CHAPTER FIVE
Waking before the sun, I threw on some clothes and watched the sun rise on the porch. The day was beautiful and I felt at ease to enjoy the day and myself.
I settled in to a rocking chair and let my mind wash over with all the questions I needed to ask the owner when I had his ear. I knew he was a busy man and that he didn't have time to manage me. He would want me to learn in the office quickly so he could go back to ranch work. If the man liked paperwork, they wouldn't need me to begin with. That I was here spoke volumes about how much the owner knew and cared about the IRS, the ranches book keeping and all the other issues on the ranch.
Letting all my thoughts settle inside my head, I admired the tranquillity of the sky, the dirt and the peace of this place. I could see why the owner didn't want to have to deal with anything in the outside world. I wouldn't want to deal with it either. Working here, I felt wouldn't be like work after a while. This was a lifestyle job, if there ever was one.
The connection that these men (and they were all men barring the woman who worked in the home) felt to the land must be intense. I smiled as I breathed in the pre-dawn air as I watched the sky change colour.
The beauty was what I came here for. My own homeland was a beautiful country, and this was also a beautiful country. I had always felt connected to my homeland, as in, to the land itself and to the seasons. So this was something different. I wanted to be outside. I wanted to get amongst it.
As I was admiring the tranquillity of the place, I heard a door open and close to my left and turned to see a figure walking out onto the porch. I couldn't see the person's face, but could see the size of them, the shape of their body. It was a man.
Evidently, as I could see them, they could see me as well. They started walking towards me, then they stopped. As they drew closer, I could see it was Billy. His eyes met mine and he closed his own then shook his head and turned to walk away. He sat at the other end of the porch to me and lit up a cigarette. Quietly, he sat there and took in the view of the sunrise. Neither of us spoke to the other. Neither of us were interested in ever acknowledging the others presence after we had realised who the other person sitting on the porch had been.
I shook my head and watched.
Later, I walked back into the house for the normal breakfast. We all ate together at breakfast time (usually, unless the boys were going out earlier as they had for the last three days).
At breakfast, the ranch owner made a point to sit near me and started talking about my work.
"What do you need to know?" He asked straight up.
I chewed on an egg and swallowed before answering, "I went into the office yesterday but couldn't work out how you had been keeping your books to date. Also, does that computer have an internet connection?"
The owner sucked his teeth, "The computer?" He asked, as if he had no idea there was a computer in the ranch at all. I wanted to smile, but fought the urge as I knew it would come across as rude, even if I didn't mean it to be. This was just a bit funny.
I nodded. "The computer, in the office?" My words were half a question as I didn't want to sound rude reminding him he had an office, or a computer, that he had obviously completely forgotten about.
Shaking his head, the owner told me more than I needed to know.
"Who normally does your books?" I asked.
The ranch owner gave me a little smile and indicated towards the woman who helped in the ranch. I nodded, realising the problem right there: she had far too much to do to keep on top of the books, plus, that was perhaps a more specialist job than she could get her head around.
"Okay." I said, taking her in with a smile, "So, can you get her to show me how she manages the books?"
The owner nodded, evidently he was relieved that he would have less work to do. "I'll get her to show you today." He told me before wandering into the kitchen after the woman in question. I hoped because the owner was asking her to help me, that she would be kinder to me than normal. Perhaps more helpful too.
As I watched the owner disappear, I felt someone's eyes on me and when I turned towards the person who had been staring at me, wasn't surprised to see Billy looking at me. His face was one of annoyance, as if I had done something to annoy him. I sighed and turned back to my food.
What was with that guy? Why did he have to behave all broody and like I was doing the wrong thing all the time just by breathing?
I finished my eggs as quickly as I could and as everyone else started to file out onto the ranch to start their work, I headed into the kitchen to help the lady who worked there.
"Can I help you clean all this up?" I asked.
She was standing at the sink, which stood before a big window. She had the water running which caused the bubbles in the sink to bellow out and spread across the surface of the water.
"Do you want me to do that?" I asked, motioning towards the bubble filled sink.
She nodded, "Sure." She told me in a softer tone than she had used on me previously. "I'll go get the rest."
Together we tackled the kitchen dishes before she turned to me both our hands covered in soap suds, "You're taking over the books?"
I nodded, "Sure am."
"And you need help?" She asked.
I took a breath before telling her, "Yeah. I just need to know what system you had before so I can find all the information I need. I have never kept books for an American company – or ranch, sorry – but I know numbers. I studied finance at university."
The woman nodded then dried her hands. We were all out of dishes.
"University?" She asked, her eyebrows raised. "How did you end up here then?"
It surprised me that she didn't know the story: I imagined she would have been told I was coming, but knew now I had been wrong. Perhaps the ranch owner had been too busy on the ranch to tell her anything. They seemed to have a good relationship, so I couldn't imagine any reason they wouldn't have spoken about me as I was here to lighten her load.
She was helping me for a while when she noticed I didn't really have anything to call her so she smiled at me and told me, "You can call me Mama."
"Mama." I said as I smiled and gave a little nod. "I can do that."
For the next two hours or so, Mama and I sifted through the papers on the desk, she showed me how to connect to the internet on the computer, We chatted a bit about what had been done to date with the books and how far behind the paperwork was.
"Yeah. It's pretty messy." Mama told me.
I sighed as I looked down at a jumble of papers on the desk. That was no understatement, it was all pretty messy.
"Well. I best get back to the kitchen." Mama told me.
Then she was gone and I was alone with the mess that was the ranche¬s' books.