The drive from Lake Point to Tessa's house was always the least fun part of Spring Break for Karyn. Several hours of nothing to do but gaze out the window and watch the landscape steadily get taller, rockier, and snowier where the mountains finally reached above the weightless clouds would have been serene, in a way, if she wasn't having to deal with steadily cramping legs and highway hypnosis at the same time. The Ranch in the Valley was well worth the wait, she knew that full well; but idly, she found herself wishing there were any way to get there and back without spending hours stuck in a particularly speedy metal box.
Sophie, her 5-years-younger sister, had taken what was probably the smarter approach to road trips in that she was slumped over in her seat, snoozing away and dead to the world even as it flew by underneath her. Mom had control of the radio for now, and was using it play what was, in Karyn's opinion, an absolute snoozer of a podcast dedicated to baking the world's most perfectest soufflé, and Dad, being the driver, was laser-focused on each and every road sign that passed them by far more than he was on the actual passengers of the vehicle. Karyn sighed, finding herself really really lamenting Sean's absence for now: she and her older brother would probably have been whiling away the time playing games or telling stories or discussing video games or, just, doing anything at all to help make the boredom less insufferable together if he had been here, but no, this year Sean was driving his own vehicle down from college and there was no need to pack everyone into the family car like it was a tin of sardines. Lucky them...?
Karyn only started to come out of trance with the realization that the car had slowed down and was starting to turn, transitioning from smooth asphalt to the bumpiness of a caliche road. Looking outside, Karyn was struck by a wave of familiarity: she knew this turn! Uncle Todd's ranch was only a few miles down the road from here!
"Hey... hey, Sophie," Karyn said, lightly shaking her sibling awake.
"Whaauuuuaaat?" she grumbled, not moving.
"We're almost there, Soph," Karyn replied while stretching out her own stiff joints, at least, as much as she could while stuck in the confines of the back seat. "In just a few minutes, little sis, the vacation will have officially begun!"
"Whoop di doo," Sophie grumbled as sarcastically as if Karyn had just announced a tax audit. "Couldn't we have just stayed home and slept in this year, for once? Maybe spend spring break like it's, y'know, an actual break?" she continued while rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
"Oh, where's the fun in that, little missy?" Dad interjected as Mom turned off the podcast. "It's a big, fantastic world out there, just ripe for the exploring and pregnant with discovery! Do you really wanna miss it all laying around in bed all day?"
"But beds are cooozy!" Sophie complained when she'd finally managed an upright position. "And besides, what are you talking about with this 'discovery' junk? We go to Uncle Todd's ranch every single year."
"And I'm sure Uncle Todd and his family really appreciate the company, sweetie," Mom countered. "They don't get too many visitors way out here, you know. Think of just how happy you're making them by coming out to play!" Both Karyn and her sister knew Mom wasn't exactly the biggest fan of her brother-in-law's Annual Mountain Adventures™, either, but politely putting up with it just so everyone could have a good time was just the sort of person she was.
"We aren't exactly friends..." Sophie muttered.
"Nope, we're family," Karyn shot back. "And I, for one, can't wait to see Tessa and Sean again after what feels like a heckin' eternity since the last big get together! Life just hasn't been the same since Sean moved out and got busy with college, y'all: a bit of catching up is long overdue, I say!"
"That's the spirit, missy!" Dad encouraged as they pulled up to the main cabin. "And hey, speak of the devil: if it isn't the farmer's daughter herself waiting for us, out near the porch!"
Karyn took a look outside, and sure enough, there she was: a tall, lithe, muscular-but-feminine figure in a flannel shirt and men's jeans, throwing a tennis ball out for a retriever that proceeded to ignore it and instead bark like mad at the incoming car. Hair that was red like Karyn's (currently) but longer and curlier framed a heavily freckled face that turned to see just what her dog was barking at. She was Karyn's oldest and most favorite cousin.
"TESSAAAA!" Karyn bolted out of the car and dived in for a tackle hug the moment the car was in park, but Tessa, dang her, she was bigger than Karyn and could stay upright no matter how much force Karyn threw into the pounce.
She giggled. "Nice try, Karyn, but y'all ain't gon' knock me over t'day, ya sprite!" Tess returned the hug with a squeeze strong enough to drive the breath out of Karyn. "Howdy-do, pard? Feels like I ain't seen y'all in ages!"
"So, much, better, now that I'm outta that blasted cramped machine!" Karyn said, pulling out of the hug and jerking a thumb back to the car they'd driven there in. The rest of the family was slowly filtering out of said car and had mostly gotten straight to the business of unloading the trunk, with the exception of Sophie, who was taking a moment to let Tessa's dog Chirp sniff around her tired frame and, deciding that Sophie was not an intruder, start begging for attention. "I mean, I guess it could've been worse, but I'm telling you, the 'road' part of road trips isn't ever going to be my thing. Did you drive yourself here, Tess?"
Tessa nodded with a shrug. "I dun mind it so much. 'S kinda nice t' zone out fer a lil' while an' jus' git where yer goin', I says. But then, I guess my vet school's some'ut closer t' here than Lake Point. But then again, I guess that really dun matter so much as all y'all finally bein' here! Welcome back t' our lil Ranch in the Valley, y'all! Ya need a hand?" Tess asked while turning her attention to the rest of the Black family, unloading their car.
"Yes, please, dear," came Mom's reply. "Would you mind grabbing some of Sophie's things for her? She seems a bit, ehm, preoccupied at the moment." What had started as a gentle push of the dog away from her had somehow turned into a session of playful pets and wrestling between Chirp and Sophie, with the latter "trapped" by the needy former. Tessa laughed and called "heel" to her dog, which came bounding by her side almost instantly.
