The back door to the porch slammed shut as Delaney carried her glass jar with vodka lemonade in hand. She slumped down in the splintered faded white rocking chair and peered out at the plains of eastern Colorado and saw a twister on the horizon. She twirled the piece of straw she had in her mouth and tilted back her lace cowboy hat. She squinted her eyes as if she was about to cry, crunched her eyes brows, and then let out a long sigh. She wasn’t going to cry.

Spencer had just left her on the homestead unexpectedly. He swerved out in the bright red and blue pickup truck leaving a cloud of dust in his wake. He had prepared for the winter making sure that they would have enough food and resources to get them through after the summer harvest. Delaney had canned vegetables and made syrup, and they had also stored the meat that they would need. Spencer also spent long days chopping all of the firewood that they would need and stacked it up on the side of the house.

Inside the 3 bedroom ranch style house Spencer had also made a rope bed in the master bedroom that he would fuck Delaney mercilessly on after all of those long days on the ranch. The house had all of their things, their western Tecovas boots by the door, their his and her oil portraits, Delaney’s vanity and wooden brush. 

Despite running their ranch together over the summer, the two didn’t really get along and Delaney had regretted moving from the city to the plains. It was never her ultimate dream to be with Spencer, she only had an undeniable attraction to him, but that was it. They barely got reception out in Ethan Colorado where there ranch was, but that didn’t stop Spencer from texting Violetta; a fierce Christian woman with a plunging neckline. 

Delaney knew everything, she also knew that Spencer was never a loyal guy. At least he set her up for the winter and she could try to make it through and finish writing her book. As the twister got closer Delaney moved to the cellar and took a seat on a tin pale that was upside down. She clung to her pendant around her neck that was a locket from her true love Forrest. She hoped that Spencer wouldn’t come back to the ranch and just move on with his life. 

The house began to shake as the giant wall of sand started to engulf the homestead. Delaney was there by herself, but she never felt more at home. She could hear Forrest’s voice in her mind before she covered her face with a wet washcloth to stop from breathing in the sand. As of now you are thinking that this storm completely wiped out the homestead and Delaney was recklessly abandoned, but that is not the case.

The next morning Delaney saw the light peering through the cellar door and got up and made her way back into the house. Spencer had made a fortress of a property and nothing was even moved in the house. The barn was secure as well and the animals inside slept through the storm. Delaney made her way into the kitchen and picked up a tin canister that was sitting behind some books on the shelf. She opened it and started to flip through the recipe cards and found a piece of paper that had the coordinates for the final destination of Forrest’s next through hike with a date. 

He had mailed it to her from New York after they had met up and asked her to meet him there. The destination was Niagara Falls in December. She set the card down and picked up the acoustic guitar in the living room and started to strum the chords and softly sang “you look so fine, I want to take your heart and give you mine”. Rainbows projected over the walls from a charm handing in her window that had prisms in it. She was a little hung over from her vodka lemonade, but she was certain she would make the trip and see him again in December.

Now that there would be no trace of Spencer.