July 6th 2022
Chapter 187
Our Evolution of Campers
This had definitely been one of his busiest summers in the last several years. There was the usual fare, with home and his family at the top, always, plus his regular job, which was now bolstered with Juliet giving him more and more responsibilities to prepare him to take over everything. There was the summer camp, which was nearly through for this season, and soon the new exchange campers would be coming around. Katy's series was filming once again, their third season about to begin airing. Really, the thing that turned his summer from relatively busy to very busy was the dog retreat.
It wasn't open yet, though it would be, very soon. But it wasn't just about the construction of that building, was it? He'd been putting the word out, to all interested parties, so they would know that they were able to contact him, or Bishop, when they would need to bring any dogs out to the ranch or, on the reverse, to get those dogs adopted into homes. Everyone had been very responsive to the news that this place would exist, enough so that some of them had tried to see if they might find a way to open earlier than projected, because they had one dog or another who could use a stay at this retreat of theirs. It had put Lucas in the awkward position of wanting to say yes so much that he would have then tried to find a way and accommodate all those dogs, even if it meant bringing them home to Maya and the girls, but he'd had to keep it together and tell them they'd have to keep waiting. Actually, what he'd inevitably end up doing was work with them to ensure those dogs ended up somewhere that would allow their recovery anyway. They might have been able to find them a temporary spot somewhere else in the ranch, but with everything else going on, it wouldn't have felt safe to just do something on the fly.
They were nearly there though. The building, the structure itself, was ready, so now it was a matter of getting the inside and the surrounding area set up to receive their first canine guests. Lucas had been seeing that building come together from day one, watched that bit of land get transformed, and whether it was just a notion his mind created, knowing everything else, or not, to him it was real. It was real that, as summer had advanced, and the bare land had been transformed to become the building for the retreat, he'd sensed his previous feelings, the dread that would claw at his guts whenever he so much as walked near the old fence, just get smaller, and smaller, until they were practically inexistant. He was looking out there now today, seeing his old friend and Bishop's ex-wife, Leona, working at the landscape out in front of the building while their daughter Evangeline ran around nearby, and all he felt was anticipation, not a drop of apprehension. It made him smile more so as little Evie saw him and waved at him, drawing her mother's attention until she did the same. He waved back at them both and moved along.
The summer campers had just had their annual camping trip, and now they were starting to pack, as the families would come and collect them and their horses in the next couple of days. The attitude was very much 'let's get the packing done now so we can do everything else we want after that before we have to go.' Packing day didn't take long to get to feel like a competition, to see who would finish first… and last. Lucas wondered which of those kids would have tried to just shove all their belongings into their bags, who would have tried to go as fast as they could all the while following their own compulsion to stay neat or the one instilled in them by their parents.
Lucas would be sad to see them go, every year. Having them here just brought a different spirit to the ranch. The thing that made it easier was always to remember that, with the end of one thing came another, and that one had its own spirit, too, and that was just as it should be.
"Lucas!"
He turned at the sound of his name and spotted twelve-year-old Kimiko dashing toward him, so he stopped and walked back a bit to let her catch up. It was her second year at camp with them, and he still thought about when he'd met her last year, with Marianne, when they'd stopped at the diner. He had no doubt that she would be with them every year as long as her age permitted, provided that her parents chose to send her again. As he was about to learn, she might not have been the only one.
"Hey, all packed already?" he asked with a smile.
"Yeah, mostly," she told him. "But I was looking for you," she went on, suggesting she did not put nearly as much importance into the 'competition' as the others and wouldn't mind ending up last.
"Okay, what's up?" he asked her.
"Can my brother come next year?" she asked him. He paused, trying to recall.
"Isn't your brother… five?"
"Yeah, he'll be six soon," Kimiko nodded. "He really wants to come, and I don't think it's fair that I get to come when he doesn't," she shook her head. Lucas tried not to laugh at the pre-teen determination/indignation on display before him. He knew a devoted big sister when he saw one; he had one of those at home. Even without this, he would have wanted to take this seriously, but because of it, and because he liked this kid a lot, he wanted to take extra care to answer her respectfully.
"Your brother's name is… Haru, right?" Lucas asked her, remembering her talking about him before. She nodded.
