Treat by Alanna Coca

Author:Alanna Coca [Coca, Alanna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781465867926
Publisher: Dark Mountain Books
Published: 2012-01-05T07:00:00+00:00

The van jostled Andria against her daughter. The little girl barely noticed the motion; she was plastered to the window, staring at the virgin land, so different from the city where she'd lived her entire seven years.

The country-western music played low in the background, but its twang was smothered by the sound of the tires hitting each of the washboard ridges on the dry dirt road. The driver, an older man who introduced himself as Charlie, continued to apologize for the ride.

"We're having the road paved next month, I'm sorry you had to be some of the last guests to suffer through this."

Charlie had short white hair, a round face, and blue eyes that had a jolly slant with permanent crinkles at the corners from long years of smiling in the sun. If he could grow a beard, he would make an amazing Santa Claus. He wore a brown ball cap with the V-Bar emblem embroidered in gold on the front to shield against the sun that now streamed through his windshield.

"Really, it's all right," Andria assured him. "We'll just pretend we're in a stagecoach like the Old West."

Charlie chuckled, and slowed to take a turn.

The flight from Los Angeles had taken its toll. Her linen slacks were wrinkled, and strands of hair had come loose from the barrette at her nape. She didn't even want to know how her mascara held up.

Andria watched the guest ranch come into view. She looked for the rambling old house from her last trip here. Sure, it had been ten years, but she would know it on sight. Instead she was greeted by a sprawling new complex. Gone was the log home with its primitive appeal, in its place a collection of new buildings that complemented the two story stone and brick ranch house. It still had the appeal that she remembered, but now it came from a carefully designed layout.

"This doesn't look like the guest ranch that I remember," she remarked to the driver.

"Yeah, 'bout six years ago the new owner built this one, the old house that you remember is still there." He pointed to the right, and she saw one side of the grey log structure peeking out from behind the bigger and better version. "The owner lives there now. This one's strictly for guests. He wanted to build it on the same piece of land as the original V-Bar that was torn down in the nineteen-twenties."

As he went on to enumerate the modern conveniences built into the facility, Andria couldn't help feeling a pang of disappointment. She'd wanted to relive those memories. She hoped to put things back into perspective, start over. Most of all she wanted her daughter to experience the simplicity that was the old ranch home. As more of the complex came into view, she was awed by its upscale feel. It looked more like a millionaire's retreat than a guest ranch. The weathered fence posts with the peeling white paint were gone, in their place sturdy columns of sanded pine and brick.

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