Once...

Once, in the middle of Colorado, some 70 miles from Denver, and 45 from The Springs, there lived a small girl on a ranch. The ranch was very expansive indeed, and had many staff. There were chefs, and a baker. There were cooks for the staff, and cooks for the guests. There were cooks only for breakfast, and others just for dinner. There were girls to serve the food, and girls to clean up. There were girls to feed the children, and girls to serve the adults. There were men to care for the horses, men to round them up, men to saddle them, men to clean up after them. There were girls to clean the rooms, girls to clean the house, girls to wash the laundry, girls to fold the laundry. There were specialists to cut the grass, and mechanics to tend to the cars, there were men to cut the wood, and men to deliver the wood. And there was a man, of no particular title, who took care of the ranch dog: Honey. In charge of the staff was a kind man named Bill, who had been integrated to bring order to the chaos. This kind man had three daughters. The most precocious and curious, the third, lived in an isolated world the forest that surround the ranch created. Beyond Bill and his family, two other families made their home among the pine trees and cabins. The first was the owner of the ranch, a man in his sixties, and his wife. The owner started the ranch with his wife as a place for those in the city to escape the fast-paced life. The other was the man’s oldest son, Bill’s brother-in-law, who had come into the position of convenience as his birthright, and had found ways to make himself indispensable while doing absolutely nothing. The son was married with two children. Together the extended family found a way to co-exist on the acres. The children ran unchecked during the day and were able to create all kinds of worry and trouble and nonsense. But it was during this time the youngest daughter would shake the other kids and go and work with the people who tended the gardens and made the food and cleaned the rooms. Life was pleasant on the ranch, as close to heaven as one could get in Colorado.