by Unknown
She looked at her GPS and it estimated forty minutes until her destination would be reached. “Not bad” she remarked. Then she could get to the hotel and just veg out for a while. She wanted to take advantage of it, because she knew she wouldn’t have a lot of other opportunities to relax.
She pulled into the hotel parking lot, and put her rented Infiniti car in the parking space. She huffed and groaned as she pulled her heavy luggage from the trunk and finally got it out. She was a heavy packer, and loved her stuff. If she wanted to be conservative with her belongings, she probably could have used either a small suitcase or perhaps even a duffle bag.
But that wasn’t the type of woman she was. She had to look professional and attractive. She had a pretty extensive assortment of makeup, tech gadgets, clothes, shoes, and the like. She even took a few dresses with her. Her clothes were classy and beautiful.
One of the biggest principles that she had, was the idea of being prepared. The GPS prepared the route and got her there. Her fancy clothes would prepare her for important meetings. Even her thoughts were heavily prepared, when she got into her hotel room, she prepared responses to questions that she might be asked about the ranch.
And that was another issue for her. There was a town hall meeting that was scheduled for the exclusive purpose of discussing what she would do with the farm. The community was a bit nervous about what would happen. In her mind, it wasn’t really her problem what the buyer decided to do with it. Once she got the money, she planned to take off and never return.
That wasn’t how the town saw it, though. What would happen if she sold the land to a company that wanted to use it to manufacture chemicals, for instance? Or, maybe she would end up selling it to a place that did mining and fracking.
Her strategy wasn’t complicated. She just wanted to convince the town that she would hold their interests to heart, and screen candidates until she found the right buyer. That was a crock, of course. It didn’t matter to her who bought it, as long as she could add a huge sum of money to her bank account.
One character flaw that she had, was that she had a temper, and she really lacked patience. Of course, that was commonplace for people in the corporate world who strived for success and advancement. What she didn’t realize is that many parts of America didn’t work that way.
Out in many places in Colorado, people took their sweet time and were more relaxed about how they handled their lives. They didn’t live in an environment where cars were always beeping their horns, and people jammed themselves into subways. They sure didn’t have parking spaces that sold for $30,000 a piece, either.
She didn’t have her Wii, or any exercise equipment with her, so she took a trip down to the hotel’s exercise room. She needed to keep in shape. She told herself that taking a trip out of town was no excuse for not exercising.
She changed into sweatpants and a plain, white stretchable shirt. She almost didn’t put it on, because it made her look too attractive. That is, she noticed that the male exercisers in the room were staring at her breasts. They plumped out because the shirt was skin tight.
She was already tired. In fact, she was just plain exhausted. She kept the workout simple, and just stepped onto a treadmill. As she jogged, she thought about her uncle yet again.
“Why did he leave me his ranch?” she wondered to herself. She just couldn’t make sense of it. She found a way to dissipate the confusion though. She just took happiness in the fact that she would profit after selling it. In just a few minutes, her concern began to slowly melt away.
She also thought about a lover. She had another big character flaw – she was very critical. She would go on dates sometimes, but she always put up a huge mental shield. She felt like she had to protect herself from men, who she conspired were trying to hate her.
When she met men, she was overly critical of them and always found faults. Naturally, the perfect person doesn’t exist, so it wasn’t hard for her to do. Once she found an objectionable fault, she would rid her life of that man. Then, she could just drop her shield and move on.
The problem that she only subconsciously was aware of, was that it turned her life into a cycle of defeat where there was never any gain. Must like the treadmill mat that she was jogging on, it just kept rolling in circles. Much like her jogging, there was no forward movement because she was stuck on the forever rolling belt.
She rationalized it, though. Since she was still fairly young, she had time. She could always do it later. Yes, later. For many people, that later never comes because they keep saying they’ll do it later until it’s too late.
After a half hour, she stopped the treadmill. She rolled her head around to stretch her neck, then went back to her room to wash up. She enjoyed the high-pressure shower and then slipped into a fresh pair of pajamas.
As was frequent with her, she began to rub her fingers together. She wasn’t quite sure how she was going to speak to the members of the town hall meeting the next day, but she would strategize as much as she could. Deep down, she knew she would have to face the music and speak to them.
She closed her eyes and started to feel a little sleepy. Sometimes, if she was really bothered with something, she would take melatonin to help her kick herself into the unconscious world. She wasn’t quite that bad in this case, though.
Right before she fell asleep, she thought again about her uncle and wondered what his last days were like. She hadn’t spoken to him in many years, so she could only guess. She pictured him riding a stallion into a beautiful sunset. It gave her a cool picture. It gave her cool feelings, too.
*****
“Thank you for meeting with us today. I appreciate you coming all the way from New York to have a meeting with us. Can you just state your name for the record?” a balding, middle aged man said to her.
“My name is Kayla Derringer. I appreciate that I am able to meet with you folks” she said with a half-smile. That was total baloney. She didn’t want to be there, and wondered if he was feeding her total baloney, as well.
