Stories & Reflections
“We’re gonna run it,” said Josh. “Don’t you dare!” said Anna. “We’ll be there by midnight – meet us by the stables.” She didn’t believe him, of course – it was fifteen miles. “Anna, I love you!” said Josh. “Don’t!” she said, and hung up.
Suddenly, there was a taping on the window. “What’s that?” screeched Darcy, Ann’s cousin. “Shhh!” said Anna, “Mom and Dad!” Ann’s own heart began to pound as she pulled back the curtain and pressed her face up to the darkened windowpane. It was Aaron. “Come quick,” he said, motioning. “I can’t believe it,” said Anna, “They’re here!” Hurriedly, the girls made their way out of the house.
Anna stepped into the tackroom and gasped. On a horse-blanket, on the floor, lay Josh, covered in blood, huge gashes running crossways of his thighs and chest. His white track shirt, hanging in shreds. “He hit a barbed-wire fence,” said Aaron, “It was dark, he was way ahead of me…” Anna understood immediately: the new fence, dividing what just last week had been a hundred-acre open field. “We were almost here and he was sprinting for the finish, and….”
Aaron stood outside with Darcy. Though Anna had seen her mother, a veterinarian, sew up horses a hundred times, her hands trembled slightly as she pulled the curved needle through the flesh on Josh’s thigh. “Don’t move,” she said firmly. “I love you,” said Josh, through clenched teeth. A horsefly buzzed against the bare light-bulb on the ceiling.
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