What if Chapter 1
Marion rolled over and put her feet on the cold wood floor of her Heartland bedroom. There was a lot on her mind as today was the day she had to decide if she was going to bring home this young man Tyler Borden for the correctional facilities he now called home. It had been a long process and it felt like this was what she was supposed to do but was she doing it for the right reason.
She had been up most of the night tossing and turning and wondering if she was doing the right thing. She got dressed and left a note on the table saying she would be back later in the day and went out to do the morning chores checking on the horses before she drove to Calgary to meet with Clint.
The last time she had someone living in the loft where Ty would be was when she and Tim had decided together to help out a young Indian boy. Scott had done well and went on to become a vet and was now a very good friend of the family.
A lot had changed since then. There had been Tim's accident leading to his addiction to pain killers and booze. Those had caused him to get angry and mean and for the protection of the girls she had gotten a divorce, that and the fact that Jack had thrown him off the place and threatened to shoot him if he ever set foot on it again.
Now she was about to bring a troubled young man to the ranch that had only her 15 year old daughter Amy , her father Jack and her to look after him. Amy was gone most of the time with friends and school Jack was busy trying to get the work done that had to be done around a ranch and she was busy as usual with helping horses. She knew this was probably not the best time as they were not in a good place financially but still she felt this was something she had to do.
This was going to be a surprise and she was not sure how the other two would take having someone new on the place. Jack could sure use the help and companionship and Amy well she would just have to hope that she stayed away from him for the most part. She had a boyfriend even if it was Jessie and spent much of her time with him or her girlfriends. So keeping him away from her should not present too much of a problem.
…
"You are sure this is who you want! I mean there are a lot of young people who could use your track record with disadvantage kids to help them out. This young man is a trouble maker and has been in more fights since he has been here than anyone I have ever had to deal with. He is one fight away from me turning him over to the prison system so they can lock him up to serve out the rest of his time. I have had to have him isolated from the rest of the kids on several occasions and that is where he is now, and you want to allow him to come to your place to live with you?"
"In short yes, he will not be living with me but on our ranch and I have people around who can help me with him."
"You mean your father and your 15 year old daughter? You really want someone like this around your daughter! I would not allow this kid to be on the same block as my daughter and you want him to live with her!"
"He will not be living with my daughter or even under the same roof. He will have a place of his own away from the house and I can guarantee if he gets out of line with her or me you will not have to worry about having to come get him to bring him back because he will be just down the street in the hospital, my father will see to that. But I can tell you that will never happen."
I have read all about him in your reports and I have been here 5 times now to observe him and I like what I see. Yes he has a temper and yes he is hard headed speaks out of turn and has problems with authority but down deep I think he is a good kid. "
"Lady I think you are a poor judge of character but since you are here and I have run all the paper work through the system and it has been approved and if I cannot talk you out of it let's go meet him."
As the probation officer walked Marion Fleming down the hall towards the area where Ty Borden was being kept in isolation he looked at her and said I am giving you one more chance before I open this door to take someone else!
"No this is who I want, said Marion with a smile."
Clint opened the door and they walked into the room and saw Ty sitting on the bed with his back to them. Without turning around he said, "What the hell do you want it's not time to feed the animals yet and I have been locked in this stinking room for a week now so I haven't caused any problems. So just go away and let me get back to counting the roaches."
Marion saw the look on the probation officers face and before he could speak she did. "Hello Ty my name is Marion Fleming."
Without turning around Ty said "I have seen enough shrinks and if you think just because you are a woman I might listen to you, sorry not going to happen. The only thing wrong with me is that people are always telling me what to do and I am tired of it. Then because the man my mom has decided to shack up with hits me and her and I kick his ass I am in here and he is out partying. "
"I am not a shrink, I live on a ranch near a town called Hudson a few miles south of here and I have talked to Clint and convinced him to let you come and live there with us till you are 18 and maybe longer I hope."
"Oh so they cannot handle me so you expect me to come to some halfway house ranch so you can have some cheap labor huh! Well I don't think I will take you up on your kind offer, you can take your ranch and shove it where the sun doesn't shine lady."
The probation officer looked at Marion and said "I am sorry I told you this was a bad idea. Let's go and find you someone who deserves to have a second chance."
"If you don't mind I would like to stay awhile longer alone if you don't mind."
