The Bonding Note

 By Marenn C. Harris, age 11

FINALIST (ages 9-13) Winter/Spring Writing Contest 2024

In late January 1877 at Fort Alcatraz, eleven-year-old Riley penned a note that read, “I miss the ranch,” stuck it in a bottle and hurled it as far as he could in the direction of the mainland.

*****

Four years later in late April 1881, as thirteen-year-olds Andi and Jenny prepared to head down to the Seal Rock Beach, the note drifted in toward where the girls soon would be splashing. “Hurry up, Andi!” Jenny shouted, as she took off like a shot down the path to the shore.

“Wait up, Jenny! This frilly swimsuit Aunt Rebecca insisted I wear won’t exactly let me run as fast as you!”

As they neared the water, Andi noticed something partially submerged  glittering a little way from the shore. She waded out until she was about knee-deep in the water. Andi bent down to grab the mysterious object, which now appeared to be a glass bottle. As she held it above the water, she could see that there was a note inside.

Once Andi reached dry land, she yanked the cork out and shook the bottle until the little roll of paper squeezed out. She unrolled the note. Scrawled across it in a little boy’s hand writing was simply, 

“I miss the ranch.”

 “That sounds like Riley,” Andi thought to herself. She stuffed the note into her small hand bag and forgot about it.

 *****

  Thirteen years later in early August 1892, twenty-four-year-old Andi Prescott trotted up to the beautiful Circle C Ranch house with the morning sun on her back and dark clouds on the rugged mountain-lined horizon. As soon as she stepped inside the house, Chad’s two little kids came bouncing up to her. “Aunt Andi! Aunt Andi! I lost another tooth!” Susie exclaimed.

“Wow, Susie, you’re getting so big! How many is that now?” Andi asked.

“Four!” Chad, who had snuck up behind them, answered as he hoisted a giggling little Thomas onto his shoulders. “What brings you to the ranch, baby sis?”

“Lilly and Lottie are outgrowing their clothes faster than I can make them and Jared has ripped a hole in every pair of pants he owns. So I came to see if Mother still had clothes from when we were little,” she replied.

“If you are looking for overalls, then you’re outta luck. I’m pretty sure you wore all of those to pieces!” Chad teased.

“Ha ha, very funny, Chad! I’m sure there are still a few pairs with the knees intact,” she bantered back. “Do you know where Mother stores all of our old clothes?” she asked.

“I think Mother stores all the old clothes up in the attic but you will have to check with her to be sure. She’s in the parlor if you want to ask her,” Chad offered.

“Thanks, Chad!” she yelled over her shoulder.

She walked toward the parlor where Mother was sitting, working on a needlepoint.

“Hello, Mother!” she greeted the elegant grayish-blond haired woman sitting on the couch.

“Hello, Andrea, what a nice surprise! What brings you to the ranch?” Mother asked.

“I was wondering if you still had clothes from when Melinda and I were the twins' age and some pants from when the boys were Jared’s age?” Andi wondered.

“I believe I still have all of the clothes you didn't rip holes in! Until you turned fourteen, you could barely keep a single piece of clothing clean, no matter how hard you tried,” she said playfully.

“Was I really that bad?” she asked, playing along.

“Depends on who you ask, but in my opinion, no,” she

answered.

“Do you know where the clothes are?” Andi asked.

“They’re in the trunks up in the attic but it may take a while  for you to find what you're looking for. There's a lot of trunks up there,” Mother replied.

“Thanks, Mother!” Andi called over her shoulder as she walked up the stairs.

Once she was at the top, she opened the door to the attic stairs and began to climb the creaky steps. At the landing, she spotted a very large number of trunks. “Boy, Mother wasn’t kidding when she said there were a lot of trunks up here,” she mumbled to herself as she heaved a surprisingly heavy trunk off the bottom shelf. “At this rate, I’m going to be up here for a month of Sundays!” she grumbled to herself.

Just then, Mitch walked into the attic. “Need some help, little sis?” he offered.

“Please! This is more of a two-person job. How about you lift the trunks down and I sort them?” Andi suggested.

“Sounds like a plan!” Mitch answered as he hoisted a trunk off the bottom shelf and set it down on the ground. Once he had brought down all twenty-three trunks, he started helping Andi sort through the clothes inside them.

Halfway through sorting the twelfth trunk, Andi fished out a simple but beautiful handbag. The bag was a powdery light blue with golden horse silhouettes embroidered near the top. Out of curiosity, she opened the bag to see what was inside. 

