I mouth the word and try to figure it out.
“It’s for making bulls into steers, Sarah.”
My eyes go round. “Oh!”
“But even with all the threats and yelling…you couldn’t keep us away after that, and ultimately my dad was never going to keep me from something I wanted to learn. I think he was just glad I was outside touching grass instead of being on the Xbox all the time.” He smiles. “Plus, it gave me something in common with my extended family.”
“Are you guys close?”
“Yeah. Really close. My grandpa doesn’t live in the state anymore, but he and his wife come and visit a lot too.”
“You have such a big family.”
“I know. It’s still kind of strange, if I’m honest. It’s almost like two different people have lived my life. It’s hard for me to really remember what it was like to be that kid.”
“I guess having me around is kind of a strange reminder.”
“It’s not bad,” he says. He stops walking and turns to me. “I hope you know how serious I am when I say I never forgot about you. My life is great, that’s true. But it’s felt incomplete without you in it. I mean it.”
He turns away from me and starts to walk ahead, and I’m winded by what he’s just said.
I don’t fully know how to process it.
“Let’s get in the truck and go to town,” he says.
He’s eager to get past the sincere moment, as am I.
I get into the passenger side of the truck, while he gets in the driver’s seat, turns the engine on.
“This is a really great truck,” I comment as he pulls out of the driveway.
“Yeah. You’ll notice I don’t really feel compelled to spend a lot of money on motel rooms when I travel. But I want to drive in comfort.”
“I can confirm that it’s a pretty great place to sleep,” I say.
“Good to know, honestly. Maybe I can save my money and just sleep in the truck next time.”
I rest my elbow on the ledge of the window and look out at the passing scenery. I’ve never been here, and in fact, I can’t say that I’ve ever been very conscious of Gold Valley as a place.
But it suddenly feels like home to me.
I don’t know if it’s because of the man sitting beside me or his family… I don’t know. But I’m going to go ahead and let myself just be happy for a minute. Because when was the last time I let myself have that? I catch a sharp breath as soon as we drive into town, the red brick buildings are so quaint and lovely.
He’s right, it’s not entirely unlike Sisters, which is another old west town with roots in Gold Rush history, but where Sisters has wooden buildings, Gold Valley is brick. There are old ads painted on those walls, for blue jeans and coffee beans, and bronze statues of the horse, a cowboy, and a bull bucking just like in the rodeo.
“Welcome to my home,” he says, looking around as we drive slowly down the streets.
“God.” I laugh. “I’m so fucking jealous of you.”
He looks at me, a rueful smile on his face. “I don’t know what I did to deserve it,” he says. “Getting this, I mean. It doesn’t seem fair. Honestly. I’m no better than any of those other kids in care. I just happened to have a dad out there who wasn’t total trash, and…”
“No,” I say. “I don’t want you to feel bad about it. I’m glad that you have it. But I just…” I can imagine living here. I can imagine the idyllic teenage experience it must be.” There’s a lull in the conversation, until I speak again. “Tell me. Tell me about being in high school here.”
He laughs. “I played football. We used to go to Mustard Seed Diner, and Gloria made the best milkshakes. Well, shestilldoes. It’s my favorite.”
“I want to go there.”
“I think that can be arranged.” He gestures to the left. “There’s a park up there called Doc Griffin. Back in the day, we’d get milkshakes from Mustard Seed, shut it down, then gohang out at the park. Just a group of rowdy kids, causing not all that much trouble, because there’s not much trouble to get into here.” He grimaces. “I mean, there was the time we built a still up in the woods behind my dad’s house.”
