My New Undiscovered Life - Amber Rae (suggested reading .txt) 📗

BOOK ONE

Prologue
In a big city, a little girl was born to a single mother. She was put up for adoption young. She never knew her parents. She had no friends and lived her life lonely, until one day she was adopted.
She was shipped out to Wyoming all wide eyed and bushy tailed. She spent hours on the plane wondering, wondering, wondering, if her “new” parents would like her.

Chapter One- Get off the Bus and Move your Butt
“Come on young lady!” a country accent yelled. JoAnne woke with a start. She quickly grabbed her things and wandered out of the bus. It was nighttime and dark. She was still in a big city, but not as big as Philly.

The plump bus driver showed her to a big ol’ pickup and gently knocked on the cracked window. The man inside was asleep. Once he awoke, he jumped out of the truck and grabbed JoAnne’s bag. His hands were rough and cracked, cut, and had signs of infections. JoAnne walked over to the passenger side and tried to open the door. Creakily and rusty, the door opened and JoAnne put her foot on the edge of the truck. As much as she tried she could not get herself in the truck. So, reluctantly, she went and tapped the tall, rough-handed man’s leg.

“Uh, um, sir?” She pulled on his pant leg. He didn’t notice. He was too emerged in the conversation between him and the bus driver. They were talking in a foreign language. JoAnne tugged at the pant leg again, this time harder.

“Sir!” “Hello!” “Mister!” “Hola!” JoAnne stopped tugging at the pant leg. The tall man had turned around to face her, or better said- look down at her. He picked her up and gently put her into the truck, which was dusty and made her sneeze.

“Hola,” he said to her. Then, very shakily and thoughtfully, he said, “My name is Sharvez.” His voice was very low and gruff. JoAnne acknowledged that he was Mexican.

“My name is Jo.” JoAnne said thoughtfully back. Sharvez nodded and started the truck. The ride was dark and boring. JoAnne fell asleep.

Chapter Two- Trip and Fall, Meet us All
JoAnne awoke with a start. She didn’t know where she was. She ran out of the outdated room, and tripped on a tattered braided rug. Sitting on the painted, wooden, floor, crying, a plump woman whose hands smelled like garlic picked JoAnne up and carried her down the creaky wooden stairs into a large country kitchen with big windows.

JoAnne starred out the large windows towards the endless green fields, dotted with green hay bales. Out another window a large ol’ fallen down barn was being repaired and painted red by a few teenagers. Horses nickered in a white circular pen as a man with a cowboy hat made them prance around and do tricks.

“Alright you little daydreamin’ girl” an accented voice preached. It shattered JoAnne’s daydream.

“Now, get your head out of the clouds and eat some breakfast. What do you want?” the plump woman told her sternly. “Oh. I’m Ida.” She added.

“Oh, hi, I’m JoAnne. Or Jo.” Jo smiled at Ida waiting for an answer.

“And…. What do you want to eat?” Ida asked after waiting few moments.

“Oh, um I don’t know whatever you have.” Jo said politely.

“How ‘bout some farm fresh eggs?” Ida asked.

“That sounds great!” Jo replied.

As Ida fried up the eggs, JoAnne thought about her foster parents, and then asked Ida “Where are my parents?”

Ida turned and looked at her sadly. “Oh, sweetie. Your Mother was killed in a car accident two weeks ago, coming home from town.” JoAnne was shocked.

“What about my Father?” she stuttered.

“He’s in his office.” Ida pointed to a stained wooden door in the corner of the room. Jo starred at it for a while before she opened it.

Chapter Three- Meet Daddy AND his Friends
A dark faced man with his head in his hands starred down at a pile of papers. JoAnne stood in the doorway shaking. She was so worried that her new father wouldn’t like her. Since her new mother was dead, her father was her only chance.

“Hello sir, my name is JoAnne.”

The man looked up at her and smiled “Oh, my angel has come.” He said in a deep voice. “Now come here and give me a hug.” JoAnne gasped and ran into his arms.

Nothing had ever felt better than to be hugged by her father… until a tall man in a snazzy suit barged in on their hug.

“Oh, I’m sorry Edward. I should have knocked.”

“It’s ok Duke. Come on in! Have a seat!”

JoAnne looked at her father with a, “Who is that?” look. He realized he didn’t introduce her. “Oh, Duke. This is my daughter, Jo.”

Duke took a good look at JoAnne. Jo felt like his eyes were burning into her soul. “You know how to ride?” Duke asked her. Jo looked at him confused. “You don’t know how to ride a horse!” he chuckled.

