A Visit to the Ranch

Any sort of feedback appreciated! Its my first retell -sorry if it is so long.

We had a long weekend off from school and I needed to get away from the stress of school life. So, I decided to take a break and head up to my grandparents and spend some time relaxing at their house. I called my grandma and she said everything was ready for my visit. I made the 4 hour drive and was relieved when I finally pulled up the drive of their modest 4 bedroom ranch house. I was greeted in the driveway by my grandfather’s beautiful golden retriever, Duke. After a few well deserved scratches behind his ears, Duke and I made our way up to the front door with my duffel bag in hand. I let myself in and my grandfather yelled out from the back, “I’m puttin’ the horses up, be in in a minute.”



“K, gramps!” I yelled back at him. I took my things back into the guest bedroom I usually stayed in. I looked around for my grandmother but to no avail. I checked the garage and her car was gone. I assumed she must be out for groceries or something. As I walked back into the family room my grandpa was dusting off his boots as he stepped inside.



He looked up at me for a minute, “It sure is nice ta see ya ‘gain. Haven’t seen ya ’round here in quite some time.”



“I know, I’ve been really busy with school and everything. But, I was off for the weekend and decided it was about time I came up and saw you and grandma,” I replied with a smile. My grandpa had always been one of my favorite people to talk to, with his slight southern accent and soft smile the man was hard not to love.



“Well, sweet thang, I hate to tell ya, but your grandmotha had to run down to your aunt’s. I s’pose there was an emergency with work and your uncle had to take off for awhile. Diane went down there to help out with the kids for the weekend. I reckon you won’t get the see her, I’m sorry.” My grandpa looked down as he finished, sweeping the rest of the dust off of his boots with his fingers.



“It’s understandable. No need to be sorry, grandpa, that means more quality time with you!” I smiled really big, trying to make him feel better. I could tell that he was disappointed. He knew how much I was looking forward to see my grandma. “Now what can I help you with?”



“Well, I just finished with the evening’s chores, so that is taken care of. I’ll just go in the kitchen and fix us some supper. If you want you can help me with that. I figured spagetti would be good enough, whatcha think?”



“Sounds delightful, grandpa, I’d love to help.” We both headed towards the kitchen and prepared dinner together. We ate dinner out on the patio looking out at the pasture. It was a beautiful evening and you could faintly catch the smell of a spring storm coming. “Looks like its gonna rain tonight grandpa, everything okay with the animals?”



“They are all bunkered down for the night. They’ll be fine, doncha worry ’bout a thing sweetheart.” My grandpa smirked back at me. We headed inside and cleaned up dinner. I settled in on the couch to do an online assignment that I forgot about, it had to be submitted that night. My grandpa sat down in his big reclining chair, propped his feet up and grabbed the book he was working on. He had told me he didn’t mind reading while I worked on my homework. It was then that I realised the homework assignment that was due was a survey that had to be completed for my Mature Health class. The subject was mature, sexual health and we had each been assigned a man in his 60’s the interview. I looked at the clock, 9:37 pm. The assignment was due by 11 that night. There was no way I was going to be able to get a hold of my interviewee before then. I thought for a minute and then remembered my professor telling us that we didn’t have to use the assigned man, he was just trying to make it easier on us because I guess the questions got pretty personal. Lightbulb moment! It was perfect, my grandpa was sitting right across the room, he was an average 67 year old man.