Idaho 2: Electric Boogaloo (Vince vrs. Anita's Dad, Fight!)

[Anita Fernandez]

The first full day that Vince and Anita are at the family ranch, Vince gets called off after breakfast to 'tour the ranch'. Anita's dad gets into a different humvee, Vince is riding shotgun.

"So, ya go ta school with Anita, you in the superhero program?"

[Vincent Taylor]

Vince nodded, looking out at the passing property as they talked. "Yep. They said they'd pay my tuition as long as I was. Keeps things interesting, I'll tell you that."

[Anita Fernandez]

"I bet. Some of the stories I hear from my girl worry me, but she's got her power, an' that seems ta do a pretty good job of protectin' her. What's yer power, if ya don't mind me askin'?"

[Vincent Taylor]

"I'm a psychic," he said. "Among other things, I can keep anyone in constant mental contact, wherever they go, as long as they all start out in the same place. That's what I end up doing most."

[Anita Fernandez]

Mr. Fernandez nods. "Sounds useful." The humvee moves up over a rise, and on the other side is this really cool looking pasture with a tree and a pond and a small house near them.

"This is the old family house, my great grandpa built it when he first moved ta the area."

[Vincent Taylor]

Vincent smiled a little as he looked at the old house. "How long has your family had the ranch? Or the property, I guess, if it wasn't always a ranch."

[Anita Fernandez]

"It was a ranch right away, we started with sheep, moved on ta horses. It's been in the family pretty much since Idaho was settled, every generation added on ta it, though that's gettin' harder nowadays."

[Vincent Taylor]

Vince gave a low whistle. "Wow," he said, suitably impressed. That now-familiar feeling of intimidation started welling up again, but he pushed it back down.

[Anita Fernandez]

"Don't worry 'bout it too much, we're just folks round here. In fact..." He pulls the humvee to a stop. "Those fuckin' guys. Ya see that fence post that's down? Come on son, let's get that fixed." Mr. Fernandez hops out of the truck.

[Vincent Taylor]

"Sure thing," Vince said, climbing out as he looked to see what was wrong that Mr. Fernandez had noticed.

[Anita Fernandez]

About a hundred feet down the fenceline, there's a post that's down, and the split-rail fence is open at that point. Mr. Fernandez trudges out in the snow, heaves the post up, and directs Vince to pack some rocks in tight around the post in the hole.

"The horses are well trained enough ta not jump fences, but if they see a hole they'll go straight fer it."

[Vincent Taylor]

"Got it," Vince said, starting to pack the rocks in around it. The rocks Vince picked seemed fairly heavy, and likely would do a good job holding the post in place, even if the boy didn't seem to have any trouble carrying them.

[Anita Fernandez]

"Good, now let's get these rails back up. That'll hold it hopefully until spring, can't fix this properly until the ground thaws."

He gets the rails on the left side of the post, dropping them into the slots.

[Vincent Taylor]

Vince set to work on the right side, getting the posts dropped into place along with the ones on the other side. All it took was a quick look at the next post to see how it should look, and he went to it.

[Anita Fernandez]

Mr. Fernandez smiles at Vince. He pulls out a pack of cigarettes, lights one, takes a puff, and then offers the pack to Vince.

[Vincent Taylor]

Vince shook his head and held up a hand, not seeming bothered by the fact that Mr. Fernandez was smoking. "Stupid mutant thing. Can't ever get used to them, always end up hacking up a lung. It's kind of embarassing," he chuckled.

[Anita Fernandez]

"Naw, it's better if ya don't start. Hell of a nasty habit." He takes another long drag. "Don't tell 'Nita, or my wife I was smokin'."

[Vincent Taylor]

Vince smirked. "Yeah, there's the other half of the reason, Anita'd probably give me hell if she saw me smoking. Secret's safe."

[Anita Fernandez]

Mr. Fernandez sighs. "I dunno what Anita told ya, or what ya expected from this conversation. I just want ta get a sense of where yer head is at. If you don't want ta marry my girl, that's fine, I understand she's gonna have boyfriends. If you two are really serious, I'd like ta know."

[Vincent Taylor]

"It's hard to say," Vince admitted candidly. "We've known each other about a month, so it's hard to say if things are serious or not. We talked about it once, and we decided that it was just too fast to start saying we were serious without feeling things out a little more."

[Anita Fernandez]

"But you'd like ta be around for a while?"

[Vincent Taylor]

"If she'll have me," Vince confirmed.

[Anita Fernandez]

Mr. Fernandez nods. "You a god-fearin' man?"

[Vincent Taylor]

Vince shrugged honestly. "I don't not fear him, I suppose. It's just never something I've ever had a reason to give much serious thought to."

[Anita Fernandez]

"What I really mean ta ask is, are ya church-goin'?"

[Vincent Taylor]

"Same answer, pretty much. I've got no problem going, but it's not something I had instilled in me growing up."

[Anita Fernandez]

He nods. "And what do ya see yerself doin' after school's done?"

[Vincent Taylor]

Vince sighed at that. "You know, I've been worrying about that question just about every day since they told me I could go to school there? I'm not sure. I'm really not. I'm hoping that my first semester might help me come up with a few answers to that, because I really don't have the time to be able to fool around without a goal."

[Anita Fernandez]

"Hmmm, well, as long as ya know that a man's got ta have a goal in life." He shrugs, and motions toward the truck. "Alright, I'll lay off the inqusition. Let's finish the drive, an' get some hot buttered rum. Goddamn but it's cold out here."

[Vincent Taylor]

"Man, isn't it?" Vince said as they made their way back to the Hummer. "I didn't think anything would make me miss Cali, but all this cold weather's doing the trick."

[Anita Fernandez]

Mr. Fernandez chuckles. "The summers here are hot. I've been to places that don't have seasons though, an' it's pretty borin'."

Once back in the truck, he points out other cool things that Vince might be interested in as they drive, without overloading Vince with information. It's not every part of the ranch, just four or five more landmarks.

[Vincent Taylor]

"Yeah, that'd be Cali," Vince said dryly. He was attentive on the way back, and seemed to have a good sense of direction and where they were in relation to where they'd started.

[Anita Fernandez]

True to his word, Mr. Fernandez doesn't bug Vince about the relationship any more, the two of them have a hot buttered rum when they get back, while Anita is busy doing something with her mom.