Finny and the Boy from Horse Mountain

by Andrea Young

  Finny took the messages, then covered her mouth with her hand. “Joe, these people want their horses trained, with you . . . and me! Look, this one wants her horse taught to jump, these two need young horses broke, and this one needs some corrective training. Joe, that’s five horses in training, at six hundred dollars apiece. That’s three thousand dollars a month. Joe, three thousand a month!”

  Joe, suddenly dizzy, used the fence to steady himself.

  With a huge smile, Vel said, “Apparently the word about Sky got around. Winning that class did more than prove to yourselves what you can do. It showed the community what you two are capable of. You both should be very proud.” Vel gave them both hugs and went back into her house.

  “Joe, five horses in training. Do you know what that means?”

  Joe nodded his head, his mind far away.

  “What about putting an ad out, or a sign on the road. Maybe we can get some students going also. How cool would that be!”

  “It would be great. I don’t know about a sign on the road though.”

  “I can see it now, McCoy Training Center. I’m calling these people right now!”

  Joe, still in shock, watched Finny run to the house. The news was so good. He wanted to be happy and get his name out there in the horse world, be legit and do it for real. Knowing his uncle was out there somewhere, looking for him, made that impossible.

  Twenty minutes later Finny was back. “Joe, two horses are coming tomorrow, the other two at the end of the month. In a couple of weeks you’ll have three thousand dollars in your hand.”

  “We will. You’re my business partner, don’t forget.”

  “Right. This is amazing, Joe, amazing! Once school is out, I’ll be able to do more. Maybe we could take on more horses.”

  “I know we could. My parents ran a string of fifteen.”

  “Wow, can you imagine!” Finny, giddy, was jumping up and down.

  Joe gave a restrained nod.

  “You okay?” Finny went somber seeing his face.

  “Yeah. Just can’t believe this is happening.”

  “Good things happening, is a good thing—remember that.”

  Joe smiled and nodded.

  Finny kissed him firm on the mouth. “I’m going to get Sky.”

  Finny took her time grooming Sky before she tacked him up. Often, when she had a ton of homework, she hurried, keeping her rides short so she could get home in time to get it done. Her mom had made it clear that she could keep horsing around only as long as she kept her grades up. But lately her mom had been complaining that they never saw her anymore. Finny couldn’t believe it. When she wanted attention she couldn’t get anyone to notice her. Now that she wanted to spend all her time with Joe and Sky, suddenly she was missed.

  At least this was Friday and Monday was a holiday—the whole long weekend stretched before her.

  Once in the arena she allowed Sky to warm up. Joe was by the rail a minute later, wanting to discuss an idea he had.

  “What about using some of the money to buy an investment horse? We could get one from the sale for a few hundred and turn it around for a few thousand once it’s broke. That’s what my mom and dad used to do.”

  “Sounds like a great idea. How much do we need?”

  “About five hundred.”

  “Let’s do it.” A flash of light caught Finny’s eye. She looked toward Silver Spur. “Joe, do you see something just up the hill behind Silver Spur’s fence line?”

  Joe stood on the fence to get a better view. “No.”

  “There it is again. A flash of light—did you see it?”

  “Yeah, that’s weird. Who would be up there?” Joe strained to see as far as he could.

  “It’s two people on horses. They’re turning away.” Finny watched as the riders disappeared into the brush.

  “I do see. They had to come from Silver Spur to get back there.”

  “You think it was a camera flash?” Finny asked.

  “No. Definitely not. I think it was a reflection from binoculars. Finny . . . I think we’re being watched.”

  Sleep, when it came, was fitful and didn’t last. Joe gazed at the stars through the window and then closed his eyes and named off the constellations. He opened them again and looked at the clock on his nightstand. Five o’clock. Joe rubbed his face and pushed the covers back and got out of bed. He thanked the heavens for making everything so good for him. Unfortunately it was because everything was so good that he was getting nervous. Typically good times didn’t last and Joe felt his luck was going to turn.