He took a moment to introduce the small panel of four persons, which she later found out were the town selectmen. She put on the usual show and dance. She smiled when they were introduced, and kept herself focused. When they were done being introduced, she was already forgetting their names. To be blunt, she was forgetting because she just didn’t care.
“So, what kind of questions did you guys want to ask me?”
The one man who was easy for her to remember was named Hank. He was a little tougher to forget because he was handsome. He had short brown hair that was parted over to the side. His face had just a hint of chin whiskers, and he was wearing a western outfit. He had on some leather and snakeskin boots, but no hat. His shirt was plaid and had a few tiny tears in it. He completed himself with thick jeans, and a nice smile. Truth be told, he didn’t look like the political or formal type.
“Ma’am, I’d like to ask you a few questions.”
She grimaced at him. She really didn’t like being called “ma’am”. It made her feel old, and out-of-date. It reminded her of talk from the early twentieth century. “Please call me Kayla. That will be fine” she politely instructed him to say.
He smiled down at her and changed his tune. “I apologize, Kayla. I just wanted to ask you what your plans are for what you were going to do with the ranch” he said. He paused and waited for a response.
She had been preparing for this question for half a day. “I am from New York, and it would be irresponsible for me to try and run the ranch from there, because it would be degrading to the integrity of the land, and to Colorado. It is my wish to convey the land to a responsible owner who will take great care of it. I would also insist on getting a buyer that would make him or herself a pillar of the community. Then, and only then, would I be interested in selling the ranch. Thank you.” She answered smoothly, almost word for word as she had planned. She’d written it out on a piece of paper and rehearsed volume, tone, grammar, and vocabulary to get it ju
st right.
Three of the four selectmen nodded and smiled at her. They bought her pitch, which was totally bogus from top to bottom. With the exception of “thank you,” everything she said was a fabrication.
Hank looked at her and squinted his eyes. He didn’t come across as looking angry, but he sure looked skeptical. Her pitch didn’t fool him – not by a longshot. Some human beings are wonderful detectors of hogwash. When they see or hear something that doesn’t add it, they can sense it. It’s like a sixth sense. “Kayla, what exactly would make a pillar of society, in your mind?”
She got blindsided by that question. For that question, she was totally unprepared. Quite candidly, she didn’t know what a pillar of society looked like. She lived in New York where the primary concern among people was money. They didn’t exactly spend a lot of manpower on charity – at least not to the extent that they cared about money. She finally managed to say, “Well, I would want them to be a good person who would do good things.”
After she said that, she knew that it sounded lousy. First, it was way too general. What exactly is a good person? What exactly is a good thing?
Hank paused and kept his eyes focused on her. He kept pressing the questions, which she was having trouble answering. “What do you mean by good things?” he asked plainly.
A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead. Her nervousness didn’t help, that’s for sure. She hurled out the best answer she could think of. “I was thinking someone who was involved in charity, and helping others.”
Hank pressed her even more. “Alright then. Can you give me an example of a local charity here in Colorado that you think this person should be involved in?”
That question really screwed her, and she knew it. She could think of more famous charities on a national level, but didn’t know of anything local. Her brain was impulsively firing off answers – like the Arbor Day Foundation, UNICEF, and the like. Her brain was firing blanks. Nothing was coming to mind. She maneuvered herself to a non-answer. “It is my opinion that we should give the money to charities because they will help and benefit the community.”
Hank gently propped up his hand and displayed his palm at her. “Excuse me. I asked for the name of a local charity here in Colorado. What local charity would work for you?”
She gave another non-answer, and he kept asking that question. They went back and forth four times, and when she realized she was in a corner and could not escape, she finally admitted the truth. She admitted the truth, only because she was forced to. “I can’t think of a local charity out here in Colorado. I would have to do more research.”
And there it was. She got outsmarted by a semi-cowboy, country hick. It gave her two major feelings. First of all, it greatly bruised her ego. Corporate executives – like herself – often have huge egos that corrupt and cause arrogance. He bruised her ego by outsmarting her, and he made it look easy, no less.
To the opposite extreme, she found it attractive. She liked that there was a man who intellectually challenged her, and made her squirm a bit. He wasn’t condescending or rude about how he did it. His question was simple. It was straightforward. If she really did care about selling the land to a good person, his question would have been easy for her to answer.
But, she failed to convince Hank. It got even worse though. After the somewhat heated exchange between her and Hank, the other selectmen suddenly didn’t believe her. She fooled them with just one paragraph, but they withdrew their confidence in her, thanks to Hank.
The end of the meeting didn’t go well, either. The selectman, almost in unison, said they were skeptical of her testimony, and would be contacting a land and real estate attorney. They didn’t approve anything, nor did they want to. In fact, they were inclined to not approve her desires.
When the meeting was over, Kayla just huffed and rested her head on her palm. The meeting was a long two-hours, and she expected it to go much faster than that. It didn’t happen. Not much in her benefit actually happened.
