Chapter 14
Within minutes, we’d met everyone and Mom was even laughing a little, the tight lines in her face relaxing more with each passing moment.
We unloaded the trucks of windows and boards and nails and other mystery items, and then Kestrel and I took the brood of Robinson kids and Jon, who was our age, with us to care for everyone’s horses. It was fun watching their seven horses, plus Twilight, Rusty, and Cocoa, run around the meadow playing. Twitchy was the only one not interested in play, instead hanging out in the shade and pinning her ears back whenever anyone got close to her.
However, Twilight thought it was great. She was used to living in a wild herd and loved the camaraderie of a large group. One of the horses, Lane’s I think, was only three years old, and after all the horses were settled down and grazing, Twilight and the three-year-old continued to have as much fun as possible. They kept ripping around, bucking and kicking, spinning, dancing, cavorting – basically doing any and every wild leap imaginable. I caught Mom watching them a time or two and wondered if she was getting an idea for a new painting. I hoped so. I’d love it if the horses inspired her again.
When it came time to feed Thumper, we took all the kids with us. We had lots of helping hands, that’s for sure. The youngest Robinson, a two-year-old girl, was so cute. “Tumpoo, tumpoo,” she kept saying, after we told her the calf’s name. Then of course, everyone started calling him Tumpoo. They took turns holding the bottle and feeding him as the chainsaws roared outside.
I snuck away to peek at the house once or twice, but there wasn’t much to see other than everyone milling haphazardly about. Mom was right in there too – and she was smiling. I was too far away to tell if her smile was genuine, but her laughter sure sounded real. She seemed to be talking to Elaine and Caroline a lot, which I thought was great. I wasn’t lying when I said my mom needs some friends.
And speaking of friends, Jon seemed pretty cool. And he’s a boy. Okay. No teasing! He’s just nice, that’s all. And fun. And he has lovely eyes… Okay, I’ll shut up now!
By the time we got back to the house, things were happening quickly. I won’t go into the stage-by-stage building of the addition, but before long the log walls were chest high. Then the floor was put down. And the walls got higher. Troy and Lane made some big triangles with boards, and then it was lunchtime.
Lunch was everything I imagined, and more. Our visitors carried our table outside and loaded it with massive amounts of food. They’d even brought plates. Mom donated some food too, and then we all dug in. Kestrel, Jon, and I carried our food out to the horse pasture.
“Is your horse the black one?” I asked Jon.
He nodded, his mouth full of potato salad, then swallowed. “His name is Coal. I got him from the Xeni First Nation last year.”
“So he might be a mustang?” asked Kestrel.
Jon nodded.
“Like Twilight.” I pointed her out.
“She’s a mustang?” asked Jon, focussing on my little buckskin.
“Yeah, she came to live with me this spring.”
“Cool. How’d you catch her?”
“It’s a long story,” I said. “We didn’t really catch her. It was more like saving her from a starving wolf. And we both did it, Kestrel and me.”
Jon seemed really interested, so we started to tell the whole story, but just as I really got into it, Loonie barked her intruder bark. I looked back toward the cabin to see Charlie riding Redwing into the yard. “I’ll tell you the rest later,” I promised. “I have to ask Charlie if they caught the poachers.”
“Poachers?” Jon asked, his eyes looking as blue as the sky.
“That’s why Tumpoo’s orphaned,” Kestrel explained.
“Yeah,” I said, standing up with my plate. “And the poachers caught Charlie and tied him up.”
“How’d he get away?”
“I had to save him.”
Jon looked at me with raised eyebrows. “You saved Charlie?”
“Ask him if you don’t believe me.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t believe you,” he said quickly, jumping up.
The three of us walked back to the group. By the time we got there, Mom had insisted that Charlie eat something and he was filling up his plate with food. I sidled up beside him and took another piece of chicken.
“So did the police catch them?”
He looked at me, a twinkle in his eye. “Who?”
“You know who.”
He laughed. I couldn’t believe it. Charlie actually laughed.
“So I hear you had some trouble yesterday, Charlie,” Troy called from where he sat beside the addition. “Good thing Evy was there to save you.”
Charlie grinned sheepishly. “Girls are pretty tough these days.”
“Tougher than the old guys, anyway,” teased Troy.
Charlie just laughed, and heaped his plate with ham and coleslaw and scalloped potatoes. When he made his way to one of the logs and sat down, Kestrel, Jon, and I followed.
“So they caught them?” I asked again.
