Chapter 52

We talked until a little after 11, and then I went to take a shower and get changed. I decided to surprise Becky and drove over to Sears. I walked into the electronics department at just before 11:30, and she was helping somebody look at TVs. I stood in the background, and after calling somebody over to go get a unit from the back she saw me. I saw her smile, and I made a motion like I was eating. She smiled and nodded, and held up both her hands. OK, 10 minutes. I pointed downstairs, and she nodded again.

And at just over ten minutes later I smiled as I saw her come out, and after a brief hug she took my arm and we headed over to the cafeteria. “I did not think you would be back this soon Pete.”

“Well, things got cut a little short. I had to be in Boise for a meeting on Tuesday, and I decided to just come home after that was done.”

“Meeting? What kind of meeting?”

I explained to her what had happened, and she laughed as I told her I had bought back my family ranch. “Oh Pete, that’s great! I can’t believe you got that much land for so little!”

“Well, that amazes me also. I had proposed $8,000 for five acres. Land there only goes for about $800 an acre, so that is double the market price. And some idiot manager turned it down without submitting the proposal to a review. Well, my lawyer up there got ahold of somebody he knew, that works for Mr. Simplot. He got me a meeting, and Mr. Simplot was so pissed, he sold it to me. All of it, all 25 acres for $8,000. Market price would actually have been around $20,000 for that much land. In fact, it would not surprise me if the guy who introduced us gets a fat promotion at the end of the week. He really was pissed, for many reasons. That nobody secured the property, made sure the house was not vandalized, and that the land was never used. Add in that somebody exceeded his authority and made the decision to refuse a reasonable request, and he was furious. So he sold me the entire plot, and I am sure come Monday a bunch of executives are going to be looking for new jobs.”

“Wow, so you own a ranch now, or is that again?”

“Well, it started with my great-great grandfather, then went down the line to my mom. But yes, it is back with the family. My godsister Kim and her husband will live in the house once it is fixed up, so it will not be vandalized again. With the agreement that two rooms are set aside just for me and my family. I do want to retire there, but until then it will be a good vacation home. Her dad will be using the back 20 acres for grazing, he has a herd of cattle that he used to graze there before we sold it. He is already making plans on moving them back.”

“Not bad, what all is there to do up there?”

I laughed. “Well, there is a lot of hunting and fishing. Camping, hiking, skiing in the winter, boating. Oh, and Yellowstone is only a few hours away. Not sure how much outdoors you are used to, but there is a lot. Oh, and if you like horses we have access to that also. Kim and her family are ranchers also, they raise cows and horses.”

“Actually, I love riding. That’s awesome, hard to believe you are what, 22? And own 25 acres of ranch land.”

“Well, it actually just worked out that way because Mr. Simplot was mad. I only wanted the five acres around the original homestead. And I would have been more than happy with just that, but this is so much better. I’m already planning on making up a trust with this in the future. To help ensure it never again leaves the family. There is me and any family I have, and also Georgie and his family in the future. No matter what, this should stay in the family forever. It destroyed my dad and I both to see what had happened to it.”

“Family is important. So what are you doing now?”

“Well, next Monday I plan on taking a trip to Yuma. Just a couple of days. Check out the area, try to find an RV park I can stay at. Then back here for about a week, leave the Monday after that. I check in on the first, and after that, I have no idea.”

“Well, don’t forget you have to meet Keith and his family. How about this? Give him a call tonight, maybe you can do that this week. I have Saturday off, we can go up to Valencia. I want you to meet my grandparents. In fact, you being a rancher should really impress him.”

I laughed. “Oh, I own a ranch, but am not really a rancher. Most I ever did was muck stalls, pitch hay, and did some other things like that. I don’t even like riding horses, truth be told. We generally rented out the back twenty acres, we lived in the front five.”

“That’s still impressive. Trust me, I told you my family is one of the old Ranchero holders at one time. If gramps was not made a silly offer he likely would still be getting up at 5 in the morning to milk the cows. In fact, I bet he would love to get up there just to check it out.”

