Julia stretched her arms above her head as the sun shone through the bedroom window. She could hear people moving about on her brother’s ranch and couldn’t stay in bed another minute. She turned on her side and noticed that her husband was sound asleep and softly snoring. They had arrived quite late last night and he had driven all the way. Not only that, they had stayed up past midnight talking with Kelly.
She kissed his cheek and slid out of bed, trying not to disturb her husband. She quickly washed up and then slipped on her jeans and tee shirt. When Julia saw a note on the table, she laughed. It was an invitation to eat anything in the house except for the strawberries because they were going to have strawberry short cake for supper to celebrate their arrival.
Julia grabbed a banana and walked out to the porch. As she ate, she scanned the yard, the barn and pastureland, and Superstition Mountain in the distance. She dropped the banana peel in the trash and headed for the barnyard.
When she saw the twins feeding the horses, it took her aback. She had never seen Faith get up this early in the morning. If she could get away with it, she would sleep until noon. And she did many times simply because she was a night owl. Julia smiled. She was glad her brother put them to work. Perhaps this experience would teach her girls patience and perseverance.
She leaned her arms against the fence and watched her daughters do their jobs. After a few moments, a couple of young men walked up to them. Julia smiled when she saw the girls come to attention.
The taller one smiled. “Howdy, Sharlene.”
She nodded. “Hi, Tony.”
“I just wanted to introduce you to one of the ranch hands. He doesn’t socialize much, sort of shy around girls, you see.” He turned to the shorter man beside him. “This is Mike. He’s a great bronco rider and has won first place many times at the rodeos.”
Faith extended her hand. “I’m glad to meet you, Mike. I’m Faith.”
The young man stared at her hand, as if wondering what to do with it. When he finally took it, he gave a curt nod.
“And I’m Sharlene,” she said as she extended her hand as well.
After shaking hers, Mike looked at each of the girls and said shyly, “You look alike.”
The girls laughed.
“Yeah,” said Faith. “That’s what they tell me.”
Mike smiled. “And you laugh alike, too. Twins?”
“That’s astute!” said Sharlene with a giggle. “How did you guess?”
Tony chuckled. Julia could see that he was enamored with Sharlene. Yes, her daughter did have quite a sense of humor. The girls were having fun on the ranch.
Julia turned toward her brother’s pastureland and orange groves. What a welcome sight! It brought back wonderful memories when she visited her grandparents here. She decided to take a walk, hoping to feel the sweet spirit of the past and reminisce. She climbed over the fence and then stood a while as her eyes swept over the acres of land that had been in the family for generations. The countryside was gorgeous this time of year. Fall was a perfect time to visit.
Julia sat peacefully on a log and took in the fresh air and beautiful view. She had only been there for about fifteen minutes when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and saw her brother standing beside her.
“Nine o’clock! I can’t believe you wasted your day away sleeping,” Kelly teased.
“I don’t feel guilty one bit,” said Julia as she shook her head. “I’m not one to get up with the dawn. You should know that by now.”
Kelly chuckled. “What a shame! The best part of the day is morning. I’ve been up since 5:00.”
“Five o’clock?” gasped Julia.
“You bet.”
“I had to wake up at five to take the girls to the bus and I didn’t like it one bit.”
“Yeah, you were never a morning person,” he said with a wide grin. “By the way, how long can you stay?”
“A week. I need to help April put together her reception.”
“I understand,” Kelly said with a nod.
Julia patted the log beside her. “Why don’t you sit awhile and we can talk.”
As he sat down, Kelly breathed a breath of relief. “This feels good to have you here, Julia. And yes, we do need to talk. I’ve kept a few things from Dad because I knew he would worry.”
“I figured as much from our talk on the phone. I could tell you were holding back.” She gave Kelly a hug and said, “Spit it out. Tell me everything.”
Kelly related to her all the strange happenings and then said, “But that’s not all. Things are disappearing. Stuff like tools… just small things. We lay them down and the next day they’re gone.”
“Expensive tools?”
“Not really.” Kelly huffed. “It’s making me crazy, Julia.”
“Did you report it to the authorities?”
“Yeah, but they already think I’m nuts.”
“Nuts?”
“Well, ever since I reported the ghost incident, they’re not taking anything I say seriously.”
“Oh yes. About this ghost…” Julia tried not to smile. “Tell me about it.”
“I don’t know what you can do to help because even I don’t understand it.”
“Tell me exactly what happened,” she said.
He nodded. “Well, this may sound a little strange but after I took those men on tour to Weaver’s Needle, we had a violent thunder storm that evening, one like we’ve never seen before. It was real bad and it spooked everyone. A few days later, an Apache spirit was seen up on the hill.” He pointed toward the west hills not far from the ranch. “Right over there.”