  It was the people in the hills that had him on edge. Finny thought it was Elsa, keeping and eye on them, but Joe didn’t think so. The two riders were in Western saddles, not English. Joe knew from his brief stint at Silver Spur that no one there owned a Western saddle. It was possible the riders had nothing to do with Silver Spur.

  As quietly as he could, Joe got dressed and went outside. It was late fall and the pre-dawn air was chilly. Not wanting to bother to go back inside for a jacket, Joe dealt with the cold by rubbing his arms. He circumnavigated the property, peeking into stalls, finding most of the horses asleep. Even if that man from the feed store last week did see him, Joe reasoned, he wouldn’t know to go all the way to the next county to find him at a small, obscure horse rescue.

  Joe realized Sky’s winning performance at the show got him noticed. Other people now knew how to get in touch with him. Could the news somehow have gotten back to his uncle? Joe considered he might be overthinking his importance to the man. But he knew his uncle was vindictive and vengeful. It wasn’t just the race and the money lost. Joe was the daily in-the-flesh reminder of his ultimate betrayal, the reason he had lost the woman he loved.

  The more Joe thought about it, the more things in his past became clear. He’d wondered why his uncle, who clearly didn’t like or want him, took him, instead of another relative or even foster care. When he was too young to understand, his uncle had told him his parents weren’t just rolling but spinning in their graves because he took him in. Joe remembered his uncle laughing when he said it. At the time he thought that was a good thing, meaning they were happy, because his uncle was happy. Joe later came to find out it meant the opposite.

  Walking toward Sky’s corral, Joe rubbed his arms again to warm them. He looked into the pen. It was empty. It’s front gate was closed and latched. Knowing Sky couldn’t jump out because they had made his gates so high, he checked the back gate. It was open. The stars were bright and the moon was full. Joe could see fresh hoofprints from a walking horse in the soil softened by the night’s dew. He followed them to the back of the property and out the gate. Joe looked at the chain that kept the gate locked. Someone had used bolt cutters. Joe scanned the area as far as he could but knew it was too late. Sky was gone.

  Joe held his arms around a sobbing Finny and tried not to cry himself. Vel was beside herself, pacing back and forth. Horse thieves were a thing of the past. She didn’t know what to do.

  “We’ll call the police.”

  “Vel, don’t,” Joe said. “It will only make things worse.”

  “Joe, you don’t even have to be around when they come.”

  Joe stroked Finny’s hair, doing his best to comfort her.

  “If what I think happened, did happen, police getting involved would only make it worse.”

  Finny lifted her head, her eyes beet red. “How would it make it worse?”

  “If the people who I think have him knew police were snooping around they’d panic . . .”

  “. . . And kill him.” Finny finished the sentence for Joe.

  “I think so.”

  Finny sagged in his arms. Joe held her and kissed her forehead.

  “Who do you think has him?” Vel asked.

  “Ray and his buddies. I know he used to cowboy and he would know how to get rid of Sky fast. I have a feeling he’s doing this for Jeff.”

  “What makes you think that, Joe?”

  “First
thing Jeff told me when I started working there was to keep Elsa happy at all cost. Her daddy bankrolls Silver Spur and when Elsa ain’t happy, no one’s happy.”

  Vel continued to pace, “Much as I hate to think he would, you kids beating him on a horse he couldn’t handle and deemed rogue would hurt his reputation pretty bad.” Vel rubbed her forehead as her pacing got faster. “I’ve known Jeff for twenty years. He’d do anything to keep his reputation and his big payday client intact.”

  “Vel, Sky won’t get into a trailer the normal way. There’s no way they’ll be able to load him, especially if they get tough with him. Once Sky gets mad he’ll be impossible to control. They’ll have to ride or herd him out of the area.”

  “Then what should we do?” Finny said between sobs.

  “I gotta go to Silver Spur, see if I can find out anything.”

  “What about Carl and Ray?”

  “That’s who I’m going to talk to.”

  “Joe, don’t. What if they get mad?” Finny said.

  “I intend to make them mad.”

  “Joe,” Vel said, “I don’t think this is a good idea. I can’t let you get hurt.” She crossed her arms. As much confidence as she had in Joe, he was still a kid and she was the adult.

