One
Lucky Step
by Dana Larson (11)
The
hooves of my horse pierced the dry Arizona dust as I felt myself
being jolted backward. The saddle that felt tight earlier, shifted
drastically and I knew it was loose. Fear struck as I felt the saddle
slip away. I remembered back to before I knew of my horse, Josie.
It was
a beautiful spring day when my best friend's moving truck pulled in
to the empty house my neighbors had moved out of a year before. Ever
since that day, Molly and I were best friends. She had a dog that was
named Daisy, and we had fun grooming her and making fake fashion
shows for our dolls. A year went by and we gradually stopped playing
with dolls and toys. We started going to the animal shelter and
volunteered to take dogs for a walk. Sometimes we found birds' nests
and we loved to watch the birds come with worms to feed the baby
chicks inside. One thing was for sure, we both loved animals.
But
one day our life changed because of one wrong step. As Molly and I
slowly walked home from school in the hot Arizona sun, I stepped on a
large rock and stumbled sideways. I felt the ground under my feet
slope down and a second later I was sitting in the dusty ditch. I sat
there for a moment processing what just happened. Then I broke out
laughing. So did Molly. But as I got up, I stepped on something that
crinkled under my foot. It was a piece of old paper. I stopped
laughing and looked at the paper. There were words! I read the paper
out loud to Molly, "Come to Stallion Stables to volunteer
today... (1974)..." Molly asked the question I was thinking, and
that was, "Is that all?" "No, it's probably not all!
It's torn and I can't find the other piece!" I exclaimed as I
looked for more scraps of paper. " "Well... should we go
and volunteer? It seems very old. I mean, it's 2019, not the 70s!"
Molly pointed out. It took me a moment to think, "You're right!
But think, if it was still up and running and we missed out on lots
of fun!" I finally answered.
That
night, Molly begged to stay for a sleepover into Saturday. We would
set an alarm, and at 5:30 we would sneak out and look to see if the
ranch was still open to volunteer at. We knew where it was because of
a map we picked up earlier that day. We had it all planned out.
When
the alarm went off, I sat up. I turned off the alarm and said, “Okay
Molly, we should get going.” But Molly groaned and turned in her
sleep. I shook her again and this time she pushed me away. I made my
mind up to go by myself, but as I sneaked to the door, Molly sat up
and blinked.
We ran
together in the still dark morning, the flashlight giving a small
stream of dancing light. After a long walk on the dusty roads and
many breaks to look at the map, we saw a big building towering over
us. It was a very large and made of rusting metal and rotting, wooden
boards. Molly and I looked at each other and then at the map.
According to the map, we were at the right place and we decided that
this was Stallion Stables but that it was only a name and it was a
factory not a horse stable. We turned to walk back home and get in
bed, but just as we turned, we heard a spine-tingling whinny piercing
the dark morning air.
I saw
Molly's eyes go wide and we both whirled around to face the ugly, big
building.
"I-i-is this what they meant by 'volunteer'? Go into a
collapsing building and feed an insane horse?" Molly asked me in
a quivering voice. I stood there, my eyes wide. Then, after what
seemed like an hour, I said what I was asking myself over and over
again.
"Or does it mean to go into a collapsing building and
save
a horse?" I saw Molly pinch herself, and blink, but we did not
wake up from this nightmare. I took a step toward the building and
picked up a stick. I looked back to see Molly do the same. We inched
toward the scary structure and once close enough to touch, we looked
through a crack in a board to see light.
"We should have brought
Daisy," I whispered.
Once inside, I landed on oily dirt. Molly
came after me, through a small opening in some boards. We went down a
hallway, following the small light beam. Then, as we turned a corner
we suddenly found ourselves in a big room, almost as big as the
soccer field at school. I gasped as I saw at least fifty empty horse
stalls. All were empty except for one.
"Look! It's the horse
that whinnied!" We ran to the stall and saw a horse standing in
an old box stall, with gravel as the flooring.
"Poor thing! This
is not the way a horse should be treated!" Molly shrieked. I
looked in the horse's eyes and saw fear and sadness in them. As we
looked at her, we saw her ears go up and she snorted, staring behind
us. Then a gruff voice yelled out at us saying,
"What do you
think you are doing?" We spun around to face a scowling man.
Then I was very surprised to hear Molly's voice yell, "Is this
your horse, Sir? Do you think this is a good way to treat a horse!
No! No, it is not! Give us information or we will turn you over to
the police!" Molly's face was bright red in anger. I was stunned
to see sweet Molly lash out so much.
The man answered by saying,
"Okay, Okay, this is a racehorse and she is owned by this race
horse company! My boss owns this horse!" It was my turn to
speak.
"Do you have a different racehorse to ride and I will
race you on this one? Whichever horse crosses the finish line first
wins. If this horse wins, we get to keep it." The man thought
for a long while, and then he answered,
"Deal. I have a
much-better-trained horse." The man went out a door and came
back with a brown horse that was in great condition. I swallowed
hard.
"Okay, we will race in one week. But you have to let us
come and train her." The man said we had a deal. We named the
horse Josie. Before the race, we tightened the saddle and made sure
everything looked good.
I
snapped back to the present time and I was sliding off Josie fast.
Then I saw the thing that gave me the greatest fear, the jump. I
whispered something in Josie's ear before the jump, and that was,
"You are running for your life, Josie. Finish this without me."
The jump was upon us and I closed my eyes and let go of the reins. I
felt myself hit hard ground and I stood up and limped off the race
track. I watched Josie speed up and turn a bend. I limped to the
finish line to meet Molly, who had tears in her eyes and hugged me
tightly. We waited for one horse or the other to come around the
bend. But then, they both came speeding around the bend, neck to
neck.
But
the big man must have been dragging the brown horse down and Josie
sped along faster than any horse I had ever seen. Molly and I
cheered as she took the lead. She passed the finish line a whole yard
before the man and his horse.
“That doesn't count! You need to be
on your horse!” the man screamed at us.
“No my kind Sir, I
believe we said that the horse that crosses the finish line first,
wins.” Ever since that day, Josie has been treated like a queen.
I would like to thank my Mom and older sister for helping me edit the story.
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