When she did so, she found an aged and sandy piece of rolled-up paper. Just then, how she and Jenny had found the note came rushing back to her. Before she unrolled it she called across the room to Mitch, who was sorting a trunk of old clothes. “Mitch, come look at what was in one of my old handbags!”

“What is it?” he asked.

“It’s a note Jenny and I found at Seal Rock Beach in San Francisco,” she answered as she stuffed the note in her pocket and continued to dig clothes out of the trunk.

 Once she had all the clothes she needed, she galloped her way back to Memory Creek Ranch with the late morning sun covered by some dark, angry clouds. After she’d changed clothes, she walked to the kitchen. As soon as she stepped into the kitchen, she realized she had no idea what to make for supper and there was no guarantee that the Black Beast would cooperate.

 “That monstrous cook stove and I should have already come to an understanding but that’s not gonna happen. All that thing and I have is, at best, a weary truce!” she said to herself.

After a little pondering, she decided to make beef stew for supper and headed out of the back door towards the ice house to grab the roast. Once she returned to the kitchen and began to unwrap the meat, Riley and an extremely loud Jared, who was screaming from his perch on Riley’s shoulder, walked in the door. “Goodness, Riley! What happened?” Andi yelled over the racket.

“His stubbornness and love for horses is becoming quite a problem. He refused to get off Coco’s back. I ended up dragging him off,” he shouted back. The twins woke up and started wailing. Andi sprinted toward the small bedroom where the twins lay in their bed, crying. She grabbed one of the squirming little ones and then the other. She stumbled into the parlor and sat down on the settee with the two screaming toddlers on her lap.

Finally, the twins stopped crying and began to crawl around the room. Just then, a sniffling Jared ran into the living room and slammed all the weight of his little body onto the settee. Andi heaved the little boy onto her lap and consoled him until he finally stopped crying.

Suddenly, she remembered the note. She reached into the pocket of her split-skirt to retrieve it. She felt around in her pockets until it suddenly hit her. The note wasn’t there. “I don’t understand! It was just in my pocket!” she exclaimed.

“What are you talking about, Andi?” Riley asked.

“A note Jenny and I found at Seal Rock in San Francisco,” she replied. “It was in my pocket just a little while ago!”

“Stay calm, I’m sure it’s around here somewhere. Let’s just retrace your steps. Where were you before we came in and loudly interrupted your stew making?” Riley offered calmly.

“I went out to the ice house to get the beef roast,” she answered while nervously fidgeting with the tip of her long dark braid.

“Then let’s check the ice house,” Riley said while grabbing Andi’s hand and beginning to head towards the back door.

Dodging raindrops, they sprinted towards the ice house. They began to search for the elusive note as soon as they reached it, but there was no note in sight.

“I don’t understand! Where else could it be?!” she whimpered.

“I’m sure we’ll find it. It has to be somewhere. It didn’t grow legs and walk away,” Riley consoled Andi. The two walked back to the house with both their clothes and spirits dampened. 

 Once they’d returned to the kitchen, Andi decided that the next place to check was the hitching post. Riley agreed, with her and replied “Sounds like a plan!” They hurried in the direction of the hitching post in hopes of finding the whereabouts of the extremely elusive note but once they reached the hitching post, there wasn’t a note to be found. Slowly, they returned to the kitchen, which was supposedly the note's last known location, to regroup.

“Are you sure you didn’t do anything in between tying Shasta down and going to the ice house?”

“No, I don’t think…” Andi started but before she could finish, it rushed back to her - what she had done in between. “Riley! I DID do something in between! I changed clothes!”

As soon as they were inside their bedroom, they opened their laundry hamper. Andi fished out her split-skirt and plunged her hand into one pocket, then the other. As she dug through the second pocket. She felt something rub against the back of her hand. After she rotated her wrist to grab it, a small rolled-up piece of paper slipped into her tense grasp.

“I found it,” she gasped as she slowly and carefully fished the note out of the pocket.

She handed the note to Riley who unrolled it. “It can’t be,” he stared at it in astonishment. Suddenly, he looked up from the note and into Andi’s eyes. “Where did you find this!?” he asked in a low voice. 

 “Jenny and I found it at Seal Rock in San Francisco just off the shore about thirteen years ago. Why?”

“Because I wrote it!”

“What?!” she started laughing. “Guess what I said the first time I read it! That sounds like Riley!” As they both collapsed onto their bed, laughing, Andi said “I guess God has a purpose for every action, thing and person!”