September 26th 2021

Chapter 269
Our Look Toward Knowledge

Lucas was glad not to be making this trip on his own. He was driving to Phoenix, which would take him more than half a day, so he could meet up with Scout and his father. The two of them would have made it there, along with Hurricane the horse. Naturally, there needed to be accommodations for said horse on either end, so he was headed out with one of the vehicles from the ranch and, once they met up, Hurricane would be transferred over, as would Scout, and then they would start on their way back, all of them, but not until the next morning. They were being put up by a friend of Juliet's.

The first part of his trip might have been him alone out there, thinking about any and all things that crossed his mind, listening to the radio, and it would have been long, but he would have gotten through it. But he wouldn't be alone. He'd have Anton Day with him. He'd asked the boy if he wanted to go with him to pick up his new friend and he'd said yes. Honestly, Lucas wasn't sure what it would be like, spending the better part of a day in a car alone with the fourteen-year-old. He wasn't exactly a chatterbox by nature, though under the right circumstances he could have a lot to say. Maybe they'd sit there for all those hours, and he wouldn't say a word. Either way, Lucas wouldn't force his hand.

He was at the Day house at 5:30 that morning. If they left quickly and made good time, they should make it to Phoenix by evening, meet the Andersons, and go and settle in for an early night. Then it'd be more of the same just the other way around, with one more boy and a horse. Going by the way Michelle Day accompanied her youngest son out of the house, tailing his heel and speaking to him, Lucas could guess her questions were an endless barrage of 'do you have enough of this?' and 'did you pack that?' or 'are you missing anything?' Anton answered each query as it came, and finally they were at the curb, so it was time for goodbyes. When Lucas came around from the driver's seat, the mother was hugging her boy so tightly that she might never have let him go. Anton and Lucas both were made to promise to call or write from hour to hour, updating them on their progress.

The first part of their drive, all the way until they stopped for lunch, went by with not a word out of Anton. He had his nose deep in a book, and Lucas figured he was better off letting him be, so he asked if he minded the radio being on low, and Anton promised the volume wouldn't bother him. When they did stop, Lucas discovered he'd been reading the ranch stories. He'd just held it in such a way that Lucas never saw the cover or any of the pages enough to recognize his own book. Anton had been too shy to let him see, but once the secret was out, he was curious to hear more details, about this story of one person, or that story about some event… So, the afternoon was spent, if not in conversation, with Lucas doing most of the talking and keeping his young passenger's undivided attention as they went.

They made excellent time, or maybe it was that the time flew by on the afternoon run. They stopped a second time, for dinner, and then continued into Phoenix. They arrived a half hour before the Andersons, so they walked around, stretching their legs after the long drive. Lucas especially lamented the lack of a second driver to take over, but he kept that to himself. Finally, Scout and his father arrived, and the boys were so happy to see one another again after having kept in touch from a distance since the Grand. They went to check on Hurricane, letting him out and walking him while Lucas and Mr. Anderson saw to getting everything over from one vehicle to the other. After Hurricane was seen to for the night, none of them were long for sleep. With one more check-in to both the Days and Maya, they went to bed.

Bright and early the next morning, they were on the road again, Austin bound. As hoped, once he had Scout there with him, Anton had one of his more talkative moments, and they all got to talking about what summer would be like, up at Sullivan Stables. More than anything, the boys were curious about the other three who would be staying up at the ranch with their horses. Lucas could have told them what little he already knew but, seeing as they were all supposed to be converging on the ranch that very day, he saw no point in getting ahead of himself. They would all be there by tonight.

By the time they drove into Austin, they were all glad to arrive. One way or another, they had all spent over twenty-four hours in a car and just about had their fill of the road. Lucas would stop at the ranch with the boys to get Scout and Hurricane settled in, meeting the other kids at the same time, and then he'd be driven home by Barton Day when he came to pick up his son.

"It looks so different than it did last time," Scout commented as they drove through the arch.

"Yeah, well, you know, back then there was the Grand, with all those added structures, and horses, and people… This is more our speed," Lucas proudly nodded.

"I'm so glad I'm here," Scout smiled. Already in his eyes was the promise that this would be a great summer.

There was no telling who would have arrived first, second, third, or fourth, but Lucas was kind of relieved to see that everyone else had made it and they were the last ones to come along. If he was frank, the part he liked about this was that he wouldn't feel compelled to stick around too long, to wait for whoever might not have arrived yet and welcome them to the ranch. He really just wanted to make it back home to his wife and daughter after not seeing them for two days.