“Yep,” he said between bites. “I’m taking the authorities to their campsite tomorrow morning, just in case they were stupid enough to leave any evidence behind. Thought I’d stop by for a bit though and lend a hand. Looks like you two need an addition. It’s a pretty small cabin.”
“You should try living in it all winter, especially with a crazy artist,” I said, only half joking.
After lunch, everyone went back to work. Kestrel took the five little kids and fed Tumpoo – I mean, Thumper – again, and Jon and I joined the work crew. Windows were put into log walls and Lane used his chainsaw to cut a door into the main cabin. Large triangles were put up on top of the walls and became the structure for the roof. Plywood went on top of them and then there was a lot of hammering as the shingles were put on.
By the time the structure was finished, it was evening. Everyone looked tired, but happy and satisfied. And me? I was exhausted as we sat down to eat the leftovers from lunch. I couldn’t believe how much bigger our cabin looked from the outside with the addition. And it had all been done in one day.
An almost overwhelming happiness warmed me as I leaned back and stared at our home illuminated in the evening’s soft light and the lanterns scattered about. The first star appeared in the sky directly overtop our house like a promise. I smiled when I thought of the paintings Mom would dream up inside her new studio. She totally deserved this wonderful gift.
When the meal was done, people left in groups. First Troy and Lane saddled their horses, and shortly afterward the Robinsons packed all their belongings and headed out, the two-year-old, already asleep and snug in the saddle in front of her dad.
I think Mom was especially sad when Caroline and Jon drove off, and I was glad to see it. Caroline had invited us to drop by their place anytime, and I hoped Mom would want to do it now that she’d met her. We waved as they drove out of sight, even though it was probably too dark for them to see us.
Mom sighed when the truck lights disappeared.
“I’ll go take care of the horses now,” I said, feeling down about the amazing day being almost over. The horses always made me feel better and I really wanted a lift before I said goodbye to Charlie, Kestrel, and her parents.
“There’s one more thing to do first. Come inside for a minute, okay?” asked Mom.
“Okay.”
Charlie and Seth, Kestrel’s dad, were laden down with a heavy looking bundle. I followed them into the studio and watched Seth open the plastic and cut the ties with his knife. The bundle unrolled into the most beautiful rug I’d ever seen – soft blues and greens with touches of purple and vermilion and rose. It looked like the ocean, or how I imagined the ocean would look if I ever saw it. I wanted to lie down and sink into its beauty, it looked so perfect.
“Excuse us,” said Mom behind me, and she walked into the room carrying one end of my bed. The other end followed with Elaine and Kestrel lifting it. It hit me lik
e a bolt of lightning. This wasn’t going to be a studio. This room was built for another reason. My throat grew tight and tears stung my eyes.
“Where do you want it?” Mom asked me.
I couldn’t say anything. I just couldn’t.
“Put it over there,” said Kestrel, pointing to the window that overlooked the meadow, which is exactly where I would’ve said if I could’ve spoken.
They positioned the bed, then Mom, Seth, Elaine, and Charlie left the room, leaving me with Kestrel.
“Is this the coolest surprise or what?”
I nodded, still mute, and then they were all back, Seth and Charlie carrying my worn out, old dresser, Elaine with my chair, and Mom with a big box.
“Here, sit down before you fall down, Evy,” said Elaine and positioned the chair behind me.
“And open your early birthday present,” added Kestrel.
Mom set the box down in front of me, and for the first time in as long as I could remember my birthday present was a mystery. I still hadn’t had a chance to peek.
“I… I… You planned all this?”
Mom laughed, and everyone else smiled. “No, I had a plan for your birthday, but I never would have had your room done in time. Now thanks to our friends, you’ll have two celebrations, one with your presents and party, and the other with your cake.”
“Open it,” Kestrel said impatiently. “I’m dying to see what it is.”
The box flaps on top were simply folded, so I pulled it open – to see blues and greens like the rug. And white. White horses in the waves. Rearing and plunging with joy. I lifted it out to discover it was a big, fluffy comforter. Hugging it, I finally found my voice, but babbled so excitedly that I don’t know if anything I said made any sense. My mom’s eyes shone as if she knew what my gibberish meant.
It was perfect. Everything was perfect.
After the big surprise it didn’t take long for almost everyone to leave, everyone except Kestrel who was allowed to stay over again and Charlie, who lingered a bit, chatting with Mom. When Kestrel and I headed out to the barn to give the horses their oats and feed Tumpoo – I mean Thumper – Charlie said he should get going too, and followed us outside. We said goodbye to him as he climbed into Redwing’s saddle, and hurried toward the barn. But a few yards shy of the building, I knew I had one more thing to do.
