Forward to the Stars

I have finally gotten a editor to go over and check my stories. As of chapter twelve they have been gone over and hopefully together we have corrected everything! While some may delete all past comments I am going to be leaving them to remind myself of how badly my first chapters sucked. Still any and all comments are wanted.

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Brian sat paying attention too the mountain in front him or at least ATTEMPTING to do so anyway, he kept getting slightly distracted at all the giggling that was going on in the back seat. Tina, sitting in the passenger seat of his Jeep Grand Cherokee, just smiled knowing the strain on his pants that the presence of herself her sister and their cousins were causing but she really did get as much amusement as any of them at causing him a bad case of blue balls. Chuckling, she laid her hand on his thigh. "Don't worry, we'll be there soon horny and when we get rooms for the night we'll deal with your 'BIG' problem." The giggles in the back abruptly changed to hysterical laughter.

Brian just grinned. By the end of the night he would have made a couple of female's butts and crotches so very sore and he was looking forward to hearing the complaining tomorrow about having to sit for the additional hours that they would have to be sitting till they got to their destination. He caught movement in his peripheral sight that he grabbed at so that it wouldn't hit the rear view mirror, not that he had been able to make much use of it for that last day considering that it was all but blocked with the girl's stuff.

As he realized what he had grabbed he couldn't help but whimper as he handed it back . "All right Brianna, put them back on we do NOT need the fucking highway pigs pulling us over and having a under-aged girl's bra being thrown around the jeep." As he reached back to hand the bra back he hit bare knees. "Also pull your pants back up, I've got twelve days, six and half hours to go before you're legal and I am NOT about get in trouble about nailing a minor this close to her being fair game! Anyway for a girl that's been paralyzed from the waist down for the last seven years you get around better than most people."

"OH alright." Came the reply from the seventeen year old with a pout. "Hey sis? How did you come across all this 'cheap' land?? I mean what you described is prime land right next to the Rockies and right next door is a high scale horse ranch that teaches the little rich bastards how to ride."

"Well." Brian piped up. "At least that three hundred million jackpot that Tina won was put in annuity and then put in in nice stocks." A comment that was second by everyone in the jeep. "So when do we try for the next jackpot, because honestly is it really POSSIBLE to have to much money?"

Laria laughed. "You're money hungry Brian, but that's a question that's open for argument because there are lots plus and minuses to having a lot of money. Most people including us for the most part agree with you, with the cost of living skyrocketing thanks to the ignorance and incompetence of our government, having to much money two weeks ago means nothing now, except that you're middle class."

"Hey Michelle, so what are your thoughts on leaving our good old beloved state of Kansas BEHIND?" Brian asked when he felt the gloom coming from that side of the backseat.

Michelle sighed and kept looking out the window. "There was no choice in our moving, if we didn't move the parasites would have bled us all dry." Brianna immediately objected to family being called parasites though, when she tried to argue, she only managed to prove what they all knew to be more of a fact than death and taxes being the only things that could be depended on.

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As soon Brian stopped the jeep outside the real estate office everyone was out stretching and getting Brianna her wheelchair off the pile of belongings in the back. "Hey Brian." Brianna hollered as she was getting into her most hated of belongings. "Can't we just go piggyback?"

Brian looked over Laria's duffel. "How about we wait until the pain killers start to work, you may not be a thunder-ass but after a while you DO, get heavy." Brianna grumbled about having to get into the chair but made him promise that he WOULD be her mode of transport and SOON.

As Tina, Michelle and Laria went into the office to talk to the agent, Brian and Brianna went down a couple of buildings to the nearest restaurant to grab a table for them before the lunch rush got the good tables. As Brian returned to the table he noticed a couple of logger types harassing her. As he walked up to the table they on him. "So you're the one little missy here is interested in?"

"Maybe, maybe not, though she has less interest in you guys than in me." Brian said sounding as bored as he really was. Why, he thought did scum always materialize out of the ether just when he was getting calm. As the burliest of the bunch took a swing at him he nearly tore the guys arm out of its socket. "Guys I'm not in the military, so I can claim ignorance of the Geneva Convention a little easier than they can. That move should have torn you in half at shoulder blade level, don't cross me again." He gave the guys a bored look as he took his seat as they, themselves backed up to their booth never allowing him out of their sight.

As people in the cafe digested what they had seen and heard the girls had come in, Laria looking around seeing how people were acting glared at Brian. "So what did you do this time? We haven't even gotten the Two-Peak Pass in our names yet, and you've already made enemies. Come on! I mean being south side of nowhere, and on the north side of a horse ranch we'll need to be at least on speaking terms with people."

