Horse's Tale, Chapter 16, A Beacon of Light in the Desert.
Steph yawns, looks round, "Well it was a busy day, horses cared for, house cleaned, Emails taken care of." She smiles and looks around dogs are all asleep on their beds, Rob's asleep in his chair, but wait, Bruno isn't in his bed. Steph stands up, looks around, and finally see Bruno, or at least his rear end at the doggy door. She watches for a minute or two, he is half way out the doggy door laying down, tail wagging once in awhile. "What is he doing?" Steph gets up, walks over to the door, "Bruno what are you doing?" Bruno's tail wags even more, "I am watching the plot." Steph starts to bend down and look out the doggy door, then realizes that, that is a dumb idea, she stands up, and parts the small curtain over the window in the door. She doesn't see anything, "Bruno what are you looking at?" Bruno backs out of the doggy door, "The plot." Steph looks at him, "What Plot?" Bruno, continues, "Well the horses in the Lady's Parlour have been plotting all day."
Steph reaches down and rubs Bruno's head, "Bruno, what is a plot and how do you know about it?" Steph is close to garbing him by the nap of the neck to get a straight answer. Bruno, moves his head around under Stephs hand to find just the right spot, not knowing that Steph is about to teach him a lesson. "Well according to the History Channel, a plot is when two or more peoples get together to plan something, and plotting according to the Dictionary Channel..." Steph starts to yell, but looks over to Rob who is still asleep. Bruno says "Come look outside." Steph says "Wait I need my slippers and my robe." Bruno heads out the doggy door, Steph gets ready and heads for the door, Steph starts to bend down to use the doggy door, stops, and says "whoa, I shouldn't have watched Alice in Wonderland the other night. Opens the door and steps out, the calm cold night cold air hits her, she looks around no noises, actually no sounds at all, she looks to her left, everything is in order... "Wait, who has been playing with the lights on the tree?" Bruno looks up, "See I told ya." Steph sternly looks down at Bruno, "Have you dogs been playing with the lights." Bruno shakes his head. Steph looks at the tree a string of lights is laid out to the left, "Wait its moving." Bruno nods again "A plot." Steph steps out to the edge of the patio, and looks, there is a string of lights heading off toward the right and the Ladies Parlour.
All of a sudden a horse runs by, back toward the tree. Its skids to a stop at the tree and reaches into the branches of the tree and unwraps a portion of the lights from the tree, then turns and runs back to toward the Lady's Parlour. As it passed this time, Steph recognized him as Spirit. Bruno looks up, "They are going to be Electra Fried, aren't they?" Steph looks down, "Bruno what are you talking about?" "Well on the Discovery Channel they were explaining about Electrification, and that the ropes carry Electron's ..." "Ok, Ok, got it. Lets go see what is going on."
Steph walks to the end of the patio, and starts to follow the string of lights. As she gets closer to the end she see that there is another horse involved in the felony, "ahh, its Jonah, I think." Bruno stops and looks over, "Yes Yes, a plotter, one who participates in a plot..." Steph goes "Shhh. I got it." As Steph approaches the end of the sting of lights, Spirit heads back to the tree, "Jonah, you need to stop." She reaches over and touches him on the shoulder. He turns, and mumbles "hmmsoe caiont stuuup." Steph reaches over and removes the string of lights from Jonahs mouth. "Hmmm Can't Stop." Steph lays the string of lights down, just as Spirit returns and says, "ok more rope." Steph says "Both of you listen, you can't be taking lights off the tree, it ruins the tree and you can get hurt. Do you both understand?" Both horses look at Steph and shake their heads. "Who told you, you needed the lights?" Both horses look to the Lady's Parlour and both say in unison "Dublin." Bruno starts jumping up and down, "Is it a plot, its it a plot?" Steph reaches down very gently and whacks Bruno, "Go back to the house." She shakes her head, "You two stay here. I will get to the bottom of this." Steph walks up to the railing of the Lady's Parlour, looks inside, seven horses all asleep on their feet. "Dublin" Steph says quietly, knowing that horses sleep very lightly, and Dublin knows his name. Dublin raises his head looks around and begins to walk towards Steph. As he gets closer Steph asks, "Dublin are you guys up to something tonight?" Dublin approaches within inches of Steph bends down a bit to be at eye level and says, "Yes." Steph standing nose to nose to 1400 lbs of gods creature, says, "And what is that?" Durbin raises his massive head and smiles, "We wanted a light also." Steph nods "So you sent out Jonah and Spirit to steal the lights from the Holliday tree." Dublin lowers his head, looks Steph straight in the eye, and says "Yes. We are locked in here, and we don't have a light." Steph turns around and looks back at Jonah, and Spirit, "Well most of you are locked in." She turns back to Dublin, "You can't be doing destructive things, taking the lights off the tree is not good and can be dangerous, Jonah and Spirit could be Electra Fried, I mean Electrocuted. Which is not good." Dublin opens his eyes wide, "We wouldn't want that, whatever it is. We only wanted one light." Steph nods, pats Dublin on the head, "Well they are all tied together. But why did you want a single light from the tree?" Dublin presses his head into Stephs shoulder, "I am not sure, Jerri asked and what Jerri asks we do." Steph pats Dublin on the head, "I know." Steph looks around the pen Jerri is off to one side as is the norm, but is looking at Steph and Dublin, Steph raises her hand and with a small signal to Jerri motions to Jerri to come over. Jerri raises her head and heads directly for Steph and Durbin.
As Jerri nears, Steph asks, "Did you tell Dublin to get a light off the holyday tree?" "Oh, no, I would never say that, I just suggested that if would be nice if we had a light." Dublin nods, "Yep that is what she said." Steph rubs both of their heads, "Well you can't be stealing lights from the Holliday tree, if you want a light I will get you one." Jerri replies, "A single light is all we need." Steph nods, "Why do you need a light?" Jerri looks at Steph, "Don't you know, on the ..." Jerri then proceed to start pawing the ground, every ten or so hits, she nudges Dublin who paws the ground. "Well on the 21st of December of your time, its the shortest day of the year, as horses see it, so we try and ward off the darkness with a light, and you have all sorts of lights this year." Steph nods, "What would you do if we didn't have the lights?" Jerri smiles "We look to the sky’s, about this time of year the stars sparkle and shoot across the sky (1), tis enough for us to celebrate, ya know for us to have a beacon of light in the desert"
"I will get you a light, but you have to put back the lights on the Holiday tree." both Jerri and Dublin nod. Dublin yells out something to Jonah and Spirit, and both turn around and start dragging the lights back to the tree.
As Steph walks past both Jonah and Spirit as they drag the lights back to the tree, both are mumbling under their breath, "what now, are we in trouble, who’s idea was this..." Steph pats each as she passes, "you are not in trouble."
Bruno is sitting by the door, "Was it a plot, was it a plot?" Steph looks down, "No it was horses do, this time of year, but you should have told me sooner." Bruno wags his tail so happy that he, well just cause he is happy.
Steph closes the door, takes off her bunny slippers and looks around, "Ahh there it is..." she reaches for the remote for the TV, and heads off to bed.
In the morning, Steph turns drops her arm across where Rob should be, but he is up already, "Rob are you up?", another dumb question in married life, Rob yells back from the front room, "Have you seen the remote, I want to check the weather before I head out?" Steph still half asleep, "Ahh, let me think here a second.... Ahh its in the toilet tank in a plastic bag." Rob starts to answer back, but knowing it wouldn't work, "Ok Thanks."
To be continued.
Author: Samm
MHR PMU horses