“No sir, I don’t. I have never seen a horse up close in real life.” JoAnne said back to him feeling stupid.
“Well we ought to fix that….”

“No!” Jo exclaimed.

“Yes.” Both her father and Duke said. “Now go grab some jeans and meet me by the barn.” He paused.
“You do know what that is?” he kidded.

“Yes sir. I do know what that is. I’m not that mindless!”

Chapter Four- No Jeans but Lots of Dreams
“Uh, Ida?” Jo said shakily peering around the corner of the staircase.

“Yes dear?” Ida turned away from the stove.

“I don’t own a pair of jeans. I need some for riding.”

“Oh, dear don’t be embarrassed. I’ve got a few pairs upstairs in the spare room.”

“Thank you Ida!” Jo yelled as she ran up the stairs.

A few moments later, Jo ran down the stairs and out the door toward the big red barn and the white circle pen filled with horses. Ida yelled behind her “What about your breakfast!?” But Jo had already run too far away to hear her.

Three men- one her father, the second, Duke, and third, Sharvez, stood leaning on the fence watching the horses prance around and fight with each other.

“I’m ready” Jo said to no one. The three men were still watching the horses. It wasn’t until Jo jumped on the fence and shook it that the men turned to look at her. “Man you guys must like these horses!”

“We do very much.” Her father said. He lifted her up and put her on the fence. “Now, you see that pretty young little mare over there?” Jo searched the pen; she didn’t see the horse described. “The little black and beautiful one in the corner- all by itself.” The words sifted through JoAnne and her eyes moved and set upon the most beautiful horse in the pen.

“What is her name?” JoAnne asked.

Sharvez looked at her and said “Horse has no name. Very lonely horse. I call lone rider.”

“Lone rider,” Jo whispered. The name made her lips tingle. “Is she my horse?” JoAnne asked hopefully.

“No, she is just the horse we are going to sell.” Her father ruined her dreams.

“Why are you getting rid of her!?” JoAnne asked with surprise.

“She is very uneasy and doesn’t like anything except herself. While her father was talking JoAnne had walked up to Lone Rider and started petting her. She nickered with delight. The three men were speechless and surprised by the horse’s attitude around the young girl.
“Well isn’t that right.” Duke said. “I try to train that horse for three months and a little girl from the city walks right up to the horse and pets it like it’s an old dog.”

The other two men laughed and continued to stare at JoAnne and Lone Rider.

Chapter Five- Pretty Little Eyes, Lone Rider’s Eyes
JoAnne looked into the strong little mare’s eyes. The little mare looked back. They connected and starred at each other for a while. Then after a while, her father walked up to her and asked her if she wanted to ride. “Oh, yes! But can I ride her?” JoAnne turned to Lone Rider and looked into her eyes again. It was like another world. Her father answered, and broke the connection.

“I’m sorry honey, but she’s not trained and I can’t risk losing you.” Thoughtfully, JoAnne kissed Lone Rider and walked over to where Sharvez and Duke were standing.

“Let’s start you out with Big Boy.” Duke said.

“Big Boy?” Jo asked reluctantly.

After a few hours on Big Boy, Jo could get on a horse and ride around the pen. She was no rodeo star, but she could ride.

“How was your ride?” Ida asked her when she got back.

“Perfect.” Jo answered, walking with her knees turned out, or, as most people call it, “saddle butt”.

“Now go take a bath, you smell like a horse… literally!” Ida yelled up the stairs after Jo.

Chapter Six - Mystery of the Bathtub
Jo walked into the aged bathroom. She tried to pull on the handle to turn the tub on. It was rusted closed. She walked into her bedroom and started walking down the stairs, until she heard the water rushing in the bathtub from upstairs. She stopped and ran back into the bathroom. The tub had a thin line of water in it. She tugged the handle again, but nothing came out.

Jo paced back and forth in the bathroom. She jammed her knee on the old toilet. Her eyes boiled over with tears, were red, and her vision was blurred, but she kept hearing water pouring and then splashing around over the sounds of her own tears. Jo thought it was her mind playing tricks on her, but after a while she knew what she was hearing was not her imagination. Jo stood up. The tub was now almost filled with nice warm water. Confused, she started to walk out of the room when she heard water splashing! She turned around just in time to see a pale-white bucket fly out of the open window and a filled one come back in…

The water didn’t work in the bathtub. It never did. So the system of buckets had developed. When you turned the nozzle on the tub,