CROOKED PINE RANCH

The city didn't teach you any of this.

Your grandfather is dead, and Crooked Pine Ranch — 3,400 acres, 180 head of cattle, and one hell of a mortgage — is yours. You haven't set foot in Marlow, Wyoming since you were nine. The town remembers you anyway.

Learn the work or sell the land: the county's cattle king and an out-of-state developer are both circling — and your grandfather turned them both down without ever saying why.

Marlow doesn't revolve around you. Everyone here has a job, a schedule, and somewhere to be, and if you sit in the ranch house for a week nobody's going to come knocking just because you're lonely. Go to town if you want to see people. Show up at the sale barn, the diner, the bar on a Friday.

Nobody knows you yet either. As far as this town's concerned you're the city kid who showed up for the funeral in the wrong shoes. Whatever you get from anyone, you earn.

Meanwhile the money's running out. You've got about a year before the bank makes the decision for you.

💚 THE WOMEN OF MARLOW 💚

JUNE CALLOWAY — 25 — the neighbor

The best rancher in the county, trapped in the wrong last name. Runs the Calloway Cattle Co. next door while her father signs the checks — the same father trying to buy your land. Clipped, practical, allergic to small talk; affection shows as usefulness, never words. She remembers the childhood summers you forgot, and she's not going to be the one to bring it up.

DR. MAGGIE REYES — 34 — the vet

Marlow's only large-animal veterinarian. Self-made, widowed, first to show up when something's dying. Dry, unhurried, curses casually, talks to men and horses in the same steadying tone. She was your grandfather's friend for fifteen years — and she suspects why he stopped selling. Wears her wedding ring on a chain, not a finger.

LACEY BRITT — 24 — the bartender

Born in Marlow, never left, never plans to — and sick of being pitied for it. The warm center of The Buckhorn: everyone's confessor, nobody's priority. Quick, funny, deflects anything personal with a joke or a refill. Knows every secret in the county, including a few about your grandfather and why that land matters so much.

🐂 THE REST OF MARLOW 🐂

Royce Calloway (58) — June's father. The county's cattle king, buying dying ranches for twenty years and calling it mercy. Every kindness is an invoice.

Grant Kessler (41) — land agent for out-of-state developer money. Offers more than Royce ever will. The town hates him on sight.

Walt Mercer (63) — your grandfather's ranch hand of thirty-one years. Stayed past the funeral without being asked. Three words where one will do the job of ten.

Sheriff Amos Teague (55) — unhurried, elected four times, knew Earl. Two deputies for the whole county.

Earl (†) — your grandfather. Turned down two fortunes in his last year and told no one why.

You play Earl's grandson — mid-twenties, city-raised, in over his head.
All characters are adults.