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Jake was amazed at how much work had happened during the brief time he had been at the ranch. It took an army to get the ranch entirely seeded with crops on time, and even more to maintain the fields and eventually bring in the harvest. As he made rounds, he stopped to talk to everyone taking notes of ideas, questions, or concerns. He wanted them to feel comfortable coming to him, but also ensuring that all of the workers were mentally and physically in their best shape possible to do their jobs. This was the mantra of Living River Ranch. It was also a personal mission, for which he was grateful he had found this role allowing him the ability to give back every day.
As he made his way into the main building, Avery was coming out. He had run into the woman a few times, and even had been introduced to her toddler Jayne who was normally in tow. This morning though, she looked like a woman on a mission.
“Morning Avery,” he said, by way of greeting.
She looked up and appeared to force a smile, “Jake,” she said, preparing to move past him without hesitating.
“You okay this morning?”
That at least stopped her hasty exit, but she did not raise her eyes to him for the longest moment. He patiently waited. Silence had a way of making even the most reticent client start talking.
“I heard you were Army, like my husband,” Avery said softly. “I have been trying to find information about what happened to him. I just want to know. I realize it’s stupid, but somehow not knowing hurts more sometimes than if he had died with me by his side.”
“I understand that. I’ve had similar conversations with the families of some of the men, who died in my unit,” he said, recalling those horrific moments.
The afternoon that ended his military career was always going to be indelibly marked on his subconscious. Telling so many loved ones the same story he had been approved to recite, would mark his conscience just as long. Some could not live with the guilt, and for them, he got up each morning, put one foot in front of the other and tried to help as many people as he could. He supposed in some way it was his penance that evened the tally board with his survival.
“That must have been hard,” she said, lightly finally looking up at him. “Are there any family members you didn’t talk to or see? Someone that may not have had the answers they needed?”
No, he said, but his mind ate at him over the one that Danny had not been able to find before he died. He and Danny had served together, but when injury sent Jake stateside Danny continued tours overseas. When he finally got home, he was not the same man he had grown up with. There was one story, one letter Danny brought home with him that he had not been able to bring himself to deliver to the family. In the envelope found next to him that horrid day, was a bloodstained envelope with the letter that Jake still carried and prayed over daily. Someday it would happen he could deliver that one and make Danny’s last moments worth the pain that came afterward.
“I had a buddy that served until recently,” he said, trying to keep the tears at bay. “there was one family he found that was too hard to visit and then he lost track of where they were over time. Sometimes guilt for those of us left behind can be more emotionally damaging than what those guys go through over there.”
Avery nodded. “I hope Jesse had some great friends who kept him safe and happy, until the last.”
Jake stopped and felt the earth fall out from underneath him. He felt the bile rise, “Jesse Tomlin was your husband’s name – Sergeant Jesse Tomlin?” He said, sending his eyes heavenward as the tendrils of sweat rolled down his back.
“Yes,” Avery said, cocking her head to the side, “why?”
Jake sat, staring. Come on, what were the chances? This place, this conversation, and this woman? The odds were ridiculously small.
“What brought you to Living River Ranch,” he asked, hoping for a moment that something she said would stop this throbbing in his head.
“I saw this ad, and something just made me.” she shrugged. “I didn’t know where else to go, when I found out Jesse wasn’t coming home. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I just knew I needed to come to this ranch. I have received so many blessings from the work, the family, and community since I have been here.”
“I know,” he said, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out his wallet. From the tiny side pocket, he pulled out the trifold envelope and unfolded it.
“I don’t know how to explain this,” he said through his tears as he held it out to her, “but this holds the answers you are looking for.”
She just stared at his eyes and then at the envelope. Finally, she reached out with shaking fingers and took it from him.
“Avery,” Margaret’s voice broke in. “I was looking –”
She looked from Avery to Jake and back again, “I’m sorry, did I interrupt something.”
“I don’t think you would believe me if I told you,” Jake said, watching as she glanced back at Avery.
Avery just looked up at him, holding the envelope to her chest and turned without further ado and took off.
“Care to tell me what that was about?” Margaret said, somewhere between anger and confusion.
“I think we need to go to your office because I desperately need to sit down,” he said, reaching for the front door.
Five minutes later, with tissue in respective hands, Margaret and he sat staring at each other.
“Wow,” she said again. “What are the odds?”
“I know,” Jake said wild-eyed.
“Grandpa Holmer would tell me that the right people came to the ranch, at the right time and in the right season. I just had to be open to it,” she said with a sigh. “Turns out, he wasn’t wrong.”
Jake sat stupefied for a moment longer, before shaking himself. “I did want to talk with you about some other issues today,” he said after a moment. “I have been doing rounds with workers and have a couple of ideas for services we may want to look at offering on the ranch.”
“Great,” Margaret said, still not thoroughly recovered. “I am all ears.”
Jake glanced out her window at the glorious land with planted crops, pastured animals, and so many workers creating a beautiful ranch. With so much activity, he knew he was in the right place. From this moment, he knew his uprooting from Chicago was now complete; it was time to start growing roots in this unique place. He could feel the tattered edges of his soul-healing every day that passed on this ranch and wished Danny had been able to make it here somehow. As he glanced up to the blue skies beyond Margaret’s office, he felt it. Danny was here and so many others, guiding the hands of those on the land to help even more people.
Resolutely, he opened his notebook and turned his full attention to Margaret.
