“Forest, I can’t go any slower. I swear I’m starving to death,” I said between bites. “It’s like I haven’t eaten for a week or something.”
“That’s what happens when you skip breakfast.”
Forest knew I had missed breakfast every single day I had been on the ranch so far. It felt like some sort of hazing that the guys were doing to me and I didn’t want to give in. From what I knew about hazing, it was important for me to keep my head up and keep pushing forward to prove I could withstand anything they put me through. I imagined they were getting up very quietly in the morning so they wouldn’t wake me up. Yet, I couldn’t imagine how they all woke up on time at all. It was a mystery.
Most of the men slept in the bunkhouse with me, but there were a few who had their own small cabins just outside the edge of the main house. Forest, who had a beautiful cabin out that way, as well as Walter—although I hadn’t seen Walter in a while.
“What happened to Walter?” I asked as I chewed my food.
“Oh, he moved on.”
Forest said it in such a matter-of-fact way that I almost didn’t want to ask any more questions. Sid had told me that there was pretty quick turnover in the ranch, but I hadn’t really thought it would happen so quickly.
“So you’re in charge now?”
“Yep.”
“Oh, I better get back to work then,” I joked. “How long have you been on the ranch?”
“Long enough.”
Forest was a man of very few words. He was about my age, although he looked much older than me. I could tell the hard work and time in the sun had worn down his body over the years. Yet, Forest worked harder than I did every single day and barely looked tired by the time we wrapped up dinner. It was a little depressing to realize just how out of shape I really was.
Over the last few weeks, I had felt weaker than I had my entire life. Sure, I went to the gym several times a week back home and even had my personal trainer; but nothing had prepared me for 12-to-15-hour days of physical labor. The physical work was much different than workouts at the gym and my body wasn’t taking too well to the changes. Although, I did feel like I had started to bulk up a little in my upper body. Maybe I would even come to enjoy my long days of physical labor.
“Man, if I could figure out how the hell to wake up in the morning, I would do it in an instant. Do you guys have some sort of trick or something?”
Forest just laughed at me and then went back to eating his meal. His red hair was dirty from working in the field that day. It was longer than mine and Forest had a red beard to go along with the long hair. Most of the men on the ranch had longer hair and beards, which I suspected was simply because they couldn’t find the time to get to a barber. The mornings and evenings were busy and I had struggled to find time to shave when I first arrived. But then I started doing it while I was in the shower to save time; that seemed to be working well for me. Although, I was the only one who kept a consistently clean shaven face.
“You’ll figure it out,” Forest answered me.
“I don’t think I will.”
“I’m going into town tomorrow if you want to get yourself a watch,” Forest said as he looked up at me.
“Nah, that’s okay, I don’t really care what time it is. I just work until you guys tell me to stop,” I laughed.
It was the truth; I didn’t really care about the time. I didn’t have any place to be and I certainly couldn’t go into town. So, working, eating, and sleeping were all I had to keep myself busy. What I needed was an alarm clock, but since none of the other men had blaring alarms going off in the morning, I didn’t think it was a good idea. I just had to figure out how the hell they silently woke themselves up each and every morning. It was a baffling mystery to me.
“Suit yourself.”
“Thanks though,” I said as I finished off the last of my lunch. “Do you know if Sarah is back there? I’m supposed to have her look at my hands.”
I held up my hands and watched Forest flinch at the sight of them. I had gotten used to the oozing and puss that was co
ming out of the blisters, but they didn’t look very appealing to have around food. I pulled them back and placed them on my lap again.
“Come on man, I’m trying to eat here,” he said then looked away. “She’s usually around back. Go that way,” he pointed toward the west.
“Thanks.”
My hands had hurt a lot when I first started getting blisters on them. But over the last few days, they were pretty much numb and I couldn’t feel them much at all. No one else used gloves unless they were loading large items or pulling the ropes. I hadn’t wanted to seem like a pussy so I had avoided using gloves as well, which was obviously a huge mistake. My hands weren’t used to the kind of work I was doing all the time and I finally decided the gloves Sarah had given me were worth using to avoid totally damaging the skin on my hands for the rest of my life.
“So you’re the local nurse, too,” I said as I came into the back room and saw Sarah pulling out some first aid equipment.
“I’m anything I need to be,” she replied flatly.
Sarah was busy; I hated to take up her time, but I obviously didn’t know how to take care of the blisters I was getting. I needed her to do what had to be done and I promised myself I wouldn’t distract her too much so she could get back to work. Although, she was extremely distracting to me to even be near.