“Kayla?” Hank said.
She initially didn’t reply, but turned her head slightly to make eye contact with him. She didn’t smile either. She was a bit angry at him, because she felt he ambushed her.
“You need something?” she rambled out.
She sat on a desk chair, behind a laminate, collapsible table. He squatted in front of the table as he was talking to her.
“Hey do you want to go out for a drink?”
She scoffed and rolled her eyes. She couldn’t believe that he was asking her out, even if it was just a drink. In her mind, she thought that he had a heck of a lot of nerve. Not only was she not interested in him, there was no way she could start a relationship with someone thousands of miles away.
“Are you serious?”
“I’m only serious on days that end in ‘y’.” he quipped.
She would have normally been able to generate a few laughs from that comment. In this case, she really wasn’t in the mood and didn’t feel like dealing with him. “Ha ha ha!” she laughed in sarcasm. “I’m really not your type. I’ve got a great job, a college degree, and a wonderful life. What have you got? Furniture that the Salvation Army declines?”
He smirked over at her, and whipped out his own insult. “What did you have for breakfast today? Carnation Instant Angry?”
She widely opened her mouth and couldn’t believe that he said that to her. She was used to New York style business meetings. They were different. The people in the room were very hard and crude, but they didn’t holler profanities at each other – at least not usually.
“Wow. You’re a real piece of work. And you honestly think I would go out on a date with someone like you? I think your birth certificate was an apology from the condom factory.”
He started laughing and gave his knee a gentle pat. “I’ll admit, that one was good. By the way, I don’t want a date with you. I totally agree that you’re not my type. Out here, we’ve got character and color. I was asking because I thought it would be nice to discuss your goals with your deceased uncle’s land. Take care.”
He walked off and exited the room in just a few minutes. “Whatever” she said angrily to herself as she packed up the few materials she brought with her. It was mainly just a couple of pads of paper, a pen, and a laptop computer.
She walked out the door and saw that it had been snowing in earnest. To her, it looked like God just dumped tons of white fluff all over the Earth. Of course, she saw snow in New York, but it was nothing compared to what she had now. “Cripes! That’s a lot of snow.”
She partially shielded her face from the stiff breeze, and made it over to her Infiniti. She got in the car, and it started without a problem. It did, however, have one major problem – it was stuck. She hit the gas and heard the wheels spinning and slushing around. She opened her door and hit the gas – and was able to visually witness the trouble.
“Crap!” she yelled as she closed her car door and grabbed her phone.
She unlocked the screen and looked up the number of the car rental agency. She suddenly heard a knock on the driver’s side window. It was Hank. She didn’t want to see him, and thought he was probably there to rub her sorrow in her face.
“Are you stuck?” he asked.
She wasn’t in the mood to play games. She couldn’t tell if he was serious or not. “What does it look like?” she fired back.
Hank looked at her and almost didn’t help her – almost. He didn’t think very highly of her, and she felt the same way about him. Even though that was the case, he would have a guilty conscience if he didn’t help her. He put his negative feelings aside, and extended the olive branch. “I have tow chains in my truck. Since you’re stuck, I’ll tow you out.”
One thing that Kayla always had a hard time doing was to push her ego aside and get help. Part of that came from her childhood. Because her mother died, and her father was always at work, she had to figure out how to do a lot of things on her own. That’s part of what made her a successful bu
siness woman – because she found solutions and problem-solved well.
She was tempted to turn him away, especially since he had acted like such a jerk. Then again, how could she deny his assistance? Even under the best case scenario, she would have to wait a half hour – probably longer – for a tow truck to show up. She gulped away the ego and pride, and accepted his assistance.
“As much as I don’t like you, I do appreciate your helping me. Thank you so much.”
He tapped the window with his gloved palm. “Uh huh. Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
She rolled her eyes, and then closed her window. How could he think that I’m going to leave and go somewhere else? She thought. The outside looked like a blizzard. Even if it wasn’t freezing cold – which it was – the visibility was so bad that she would have a hard time seeing.
She sighed deeply and closed her eyes. Within just a few minutes, she opened them because she heard some metal clanging near her car. She saw Hank hooking up the front of her car, which partly relieved her.
She looked up at his truck, and it was signature country. It was a Ford F-150 with dual exhaust. Light gray in color, it was a mild contrast from the white snow. It had an extended cab, sporty tires, and a stainless steel toolbox that attached to the back. It looked rough and tough.
After another minute or so, Hank stood up and walked back over to the driver window of her car. She pushed a button to open the window, and looked up at him. “So, where do you want me to put your car? Are you staying somewhere?”
“I’m over at the Grand Hyatt Premium” she said as she blinked her eyes at him.
He bit his lower lip and turned his head to look far into the distance. “It usually wouldn’t take long from here – not usually. In this storm, it might take a while to get there. Have you thought of staying anywhere else for tonight, just to avoid driving in the storm?”