“Spirit? How do you know it was a spirit?”
“A few ranch hands saw him. It was dusk and they said his silhouette was quite spooky.”
“Go on,” she encouraged.
“They think it’s the legendary Thunder God. One minute he’s there and the next minute he disappears in a puff of smoke or dust or something.” Kelly frowned and shook his head. “He just seems to disappear.”
Julia stared at her brother, not knowing what to think. “Does this always happen at dusk?”
Kelly shook his head. “Not every time. Sometimes he appears when the sun is directly behind him. He comes one or two times a week but never when we expect it. It’s usually when the men are all busy and they’re caught unawares.”
“I see,” said Julia, as she pondered the situation. “Is there any reason someone would want to run you off this ranch?”
Kelly shook his head. “None whatsoever.”
“You’ve got a lot of acres here and someone could raise a bunch of cattle and make a lot of money that way.”
“That’s a possibility,” said Kelly. “This place has water rights that make it much more valuable than most.”
“How about condos or resorts?” When she saw his doubtful look, she continued. “Someone could build a lot of buildings on this land. People like coming here in the winter. And with Superstition Mountain as a backdrop, it’s absolutely beautiful.”
“I haven’t thought of that before. But why pick on me? Why not my neighbors?”
“They haven’t been bothered?” asked Julia.
“Naw! Besides that, there’s plenty of land here. Why not buy that up and turn it into a resort instead of putting me out of business?”
Julia was puzzled as she said, “That is peculiar. Why go to all this work to scare you off if they can buy property down the street? It doesn’t make sense. Maybe this is the best view of the mountain?”
Kelly agreed with a nod. “Yeah, we do have the most gorgeous view here. I do have to say that, for sure.”
“How many ranch hands do you have?”
“Five. One foreman and four young men. I also have a cook but he’s only part time since I don’t have vacationers anymore.”
“You have a cook?”
“Only for the ranch hands. His name’s Hal. He lives in town and comes out to fix a meal for the men in the evening. When I have a bunch of customers at the ranch, he works full time and fixes all three meals. He makes real good chili.”
“So what do the men do for lunch?”
“I have a small kitchen next to the dining area at the bunkhouse so they can fix their own meals. We all have different schedules so I thought that was best.”
Julia contemplated her next question and then asked, “Do you have any enemies, anyone who has something against you?”
“Me?” Kelly’s eyes widened. “Not that I know of. I’m real friendly with all my neighbors. We get along great.” He scratched his head with puzzlement. “Everyone seems to like me. Of course, there are those who get a little upset about their water rights when it comes to irrigation. But that’s part of life on a farm.”
“And the ranch hands, tell me about them.”
“Hey! I’ll introduce you to them.” Kelly smiled. “They’re a bunch of real nice kids. Two are brothers from Texas, Terry and Billy. Another one is Joey, my neighbor. They don’t have a lot of experience but they do the job and they’re cheap labor. I used to have more experienced ones until my business began to lag so I had to let them go.”
“Were they upset about it? You know what I mean…by keeping the inexperienced boys and letting them go?”
“No. They understood. I told them I didn’t have enough money to pay them, but when business picks up then I would let them know.”
Julia pursed her lips in thought and then asked, “When did it begin to lag?”
“About four months ago. That was when someone began publicizing a bunch of lies on the Internet, saying the food was crap and how disappointed some of my clients were.” He frowned and grunted his disgust. “In fact, there’s a whole website about this place being in bad repair, warning people of the dangers here. I mostly draw families and honeymooners so I don’t think a ranch with bad food has much appeal.”
“That wasn’t long after we visited here, was it?”
Kelly shook his head. “No. It wasn’t.”
“Hey, I’ve got an idea.” Julia laughed. “Put up a website saying this place is haunted and you’ll get people signing up so fast your head will spin. Just think…a haunted vacation!”
Kelly laughed and shook his head. “I don’t know about that. I wanted this place to convey family fun with a touch of romance.” He smiled. “I wanted a relaxing atmosphere where honeymooners can come and enjoy a week together.”
Julia nodded. He was a romantic at heart. “By the way, have you had any clients that were upset with your service?”
“Of course not. Everyone said they’d like to return.” Kelly groaned as he leaned his elbows on his knees in frustration. “Who would do such a thing?”
Julia furrowed her brow and playfully slapped her brother’s knee. “Why didn’t you tell me what was going on months ago?”
“Because I didn’t want you to worry. Besides, I thought it would go away.”
Julia put her arm around her brother’s shoulder and squeezed. “I understand. We’ll figure out who’s behind all this.”
Kelly enjoyed his sister’s love and concern. He smiled and hugged her back.
“What’s going on here?” came a deep voice from behind them. “Honestly, Julia! I can’t believe you let me sleep so long.”