“OK Becky, it’s a date. Saturday with your family, I have a bunch of photos and land surveys I can show him, that might impress him. Were your family really part of an old Rancho family?”

“Well, ask gramps about that. We are not the original Rancho family, but we bought it from them in the 1800’s. That much I know. Oh, and you are picking me up tonight, right?”

I looked at her a moment. “Oh, it’s Wednesday. Sorry, so much happened this last week I forgot what day it was. Sure, after 5?”

“You bet, looking forward to it. It’s actually a lot of fun. Walk me back to work?”

We left, and right before we turned the corner we shared a long kiss. “Hmm, I needed that,” she whispered, and I said I did also, and we shared a hug before I opened the door for her, and she went inside. I will not even deny I checked out her ass as she walked in. I went ahead and got home, and dad pulled me immediately into the office.

“OK, George already has the contract, JR moved fast. It should be finalized next week. Both he and my accountant agree a mortgage is the way to go. For tax purposes if nothing else. So we are going to be doing that on my GI bill, you and I can work this all out later. He suggested a trust arrangement, what do you think?”

“Dad, I was already thinking of that. Call it ‘Rancho Manana’, and all rights go to me, then George. The land is only to be passed along to family members, either descendants of me or George. To be held in a trust, if no surviving family ever exists it should be passed to the Littlebuck family. If both families die out, deed it to the Shoshone tribe.”

Dad laughed, and Dee gave me a hug. “Oh thank you Pete, but that is your family’s land, not my family’s. Just letting George use it is more than enough.”

“Dee, don’t you get it yet? You ARE my family. George is not related to my mom, but I’m sure if she was in front of me, she would slap me silly if I was to not include him. We got it back, and it is never leaving the family again if I can do anything to stop it.”

Dad nodded. “I made a mistake, but it was a needed one at the time. Living there was tearing me apart, and Pete also. We had to leave, but if I knew then what I know now, I would have kept the land. We did not need to sell it, but at the time I thought a clean break was for the best. Doing so broke my heart, but ultimately gave me you and George. And now we get a second chance. We will not screw it up again.”

“Oh, since you are going to be the point man for this I’m sure dad, make sure they put in a concrete pad and hookups for an RV. Heck, make it two RV’s. That way in case you guys get one there is room for both, or in case we have guests with one. Or heck, we could roll one out as a guest house. And throw a metal awning over it, will help protect it in winter, and cooler in the summer.”

He nodded. “Good thinking, Dee and I have actually been talking about getting one for ourselves. We can store it there most of the year, that gives us all of our driveway back again.”

Dad and I sat and went over the survey maps, and sketched out what should be done next. The big metal shed would make great storage, and could actually be used for any RV when it was not in use. As well as motorcycles, snowmobiles, a tractor, and anything else we might need. He also set aside $5,000, and called Dave and told him to by an appropriate tractor and other equipment, he would send him a check in the morning.

“There, he knows one he can get for less than that, and he will park it in the barn. He already has an old buddy of his parking his camper there, to chase away any who come snooping that do not belong. I am looking forward to seeing this when it’s done, Pete. And I got other plans, but that will have to wait until later.”

I nodded, and after giving them both and Georgie a hug I headed out to pick up Becky. We were the last to arrive this time, and everybody was surprised to see me. I told them the trip went fine, and I would let everybody know at the end of the game. This time the game was rough, Mike had us tangle with a green dragon, which had poison breath. And before it was taken down half of the party was dead, including my character and Becky’s.

Peggy went to get some pizza and beer as I sat with Mike and coached him a bit on how to run a boss battle. “Dude, a dragon is not bad, but better to make it a white or red dragon next time. Poison and acid are a bit much for this level, too much of a chance of just killing us. At least with fire or ice breath, we can fall back to hit points even if we fail a roll. With poison, fail the roll and you are just dead.”

“Yeah, I see that now. I guess I was not thinking when I did this.”