"We call him Wolfy," Kimiko told him and when he smirked curiously, she showed him how he'd gotten the nickname, calling her brother's name like the howl of a wolf. It amused him.
"Well, Haru wouldn't even be old enough to get riding lessons here," he pointed out to her. "And as much as we would love having him here right now, it comes down to keeping him safe, really. He wouldn't get to do the things that you and the others get to do. He'll get his time, but it's going to take a while. I'm really sorry." Kimiko was disappointed, but she understood. "Are your parents bringing him along when they'll pick you up this year?" She wasn't sure. "Well, if they do, I'm sure you'd get to show him around the place, show him the horses, and Thor and Sweetie…"
He'd barely said the words that the girl was bolting back to Juliet's house to make a call, and Lucas smirked as he watched her go.
He was on his own again as he spotted not one, but two vehicles coming along, connected to the familiar trailers that meant horses were either coming or going. He could see that they were both occupied, and it didn't take long for him to understand what this meant. The year's new exchange campers had arrived, one behind the other. Seeing as, unlike last year's campers coming from opposite ends of the country, these two were from the same state, all of two or three hours away from one another, it made sense that they would have inadvertently converged on the road.
As he quickly learned, they'd become aware of one another the first time they'd all stopped for bathrooms and something to eat on the long drive from Michigan to Texas. It was easy to imagine how they would have seen one another's trailers and started talking, only to realize that they were headed to the same place. From the looks of it, as they all got out from their own vehicles, the parents had been getting along but the kids had done so even more. Eighteen-year-old Britt seemed to have taken on fifteen-year-old Raj like a little brother. As Lucas would get to learn, Raj had not liked the idea of the long drive and he'd been uncomfortable in the beginning, but after the Patels had stopped and met the O'Connells and this discomfort had been discovered, Britt had given Raj her number so they could text one another or send each other funny videos and photos.
It had made the ride infinitely more bearable for the boy and had made the two of them come along, the year not even started, with a bond. If either of them had ended up with a family that wasn't suited to them, they could definitely have relied on one another for support, but thankfully Lucas was more than certain that the Ríos and Farrells would be a great fit for them. While Juliet was out there, receiving the two families and making greetings and introductions, he went ahead and called the two host families, letting them know that their lodgers had arrived. They would be on their way to join them within the hour, and already by then Lucas would have a better idea of these two kids who were about to spend the better part of a year with them.
Raj was just as he'd known him to be from their existing contact. Excitable, with a thirst and a… generosity for knowledge. He was as interested in finding out about some subject or another as he was to tell others about it. That didn't mean that he would simply info dump at any second of the day. He actually showed great restraint in this, mindful of the thought that there was 'a time and a place' for everything. When it was the time and place though, oh, he could talk. This was particularly funny when Angel Ríos and his family came along to get him, and the soon to be freshman, who was definitely on the quieter side, stood there and received all this talk. Would it take some getting used to for him? Probably. But he was intrigued, so that was a good start.
As for the senior girl, who had chosen to spend her last year of high school away from home, and from her classmates, to come here, his first impression of her was that here was a girl who lived and breathed for the kind of life they led, here at Sullivan Stables. It wasn't as though she came along like some caricature, far from it, she was just herself, but at the same time she so stood out in comparison to her parents that… maybe Lucas was starting to get why she didn't mind skipping out on graduating with the kids back home. She went after what she wanted, always. From what he'd seen of her interactions with Raj, he could also see that, for how much she could disassociate from some people, she could be so deeply caring with others.
He got to see it again with the Farrells as they came along. There had already been contact here, as there usually was, between the host families and those of the kids who were being sent out here. In this case, Britt had already been chatting with Kelsey, not unlike how she'd done with Raj on the ride over, and the two girls looked very glad to meet one another in person. They went over so Kelsey could meet Britt's horse after having heard so much about her in the last few weeks. The land was not so easy to navigate for Kelsey and her chair in some places, much as they tried to prevent those issues where they could, but Britt helped her along, always asking first before reaching to lead the chair herself, as Lucas guessed from afar by her gestures and Kelsey's nods. Looking between them and the other families, he was happy. Summer campers may be about to leave, but now he had these, and soon the after-school kids… It would be great, all of it.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
