Any weekend that was not a long weekend was guaranteed to be a hectic one at the Ranch. Like so many other weekends before, I found myself in the company of my Pinto mare as I ventured about the paddocks checking fences. Amana had been a gift from my Grandpa for my 7th Birthday, I had been there when she was born and the two of us had been inseparable ever since. Her movements were fluid, graceful like a dancer.

The birds twittered happily in the trees and the cattle nearby lowed softly as if trying not to disturb the serenity.

So far, the storm appeared to have left the few trees we had on the place alone and the fence appeared intact, though I wasn't holding my breath. When you're trying to run a farm, you have to live by Murphy's Law (in which: anything that can go wrong, will go wrong).

"Somebody's day dreaming again!" a familiar voice teased. My eyes scanned the area around me looking for the voice's owner.

"Shame for you is that you'll never know what I was daydreaming about, Jack!" I called in response, bringing Amana to a halt as I finally spotted my best friend.

A chuckle filled the air as Jack's prized gelding took a step out of the cluster of trees on the other side of the fence.

Jack's family owned the ranch that backed onto my Grandparent's farm. While I'd like to say that we Morgan's had a speciality for cattle and corn, Jack's family were the masters. They had feedlots, herds that were easily three times the size of ours, large expanses of farming land and the fancy equipment to run it all.

"What are you doing out here?"

"Same thing you are," he smirked, pulling his midnight mount to a halt.

"So you decided to wait a couple hours on the slight chance I might ride by?"

He laughed, "You wish… Nah, the length of fence that heads down to the creek has been damaged. Looks like lightning struck two of the posts."

"I dare say we better fix that then," I chuckled, urging Amana into a canter.

The posts were unrecognisable splinters and chunks of wood, strewn about the vicinity haphazardly. The barbed wire was in a good condition though, so half of our problem solved was. Swinging myself out of the saddle, I took a few steps closer to the stump of a post that remained in the ground.

"Right you grab another post, I'll move this one..." a scream pierced the air and I was back on my horse before I even realised it was me screaming. Goosebumps covered my skin and my body went into some kind of shivering spasm as my toes curled.

Jack had jumped back towards his horse as well, "What's wrong?"

"Snake, it looked like a Rattlesnake." I explained.

Jack took another step away from the post, "Are you sure it wasn't a Bullsnake?"

"Well I wasn't going to stick around and ask!"

"Alright, calm down. It's just a snake," he began.

"Just a snake? Those things can kill people with a single bite!" I shouted. Amana began to shift nervously underneath me as though she too wanted to run.

"Right, I'm sorry. It's a snake, which means we have to be cautious, but as much as I hate to say this we need to fix this fence and we'd be better off doing it now while we know exactly where the snake is, rather than tomorrow when we're not 100% sure if it's even still around."

I huffed in frustrating knowing his argument made complete sense, "Fine but I refuse to be within three feet of that thing."

I hated snakes. Well, that's not true, I loved what they did for the environment (in that regard they're flipping amazing) though I could not bring myself to touch, hold or be within three feet of a snake (when I knew it was there), venomous or not.

"What if we got three bits of extra wire and tied it to that tree at different levels, then tied each bit of extra wire to the corresponding fence wire so it's like a temporary post that doesn't require us to dig or disturb Sir Hiss."

"Sir Hiss, really?" he smirked, eyebrow raised.

I shrugged, "It seemed fitting and don't go poking fun at me because I like kids movies. You're the one that knows all of The Wiggles' songs."

"Low blow," he responded, pulling the puppy-face that I couldn't resist.

I climbed down off my horse and ran over to him wrapping him in a hug, "I'm sorry, that was mean. I didn't mean it seriously."

He chuckled evilly and began to tickle me quickly before letting me go. "Now we're even."


The ride home was incredibly boring considering my entire day had been spent mucking around with Jack, fixing fences, swimming and horse riding.

The sun had disappeared behind the brewing storm as I arrived back at the house. Granma stood on the front porch talking animatedly to Grandpa. I smiled setting to work feeding the horses and getting Amana settled in for the night.

"Jay you'll never guess who called!"

I placed Mana's hay net on its clip and turned to face my Gran, "The President?"

She shot me an odd look though shook her head, "No dearie, it was Molly Mathers, my dearest friend from England. She wanted to know if, your Grandfather and I could go and visit her for a few days while she's back in town."

I smiled, "Sounds great Granma, what day are you thinking of going?"

"First thing tomorrow, that way we'll be home with plenty of time to spare for your school dance," She explained taking my arm and pulling me out of the stable, "Now come on, it's time for dinner Oxtail and Gravy. Keep some condition on you. You've been getting too skinny."

I tried not to laugh. Gran, bless her heart, loved her gravy as much as she loved cooking and playing the piano and everyone knew it. If she had her way, I'd be eating every meal with gravy.

The sky had turned into the star covered blanket I loved so much and I paused a moment to watch. Gran continued walking knowing better than to question me.

The sounds of the local news report spilled from the TV, out into the dark night as I wandered through the rose garden towards the polished granite gravestone I'd seen many times before. The thunder rumbled in the distance as lightning flashed amongst the high dark grey clouds, sending a shiver down my spine.

My eyes fell back to the shining figure.

Matthew Andrew Morgan

It was simply a name carved into stone as though that alone would keep the story of this person alive. There was no body resting here, no spirit wandering this garden, nothing. I had nothing that tied me to this man… no memories, no photographs, no real knowledge. Matthew Morgan was a person whom I shared a surname with, though now he was the only parent I knew (even though I didn't know this man at all).

A warm, calloused hand came to rest upon my arm, "What's up kiddo? You've been staring at that for a while now."

I sighed, looking for a way to escape the subject, "We should head inside… Gran has dinner ready."

His mouth twitched into a half smile, "Nice try."

Silence crept over us as we stood looking though not seeing.

"Grandpa... will I ever know?" I asked, tears filling my eyes.

The old man sighed sadly, "I'm not the one you should be asking, my girl," voice cracking as he looked me in the eye, "I really don't know what to tell you."

His usually twinkling brown eyes held a deep sadness. I nodded wiping the tears from my eyes.

Wrapping his arm around my shoulders, he pulled me away towards the house just as the rain began to pour…

When morning came, my Grandparents had left on their journey.