"Sure thang, aunt Beth, I got it," Tessa called out, taking a couple of the heavier suitcases and hoisting them up over her shoulder as easily as if they were empty.
"'All y'all bein' here', huh?" Karyn asked in imitation of Tessa's country-girl accent, whilst grabbing her own suitcases to bring in. "I guess that means Sean beat us here, then? Where is he!?" she asked Tessa hopefully.
"Oh, uh, he ain't here yet, Kare," Tessa said apologetically. "'Parently, he got held up last-minute leavin' town an' had t' leave later 'n what he wanted. Last we heard, he's stopped t' git gas in Trenton, so by Ma's math, he should be here not long after supper."
"Oh." Karyn's face fell quite a bit. "Well, understandable, I guess. It happens. I, uh, hope Aunt Marie wasn't planning to make anything special, then."
"Naw, jus' some hash," Tessa replied after setting down Sophie's bags where she'd probably be sleeping. "No need t' go crazy night one, when e'eryone's tired from drivin' an' thar's always a couple stragglers what get held up. 'Sides, it's your mama what's famous fer all the fancy cookin', ain't it?"
"Only among people she cooks for," Karyn said with a smile, setting down her own suitcase for now. "And remember, Tess, you only eat her stuff when we're on vacation, and she has all the time she needs to cook up something real special. Back home things tend to be more rushed and plainer."
"Ain't she one a the top dogs at the diner she works at?" Tess asked. "I think y'all're either spoilt by her, er jus' too modest."
Karyn shrugged, but smiled wider. "I guess that depends on how much your experiences are really shaped by how you grew up. I think mom's a pretty good chef herself, but then I also think she seems better than she really is because most housewives don't really make a concerted effort to really learn how to cook at a deep level; they just blindly follow the recipe or run with their guesses at things, y'know?"
"Now that there's definitely yer mama talkin', not you yerself, Kare." Tessa said with a grin and slight shake of her head. The conversation fell off for a moment while Tessa returned to the Black family car and grabbed out a cooler full of food and things they'd brought for their stay out at the ranch (it was too remote a location to make frequent grocery trips practical). "An' I tell ya, Kare, this big boy," Tess eventually resumed with a slap on the cooler when she'd gotten it hoisted onto a shoulder, "is what tells me fer darn sure yer jus' yankin' my chain. How much d'ya wanna bet yer ma's rummaging through my ma's kitchen right now, makin' sure she's got dern-near everythang she could need set up jus' how she wants it?"
"Not this close to dinnertime, with Aunt Marie's hash on the stove," Karyn replied.
"Touché," Tessa conceded. "The moment the hubbub around suppertime gets settlin' down, then. Actually, no wait, there she is, 'long with dern-near e'eryone else, looks like."
Tess and Karyn entered the kitchen to find that indeed, the kitchen had somehow become the unofficial gathering room in the time it had taken them to ferry Sophie's stuff to her bed and grab the cooler. Mom and Dad were shooting the breeze with Aunt Marie and Uncle Todd, Grandma and Grandpa Black had started showering grandparent's love onto Sophie and "just how BIG she was getting!" and Tessa's little brother Brent was... well, he was just kinda there, watching but not really interacting. He didn't look awfully thrilled about having all the company over, which didn't surprise Karyn hardly at all, really. Brent kinda reminded Karyn of Zoe Gibson, on reflection, in that he was the moody everything-hating younger sibling of someone she was actual friends with, though he didn't share her gothic outlook or sense of fashion; it mostly manifested as an attitude that insert-thing-here was beneath him, such as this little family reunion for instance. Which was fine; she'd ignore him too, if he played that game.
"Ey, y'all, go on, git!" Aunt Marie called out, stopping her conversation with Karyn's parents a moment to clear a path between herself and Tess. "'S that Aunt Bethany's foodstuff, Tess?" after a quick "sure is, ma," Marie continued "Well, be a dear an' go put up the stuff before it thaws, k, sweetheart? Make sure your aunt can find it all later, too!" And with that, Tessa disappeared in a puff that sounded a lot like "sure thang, ma." Mom excused herself and followed her, while Marie returned her attention to the hash on the stove.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Tessa's favorite little sprite," Uncle Todd said as an amused greeting, reaching out a firm hand for Karyn to shake. He was a lean, tall man, broad of shoulder and with a face seemingly perpetually coated in stubble and covered by a baseball cap. "Dun tell me you two are already planning out whatever wild shenanigans yer going t' get into over the break?"
"I just got here, man, be patient!" Karyn replied, clapping the hand to shake. "The wild shenanigans will be here in due time!"
"Yeah, bro, be careful what you wish for here: You just know my daughter's good for it!" Dad added, contributing to the general laughter.
"Well, don't let her spend all her time forgetting her dear old grandmother, Jim!" interjected the aforementioned grandmother. She was pretty spry for an almost 70-year old, as long as she took enough meds to deal with her back pain, anyway. According to stories and old photos, her own long wavy hair had once been as red as Karyn's and Tessa's were, but all Karyn had ever personally known it as was snow white. "I hardly see her any these days anyway!" she continued as she embraced Karyn in a gentle hug.
"Well, I'll do what I can, but I understand Sophie's on a quest to steal y'all away while I'm out with Tessa and company," Karyn said with a smirk at her little sister, who by now was fully awake and rolling her eyes at Karyn. "I'm afraid I'll just have to steal you back!"
"Yeah, just you try and do that in between the 9 squillion other things you've got planned for this spring break," Sophie joked.
"Like dinner?" Aunt Marie jumped in. "It's nearly ready, y'all, once we get the table set we'll be ready t' eat. Who's hungry?"
