New Beginnings...Back to
the Ranch
Copyright © 1999 by SamPast
and Huggedlots
----------------- Chapter 1
---------------
Back to the Ranch...Where
it all began
Charlie looked at the pile of
luggage sitting at the door waiting to be brought to the car. He shook his head
and thought to himself, "Didn't we just do this?"
But it had been about a
year ago, that the family had first set out to the dude ranch. Wow! A year
since they had first met Heather and Maggie. It's amazing how things can change
so much in one year.
Charlie thought to himself,
"If you had told me a year ago that, that brat, Heather, would become my
sister-in-law, I never would have believed it." Imagine, that little girl who
had run away from him to the stables, was now his niece. Life sure was funny
sometimes!
The twins were excited to
be going back to the dude ranch. Aside from getting lost in the woods, and
Maggie almost falling into the waterfall, all they remembered were the fun
times. Oh sure, they had gotten into heaps of trouble at times, but they did at
home, too.
And now they were a year
older. Only a month before, the twins had turned nine. Now they were the age
Maggie was when they had first met her. And, oh, she had been so cool! Now,
Maggie was their cousin, and even older. Maggie was ten. Robin and Jennifer
couldn't wait until they were ten.
"Girls!" Charlie
shouted. "Are you ready?" "Yes, Daddy," Robin said,
appearing next to him.
"Ready, Daddy,"
Jenn said, as well.
Lisa came over, putting
down a last minute bag. She looked at Charlie, who said, "Another one? We
might not be able to fit the girls in the car! They'll have to sit on the roof.
Or in the trunk. Hey, that's not a bad idea. At least it would be quiet."
Both Charlie and Lisa laughed.
"Daddy!" Robin
exclaimed.
Charlie hugged her.
"I'm just kidding, honey. Are we all ready to go?" Both girls nodded.
They had been up since five, bouncing around. "Girls, I want both of you
to go use the bathroom," Lisa announced. "Don't haveta," Robin
said.
Lisa frowned. "Try.
Especially you, Jenn."
"Awwww, Mommy!"
Jenn whined.
Charlie frowned at her.
"Jennifer!" he warned. "Go use the bathroom right now."
"O-kaaaay!" Jenn
cried. She walked away.
Finally, ten minutes later,
they were all set to go. They were going to be meeting Heather, Bob, and Maggie
up at the ranch. With all their stuff, they never would have fit into just one
car.
The ride up there seemed
longer than last time. The girls brought lots of activities to keep them busy
in the car. But after awhile, everything bored them.
"Are we there yet,
Daddy?" Robin asked.
"Not far now,"
came the answer. Robin giggled. This was an old joke. A minute later, she
asked, "Are we there yet?"
"Not far now,"
Charlie sang. Both girls giggled.
"Are we there
yet?"
"Not far now!"
Neither girl could wait an entire minute to say it again. The suspense was too
great.
They both said, "Are
we there yet?'
Charlie boomed, "No,
we're not! So quit asking!"
Soon the whole car was
filled with family laughter. Charlie thought, "Maybe this year we'll have
more fun, and less trouble." Yeah, right! Another half hour went by, and
they were not even close to being there yet. "Daddy, I'm bored!"
Robin complained.
"Me, too," added
Jenn.
"Girls, we have awhile
yet. Read your books!" Charlie suggested. "I can't. It's giving me a
headache," Robin whined.
Charlie decided to overlook
the whining for the time being. He knew the girls would be cranky when he heard
them up at five a.m.
"Why don't you two
play a game?" Lisa asked.
"There's nothing to
play," Jenn said.
"How 'bout the
alphabet game?" Charlie queried.
"Okay, I'll play. You
wanna, Jenn?" Robin asked her sister. "Okay, but no cheating!"
she warned.
Robin looked at Jenn.
"I never cheat!" she said. "You do." "I do not!"
whined Jenn.
"Girls, are you going
to play or argue?" Charlie asked. "Play. Okay, let's go over the
rules just in case. You have to look for the letters of the alphabet in order.
No skipping. And you have to be honest," Robin added.
"And you can't use
license plate letters," Jenn called. "Well, except for the words New
York, or something, okay?" "Okay," Jenn said.
So, they played for awhile.
Robin won the first round. Then they played again, doing the letters in
reverse. Robin won again. She always won spelling games.
"Let's play once
more," Robin said.
"Why? So you can beat
me again?" Jenn cried.
"Honey, don't be a
sore loser. It's only a game," Charlie commented. "But Daddy, she
always wins!" Jenn sobbed. She was starting to cry for real. Robin didn't
want to start a fight, so she said, "I don't always win. Come on, Jenn.
