Happy Friday everyone. It is going to be a busy one so let’s just jump right into the prompt and get pour brains moving. Everyone into the mental pool!
This was okay. Not my favorite but something I could work with, especially as a short story.
Friday, November 4th: The hat was too large.
The hat was too large. It kept slipping over his ears and sliding down over his eyes.
“Perfect fit,” Carl said.
Mike tilted up the wide brim of the hat. He stood looking at his soon to be step-brother. Carl was two years older and had been working at the ranch since the age of fourteen. Now at nineteen he considered it his home away from home.
He also considered Mike an interloper.
It hadn’t been Mike’s choice to work here for the summer. His plans involved places that were more indoors and had air-conditioning. He didn’t mind working. In a strange way he rather enjoyed putting money into his account and watching it grow. He loved finding the best interest rates and on just watching the steady growth. He felt the interest was in some way a reward for putting his money in a safe place and resisting the temptation to spend it. He had often been told he had the soul of an accountant.
He was fine with that.
He wasn’t fine with the large animals he would be expected to interact with or the guests he would need to herd along with the animals, and all while keeping both groups safe from one another. He had other plans. But this was considered bonding by his mother and soon to be step-father. His soon to be step-father also thought it would make a man o out if him to work with large animals.
Carl just thought he was intruding on his space.
Still no argument he made convinced them that this was where he belonged for the summer so out he was sent. And now Carl was helping him get his uniform sorted. Mike knew his sizes on all of the other clothing, but was at a loss with the hat. He had never worn a hat of any variety. Despite Carl’s assurances that this one was just right, Mike knew it was too big.
Carl made his way to the front of the room, his body already taking on the swagger that the year round employees seemed to find natural. Next to them, Mike felt like he darted like a mouse. He did not amble. He moved quickly and quietly from place to place.
Mike took the two large hat off his head, checked the sixing and while Carl was looking elsewhere, exchanged it for a smaller one. The one he chose looked exactly kikt the one Carl picked out but it didn’t slide down over his eyes when he gave it an experimental try on. Mike quickly took it off his head and stepped away from the table, following Carl up to the front.
Carl looked back and smirked when he saw Mike apparently still holding the hat he picked out. They settled up at the front and Mike and Carl left the building. Carl had no hesitation and went walking towards their bunkhouse. All of the summer workers slept in the same long low building. It looked like a cowboy themed dormitory to Mike, but he said nothing and reminded himself it was called a bunkhouse.
Ten til Midnight 