A Horse's Tale, Chapter 17, And where do you think you are going?
Steph sits up, her blanky drops to her feet, "Well I guess its time to go to bed." She looks around the dogs are all asleep in their beds. Steph smiles and walks to the front door, pulls the curtain back and looks out, listening carefully, she hears nothing, again she smiles "All seems quiet." Out of the shadows to the left comes Justice, walking very carefully, looking to the left and right, he continues around the patio, and heads toward the Lady's Parlour. Steph turns and walks toward the bedroom. Steph frowns to herself, "Oh, dang. Was that Justice? He better have a good reason to be wondering this late at night." Steph grabs her robe, and heads back to the front door. She opens the door and walks out toward Justice, he is actually walking on his toes, still looking to either side, Steph notices that he has a Wal-Mart bag in his mouth. As she gets closer, she says "Justice" Justice stops lowers his head and turns to face Steph. "Where do you think you are going?" Justice replies, "hvvvv tube sandy clods." Steph replies, "Why do you guys insist on talking with your mouths full." Steph reaches over and takes the Wal-Mart bag out of Justice's mouth. "I have to be Santa Claus." Steph replies, "Justice I told you, that Santa Claus is a people thing not a horse thing." Justice shakes his head, "Santa Claus will be at Shadow Mountain Feed Store tomorrow, I have to be there to give out gifts and get my picture taken." Steph can't think of anything to say, so looks in the Wal-Mart bag, its full of carrots. "Where did you get the carrots?" Justice smiles, "Albertson’s, they have them on sale." Again, Steph can't think of anything to say. "Ahh, let’s go talk to Dublin to see what he thinks about you wondering around." Justice nods, Steph asks "Why were you walking the way you were?" Justice replies, "I was told we need to be quiet when we walk around or if we are on a mission. So I was being very quiet." Steph still not sure what is going on, as they get closer to the Lady's Parlour, Dublin raises his head, and when he see who is approaching, he shakes his head and walks up to the rail. Steph stops a bit short of the rail, "Dublin did you know that Justice was going to Shadow Mountain Feed?" Dublin looks at Justice then back to Steph, "He isn't much for keeping secrets is he. Yes I knew he wanted to go there." Steph looks at Dublin, "Dublin you know that the horses can't leave the ranch it's dangerous, in fact they shouldn't be out of their pens." Dublin nods but says "He had a mission." Steph starts to say something then rethinks a bit. She looks at Justice, "What your mission?" Justice raises his head "to be Santa Claus." nods his head "Yes Santa Claus." Steph replies, you can't be Santa Claus, you are a horse." Justice looks up at Dublin, Dublin turns and walks to the middle of the Ladies Parlour, digs around in the dirt, and picks up a huge War-Mart back and walks back. He reaches over the top rail and hands the bag to Steph.
Steph takes the bag, it is stuffed full. She opens the bag, and looks inside. She reaches in, and pulls out a red Santa hat, next a very large white beard, and finally a red blanket with white fur around the edges. Steph asks Dublin, "Where did you get these things?" Dublin looks at Steph, "It is a secret. We had to hurry to get it, Justice didn't decide that he wanted to be Santa Claus until last week, and we didn't find out that he needed to be at Shadow Mountain until yesterday." Steph nods, knowing this is going to be a long story. Steph asks Dublin, "How did you find out about Santa Clause being at Shadow Mountain?" Steph turns to Justice "And how did you plan to get there?" Dublin does a "Pffft," and walks to the middle of the pen again, and again digs around a bit in the dirt, reaches down and picks up another Wal-Mart bag, this one not as bit as the other. He returns to the rail, and again offers the bag to Steph. Steph reaches out and takes the bag and looks inside. "Oh, my word." She pulls out a screen capture of a face book page, she reaches in her pocket, and pulls out a flashlight, "From some reason, I figured I would need this, lets see Santa will be at Shadow Mountain feed Saturday, from 9 to 1, come get a picture with your pet. hmmm, lets see what else we got, a Conoco Road Map of Nevada dated from the early 1960's, a bottle of water, and parts of two cookies." Steph looks at Justice, "Do you know where Shadow Mountain Feed is?" Justice starts to nod his head, then shakes his head, "Nope".
Steph turns to Dublin, "Where this you get this page?" holding up the screen print of the face book page. Dublin says, "Ahhh, its a secret." Steph nods, "Figures, did you expect Justice to find Shadow Mountain with this road map." Dublin nods, "ahhhh, sure there are signs along the road." Steph shrugs, Dublin you need to tell Justice he can't go to Shadow Mountain and that he can't be Santa Claus." and very firmly continues, "And I mean it." Dublin nods, he looks at Justice, he says something in horse, Justice lowers his head. Steph not sure what was said but seems Justice understood it. "Justice go back to your pen." Justice turns and heads back to the back row. As Justice leaves, Steph turns back to Dublin, "Dublin, ahh, you need to stop these horses from getting hurt or lost, you need to stop them from going out, and and doing these mission things." Dublin nods, "It’s hard to tell a horse they can't do a mission, when a horse is determined, ahhh, a horse is determined." Steph, not sure if he understood, "Dublin, I come by here two times a day, sometimes three or four times, you need to tell me about these things." Dublin doesn't reply, Steph continues "You know of all the horse's that I am here to take care of all of you, to keep you safe and happy. We can't have the horses running around doing missions that can get them hurt." Dublin nods. Steph turns to return to the house, stops and turns back. "Who read this page," holding up the screen print of the face book page, "and don't tell me its a secret" Dublin replies, "We horses can't read, we just look at the pictures." Steph nods, "Well how did you find out what was going on at Shadow Mountain?" Dublin smiles, "Oh, I said horse's can't read, the mules can." He starts to laugh, "You didn't know that, yes, the mules can read, well actually Ruby, Sampson has some problems with bigger words." Steph raises her hand up to her forehead. "Thanks Dublin has a good night." She turns and starts to walk back to the house, she stops, turns and picks up all the bags.
Rob wakes up early and goes to the front room, "Hey Steph, what are all these Wal-Mart bags?" Steph rolls over, "What are you talking about?" Rob yells back, "Wal-Mart bags on the table." Steph sits up. "Dang, I wish some of these things were a dream." She gets up, walks up front, "I need a cup of coffee, Rob do you think you can get the trailer hooked up this morning and take Justice over to Shadow Mountain." Rob starts to ask why as he is going through the contents of the bags. "Are these things yours?" Steph looks down at the table, "They are now, last night they were Justice's." Rob replies, "I guess he does want to be Santa Claus. But I don't think he will wear these things, a beard no less." Steph smiles, "Well he said he would." Rob moves the things around on the table, "Where did he get the Carrots?" Steph nods her head, "He says he got them at Albertson’s, you know they were on sale." Rob smiles, "well he had a good plan, all though even with the water and food, don't think he would have found Shadow Mountain with this map...." Steph smiles, "I didn't tell him it was only two roads away, otherwise he would be over there all the time." Rob smiles, "I will get the trailer ready, you get him dressed up. I think it would be worth the laugh if nothing else."
Bruno looks up "Can I go with you?" Steph turns to him and says "No." as if crushed by the weight of the world he lays back down. Mama dog looks up, "See I told you, horse business is horse business, dumb dog." Steph turns to Rob, "Did you know that mules can read?" Rob looks up, "They can what?"
To be continued.
MHR PMU horses