They were all sitting out on the porch of Juliet's house along with her. Whoever had accompanied them for the journey, they had already left, either starting back on the road home or going to check in to a hotel for the night before getting on a flight back. This left the two girls and one boy for him and his travel companions to meet. The first to approach was the girl sitting on the steps. She spotted them and got up at once, hopping down to the ground and landing somewhere between smoothly and clumsily. She looked to the two boys like she was trying to figure something out. As he noticed the button, pinned to the strap of the camper's backpack and requesting for him to 'ask me about my pronouns,' Lucas took this opportunity to pose the question.

"They/them," they tipped their head.

"Got it," he returned the greeting before offering his hand. "Lucas Friar."

"Kiana Burley," the fifteen-year-old out of Omaha, Nebraska gave a firm shake.

"And your horse is Lovey," Lucas recalled.

"That's her. We named her that because she has a spot sort of heart-shaped," Kiana explained before looking to the boys again. "You're Scout, right?" they pointed to him. Scout confirmed as much and there was another handshake. "Then you're Anton," Kiana continued. Whether he was just exhausted – understandably – or awkward around strangers, Anton's response was barely audible. Kiana showed a lot of how they were as a person in taking that cue and not pushing at all, while still expressing how happy they were to meet him. They'd been looking forward to this summer, too, ever since the plan had all come together.

"Hello, I'm Catherine," said the girl who'd been on the porch swing, next to Juliet. She'd stood and started to gravitate toward the small group while the introductions with Kiana had been in progress, and now she came forward in earnest. "Catherine Endicott, you can call me Cat."

She was sixteen years old, and both her outfit, her entire look, really, and her posture spoke of someone you couldn't refer to as anything but 'upper class.' When Maya had found out that they were getting a girl out of New York, she'd asked where in New York. Upon being told that this girl came from Bedford, she'd given a look like something out of a distant past before chuckling and claiming that the two of them probably had very little in common as native New Yorkers. Right now, Lucas could really see what she'd meant. This was in no way a slight on the girl's part. He didn't know her yet, so he wouldn't pass any judgments on her character.

"And your horse is Blue Bell," he instead recalled.

"Yes, that's him," Cat replied with a smile. "He had never been on any trip like that, I think he's still a bit fretful. Would it be alright if I went to check on him?" she asked Lucas before turning to Juliet. She could. "Want to come?" she asked Kiana.

"Sure."

"It's nice to meet you," Cat nodded to the boys before moving off with her roommate for the summer. This left the trio to look to the last of them, Scout's roommate.

The seventeen-year-old was the oldest of the group spending the next several weeks here. When he pushed off from the post he'd been leaning to and came walking down the steps, they discovered he would absolutely be the tallest, too. Presently, he towered over both Scout and Anton and surpassed Lucas by a couple of inches. He shook all three of their hands, introducing himself each time as Kabir Khatri. He came to them out of Andover, Minnesota, and though Juliet had told Lucas that this boy, unlike the other three, was not a rider, it turned out that he still came along with a horse of his own.

"My father treated his mother when she was brought into his clinic. There was a terrible accident and she nearly died. When he found out she was pregnant, no one believed the foal would survive but he did. I've been looking after him since he was born, he's very sweet but very scared."

"And you didn't want to leave him behind," Lucas guessed. Kabir nodded. "What's his name?"

"Shadowfax," Kabir declared, with the pride of one who had seen his horse through many highs and lows until they became as valued as a friend, as one of the family.

"Like Lord of the Rings," Anton spoke up even as the thought came to Lucas' mind. Now, he vaguely recalled Maya mentioning a boy coming to school dressed as one of the elves once, and he was almost certain it had been one of the Day boys… Dakota? Roman? He didn't remember… No, definitely Dakota. Whoever it had been, the liking for that world was clearly shared by Anton, if not all of the Day brothers. In this moment, it primarily helped forge the start of a connection between the Minnesota boy and their local 'camper.'

"Are you going to be alright?" Lucas asked Scout when Barton had arrived to pick up his son and drive him home along the way.

"Yeah, absolutely," Scout nodded.

"Good, then unless I can't make it, I'll see you tomorrow. And if I can't, then the day after that."

He almost fell asleep a couple of times on the ride out of the ranch. But then they made it on to the lane, and there was home all lit up on the horizon, and he dug in to stay awake. When he walked through the door, there was Maya sitting on the couch waiting for him. Marianne was curled up sleeping in her arms. Apparently, she'd tried very hard to stay awake but had been no match for the powers of Mommy's back rubs. Lucas resisted the urge to wake her. Instead, they decided to bring her into bed with them, keeping her in between so that, when she'd wake, he would be right there. She could wake him any time she wanted.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners