GHOST IN A RANCH

The sun rays pierced through the window onto the plasma T.V. “Can someone pull those curtains over that window…I CAN’T SEE!” Shouted Mike, the youngest of my grandchildren as he tried focusing and controlling the gamepad in his hands. “Come on guys, am gonna get smoked” No one seemed to pay any attention to him. “Fuck!” he cried out as he ‘died’ much to the delight of Sarah, his sister, and opponent. “Language young man” Maureen, my last born, and their mum cautioned walking into the room. It was mid-summer and the whole family had gathered at my ranch.

Despite being the last born in a family of three, Maureen Goldheart had been a stickler of time from when she was young. She was always the first to arrive at any occasion regardless of the weather or traffic. She was a lawyer in New York together with her husband Mark. “Aunty Yvonne!” both the kids shouted as Maureen’s older sister Yvonne walked in, or rather cat walked in.

“How are my two favourite kids in the world” Yvonne asked engulfing the two in a hug.

“Well am extremely well unlike goofy over here, he’s disappointed that I won again,” Sarah said while sticking a tongue to her brother.

 “I didn’t lose the sun blocked my vision and besides I only let her win.”

 “Yeah right, you should’ve seen his face, Aunty, he looked like he had lost a liver.”

 “Guys c’mon, remember it’s only a game, now hug it off” Sarah and Mike both gave each other a cold stare “…am waiting”

 “Ok I’ll be the mature one here,” Sarah said leaning into her brother, Mike eyed her suspiciously but leaned in. It seemed to be a normal hug but from my vantage point, I saw the grin on Sarah’s face before she gave the unsuspecting fellow a big wedgie.

 “MUM!” the boy yelled out.

 “That wasn’t good Sarah apologize, now”

 “Okay, am sorry…dush”

 “What did you call me?” Mike said running after his sister. Those two always brought a smile to my face, it was never a dull moment with them around. I watched them zoom out of the house almost knocking over George, Yvonne’s husband.

 “Those two…” Yvonne said giggling.

 “It’s good to see that you made it, I almost thought you weren’t coming,” Maureen said

 “Well baby sister, not everyone lives like we are in a boot camp. Some of us try to enjoy ourselves”

 “Which means?”

 “It means avoiding rules and regulations, you know allowing yourself to kick off your shoes and going with the wave.”

 “I swear to God Yvonne, I didn’t understand a word of what you said.”

 “Don’t worry sis, you will someday…when you’re older.” Both of them laughed at the statement.

 “You’re skinny, haven’t you been feeding my sister,” Maureen asked eyeing George.

 “You’d be surprised how much she eats. You know, if you put an elephant and her side-by-side I think she would…” George stopped, the icy look on Yvonne’s eyes said it all.

 “Mark’s in the back preparing the grill” Maureen intervened saving him, George on his part floated through the room towards the exit without making any eye contact with his wife. The two ladies smiled at each other once he was out.

 “Hell of a guy you have there, I thought you would have a mini him when you guys came.”

 “Georgie and I decided to wait another year, his construction company has started to pick up some major steam, and am getting ready to assume my role as head designer in a month. The wait will give us enough time to look for a bigger house and a proper school for them.”

 “For them…wow I thought you only wanted one”

 “Well with dad and mum always on the road, I remembered how you guys were my everything growing up, and although I promised myself to always be there for my kids, not that am planning to be absent from them or anything, I realized that having another sibling can never hurt”

 “You remember how much chaos we caused growing up?”

 “Jeez, don’t get me started, like that one time we took dad’s car to the end of summer party”

 “Oh my God, dad almost skinned us.”

 “It was worth it though, I ended up meeting that crazy guy there,” Yvonne said pointing to her husband

 “Am happy for the two of you…you guys built an entire empire from the ground up.”

 “Stop, what about you, huh, madam lawyer, Georgie was telling me that you and Mark were thinking about starting your firm”

 “It’s a work in progress but we think that that could be our next adventure.”

 “It seems that’s not the only adventure you two are going on,” Yvonne said gently poking Maureen’s tummy. “How long?”

 “Six weeks but shhh… his birthday is in three weeks, I want it to be a surprise”

 “My mouth is sealed…anyways how do you two find the time given your schedules”

 “Girl, you know I married a freak, this one is going to be an office baby”

 “Jeez, and I thought I was the only one getting rammed into the office walls” Both sisters erupted into laughter. I drifted from the room and into the library. Staring at the books, the expensive furniture and finally resting on the portrait of myself hanging on the wall. The portrait was painted long before success had come my way, I had had it made to resemble a powerful, rich, and well-respected person. In a way, it was a constant reminder of the person I wanted to become.

Jefferson Goldheart, those were the names my mother Lavender Goldheart, gave me on my arrival to this earth. Although people say that children are a blessing, to my mother my birth was more than a curse. Not only was she a freshman in college, but the guy responsible pulled a Houdini when he became aware. Having been raised in a strict Christian household, her ‘disgrace’ was imaginable and despite pleads from her mother, her father kicked her out of their house. A lesson to the rest of the remaining children.

With no job, no money, and, a baby on the way, she was caught in a dilemma. In all essence she was still a child, having just turned 22, there was little she knew of the cold harsh world she had been thrust into. Undeterred by all the pressure on her, she didn’t have an abortion, but once I was born she didn’t keep me either. Left stranded on a rainy night beside the main gate of Twilight Mothers’ children’s home, with nothing but a skinny blanket and an apology letter tucked into my tiny arms, it was a miracle that I made it.

Growing up it seemed that illnesses lined up to shake hands with me. Never was I ever too far away from the doctor’s table being examined for this or that disease. At any time, my life could have come to a sudden end, but somehow I always fought back, recovering just to fall ill again.

Due to all of this, the rest of the boys in the orphanage nicknamed me phoenix, and a phoenix I grew up to become. As they say ‘what doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger’ and by 13 my body was so used to fighting off illnesses that I seemed to become immune to some of them. From the most weakly and sick boy in the orphanage to the most strong and courageous. When I turned 15, the head mother sat me down one afternoon and gave me the letter my mother had left in my arms that fateful night, it didn’t have much other than her name, my name, and the story of what had transpired before I was born, and how she wished that I grew up and have the life she could never give me.

I didn’t feel any resentment or hate towards her, how could I? Other than the letter that the orphanage had been able to preserve, I had nothing else that connected me to her, I barely knew my own mother’s face. That same night I decided to run away from the children’s home. I couldn’t see a life in those walls. Texas had always been the bedrock of farm produces and as such labour was always something that was in demand, though it was donkey work, those ten years (yes 10 years) had been the best years of my life. By the time I left for New York on my 26^th birthday, I was loaded with knowledge of the arts of agri-business. I also dropped the name Jefferson, adopting Richard. “Your name defines who you are,” the ranch owner had told me one day. I chose Richard primarily because of the first four letters R-I-C-H. To me this was more than a word, more than an identifier, it was what I wanted to become.

Once I arrived in NYC, I had a portrait drawn of me standing outside a large ranch, wearing decent and elegant clothes as this was the life I envision for myself. I made sure to include the logo of the children’s home I had grown in as a constant reminder of what had happened earlier in my life, vowing to give my children a better life. Life in the city was no joke, unlike Texas where most farms at the time were run more like plantations with the profits being split evenly or in the ratio of contribution, New York was a cut-throat and concrete jungle, where people would step on their siblings if it got them what they wanted. Unlike Texas, there were no bros, no sisters, and no comrades, there were only prey and predators and God bless you if you were in the first category. 

But despite this, NYC was the land of dreams, this was where ideas came to life, this was a place where, to those who were bold enough, anything was possible. Here the sky was not a limit but a stepping stone. Using my connects back in Texas, and new ones in New York, I established a profitable fresh product supply chain. I started small, but as the years progressed I managed to be the best supplier in the city. Goldheart Suppliers became a booming business. By the time I turned 33, I had a chokehold on the supply chain and no one came close. From an orphan to being one of the wealthiest and most influential men in the city, the man in the portrait was coming to fruition, only one thing remained, a ranch.

Having lived in shackles and skyscrapers, I knew next to nothing when it came to constructing a house, let alone a ranch. A friend of mine, however, introduced me to a lady architect “She is the best in the business” he had said giving me her contacts. That’s when I met her…Roselyn Turner, trust me when I tell you, words hadn’t and still haven’t been invented to describe her. Roselyn, just like myself, had come from a very humble background, though she was not an orphan. Her dad was a shoe-shiner while her mum was a waiter at a local diner. Regardless of this, she had not only powered through her studies but had also dived deep into a male-dominated industry at the time, and managed to cut off a large size of the real estate industry for herself. In my eyes she was not only the best in the business, she was the business.

Although it was love at first sight, courting her had been no easy task. Rose had been in rooms with plenty of wealthy and influential people and having been born and raised in the city, she was not easily intimidated nor did she give a glimpse of any emotions. Believe me, my friends, when I tell you that I knew some men who were scared of her and for good reasons, from the way she talked to the way she walked, she exuded confidence and demanded respect in any room she stepped in.

When I shared my interest with some of my colleagues, a good number advised me to steer clear. “That is one sandstorm you do not want to mess with” a close confidant had advised. “Sandstorm eeh? We’ll see.” I mumbled to myself. Of all my achievements I tell you, hearing her say ‘yes’ with me on one knee, and ‘till death do us part’ on our wedding day have to be my most memorable ones. She became my adviser, my rock, my best friend… with her by my side we built an empire.

“WE’RE HOOOMEEEE!!” Zack Goldheart snapped me back to reality. My second-born had been more or less of a hurricane. From an unexpected pregnancy to complicated birth to him always seeming to be in a rush to grow up, the young lad had given us and his two sisters quite the run, but in a way, of all the children, he reminded me of myself the most. With my blessing, he had taken over the company at only 23 years and had grown it into a global and well-respected conglomerate.

 “Wow baby brother is finally home,” Maureen said ushering him and his wife Lynn in.

 “That’s older brother to you, momo”  

 “And how’s this little fella huh,” she said tickling their two-year-old son Ryan.

 “Just like his father, being a handful” Lynn responded

 “As long as he has the Goldheart DNA he will always be a sandstorm.”

 “There is only one sandstorm,” Maureen said pointing to a picture of Rose on the wall

 “FOOD’S READY” Yvonne announced from outside.

The group all proceeded to the dining table set on the lawn. I watched as the entire family laughed and shared stories about this and that. As they all settled ready to dig in, I drifted towards the back of the ranch. Two majestic tombstones covered a small area of the field.

TO OUR DEAR, FATHER, GRANDFATHER,

UNCLE, AND FRIEND, THOUGH YOU MAY YOU

MAY NOT BE WITH US PHYSICALLY

YOUR SPIRIT AND MEMORY WILL ALWAYS BE

WITH US

RICHARD GOLDHEART

1914-2004

My wife just as she had been by my side during our long marriage, laid gracefully by me even in death.

TO OUR DEAR, MOTHER, GRANDMOTHER,

AUNTY, AND FRIEND, THOUGH YOU MAY BE GONE

FROM OUR LIVES, YOU WILL NEVER DEPART OUR

HEARTS AND MINDS

ROSELYN ‘SANDSTORM’ GOLDHEART

1917-2003

Though it had been seven years after my physical body was lowered, my spirit had been in no rush to go anywhere, choosing to remain on the ranch, watching over my children and grandchildren.