"I cannot leave you alone with him, it breaks all the rules and if you were to get hurt I would be in all kinds of trouble."
"Would you be in any more trouble than this young man? I need to talk with him alone if you don't mind you can be right outside the door or better yet, Ty would you like to go outside and take a walk with me" asked Marion."
"I am not going to put him out with the other kids"
"I think the other kids are in class I am right" said Marion. She had remembered walking by the classrooms on their way to Ty's room and they were full of the children.
"Yes they are but …."
"Humor me Clint, I just want to talk with him outside of this confinement, if I am wrong I will take you up on your offer and choose someone else."
"Okay, you are a hard headed woman and I see that I am not about to change your mind."
Ty had sat listening to the woman and Clint as they had talked and now for the first time he looked over his shoulder to see make eye contact. He had done everything to drive this woman away and yet she had fought for him and now he wanted to know more about her. She was a handsome woman not what he had expected she wore jeans, a western shirt and a leather jacket, no sign of a purse and as he stared at her she did not even blink she just looked right through him with her gaze.
"Ty come with us please" said Marion.
Ty found himself standing up and walking to the door though he really did not know why. He found this woman to be different than anyone he had ever known. On the outside she appeared hard as nails and looked every bit what he thought a ranch wife might look like, yet there was something that he could not quite put his finger on. There was a calming tenderness that came through that gaze. She had not known it but he had been watching her every reaction to his rant and not once did she even flinch at the hurtful words he spoke. Nor had she raised her voice yet she had no problem getting Clint to bend to her desires.
That kind of strength in a woman was not what Ty had grown up around. His mom had never been strong and the men she chose in her life had brought him to where he was now. Running the streets had introduced him to another type of woman they were strong but they had also learned to take what they could get from whom ever you could get it from. He had lost all of his innocence to them but at least at that moment he had felt he was cared about. But this woman was different, and he felt drawn to find out what it was that made her that way.
As they walked out into the exercise area Marion began to speak. "Where do you see yourself in 10 years" she asked and then waited for an answer.
Ty had never thought about the future unless maybe it was about tomorrow. In his life one day at a time was about all he could handle or afford. When you are wondering where you are going to sleep or if you are going to have a meal that day, you never really had you time to think what 10 years from now might hold. Actually as he thought about it, it was scary.
"I have never given much thought to that" he found himself saying. "But now that I do I am not sure I want to know. My life has not really given me a whole lot to look forward too, so I guess I pretty much just worry about today. "
"Okay let's talk about today then. You are locked in a room with little chance to get out because you constantly get into fights. Clint has told me that you are a fight away from going from here to being locked up behind bars. Is that what you want Ty? Don't you want more in your life than that?"
"I came here today to offer you the chance to spend the next year out of this place and give you the freedom to make plans for your life that don't include coming back to the life you have known. I will not force you, but I want you to know I would like you to take me up on my offer."
"We live on 600 acres of land and I work with horses. I have a 15 year old daughter and my father who live with me. Your room on the ranch will be in the barn in a loft above the horses. It is hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It has no plumbing and you will have to come to the house to eat and take a shower. To tell you the truth you have a whole lot better accommodations here than you will at Heartland. Yes, that is the name of our ranch it has been in my family for 6 generations. The only thing I can promise you is you will be well fed and will have to work hard and you will be with people who care about you. "
As they walked Ty listened and thought how refreshing it was to hear someone talk to him like he had a choice in how his life turned out. She was asking him to come live on a ranch something he had no idea about, yet she was willing to let him learn. She had not tried to sugar coat it as had been the case with most of the people he knew in his life, she had told him about his less than stellar sleeping arrangements and everything she could that might make him not want to go with her yet that honesty had actually made him more likely too.
They continued to talk until they heard the bell ring letting them know that the rest of the kids would soon be on the yard with them. "So what is it do you go back to your room or do you come with me?"
Ty watched as the kids came out to the yard and realized there had to be more to life than living here for the next year and if what Marion had said was true then he knew that he could no longer be here because he did not want to end up in prison and the way his life was going even if he was able to stay out of trouble for the next year as he looked at his future that was where he was most likely to end up.
"I think I will take you up on that offer!"
"Good" she said putting her hand on his shoulder and with a nod started walking toward Clint.
