sign up, get tested, don’t get matched as the odds were greatly against it, use the stipend to import my sweethearts and build them a stable, me a house, and get some cattle.
Only my luck struck again, and I did get matched, and not to someone else in agriculture, but a prince.
Who seems like a wonderful guy and all. He’s certainly been willing to help me get my horses and all that, but the whole royal thing, ugh.
A light tap on my door had my head swiveling to look at it while Buster raised his head.
“Coramelis, there is food.”
I started to tell him to go away and I’d eat later, but my stomach let out a growl loud enough that Buster looked at me in offense.
He looked so disgruntled, I couldn’t hold back a laugh.
“Yeah, okay,” I told him, getting up to open the door.
Johree stood there, concern written all over his gorgeous face.
“The call has ended, and I thought perhaps some food would be good,” he said, his tone cautious as if I were a skittish colt.
I felt myself blush a little at that.
I certainly bolted like one instead of stayin’ to finish tackling things head on like a rational adult.
I summoned a small smile for him. “Food would be great.”
My stomach let out another loud complaint, and Johree’s lips twitched as he lifted an eyebrow.
“It does sound as if you need to feed the beast within you that lets out such fearsome growls,” he agreed, and I chuckled even as my face and neck got hotter.
“Yeah, well, it has been a long time since breakfast.”
“Perhaps if you’d had more than coffee, it would have sustained you better,” he chided gently.
“Mmm. Maybe if we’d had some danishes.”
“Bob can have the replicator make you these danishes.” He turned to go back to the main living area, and I fell into step beside him. “You merely have to ask for the meal you desire, and if it is not in the pattern buffer, it shall be obtained for the next time.”
I had been shown how to use the replicator, but I hadn’t yet tried it, certain that because it was me, something weird would happen.
Like I’d ask for spaghetti with meatballs, and it would start firing them out at me like one of those ball launcher things.
I knew it was silly to be afraid of it, but I couldn’t help myself.
We reached the table, and I looked down. Two bowls of some kind of stew with two small plates of bread that held a faint blue tinge sitting next to them, awaited us.
Johree gestured towards the replicator. “I have chosen Kilt-ha stew and bread made from local grain, so you should choose our beverage. I will try what you wish to have.”
I swallowed, not feeling as if I could refuse his simple request.
Okay, time to cowboy up.
I straightened my back and set my shoulders, striding over to the innocuous looking little food dispenser in the wall. I rolled my neck while pretending to think as I stared at it, daring it to squirt me like it was some kind of weird water gun.
“Two glasses of sweet tea, cold, with ice, please.”
“North America’s standard orange pekoe or would you prefer black or green tea?” Bob asked.
“Just regular old Southern sweet tea.”
Two mason jar styled glasses with handles appeared. I took one, sipping cautiously and nodded. Everything was as it should be, and it was neither too sweet nor too bitter.
“Thanks, Bob,” I said, taking the other one. “This is just right.”
“Sure thing, Jesse! Hey, what’s black and white and read all over?”
I paused mid turnaround and blinked. “A newspaper?”
“Aww, you knew that one. I’ll have to try harder.”
I looked wide-eyed at Johree.
“What just happened?”
He shrugged. “It appears he has discovered humor and developed a taste for bad jokes. It is a harmless pastime.”
I nodded, handing him his tea before placing my own on the table and pulling out my chair to sit down. “Hopefully, he learns some better jokes.”
The two guards nodded in agreement along with Johree as I dug into my stew by dipping the bread in it, using it to scoop some of it out.
“Oh! This is good.”
“Kilt-ha are raised here for their meat,” Johree informed me.
“Are they easy to raise?” I asked, interested.
He launched into an explanation which I listened to as we ate.
It reminded me of dinners at home, from before it all went wrong, listening to Grandpa and Dad talk about a new breed of cattle they wanted to buy.
It was both familiar and alien, but as we spoke, I realized something.
I can do this. So I have a few fancy pants events to deal with every now and then.
And I’ll get asked to help Johree with community planning stuff - that’s not much different than when we had to vote on some things back home, to change zoning or whatever.
This right here, though, is in my blood.
The animals might be different species, but then, horses and cows aren’t the same either.
And he’s promised to stay by my side to help me along.
A warm feeling of contentment filled me unexpectedly at the thought. I wasn’t alone nor friendless anymore.