“Well, most of us have crap saving rolls still, so it was too rough for this level. That is why I avoid almost anything that does poison damage, it just kills the characters so fast. Make it a white dragon, and try it again from the start of that battle next week. You know more than once I did a reset of a final battle in the past.”

He nodded and smiled. “OK everybody, next Wednesday we start again at the start of the battle.” Mandy gave him a hug, as did Becky. She had gotten surprisingly attached to her elf thief already. When Peggy got back with the pizzas, I told everybody the news.

Mandy ran over and gave me a big hug. “Oh Pete, that’s wonderful! I know how crushed you were when you went there that time, and Dee told me your dad felt the same way. So when can we all go visit?”

I laughed and told them it will not be livable until next year. But if they made arrangements with me or my dad we could set something up. “Oh, and there will be two RV pads, so if you ever get one you could use those.”

“Dude, that’s wicked!” Keith said. “So you going back to being a cowboy again?”

“Naw, not for a long time. I have family friends that will be using it, but ultimately it will stay in the family. My kids, George and his kids, it’s ours forever now, and will be set in a trust like that. If for some reason neither of us has kids or at some time the line dies out, it will pass to Kim Littlebuck and her family. If all die out, it will go to the local Indian tribe. Never again is it just going to be sold like that. And even when deeded to the tribe, they can’t sell it. Leases of no more than 25 years, only to a member of the tribe. My lawyer is working out the wording now, but forever more this will be a family ranch for families. Not a commodity to be used and traded. The final provision I am having them place is that if the tribe no longer wants it, it will be donated to the state as a park.”

After talking a bit more, Keith invited Becky and I to dinner that Friday. Thankfully we had already discussed that, and I said I could make it but she could not. Becky thought we should have some time just for his family and I, without her being there also.

I spent the night with Becky again, and like all the other times we made out for about an hour, then cuddled up to sleep. I left as she did the next morning, and got home and after finishing the article I had been working on started a rough draft on a new adventure.

This time it was an idea that Pastor Frank had given me, as well as the game I had seen in the convention. A Paladin of Heimdall who had shamed himself in battle, and was seeking to regain the favor of his deity. He had been given a quest by the Knight Commander of his order to sit at a crossroads and ask the first group of certain number of people to join him. The number would always match the number of people in the party. They only that they were told in a dream to go into the mountains, and also ask the third person they overtook to join them on the quest.

The third person they overtook would be Kaos.

And after wandering into the mountains for three days, they would start to run into undead. Zombies at first, then ghouls. Every few miles they would run into different bands of undead, but if they ever bothered to pause they would discover that these creatures will not attack them. But there would be no penalty if they do attack, the monsters then would react as any other creature. All of the creatures were of low intelligence, and only instructed to allow people to pass if it was of the right number of people, once again always the size of the party. In other words to allow the players to pass unharmed, but they could defend themselves if attacked.

Finally, they will come to a large stone temple, that lies in ruins. In front of it is a large burning cauldron, and surrounding it are ten vampire lords. The party will be given away by a ghost that appears, whispering “Put up thy swords and come in peace”. And the ghost would then flee and alert the vampires. The leader is a beautiful female, and say that they had been expected, and are begged to enter in peace. The leader will even go as far as pulling a vorpal blade and laying it on the ground in front of herself, and kneeling with her back to the party and inviting them to kill her if she speaks falsely.

And any spells used will show the vampire is Lawful Evil, and speaks the truth. Eventually, they will be taken to Arne the Wise, who is a high-level Lich. Also Lawful Evil, he will explain that he is the last cleric of Surtur on Mannheim (Earth), and he and his followers are in peril and are to be escorted to a new temple 60 miles north, deeper into the mountains.

He will state that his Deity had made an accommodation with Heimdall through Thor, as without Surtur there can be no Ragnarok. And while none of the deities want such to happen, they also recognize that it can not be avoided when it is due. And to allow the last cult of Surtur to die could bring about an even worse disaster.