They sat in Clint's office when Marion and Ty had finished signing all the paper work they shook hands and wished her good luck. As Marion and Ty stood up to leave Clint took Ty aside and told Marion he would be right out. Marion walked out of the room and Cliff turned and looked at Ty.
"Young man you don't know how lucky you are today. I tried for the better part of the morning to get her to walk away from you and take someone else. Yet she stood her ground for you and I am telling you know you give me just the slightest reason and I will remove you from her care faster than you can blink you understand me?"
Ty was about to make one of his sarcastic comments but looking at Clint he realized that he was not bluffing and was looking even now for a reason to put him back in that locked room.
"Yes, sir I understand" he said and for maybe the first time in his life he really did. He wanted to have this opportunity more than anything and was willing to give it his best shot.
Ty hurried out of the office, picked up his bag that was sitting in the hall, and caught up with Marion. When they reached the parking lot Marion pointed to an old pick-up truck and told Ty to put his bags in the back and get in.
"Can I bring my vehicles to the ranch" he asked as he slid into the seat and closed the door.
"Clint never said anything about vehicles where are they?" Marion wanted to know.
"They are at a friend's house a few blocks from here"
"I don't see why not tell me the way" she said.
Marion did not like the looks of the part of town she was driving into, there were abandoned cars, most with homeless people living in them, drunks passed out on the streets and it was just after noon and these girls on the streets she could only think what they were up to. As she watched them all as she passed them she wished she could make a difference in their lives as well, but she would have to try and make a difference in Ty so she continued till Ty told her to stop.
There in front of a rundown old building with windows broken out was a 1958 blue GMC Truck.
"There that's it" said Ty as Marion pulled over.
"You said vehicles I only see the truck."
"The bike is in the house" I think said Ty.
"In the house?"
"Yeah, I couldn't leave it in the truck or someone would have stolen it. Give me a minute and I will get it loaded up."
"You sure anyone still lives here? I mean look at the place."
"I am sure; they have actually fixed the place up since I was here last. And they said they put my stuff in my room and it was ready for me when I got out. "
Marion got out of the truck and went to the house to see if she could help. He walked up to the door and pushed it open as it was not fully closed. "Anyone home" Ty yelled into the house as he continued walking in, soon they heard a very sleepy voice say "who is it."
"It's Ty I have come to get my stuff."
What looked like an older lady though after what she had just seen on the streets around her could have been in her late twenties or thirties stuck her head out from behind the door of what Marion guessed was her bedroom and said "glad you're out, so you are not staying?"
"Well I am not exactly out; I am on probation and have to go live somewhere else for a while."
"Oh, ok well your stuff is in the last room on the right and good luck", she said as she closed her door.
Marion looked around the house and now saw why Ty had not even questioned his soon to be new living quarters. This place made the loft look like a 5 star hotel. They opened the door to what was to be Ty's room and she saw the bike and a very stained mattress on the floor with a couple of bags next to it.
"Am I going to need to bring my mattress" Ty asked
Just looking at it almost made her sick and she quickly told him "no you don't need it, so do you need those two bags then?"
"Yep you are looking at my all of worldly belongings right there. I will get the bike if you can pick up my bags." Marion walked over to pick up the bags and wished she had worn her work gloves to pick up the bags.
Ty had finished loading his truck and pulled his keys out from the springs on the fold down seat back and put them in the ignition and found the battery was dead. "I have some jumper cables" said Marion as she went back to her truck.
Soon the old blue pickup was started and Ty started cussing.
"What is wrong" said Marion as she ran to cab of the truck thinking he had hurt himself.
"Sorry" he said "Looks like I won't be taking the truck after all someone has taken all the gas. And it was full when I was locked up a year ago."
"Come with me" said Marion as she walked back to her pick-up. In the bed was a five gallon can of gas, "use that, it should get you to the ranch. And here take this it is a map and here is my phone in case you get lost just call the number called home. I have to get back I have to pick up some stuff from the vet and food for supper and there are chores that need to be done. You get there as soon as possible."
Ty looked at Marion and found herself saying "What if I just drive the other direction and you never see me again?"
"Then I have made a big mistake about who you are" she said closing the door to her truck and drove off. Before she lost sight of Ty in the rearview mirror she started to wonder if maybe she had done just that misread this young man.
To be continued