Page 5 of Tommy

“I’m so unprepared,” he said, glancing from me to June. “I should’ve had boots and a coat. I have a scarf and hat, but they’re in my suitcase. Which—” he huffed again. “I should’ve taken from the car.”

I reiterated to him that it was fine, and while it wasn’t actually fine, I was in the business trying to keep the status quo where possible. “Might as well take you on a tour of the ranch while we’re at it as well.”

“Wonderful idea,” June said. “I’ll pop your tea bags inside first.” She walked passed the kid into the cabin as he was busy trying to tie the boots up.

I watched for a moment, unable to not do anything. “Let me do it,” I grumbled. I got him to sit on the chair as I dipped to a knee and helped him into the boots, tying them tight.

“This was all last minutes,” he said. “But I won’t be much of a burden.”

“I’m just paying back a favor,” I told him.

“Thank you. I’m Tommy, not sure if he told you that.”

“Yeah,” I said, nodding at him. “I know. I’m Hardin. And it’s not difficult to see you’re not equipped for this place in winter. If you have any questions, this is where I reside, but don’t bother me after six in the evening.” It was a bit of an arbitrary figure, but I wanted to set a boundary, and show that I could.

“Understood.”

June came out on cue. “It smells amazing in there,” she said. “What did you have for lunch?”

“Soup,” I said, plainly. “Let’s go.”

3. TOMMY

When Hardin spoke, I needed everything else to go silent just to hear him. He was quiet, almost like he was keeping his mouth closed as much as possible. June didn’t seem to have any problem hearing what he said, and from her reactions, most of what he said was funny as she would burst into short laughs.

Before coming to the ranch, I had looked it up online. I’d have been crazy not to, not more crazy than turning up to the ranch without proper shoes or even a coat, but those were major oversights I was never going to live down in either June or Hardin’s eyes.

Hardin lived at the main house which was close to the gated entry road. From there, there were branching paths in different directions and not a single signpost in sight. Hardin first showed me to the cabin. There were two guest cabins close to each other and sharing of one large wood hut where all the wood was kept and shared between the two for kindling.

The cabin was one story with two bedrooms, a large living area with a fire, and an wood-burning stove. I’d never seen so little technology before, I barely knew how to use half of the stuff in here. And it was freezing. I rubbed my hands together, remembering I’d also forgotten mittens too.

“Let’s get a fire started,” June said. “So that you’ve got somewhere toasty warm to come back to later.”

Hardin stood by the open cabin door. “You know how to do that?” he asked me.

“Not really.”

“I best show you then,” he said, “the last thing I want is you to catch your death in the cold from not having a working fire or stove.”

It took him and June around thirty minutes to show me the best way to chop firewood with the axe in the hut, and then how to use the best wood. If it was even a little wet, it was useless until dried out, otherwise it would smoke the cabin out and followed by a cautionary tale on someone they knew, not the same person, but they both died from smoke inhalation.

“Understood,” I said, feeling the need to also salute them like a private in the armed forced.

“Best practice is to cut the wood, bring it in, keep it close, and then you can use it. There is nothing worse than a fire going out because you’ve used all the wood,” he said. “It’s a rookie mistake, but in these weather conditions, I don’t want you to make them.”

June nodded along to everything. “I can’t relate to that exactly because I live in town, but it’s very important that you keep an eye on your wood stores.”

It wasn’t like I had much more to do other than work, and if I really was trying to get in my own way of not getting any work done, then I’d be staying on top of the wood stores and making sure there was always a fire burning. “I can do that,” I told them both with a big smile.

It was pretty easy to light the fire, using the accelerant and a flame. I was told that was only for starting the fire and never to add anymore of it, otherwise the entire place could go up in flames, and rescue wouldn’t be easy under these weather conditions. That was another reason to be scared about this whole thing, I knew going out in a blaze of glory was a thing, but going out in a blaze wasn’t something I wanted part of.

In some ways, they were good cop, bad cop as they explained how to manage the temperature of the house, and the only thing connected to any electrics was the water boiler that had to be turned on an hour before I wanted to use it, that meant baths and showers needed to be planned.

“Let’s continued the tour,” Hardin said as he head out of the door. “This place should heat up before you get back. And don’t, for the life of all that you hold holy, do not bang the door when shutting it, or the posts. I’m not always going to be around to come and save you if you get snowed in.” He rested a hand on the post of the small porch. “That includes banging your shoes on these as well.”

“Understood.” My face grew warm, maybe from being so close to the flames, or now from recalling the embarrassment of banging my boots against the wood fence and having snow almost cascade on top of me. “Do you have bears around here?”

Hardin smirked. “In Montana, we do. We’re home to both the grizzly and the black bear. I wouldn’t be worried too much about them. We have permitters up around the land, so we haven’t had a sighting on land in a couple years. Besides, it’s winter, they’re all most likely hauled up in some den somewhere. Definitely not on any open plain of land.”

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