  Joe was growing frustrated and time was running out. It was already 6 am. Joe’s guess was that Sky had been taken around 2 am. The longer they waited, the farther Sky and whoever had him would get. “Go with me then, but stay in the truck. I need to talk to them alone.”

  “Fine. Let’s go.”

  They all piled into Vel’s truck and headed to Silver Spur. The sun hadn’t yet crested the horizon but predawn light filled the sky. As they turned into the gates Vel’s apprehension grew. Vel parked behind the barn just as Carl turned the corner. Joe jumped out before anyone could stop him.

  “Carl!” Joe yelled. That stopped the man in his tracks.

  “What are you doing here?” Joe noticed Carl walked with a slight limp. He was sure it was thanks to Sky.

  “You took Sky, didn’t you?”

  Carl’s gaze didn’t waver.

  “Sky hurt your foot, didn’t he?”

  Carl’s eyes got big before they narrowed.

  “Get off this property,” Carl hissed.

  “You don’t remember the first time we met, do you?”

  “What are you talking about? You heard me, get!”

  “It was right here—skinny, sick kid with a broken leg, you beat me up pretty good, stole my money, remember? Well, I’m not sick or skinny now, and my leg’s fine.” Joe followed his statement with a smashing right to Carl’s face. The punch spun Carl around and almost to the ground. Carl sputtered, looked confused, and made a feeble attempt to hit back. Joe’s next punch did take him down.

  Joe jogged back to the truck and hopped in. “Boy, that felt good.”

  “Okay, Rambo, did you find out anything?” Vel asked, trying not to sound pleased. Finny, stunned, didn’t utter a word.

  “I know they did it. I could see it in his face.”

  Vel quickly pulled out of Silver Spur and turned to Joe. “What do we do now?”

  “Vel, where’s the nearest horse auction?”

  “Far end of Colton County. Why?”

  “Jumping horses can be worth a lot of money right?”

  “Yes,” Vel answered.

  Finny, looking wary, did her best to stop crying.

  “And Sky, do you think as well as he jumps they could get twenty or thirty grand for him?”

  “It’s possible.”

  “Twenty to thirty grand is a year’s worth of work for selling one horse. Even if they were supposed to get rid of him, I bet anything they’d try to sell him. All they’d need to do was get him out of the area and far enough away where no one knows him.

  “And let’s say they couldn’t load him,” Joe went on. “They’d start to panic because everyone at Silver Spur knows who Sky is. They got to get him gone, so I’m thinking they had to ride him out. If it were me, that’s what I’d do. I bet he’d take him to an auction where there’d be hundreds of horses, an easy place to hide him until he could get help to get Sky shipped out of there and far enough away to get sold.”

  “Are you sure about this?” Vel asked, starting to feel they were getting in over their heads.

  “He won’t load. Riding or leading him would be the only way to get him outta here. Please, Vel, we got to get there as fast as possible.”

  “What about that man from the feed store, Joe, what if he sees you?” Finny, overwhelmed, finally spoke up. As much as she loved Sky, she didn’t want to risk Joe’s safety.

  “We’ll worry about that later. Come on, we gotta go!” Vel swung the truck around and hit the gas, saying a prayer, hoping she wasn’t being stupid. Her instincts were to call the police, but this was Joe’s world and she trusted him.

  Finny began to think more clearly. Her initial shock was turning into anger. “Joe, I’ll go look through the pens. You stay out of sight. If I see him I’ll grab him and go.”

  “No, Finny, if we find him, that’s when we call the police.”

  “Joe, I agree with you there,” Vel added.

  “How much longer till we get there?” Joe asked, looking at his watch.

  “About two hours. Do you think we’ll be too late?”

  “No, not if he won’t get in a trailer, and I doubt he will. They’d have to take him out after dark.”

  “Why would they do this to me? I just don’t understand. He’s just a horse. They have a barn full of great horses.” Finny tried not to cry again but the tears came back.

  “Finny, honey,” Vel’s words were as kind as she could make them, “some people are just . . . not right, they can’t take not having things go their way.”

