with patches. Some of the women wore jeans and T-shirts; others wore flowing prairie skirts, and Rose was still in her long red caftan. Vicky, the woman with blond braids, shook Julie’s hand vigorously. “You can call me Viking Vicky,” she said, with a booming laugh. “Everybody does!”
“She’s our self-appointed manager,” Aunt Nadine told Julie with a smile. “The one I told you about with ideas for saving the ranch.”
Vicky bowed low. “Fingers crossed.”
Dolores was carrying a stack of plates to the table. Instead of her black and silver outfit from the cafe, she now wore jeans and a peasant blouse. “We meet again,” she said. “Sorry about that order mixup today! My boss makes me nervous the way he’s always hovering, like he’s just waiting for me to make a mistake.” Dolores seemed bubbly and at ease now that she was home, Julie noticed.
“Being a waitress looks hard,” said Julie.
Rose winked at Dolores. “When we open our shop, you’ll quit the cafe and work with me,” she told her daughter.
The ranchers invited Julie and her mother to sit down to their simple feast of homemade cheese, whole wheat bread, potato salad, and fresh green beans. Julie sat between Dolores and Raymond.
Dolores’s father, Allen, passed Julie a plate of pale yellow butter. “Churned it myself this morning,” he said.
Julie spread a thick layer of butter on her bread. “Everything looks so good. I didn’t think I’d ever be hungry again after that burger at the cafe!”
“So you met my daughter’s boss,” Rose said. “That guy would like nothing better than to fill the whole mountain with restaurants and shopping malls!”
“He did mention wanting to build a housing development here,” said Mrs. Albright.
“I’ll bet he did! A luxury housing development.” Aunt Nadine sniffed. Grimly, she bit into her bread.
The ranchers asked Julie and her mom about their life in San Francisco. They wanted to hear about Mrs. Albright’s shop, about Julie’s sister Tracy, and about Julie’s school. Raymond listened intently. I wonder if he’s lonely, Julie thought.
Later Julie helped Aunt Nadine and Viking Vicky clear the tables, while Rose put a large pot of water onto the stove to heat. Raymond and the men went out to settle the animals for the night. After the dishes were done, Julie and her mother joined the ranchers outside.
Dusk had fallen over the mountain, and the absence of electric lights made the stars seem brighter than they were at home. Julie plopped down next to Dolores at the edge of the porch, dangled her legs over the side, and gazed up at the stars for a long time. Some ranchers sat nearby in rocking chairs; others lay on blankets at the edge of the meadow. After a while, a bear of a man named Jet, with a thick red beard and long curls, began strumming a guitar. His young wife introduced herself as Bonnie, and she held out their baby, a chubby six-month-old named Rainbow, for Julie to cuddle while she and Jet sang a folk ballad:
Oh do you remember sweet Betsy from Pike,
Who crossed the wide prairie with her husband Ike?
With two yoke of cattle, a big yellow dog,
An old Shanghai rooster and one spotted hog…
Julie stroked Rainbow’s silky curls. “Think of it,” she said to Dolores. “Pioneer babies must have crossed the prairie just like in that song!”
“They were coming west as part of the Gold Rush,” Dolores said. “And they settled in places just like this.”
“Yeah,” murmured Julie, thinking how special it would be to grow up here like baby Rainbow would—running barefoot in the meadow with the dogs, climbing trees, attending a one-room school. If Julie’s friends and their families all moved to the ranch along with Julie’s family, then there’d be a ton of kids again. Maybe Raymond would be happier. But, she realized, he’d still miss his father. And there were troubles here, Julie reminded herself, even if they seemed very far away at the moment.
“It’s heavenly here,” Mrs. Albright said dreamily.
Aunt Nadine grinned. “Well, we’ve got plenty of room for new members.”
Everybody laughed. The stars winked down at them as if sharing the joke.
The night grew darker, and people began bidding each other good night. Warm yellow lamplight glowed in the cottage windows as Julie, her mother, and Aunt Nadine strolled along the path. Back at their cottage, Julie climbed up into the loft, unrolled her sleeping bag, and curled up on the narrow cot. She could see Raymond already on the other side of the loft stretched out on his back in the dim moonlight filtering through the window.
Julie lay listening to the unfamiliar hush over the mountains, so different from the foghorns on the bay and the noisy traffic that passed outside her window in San Francisco. After what seemed like a very long time, she drifted off to sleep.
Some time later, a soft noise awoke her. In the moonlight, she saw Raymond moving to the ladder. Julie heard it creak as he climbed down, and his bare feet pad across the floor.
Then she heard the click of the front door closing.
chapter 4
Midnight in the Mine
JULIE SLID OUT of bed and peered down into the dark room. The lighted dial of her watch showed just after midnight. Where would her cousin be going at this hour?
Then she remembered the bathhouse. Of course. He’d be back in a minute or two.
She returned to her bed and lay back on the pillow, thinking about how, in winter, a trip to the bathhouse would mean heading out into the snow. Her ears strained in the darkness, listening for the cottage door to open again, but it didn’t. Where was Raymond?
She wondered whether she should alert Aunt Nadine. Maybe Raymond was sick. She slipped out of bed and went to the small window. She looked outside, hoping to spot the gleam of her cousin’s flashlight. She saw nothing. Was he sitting on the porch?
Quiet as a mouse—a city mouse—Julie climbed down the ladder. Tiptoeing past her mom on the couch, Julie opened the front door. The porch was empty. But wait, there was a light! There—at the edge of the trees. And again, moving deeper into the woods.
Julie slid her feet into her sandals and closed the door softly behind her. Quietly, she followed the path to the edge of the woods, wishing she also had a flashlight. The air was warm and scented with pine, and the moon was bright and lit the path, but as soon as she stepped into the woods, the night grew much darker. “Raymond?” she called softly.
Immediately she heard a rustling noise farther up the path, and then he was there, shining his flashlight in her face. She raised her hands to shield her eyes.
“Cripes!” he hissed at her. “What are you doing out here?”
“I was worried, and then I saw your flashlight…”
“So you just thought you’d follow
