The Ninth Nugget

Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose watched the small airplane rise into the late afternoon sky. They’d just arrived in Bozeman, Montana, for a week’s vacation at the Western Wheat dude ranch.

As the kids waited outside the airport for their ride, the sky turned purple. The sun slipped slowly behind the mountains.

“What time is it?” Josh asked. “They said someone would pick us up at five o’clock.”

Ruth Rose checked her watch. “It’s twenty past,” she said.

Dink shielded his eyes against the setting sun. “This might be him,” he said.

A dusty station wagon pulled up and stopped. A lanky, smiling guy swung out of the driver’s seat. “Are you the kids from Connecticut?” he asked.

Dink nodded. “Are you from Wheat Ranch?”

“You betcha, and welcome to Montana!” the man said. “Sorry I’m late. I’m Jud Wheat.”

“I’m Dink, and these are my friends Josh and Ruth Rose,” Dink said.

Jud was long-legged and looked about twenty years old. He wore jeans, a western shirt, and scuffed cowboy boots.

“Let me get your stuff,” Jud said. He grabbed the kids’ backpacks and slung
them into the car through a rear window.

“Hop in and let’s ride!” he said.

Ruth Rose and Josh rode up front with Jud. Dink sat behind them with the backpacks, a jumble of harnesses, and a saddle.

“What’s that smell?” Josh asked.

Jud laughed. “Some of it’s horse, some of it’s leather, and the rest is me,” he said as he pulled onto the main road.

Only a few other cars and trucks
shared the country road. Through his window, Dink saw plenty of flat land and millions of cows behind neat fences.

“You kids looking forward to riding horses this week?” Jud asked.

“Um, I never rode a horse before,” Josh said.

“No problem,” Jud said. “Most of our guests haven’t. I’ll show you all you need to know.”

“What do you do at the ranch?” Ruth Rose asked Jud.

“A little of everything, miss,” he answered. “My folks own the place, and I grew up there. I was supposed to go back to college this fall, but I have to stay on to help out. The ranch isn’t earning much money these days.”

“What are you going to college for?” asked Dink.

“I want to be a teacher,” Jud said.
“I’d rather spend my days with kids than cows.”

Jud pulled up in front of a gas station. “Gotta fill up,” he said, stepping out of the car. “I’ll just be a minute.”

The kids watched as Jud pumped gas into the wagon. Then he loped toward the cashier’s window, reaching into his back pocket for his wallet.

“I hope he brings back a few candy bars,” Josh said. “I’m starving.”

Dink laughed. “After eating about twenty bags of peanuts on the plane?”

Jud stomped back to the car and flung himself into the driver’s seat.

“Can you beat that?” he said. “I go into my wallet to pay, and it’s totally empty! I’m almost positive I had two twenties in there this afternoon.”

Jud shook his head, then grinned. “Well, good thing I had my credit card. Otherwise, we’d be walking!”

Jud drove through more countryside. Dink had never seen so much land! He rolled down his window and felt a hot, dry breeze.

“Look, a hawk!” Josh suddenly yelled.

“He’s looking for a nice fat mouse for his supper,” Jud said.

Just then Josh’s stomach let out a loud growl.

“Someone else is hungry,” Jud said, grinning. “We’ll be there in a few minutes. How’d you kids happen to pick our dude ranch?”

“We didn’t pick it,” Dink answered. “A friend of ours gave us this trip as a gift.”

Jud grinned into the rearview mirror. “Nice friend,” he said.

“His lottery ticket was stolen, and we got it back for him,” Ruth Rose explained.

“You mean the ticket was a winner?” asked Jud.

“Yeah,” Josh added. “He got seven million bucks!”

Jud whistled. “Seven
thousand
bucks would help the ranch,” he said. Minutes later, he turned through a gate into a dirt driveway. A sign hanging over the gate said WHEAT RANCH.

Straight ahead was a red barn and corral. To the left, Dink saw a large white house. Behind it was a pond surrounded by trees and cabins. Ducks and chickens pecked in the grass bordering the driveway.

“This is so beautiful!” Ruth Rose said. “Can I feed the chickens?”

“Sure can, missy,” Jud said. He stopped in front of the house.

On the porch sat a man and a woman in two wooden rocking chairs. The man had white hair and looked like an older version of Jud. The woman had black hair turning gray. They both wore boots, jeans, and flannel shirts.
Their tanned faces were covered with smile wrinkles.

“Those are my folks,” Jud said. “Everyone calls ’em Ma and Pa.”

Jud’s parents hurried down the porch steps. “Welcome to Wheat Ranch!” Ma Wheat said. “You must be Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose.”

“Howdy!” said Pa Wheat.

Just then the screen door banged open. A stout woman wearing a backwards baseball cap strode onto the porch. Over her jeans and western shirt, she wore a long white apron.

“And that’s Lulu, the best cook in Montana,” Jud said as he dumped the kids’ backpacks onto the porch.

Lulu smiled at the kids. “They feed you anything on the plane?” she asked.

“Just peanuts,” Josh said. “I’m starving!”

“Supper will be ready in fifteen
minutes. Listen for the bell,” Lulu said, pointing at an iron triangle hanging from the porch roof.

“I’ll take you to your cabin,” a deep voice said.

Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose whipped around. A man had walked up behind them. Wild hair poked out from under
a sweat-stained cowboy hat. His skin looked like wrinkled leather.

“I’m Thumbs,” the man said. As he reached for the kids’ backpacks, Dink saw that one of the man’s thumbs was missing.