LIGHTNING PLAINS

I was 14 years old the summer I left the ranch. Well, truth be told I was two months shy of my birthday in one of the hottest summers of the year. I was a man of 14 years; too old to stay at home minding the women and the few dairy cows nursing their calves. It was time for me to be on the range. I dreamt of the wind in my hair, the bellowing of the cattle, the songs of the cow hands drifting across the cloudless sky. It was my summer. So I left...