WHO: Henry March & Melanie Taylor. WHEN: Friday Evening. WHERE: Henry’s property. SUMMARY: Henry and Melanie have a chat about her future.
When the crust of the tart she’d been working on cracked when she was taking it out of the pan Melanie had had enough of this day. She did not cry - because that would be stupid. But she did walk around slamming doors until she got her bike out and headed towards Henry Marches property.
Just seeing the horses made her feel a little bit better. And she was confident that feeling would increase once she could get herself into a saddle.
There was a calm out in his field that didn’t existed for his forays into town. Especially now with the descent of the film crew. Luckily his property had been undeveloped back then, and for the most part the crew had taken care to avoid him. Which he was fine with on many levels.
As he mucked out the stalls there was the tell tale chime of someone walking into the barn. Not that it was a surprise, people came in and out of here all the time. As long as everything was left the way they found it Henry never had an issue. He stepped out of the stall he was working on, smiling just slightly. “Afternoon.”
Once she was in the barn she looked from stall to stall, seeing which of the horses seemed to be available. She wasn’t entirely surprised to find Henry already in here. She smiled at him. “Hi, Mr. March. Do you mind if I go for a ride?”
That was met with a shrug, because he never did. He knew she knew how to ride anyway so it wasn’t like that was a concern. “Probably take out Padget or Lucille. Badger’s been a bit spooked since the storm and Rocky’s, well, Rocky.”
Melanie frowned, looking towards Badger’s stable. He was her favorite but she always took Henry’s advice when it came to the horses. Afterall, he’d been kind enough to teach her how to ride without asking for anything else in return. The least she could do was listen to him and respect the horses need for rest.
“Okay, can I help you with anything first?” She asked.
“You can always help.” Henry answered with a tilt towards the stalls. Melanie was usually a good kid, ready to jump in to do things. He didn’t mind the free help, though he still had a manageable enough size that he could pretty much do the work himself. “If it makes you happy to do so, Badger’s stall’s the last one I’ve got to clean out.”
“Sure.” She stepped toward Badger’s stall. “Did everyone except Badger do alright during the storm?”
“For the most part.” Henry motioned up towards the loft. “I was here for most of it anyway, the big babies.”
“I mean that’s not so bad,” She motioned to the loft. “I bet someone would be okay with renting that place, if you wanted some extra cash.” Though she supposed farm smells weren’t for everyone. “Or even just city hipsters would come for like a day to take all the selfies to show their friend at the airbnb they stayed at.”
Henry looked up at the loft. It technically did have all the amenities that an apartment would have. “Being a landlord sounds like it’d be a pain in the ass.” he mused at the thought of some annoying film member somehow deciding to come live here instead of the inn, for ‘authenticity’.
That was probably true and it likely would be worse right now with the the film crew here. “Probably. But I don’t know, my neighbor keeps telling me real estate is where,” She raised her hands to use air quotes, “All the money is.” Melanie shrugged her shoulders. “She’s clearly infecting my brain.”
At that Henry laughed. He was pretty sure even if he tried it would be next to impossible for him to spend all the money he had accumulated. “I think I’m good on funds. But if you need backing to become a slumlord I’ll write you a check.”
Melanie laughed because she really didn’t know how else to react to that offer. People who let you ride their horses for free (and taught you how - again, for free) really shouldn’t be offering to write you a blank check for a business venture. Especially one she wasn’t even passionate about, just her nosy neighbor telling her what she thought Melanie should do with the rest of her life ‘rather than working on that farm and baking on the side’.
It was always interesting to Henry how different people reacted to things like that. There were a surprising amount of people in Fall City that didn’t jump on it, even if he offered them as jokes. Money made people strange more often than not.
“Well if not a slumlord, then do you have any other adventurous possibly neighbor inspired plans?” he asked as he went back to work.
She still wasn’t quite sure how to take the question. Either he was still offering her a check or he was just interested in hearing about her interested. It was easier for her brain to process the second. “Oh, nothing neighbor inspired. I mean, I like to bake. Although sometimes I still fuck it up and it gets super frustrating. So, I’m definitely not anywhere near as good as I need to be for that to be a thing I can pursue anyway.”
“Practice makes perfect. Or something inspirational like that.” Henry mused through the muck. “But if you like doing it then might as well stick with it. Who knows, maybe you’ll get to be on the great British Bake Off whenever they bring it over here.”
She supposed it was her duty as a youth to inform him that had already happened. “I guess I should look into when they have auditions for The Great American Baking Show. With any luck they have some take place in Seattle.”
“Guess so. Hadn’t seen that on netflix yet. But maybe I haven’t looked very hard.”
“I don’t know if it made it’s way to Netflix or not but it was alright. I like the hosts on the British one more.” She started to get to work, trying, as much as possible, to be helpful rather than slow Henry down.
“Good to know, I probably won’t watch it unless you show up then.” He went quiet for a moment as they worked. “You know, you could talk to Wynnie. If that’s something you want to do.”
“Oh, yea, Wynnie has been encouraging. And like, obviously, knows what to do. But I’m just not sure I’m really ready yet. Like this past week I have been trying to perfect this tart and I swear on every single one something goes wrong and-” She sighed loudly. “Sorry, I’m kind of rambling now. I just feel like I need to be better.”
“Maybe.” Because Henry wasn’t going to give her some worthless advice like ’just do what you love and it’ll all be okay’. That was bullshit they fed to kids to keep them thinking that they were inadequate even at what they loved. It was a lot easier to love what you did with money. “Thing is, you spend all your time trying to be better, you don’t actually have an end result. But hey, you’re young, you’ve really got all the time in the world to figure that stuff out.”
It was refreshing to not be told to figure out a way to go to school or that she needed to take a risk. She was young. And she did have time. Melanie was pretty sure she wouldn’t spend half her life just trying to perfect this one tart. “I think figuring out my end goal would be having a bakery. I just don’t know that I have anything that makes my stuff unique yet.”
“You’ll figure something out. And if you don’t, you’ll find something else.” Melanie was a smart kid, he had at least that much faith that she would find another path. He wasn’t someone to go on about school, beloved college drop out that he was. The world needed all kinds of people.
“Thanks, Mr. March.” She straightened back up as they finished up in the stable. “I think I probably will too.”
“Good talk.” Henry nodded as he looked over the barn. It almost didn’t smell like Horses lived here. “So, riding. Who you taking out today?”
She looked over at the other stables. “I was kinda leaning towards Lucille. What do you think?”
“She could probably use it.” He nodded with the choice. “Well, best saddle up or I’ll put you to more work.” “Okay, thanks again, Mr. March.” She headed over towards Lucille, going through the saddling process as efficiently as possible. It was funny what seemed to so foreign only a couple years ago now felt like something she could do blindfolded.