Welcome to my first post on this site. This is a fictional story which is drawn from inspiration from various visits to my cousins in America. This is not anyway a true story. Before I reveal the story, just gonna state that as a student, updates will vary wildly. Hope y'all enjoy!
Oh, and the protag/speaker is called Gareth
___________________________________________________
The Beginning
___________________________________________________
In the midst of a fifty-acre of ranch land, the following words could be heard
“Got ya again, cousin!”
I lay on the ground, breathing heavily after the run and consequent fall. I reached for the rope at my ankles to begin loosening it. From behind me, I hear Matt call out “Yah” and there was a clink of boots. Suddenly, the rope tightened and began to drag me across the grass for a good couple of meters before Matt slowed down and eventually his horse stopped. We’d been doing this for a while now, well not specifically dragging me across the field. I’d only arrived at my uncle’s ranch a few days ago and here I was trying to learn how to use a lasso with Matt’s assistance although it seemed to alternate between me actually practicing and me avoiding his lasso as he “practiced” when he would get bored. A couple of the ranch hands had tried assisting me earlier but that must have been a couple of hours ago. Matt got off his horse and began to walk towards me, his spurs clinking with every other step. His buckskin gloved hand reached down and I firmly grasped it as he pulled me to my feet. He opened his mouth to say something but my stomach interrupted him. He gave a low chuckle.
“Come on. Let’s get something to eat, Gareth. Its half two already and all you've done is practiced”
I dusted myself off, wiping off dust from recently-bought jeans., “I think my stomach agrees with you”.
Matt gave a long whistle. It wasn't but a few moments until the sound of hooves were approaching and another chestnut horse akin to the one Matt was riding came racing across the field. When the horse came within a few meters, he changed direction slightly and stopped right in front of me, whinnying slightly.
I stroked her forehead as he, Niko simultaneously nuzzled my hand. Niko and I had bonded over the several visits I had to the ranch through the years and could recognize me on sight.
Both Matt and I climbed up on our, well his and my uncle’s, respective horses and raced back across the field. From a distance, some of the cattle in various fenced portions looked up to momentarily watch us as we trampled grass beneath our horses’ hooves. It ended in a splurge of kicked up mud and a reasonably close finish but Matt’s horse, Nitro didn't have his name just for show. Niko put up a decent fight but he wasn't trained to race like Nitro was. Yes, its kinda ironic that a horse in the country is called Nitro but that’s how it goes. Guess you could link it to the pick-up trucks though. Matt wiped his forehead with his bandanna, the weather continuing to be gloriously hot, a clear contrast to the usual soggy weather I had to experience back home in England.
We had missed lunch and my Uncle had thought it better to leave us whilst we seemed busy. Matt took matters into his own hands on the creation of our lunch. It kinda felt strange as for the third time, I was standing about watching someone else prepare my own lunch because I had no clue about the location of anything within the kitchen, almost as though I was being rude by not doing it myself. I took out my phone and began to trawl through a number of emails that I had received whilst being outside, nothing of any real urgency.The smell of fried eggs and sausages began to waft throughout the kitchen which was large enough to be the dining room as well. I had a brief check on various notifications on Facebook when Matt put down two plates on the dining room table that I was seated at. He sat down across from me and we both began to eat the baguettes.
A short while after we finished, I had volunteered (well felt obligated) to wash up and began to fill the sink. After a brief pause, Matt got up, “Gareth, I’m gonna see you later. Got people to meet, things to do. Hope your roping skills improve.”
“Thanks, see you around then”
“Oh and don’t forget,” Matt said as he was opening the door. “You’d better wear something half decent for later.”
“Why?”, I assume he was referring to my current T-shirt, a silvery wolf and dragon facing off upon the black surface, can’t see him having a problem over my boots and jeans. Matt was also wearing cowboy boots and dark blue jeans, although he also wore the hat, a leather brown jacket and a belt with a buckle that he had won from one of the various rodeos he had attended.
“Darn it, I did tell you several mates of mine were coming over at 6. Must’ve slipped your mind whilst you were falling over.”
He winked and a sly grin crossed his face.
“Sure, go on, go before I learn to lasso that grin off your face and then we’ll see whose laughing.” I retorted.
He did that low chuckle again and left, closing the door and leaving me to continue washing the dishes. It was only when I finished that I realized that I still didn't know where they went. A sigh escaped my lips before I set to the almost impossible task of finding where everything went. I could swear that he had used two plates with different designs just to make it awkward for me, especially when I found out that they were in separate cupboards.