“I’ll be back in a sec,” I said to Kestrel, and ran toward the road leading away from our cabin. Charlie had already disappeared.
“Charlie, wait!” I yelled as soon as I rounded the corner.
The hoofbeats stopped. “Yeah?” I heard him turn around in the darkness and walk back toward me. The bulk of the magnificent horse loomed up in front of me. I reached out and stroked his shoulder. He even felt stunning.
“Can I trust you? Really?”
“Always.”
“Redwing.”
“It’s a good name,” said Charlie, knowing immediately what I was saying. “Thanks. I’ll see you around.” Then he turned his horse and rode away.
I walked back to our yard. Kestrel was already heating Tumpoo’s milk on the stove and she smiled at me when I entered the barn, then set about feeding the calf. I told Rusty and Twilight about the day’s excitement as I prepared their evening meals, refilled water buckets, and gave them a quick grooming.
Twilight interrupted at one point. What is birthday?
The day I was born.
She snorted and shook her head. No sense. You not born today.
I almost laughed out loud.
Humans make no sense sometimes, Rusty explained patiently.
I was shocked! If Rusty thought I made no sense, why didn’t he ask questions, like Twilight? He rarely disagreed with me and hardly ever questioned.
I reached out and tried to touch his mind, tried to understand – and suddenly, I realized something important. All the times that Rusty never questioned me, I’d assumed he agreed with me. But he didn’t keep silent because he agreed or even understood everything I said. He just realized that a lot of things really weren’t that important, certainly not important enough to worry about. It was the core stuff that was important, like that I was a good person and someone he could trust, like that I loved him.
You are right, I said, feeling ridiculously complimented. We humans are silly sometimes. I mean, compared to horse wisdom, what more could I say?
Before leaving the stall to help Kestrel with Tumpoo, I gave each horse a goodnight hug. As I pulled away from Twilight, I sent one more thought her way, I like when you ask questions. And I did, because a new thought had occurred to me. Maybe Twilight wasn’t so much mischievous and rebellious as she was curious.
Had I been wrong about her and her independent streak? No. But maybe some of what I thought was rebellion was really just her trying to understand. Just like I was trying to understand and was constantly questioning my mom. Questions weren’t bad. They didn’t mean I was trying to be disrespectful or doubting. They didn’t mean I didn’t love the one I was questioning. It simply meant that I wanted to understand my world and my place in it, just like Twilight. Someday, like my intrepid filly, I’d get my answers.
When?
I guess time would tell.
Summer of Wild Hearts
At last, Evy’s over-protective, hermit mother is letting her go somewhere – to the rodeo in town! She plans on having tons of fun doing something normal for a change.
But as usual, adventures find her, this time in the form of an abused, drugged, and terrified mare who hates humans so much she refuses to trust even Evy. As Evy tries to help her, Twilight, her intrepid filly, is miles away and in danger.
How can Evy save them both?
Also Available by Angela Dorsey
Abandoned
The Time Thief
Horse Guardian Series
Dark Fire
Desert Song
Condor Mountain
Swift Current
Gold Fever
Slave Child
Rattlesnake Rock
Sobekkare’s Revenge
Mystic Tide
Silver Dream
Fighting Chance
Wolf Chasm
Freedom Series
Freedom
Echo
Whisper
Whinnies on the Wind Series
Winter of the Crystal Dances
Spring of the Poacher's Moon
Summer of Wild Hearts
Autumn in Snake Canyon
Winter of Sinking Waters
Spring of Secrets
Summer of Desperate Races
Autumn of Angels
Winter of the Whinnies Brigade
Sun Catcher Series
(co-written with Marina Miller)
Sun Catcher
Sun Chaser
Sun Seeker
About Angela Dorsey
Angela Dorsey is a writer who once lived near the Chilcotin area in British Columbia, Canada, which is where the fictional Rusty, Twilight, Evy, and her mother live. There, wild horses roam the meadows and forests still. Many live their entire lives in the wild, and some are caught and trained as ranch horses. Angela’s first horse was a “cayuse” that lived wild until he was three years old, and then was caught and trained by her grandfather.
Ben, as she called him, was a buckskin like Twilight, and he taught her how to ride by literally bucking her off every day until she could stick on his back. They became true companions who had many adventures together roaming the wilderness along the Bella Coola river, following creeks, meandering through forests, avoiding bears, and exploring forgotten homesteads. That is where Angela’s Whinnies on the Wind series was born.
Happy Reading!
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Spring of the Poacher's Moon Page 14
