LJ Idol, Prompt 9: “All Hat, No Cattle”
Jun. 1st, 2022 09:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
roina_arwenLuke sat at his desk, swiveling the comfy chair slowly left and right. His long legs were stretched all the way out, sneakered feet touching the wall, and his arms were loosely crossed behind his head.
He was always early to the Ten-Gallon Club, since the clubhouse was in his parent’s backyard. With a last name like Stetson, the name was a perfect fit.
Heavy footsteps sounded outside, thumping up the ladder.
Beau - code name Bowler, partly for his rounded physique - strode into the room and plopped his bulk onto the sturdy couch. “Hey, Stetson! How goes it? Any more info on the missing livestock?”
“Not yet, but the twins should be here soon, and they’ve been following up on a promising lead,” Luke said.
He rose and got the six-pack of Dr Pepper out of the mini fridge, and offered a can to Bowler, who took one and immediately popped it open.
“Nothing quite like fizzy prune juice,” Beau quipped with a smile, taking a satisfying sip.
Luke just shook his head as always. There was no prune juice in Dr Pepper - it was an old wives tale; everybody knew that.
He opened his own can just as the twins came up the steps, herded in by a stubborn black and white Border Collie.
“Busby insisted on seeing us in,” Tamlyn - aka Tam - stated, giving the friendly canine a pat on the head and ruffling his soft ears. She loved dogs but didn’t have one of her own, so she unofficially adopted Luke’s. Tam put a plastic grocery bag on the coffee table in front of Bowler, and he hungrily dug out the tortilla chips, jar of spicy salsa, and tub of guacamole.
Tam’s raven haired brother, Monroe - nicknamed Montera, for the matador’s hat - grabbed a can of soda and sat next to Bowler. Tam and Busby curled up together on the papasan in the corner. She took her phone out of her jeans pocket and unlocked it.
“So… what did you find out?” Luke asked her, stretching towards the bag of chips. Bowler held them out of reach for a moment, laughed, then grabbed himself a generous handful before relinquishing the bag.
“Mathal examined almost the entire fence line before he finally found the issue,” Tam stated, pausing dramatically to take a long swig of soda. Mathal was one of the ranch hands on the Deerstalker Ranch and was the twin’s uncle.
Tam pulled up a photo on her phone and handed it to Stetson. “There was a rotten post that became loose, and it caused the gate not to latch properly. That gate is only used in emergencies, and Mathal hadn’t noticed the latch wasn’t seated quite right since it looked fine from horseback. But it meant the errant livestock were able to nudge open the gate and amble off.”
Luke handed the phone over to Montera and Bowler so they could see the issue with the gate latch. They nodded and passed Tam her phone back, then each went back to playing on their Nintendo Switch. “Has Mathal located the escapees yet?”
“Hang on - let me text him and check.”
She tapped out a quick message, but knew it might be a while before they heard back.
“How did your calculus quiz go?” Tam asked Bowler, as she rose to grab some chips and dip before the quickly dwindling supply was gone.
He shrugged. “Okay, I guess.”
They all crunched in companionable silence for a few minutes. When Tam’s message alert sounded, she startled and nearly dropped her phone into the salsa on her paper plate. The boys never used plates, but she preferred them.
“Oh good! Mathal found the wanderers,” Tam said with a relieved smile after reading the text. “The ewe and her two lambs are back where they belong.”
Luke gave her a high five and the four teens let out a rambunctious “Whoop whoop!”
Tam smiled sheepishly at Stetson, and he tipped his hat to her.
Busby woke from his snooze and jumped down from the papasan in hopes of a snack, but got lots of petting instead. He nudged Tam towards Stetson, and neither of them seemed to mind one bit.
He was always early to the Ten-Gallon Club, since the clubhouse was in his parent’s backyard. With a last name like Stetson, the name was a perfect fit.
Heavy footsteps sounded outside, thumping up the ladder.
Beau - code name Bowler, partly for his rounded physique - strode into the room and plopped his bulk onto the sturdy couch. “Hey, Stetson! How goes it? Any more info on the missing livestock?”
“Not yet, but the twins should be here soon, and they’ve been following up on a promising lead,” Luke said.
He rose and got the six-pack of Dr Pepper out of the mini fridge, and offered a can to Bowler, who took one and immediately popped it open.
“Nothing quite like fizzy prune juice,” Beau quipped with a smile, taking a satisfying sip.
Luke just shook his head as always. There was no prune juice in Dr Pepper - it was an old wives tale; everybody knew that.
He opened his own can just as the twins came up the steps, herded in by a stubborn black and white Border Collie.
“Busby insisted on seeing us in,” Tamlyn - aka Tam - stated, giving the friendly canine a pat on the head and ruffling his soft ears. She loved dogs but didn’t have one of her own, so she unofficially adopted Luke’s. Tam put a plastic grocery bag on the coffee table in front of Bowler, and he hungrily dug out the tortilla chips, jar of spicy salsa, and tub of guacamole.
Tam’s raven haired brother, Monroe - nicknamed Montera, for the matador’s hat - grabbed a can of soda and sat next to Bowler. Tam and Busby curled up together on the papasan in the corner. She took her phone out of her jeans pocket and unlocked it.
“So… what did you find out?” Luke asked her, stretching towards the bag of chips. Bowler held them out of reach for a moment, laughed, then grabbed himself a generous handful before relinquishing the bag.
“Mathal examined almost the entire fence line before he finally found the issue,” Tam stated, pausing dramatically to take a long swig of soda. Mathal was one of the ranch hands on the Deerstalker Ranch and was the twin’s uncle.
Tam pulled up a photo on her phone and handed it to Stetson. “There was a rotten post that became loose, and it caused the gate not to latch properly. That gate is only used in emergencies, and Mathal hadn’t noticed the latch wasn’t seated quite right since it looked fine from horseback. But it meant the errant livestock were able to nudge open the gate and amble off.”
Luke handed the phone over to Montera and Bowler so they could see the issue with the gate latch. They nodded and passed Tam her phone back, then each went back to playing on their Nintendo Switch. “Has Mathal located the escapees yet?”
“Hang on - let me text him and check.”
She tapped out a quick message, but knew it might be a while before they heard back.
“How did your calculus quiz go?” Tam asked Bowler, as she rose to grab some chips and dip before the quickly dwindling supply was gone.
He shrugged. “Okay, I guess.”
They all crunched in companionable silence for a few minutes. When Tam’s message alert sounded, she startled and nearly dropped her phone into the salsa on her paper plate. The boys never used plates, but she preferred them.
“Oh good! Mathal found the wanderers,” Tam said with a relieved smile after reading the text. “The ewe and her two lambs are back where they belong.”
Luke gave her a high five and the four teens let out a rambunctious “Whoop whoop!”
Tam smiled sheepishly at Stetson, and he tipped his hat to her.
Busby woke from his snooze and jumped down from the papasan in hopes of a snack, but got lots of petting instead. He nudged Tam towards Stetson, and neither of them seemed to mind one bit.
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Date: 2022-06-05 08:19 pm (UTC)