She laughed as she turned around and saw her husband sauntering toward them.
John slapped Kelly on the shoulder and chuckled. “How are you doing, Kelly?”
“We’re trying to figure out who’s behind all these shenanigans.”
Julia could always think better on her feet, so she stood and began pacing back and forth in front of Kelly. As she thought about the situation, she looked at her husband and pointed to the log. “Take a seat. I think better standing up.”
John sat beside his brother-in-law and watched her pace back and forth. He elbowed Kelly and whispered, “I’ve seen her in action. She always comes up with her best ideas as she paces.” Then he chuckled and added, “I like watching her while she thinks. She bites her bottom lip, stares off in the distance, and then turns to me and raises an index finger like so.” John raised his finger and smiled. “Then she says something insightful.”
Julia instantly halted, stared off in the distance for a few seconds, and then raised her index finger with a smile. “I’ve got it!”
John chuckled as he leaned toward Kelly and said, “See what I mean?”
She pursed her lips when she heard her husband’s remarks. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t distract me, John.”
He pretended to zip his mouth shut. “Sorry. I won’t say another word.”
She turned to her brother. “Suppose someone wants to buy this land. Of course, they know you won’t sell. So if they could make you go broke, then you would be forced to sell. Right?”
Kelly nodded.
“Let’s think about who might be interested in this place. How about your clients, the ones who vacation here? Have any shown an interest in buying your land?”
“Naw!” Kelly shook his head. “They’re only city slickers out to have fun. They know nothing about ranching. Why would they want a ranch, anyway?”
Julia kicked a stone out of her path and walked toward her brother. “You mentioned two other ranch hands and a cook. Tell me about them.”
Kelly sat up straight as he began. “The cook is sixty and has quite a nest egg in his savings. He’s saving it to buy a diner. He says he’s not touching it because his dream is to own his own place and he’s calling it Hal’s Chili Café.”
“Would he be interested in buying this ranch?”
“Hal?” Kelly chuckled. “He wouldn’t know which end of the steer to brand. He has his own dreams.”
Julia nodded.
“Then there’s Mike. He’s a real fine young man but doesn’t go to church. I invite him enough times but he always refuses and takes off and spends the day gallivanting. He must feel that religion is a waste of time.”
“How old is he?”
“He’s twenty-four and has been here for about four years. He loves the ranch and when I had to lay off men, he volunteered to work part time. I hated to let him go when I saw the eagerness in his face. So I kept him on.”
She folded her arms in a relaxed manner and asked, “So he’s part time?”
“No. I couldn’t do that to him. He needs money, too. One thing about him… he puts his whole heart into his work. He’s the best bronco rider in the county. Then there’s my foreman.”
Kelly smiled as he snapped off a blade of grass and twisted it in his fingers. “He’s the greatest. I’ve had him for over five years now. He helped me get this ranch started. I could never have done this alone. Changing from farming to ranching was quite a change for me.”
She bit her lip as she scanned the property, the orange grove, the barn, and his home in the distance. “Does he have anything to gain if you lose the ranch?”
“Of course not. In fact, he has something to lose.”
Julia frowned. “Lose?”
“Yeah. He’s put some of his own hard earned money into this place. He wanted it to be successful, so he even helped advertise it on the Internet.”
“Internet?” Julia asked suspiciously.
Kelly instantly held up his hand. “Whoa! Now Julia, I know what you’re thinking. He wouldn’t have done such a thing. In fact, none of my hands would do such a thing. I trust them implicitly.”
“Do what?” asked John curiously.
“He wouldn’t have put up a defamatory website about this place.” He turned to Julia and said confidently, “Like I said, he’s lent me money to make this place what it is.”
“Everyone’s a suspect unless proven otherwise, Kelly. Lending you money gives you more confidence in him and a wise man would realize that.”
“No, not Tony!” Kelly said adamantly. “You’re wrong about him.”
She knelt down beside him and looked into his face. “If he wanted to, could either Tony or Mike get a loan?”
Kelly pushed his fingers through his hair. “I guess they could but I don’t see why. They both have a good job and make good wages. In fact, they’ve worked hard to help me build a good reputation here, which isn’t doing so well, lately.”
When Julia saw his discouraged look, she decided to not push the issue any further. “If you had to, would you sell all of your property?”
“No. I’d keep the house and barn. That should take care of the loan.” Then he scanned the orange fields in front of him and said mournfully, “I love this piece of land. I’d hate to sell it. If I can, I’ll keep the orchard, too.”
Julia bit her lip. She loved this place, as well. Something had to be done. He couldn’t sell it. There were too many childhood memories here. Where should she start?
Kelly looked glum as he stared off in the distance. Why would his ranch hands be involved? It just didn’t make sense! Perhaps it was someone on the outside.