Love In The Wild West

“It is something I have always wanted to do,” said Lila. “I just never felt like the city was the place I was meant to be, you know? I grew up here, but I always loved the country whenever I went there with my family. Life seemed so much simpler there. It was the way people are meant to live. We are not meant to close ourselves up in little boxes and earn money like this, it’s not natural. No, we are meant to be in the wild, using our hands to earn our money, sweating to earn our keep. That, I think, is how life is supposed to be lived.”

“It will be such difficult work, though,” said Matthew. “I mean, over here we have air conditioning and we can sit in comfortable chairs and do easy tasks to earn almost as much as a ranch hand earns. A ranch hand would have to get up earlier and put a lot more effort into the work that he or she does. Is not this easier?”

“Easier is not always better,” said Lila. “I mean, it’s easier but it’s boring too, at the same time. If I could work at a ranch or something, the work would be so much more fulfilling. I would feel like I was doing something productive with my time. I would take care of cattle, and I would watch them grow. That would be something that I can be proud of, you know? And I would be involved in something that lives and breathes, not in some kind of factory that prints money the way I am right now. I really think that working at a ranch would be a dream job for me. I don’t think that I am ever going to be able to do it, but that is life. I can dream about the things I want, even though I am never going to be able to get these things.”

“Maybe you will,” said Matthew. “Who knows, right? Maybe your life is about to change and you just do not know it yet. Stranger things have happened. My father, an electrician, married my mother, who was a real southern belle and far higher in her social standing than my father. That was an odd pair if I ever saw one, and a very unlikely occurrence, but it happened. So who knows, you might go home and find out that your dream job at a ranch is waiting for you.”

“That is a nice thought,” said Lila, “but I highly doubt it. Life just doesn’t work that way. We do not just suddenly get what we want, we have to work for it to make sure that it happens.”

“So can you not work to make sure that your dream of working at a ranch comes true?” asked Matthew.

“I would like that,” said Lila, “but where would I even start? I have been obsessed with ranches and cowboys since I was a little girl, I know how everything works, but I do not know how to get a job at a ranch. I am a black city girl, I am not the kind of person that ranch owners generally hire. I would have to jump through a lot of hoops to get anywhere near a ranch.”

“That is true,” said Matthew. “I am sorry. I wish it was easier for you.”

“Me too,” said Lila, “But it’s okay. I have come to terms with the fact that my dream is probably never coming true.”

“Do not ever lose hope, Lila,” said Matthew. “Do not ever lose hope.”

*****

It had been a ridiculously tiring day at work, and Lila was looking forward to getting home and just curling up under her quilt with a book. Her best friend and roommate, Louise, would probably have gotten home a while ago from her job as a waitress and she probably would have cooked up something to eat. This was one benefit that Lila got from working at a bank. She earned more than Louise and so was able to contribute more money to the running of the household. This meant that Louise generally did the cooking and cleaning so that it would be more evenly distributed between them.

Lila was starting to think, however, that doing the housework would be worth not earning as much money as she was now, especially after the day that she had just had. She had had to deal with three very difficult customers apart from the dozen or so normal customers that she got after her lunch break, not counting the old racist man that had wanted to open up a bank account. She had had to deal with each and every one of them with the utmost politeness and it really set her teeth on edge and made her feel like she was going crazy.

She was so exhausted by the time she left work that she did not even check her phone. She just marched out of the bank and got into her car, moving like a zombie. She was alive, but she did not feel alive. She felt like her soul was being crushed under the weight of this job that she had to do in order to support herself.

Life was a very difficult thing to get through, especially in today’s modern day and age. You have to compromise on a lot of things just to survive, and after a little while people start to become sick of it and no one can really blame them. Lila was no different from anybody else. She was sick of feeling like her life was not heading anywhere. She was sick of feeling like she was some kind of tool that could be used to count money and hand it out to people and be paid a terrible wage for it.

As she got home, she started to wonder if Matthew knew something she didn’t. He had kept saying that anything was possible, he had kept telling her that she should not lose hope. As Lila approached the door to her home she began to wonder what might be behind it. She began to wonder if Louise might be there with the news that Lila had gotten a job at a ranch, and that Louise had just gotten a call to tell her that. Lila hoped beyond all hope that there was something behind the door that would make her feel like her life was heading somewhere.

She opened the door and saw Louise standing in the kitchen wearing boy shorts and a loose t shirt and cooking pasta. “Hey there!” said Louise with a tired smile. She had dark circles around her eyes because she had to work so much. Lila felt so bad for her best friend, she felt so bad for the fact that Louise had to kill herself working just to get the very basic things from her life.