Heartland: Ty's secret past

Chapter 1

I drove through the countryside towards a place called Heartland where I had been told I would be working during my time on probation. It was the last place I wanted to go: A ranch. I knew enough about ranches to know that they had at least a few horses on them, and after all that had happened, I never wanted to spend time around horses again. But now I didn't have a choice.

My suspicion was confirmed as I passed two girls riding on the road. Anger flooded through me as I remembered what had happened. Subconsciously, my foot pushed the pedal to the floor, the engine revving loudly. The two horses shied away from my truck; the blonde broke away from her friend and kicked her horse on, chasing after me as I carried on towards Heartland.

Stopping my truck at what seemed to be my destination, I jumped out and slammed the door. The blonde reached me, barely bothering to pull her horse up as she stopped just inches from me. Her face was contorted with anger as I stepped away from her, trying to get out of the way.

"Hey, watch it! What are you doing?" I demanded.

"I wanna know what kind of idiot revs his truck around a horse!" She said angrily, keeping her horse moving so that I had to turn to be able to see her.

"Nice to meet you too," I snapped. "Name's Ty."

She pulled her horse to a stop, confusion softening her anger. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm working." I pulled out a smoke, though I had barely put it in my mouth before the girl opened her mouth again.

"You can't smoke here," she said.

"Whatever." I put the pack back in my pocket. "Some lady hired me, alright?" I pulled out my probation form I'd be given before I left. "Marion somebody."

Something like pain flickered across her face, though she concealed it well. "My mother," she said.

"Is she as friendly as you are?" I asked, not bothering to look at her.

"She was killed in a car accident a few weeks ago."

"You'll be staying here," The old man said, leading me into the space above the barn the horses were kept in.

"Well it's no palace, that's for sure." I walked into the room and dropped my bag and guitar case on the bed. "There's no bars on the windows, so guess it'll do." I turned back to him and spoke of what had been bothering me since finding out where I would be coming to. Trying to be casual, I said, "Hey, what's the deal with the horses?"

"Why? You got a problem with them?" He said gruffly.

I shrugged, turning away so that he wouldn't see my face as memories of my past started to resurface. The old man turned towards the exit, but paused.

"By the way, you keep ten feet away from my granddaughters at all times," he said in a threatening tone. "Any part of you that crosses that line will be removed."

After being threatened to be disembowelled by the old man, I began unpacking what few possessions I still owned. As I dumped my clothes unceremoniously into the old wooden drawers, I could hear the horses in the barn below me moving around restlessly. Just the sounds of the barn, of the horses stamping and snorting in their stalls, brought back so many memories. They were memories that I had once treasured, but during the past year I had been trying to forget them. They were what had caused everything to go so wrong.

I couldn't remember the last time I had had a good, homecooked meal. I ate dinner in the ranch house with the old mana, aka Jack Bartlett, and his two granddaughters, one of which was the angry blonde who had yelled at me and tried to run me over with her horse. My plate was piled high with food, which I was still adding to.

"So what's with this place?" I asked. "Heartland?"

As Jack explained the farms history, I reached across Lou, the older of his granddaughters, for more food. The atmosphere between Lou and her younger sister Amy seemed tense as they disagreed on the fact that Lou worried more about the profit made than the animals on the ranch.

"Our mother set this place up as a rescue centre for horses after our dad left when we were kids," Lou explained. I tensed up at the mention of horses. Across the table, I caught Amy looking at me suspiciously, though when she saw that I had caught her looking at me, she quickly looked away and continued Lou's explanation.

"My mother was like a horse whisperer," she said quietly.

"What, like a horse shrink?" I asked as I shovelled food into my mouth. I kept eating as Amy explained more about what her mother did, though it didn't make sense to me what they planned to do now she was gone. "So what's gonna happen now?"

"I guess we'll carry on," Jack said. "Just like we did before."

I wasn't used to family dinners, or family disagreements, so I chose to focus more on the food than what Amy and Lou were arguing about, only looking up when Amy stormed out, slamming the door behind her. The atmosphere remained tense, Lou still annoyed and Jack seeming frustrated; disappointed.

After the pie we had for desert, I returned to my loft where I lay awake for hours with no choice but to listen to the horses and dwell in my memories.