"TWO-PEAK PASS?!!" Brian looked over the loggers who were all pale and stammering and shrugged. "You guys are actually considering buying that land? Even WE gave up trying to get that area logged after the seventh attempt. There's something up there, doesn't hurt any one except the people that are looking over their shoulder all the time so they get hurt or worse in accidents that shouldn't have even happened. Even the indian tribes that lived around here didn't go through there and if they left an area alone it's usually for GOOD reason."

Tina smiled at Brianna. "Well you did want to know why the land was cheap, its because the logging company is cutting losses. Anyway with a whatsit around looking over everyone's shoulder keeping people away, we don't really need to worry about Brian erecting poles in the front yard to impale trespassers on." She laughed as people blanched and some whimpered. "So what did you do EXACTLY, Brian that's got people jumpy about you?"

One logger laughed shaking his head. "Brent here tried starting a fight again and this time he caught the short end of the stick." He smiled as he caught the mutter of "Eventually people find the meaner fish in their pond." "Yeah that's no joke, Brian was it? There will always be a bigger, meaner fish eventually in any pond. So you are the newest suckers that Micheal's gotten to buy that accursed land? Well best of luck, you're only the latest in a long line to buy that place and in few few months at most, you'll be long gone too."

Brian and the girls looked at one another, its not like they had many other options. Moving and buying the land had emptied their available money reserves. "So" Michelle stammered. "We got a hold of that horse ranch and it's still okay to stay there until we get something that'll pass as a residence and with the way Brian works on stuff like this I figure we'll be at least started by the time winter is fully here in two and a half months."

"Good!" Brian exclaimed. "I want to get out there and get this finished as soon as possible unless anybodies got a better idea on how to proceed." He looked around the table to see if anyone had any objections, there were none as he knew there wouldn't be.

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As Brian pulled into the drive for the horse ranch he couldn't help but be impressed with the lay out before him. "WOW!" Was all Laria could spit out, the building compound looked out of some wild west movie. The main house with all the out buildings, bunkhouses and barns in the classic "U" centered on the entrance drive.

When Brian pulled to a stop in front of the main house people seemed to materialize out of thin air, before Brian could get Brianna's chair out of the back he was approached by a big burly man with a friendly hand out stretched. "HI I'm Russel Michel, call me Mich though. Owner of Stallion Acres, WELCOME to our neck of the woods."

Brian couldn't help laughing at the sheer honesty and friendliness of the man. "Well at least this is a better welcome than what we got in town." Taking the mans' hand in the warm greeting that it was meant as. "So Two-Peak is supposed to be haunted huh? Sounds like my kind of house-mates." He grinned as he felt the glares from the girls burn into his back. He shrugged as he took note of the graveled drive and just backed up to the back seat and hunched down giving Brianna a clear invite for the piggy back she had wanted earlier.

Tina noted the worried and thoughtful looks on faces of both older and younger people gathered around them. "Car wreck. She's paralyzed from the waist down, has been for the last seven years. We'll make do, always have." She turned turned as she heard the clop of horseshoes on the gravel.

"She can ride Leo for now, sis has been sick for the last week so the exercise will do her good." Said the red head that had a horses' halter in her hand. "I'm Zoey by the way." With that names came hollered and shouted from people all over the place causing Brian to back into a defensive crouch.

"Sorry about that." Mich said noting Brian's unease. "We try to have the friendliest group that we can get for around here but at times it can seem artificial at times its so heartfelt. Anyway, my boy Micheal will help you all settle in," pointing to a bunkhouse set a little farther back than most of the buildings. "Come on in the house when you're all settled, suppers nearly ready."

"Well come on guys we've got a thunderstorm on the way and there's no reason to have your stuff get wet unloading." Said a sandy blondie male of about seventeen if that old. Brian helped get Brianna get on Leos' back, and then drove the jeep over to the bunkhouses entrance. "You didn't bring much with you for moving did you?" He stopped when he noticed the pained looks on faces. "This is pretty much all you have isn't it?"

"We'd appreciate it if you didn't dig." Brian choked out as Laria and Michelle clung to each other and Tina and Brianna hugged their arms to their chests. As the jeep was unpacked Micheal tried several times to restart the conversations but the gloom was heavier than the air that proceeded the storm front. "I'm sorry" Brian told Micheal as they got the last bag sorted into rooms. "It's just that, when you're the black sheep of the family it tends to spread out into the rest of peoples lives. We're such black sheep, sin is purer than we are."