One more game!"
"NO!" Jenn spit
out. She folded her arms across her chest and pouted. "Fine! Be that
way!" Robin spit back.
Charlie and Lisa didn't
know whether to intervene or not. In a way, at least if they weren't speaking
to each other, the ride would be quiet for a little while.
"Girls, why don't you
close your eyes and try to sleep for a while? You were up awfully early this
morning," Lisa suggested.
"Don't wanna
sleep!" Jenn spat out.
"Jennifer!"
Charlie warned. "Don't speak to your mother in that tone!" Charlie
looked in the mirror and stared at Jennifer. He waited. "Jennifer!"
"I'm sorry, Mommmmmy!" she whined.
Charlie sighed.
"Jennifer, if I have to stop this car, to teach you a lesson, you are
going to be one very sorry little girl. Do I make myself clear, young
lady?"
Jennifer started to cry.
"Yes, Daddy. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Mommy." "It's okay, baby.
Come on now, why don't you take a nap?" Lisa asked. "Okay," Jenn
agreed. She leaned down and closed her eyes. Robin had already fallen asleep.
Jennifer opened her eyes
for a second. "Daddy?"
"Yes, honey?"
"If I fall asleep,
when I wake up, will we be there?" she asked in a quiet voice.
"Yes, sweetie, I think
so. If you take a nice long nap, we'll be there when you wake up. Okay?"
"Okay, Daddy. Nite,
Mommy!"
"G'nite,
sweetheart," Lisa said.
Within minutes, Jennifer
was asleep, too.
And true to his word, when
Jennifer opened her eyes, they were pulling up in front of the main building,
where it said in big letters, "Registration." "We're here, we're
here!" Jenn shouted.
This woke Robin. She opened
her eyes and realized they were there. "Yay!" she said, sleepily.
Charlie went in to register
the family. Lisa and the girls got out of the car to stretch their legs.
Jennifer was wet and needed to be changed, so Lisa did that before Charlie came
back with their keys.
"Guess what!" he
said.
"What?"
"What, Daddy?"
Robin asked.
Charlie was beaming.
"I got us the same cabin we had last year. And Uncle Bob will have the one
right next door!"
"YAY!" the girls
cheered.
Lisa said, "Isn't the
one Heather and Maggie stayed in last year going to be too small for the three
of them, hon?"
"Yes, that's why they
got the one on the other side of us. The one that's the same size as
ours!"
"Oh," was all
Lisa could say.
By the time the family had
finished unpacking their stuff, they heard a car crunch outside on the gravel.
Jennifer went to look out the window. "It's them, they're here!" she
shouted.
Both girls began to run
outside, but Charlie caught them. "Hold on!" "What?"
"What's the matter,
Daddy?"
"Do we ever just run
outside without permission? Girls?" Robin looked at the floor and said,
"No, Daddy."
Hanging her head, Jenn
said, "No, sir."
"Okay, then. Maybe we
should go over the rules one more time," he suggested. "No, really,
that's okay."
"We'll remember,
Daddy," Robin said.
"Can we go out now,
Daddy?" Jennifer asked carefully. Charlie smiled. "Yes, go
ahead!"
Having permission, the
girls ran out to greet Maggie, Heather, and Bob. When they saw Maggie, the
girls held hands and jumped up and down and all around in a circle, like they
always did. It didn't matter if they had just seen each other the day before,
or a week before.
All the adults laughed.
Heather commented, "Do you think they'll ever get tired of doing that?"
"No," Charlie
said, laughing. "And they just saw each other the other night."
Charlie helped his brother, Bob, carry all their bags into the cabin next door.
"Wow, and I thought we had lots of stuff!" Charlie commented. "Please,
don't go there!" Bob said, feigning annoyance. Charlie just laughed. When
everyone was settled and unpacked, the girls said, "Can we take a walk?
Can we go to the stables? I'm bored."
Bob said, "Girls! We
just got here. Don't you want to just sit back and unwind?"
All three girls looked at
each other. "NO!" they all shouted. "Come on, I'll take you down
to the stables," Charlie supplied. "Let's go!" "Bye!"
Lisa, Heather, and Bob said, waving. The three of them sat on lounge chairs outside
of the cabin, watching Charlie walk off with the three girls. Bob turned to
Lisa and said, "Think he'll be all right?" "Yea, he's a big boy.
He can handle it," she laughed. "Yeah, besides, how much trouble can
they possibly be?" Bob asked. Heather and Lisa just stared at him.
"You wouldn't believe how much!" they said. Everyone laughed. It was
going to be a fun trip.
to be continued...