  “Some people are just plain evil, like my uncle. That’s why they can’t take it. Not getting what they want drives them crazy. You saw what Elsa did to her own horse.” Joe shut his eyes and pressed the heels of his hands to his temples in an effort stave off an oncoming headache. He had thought that once he was away from his uncle, he would be away from evil but it had come to find him, even here. He felt Finny’s hand on his shoulder. Upset as she was, she was trying to comfort him. Joe put his hand over hers and instantly felt better.

  “These flood control channels that are everywhere,” Joe asked, looking out the truck window, “how often do they have water in them?”

  “Just when it rains.”

  “So never this time of year?”

  “No, it only rains here in the winter.”

  Joe contemplated the information and studied the channels as they drove.

  “You think they used the channels to move Sky?” Vel asked.

  “It would be the perfect way to go through a town, no obstruction for miles, easy to ride through.”

  “Vel, how long to the auction site?” Finny was getting anxious.

  “About forty-five minutes, Finny. I know that seems forever.”

  “Joe, could they have come this far that fast?”

  “If they used the channels, they could easy.”

  Vel, who normally obeyed the speed limits, pushed it to get there as quickly as possible. The road trip no one wanted kept their spirits low and talking to a minimum for most of the ride.

  “There it is!” Finny yelled when she spotted the giant “Livestock Auction Today” sign straight ahead. The place was massive. Multiple corrals and barns were lined up in row after row spanning at least fifty acres. Cattle, pigs, horses, and sheep were everywhere as far as the eye could see and the place was packed. It was all Vel could do to maneuver her pickup into the parking lot. Trucks and trailers haphazardly littered the place, from two-horse straight loads to giant two-floor stock trailers. The auction was about to begin and hundreds of people were moving horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs toward the auction pens.

  “How will we ever find him here? There must be a million horses at least!” Finny said, her voice trembling. Joe grabbed a
flyer that was stapled to a telephone pole. He let out a sigh, crumpled the flyer, and tossed it in a trash can. “Twenty-five hundred.”

  “Kids, this auction is for Western horses. Sky will be a giant in comparison. Do you all have your phones? Let’s go and look, ask if anyone has seen a really big horse.”

  “Wait, Joe . . . what if someone here recognizes you?”

  “Finny, my uncle won’t come this far.”

  Finny heaved out a sigh and set off. “I’ll go this way.”

  “I’m heading for the pens,” Joe said.

  “I’ll go this way. Let’s call each other in an hour regardless,” Vel instructed.

  Joe kept his hat low on his head. It was true, he and his uncle had never gone this far west, but it didn’t mean men who knew him didn’t. Joe searched the crowd for a familiar face. Someone he could trust to give him information and not give him up. Joe pressed through the throng of people on the way to the horse pens. Once there, the crowd had thinned and he spotted professional wranglers unloading horses out of a large stock trailer.

  Joe stared at the men, his pulse quickening. He didn’t recognize them but it was a small horse world. It frustrated him that fear was creeping into his brain. He reasoned he wasn’t the skinny helpless kid he had been five months ago, and made his way to the men. Wary of outsiders, they were slow to open up, but after a few minutes found Joe was one of their own. They told him they had seen a cowboy on a little quarter horse, who had headed out earlier ponying another horse. He stuck out because he was the only one not leaving in a trailer and the horse being led was huge. Joe’s pulse raced. They were on Sky’s trail. He asked the wranglers if they knew who the cowboy was or where he was going. They didn’t, but they directed Joe to someone who might.

  Joe ran into the sales barn and asked for Raul, who was called over by one of the handlers for the auction. Joe took a chance and told him that he was looking for a giant bay that had been stolen and most likely wouldn’t load into a trailer. Raul called a couple more cowboys over for help. Joe studied their faces. He didn’t recognize them but was getting uncomfortable. His race wins had made him well known. He didn’t have to recognize someone for a man to know who he or his uncle was. One of the cowboys said he’d be right back, looked at Joe one more time, then walked away. Joe noticed that the man pulled his cell out of his pocket before rounding the corner. He realized he needed to speed things up, to get out of there as fast as he could. “Any idea where there’s an auction like this that sells both English and Western horses?”