Ghetto Cowboy (13 page)

He holds up his phone and shows me a video. I see the inspection dudes going through the Ritz-Carlton, examining horses, talking about the bad conditions they lived in and how the stables was illegal and all. They show everything — the hole in the roof, all the mud and muck, that big pile of crap, but worse of all, the dead horse.

Seeing it this way, it looks bad. Suddenly, I can see how someone watching this would think the cops is the good guys and
we
the bad guys. Like everyone who live around here must be too poor or too stupid to take care of their pets. They’ll wonder what we thinkin’ keepin’ horses in the middle of a war zone in the worst neighborhood in Philly. That’s how it looks to me, and I know better!

Smush stares at the video. “You can’t believe nothing you see on the news. No one has the right to do what they doing to Uncle Harp and these horses. They just looking to stir things up to make a story.”

When he says that, suddenly I know Jamaica Bob was right — the City wants that land and will do
anything
to get it. “They musta planned to raid the stable after that storm, knowin’ it’d make us look bad,” I say. “And maybe they let that crap pile up just for something like this, so they could get it on video.”

Smush nods. “Makes sense now. I mean, how else would the news even get this video, unless the City gave it to them?”

“Dang, that’s like a conspiracy!”

“Yeah, a conspiracy. That’s what it is,” says Smush, shaking his head. “Man, we in it now!”

Snapper interrupts. “Look, they on the move,” he says, pointing at a few guys taking the horses into the stone building on the far side of the corral.

I see one of ’em leading Boo inside. “Dag, now what we gonna do? We got to break in there too!”

Smush tells me to be quiet. “We’ll figure it out,” he says, like he has no idea. “Just sit tight.”

When the sun goes down, the park feels different. It’s dark an’ empty, the trees is kinda spooky. I ain’t never been in a forest at night, but with us being quiet, all kind of animals and who knows what seem to come alive around us. It’s like the forest is a living, breathing thing. All them pretty trees from before look kinda crazy now, like monsters.

We watch them guys who was working with the horses drive off one by one. After they gone, it feels pretty quiet. Just a light on in one of the upstairs windows in the stone building.

“Should we go in now?” Snapper asks.

Smush is listening. “We should wait a little longer to make sure.”

But I can’t wait. I keep thinking about Boo becoming dog food. “Nah, they all left.” I start climbing the fence. “We got to go in now.”

Smush and Snapper look at each other and shrug. They follow.

We get into the main corral and then run to the shadows of the stone building. The whole place seem empty.

“We better make sure that main gate opens.Otherwise we’ll just be trapped in this yard once we get the horses out the building,” Smush says.

Snapper takes out a pair of bolt cutters. “I’m on it.” He sees me staring. “What? You never know when you’ll need these bad boys.” He runs over and starts fiddling with the gate.

We sneak to the edge of the building and try a old wood door. It opens. Inside, there’s a long line of stalls on both sides, and I can hear horses moving about. I don’t see no guards or no cameras looking over the room. So we sneak in like a coupla ninjas, peekin’ in each stall for any of Harper’s horses. The horses watch us closely, but they don’t do nothing. Some is even sleeping standing up.

I go down the whole row and don’t see nobody I know, ’specially not Boo. “Maybe they already took ’em away when we wasn’t looking!” I say, starting to panic.

Then I hear Boo give a little horse neigh. I’m no expert, but I come to know Boo’s sounds. I run over to another wood door on the far end of the room and slide it open. It’s dark inside, but there, behind a chain-link fence, is Boo, his eyes all big and watery. It ain’t nice at all, not like the other horses have. Boo’s standing there, his face pressed against the fence, looking all sad. The other eight horses is in there too.

“We gonna get you guys outta here, Boo,” I whisper to him.

There’s a big ol’ padlock on the fence, but when Snapper takes a look, he has that thing off in two seconds flat. I’m about to open it when Smush stops me.

“Now, you sure about this? So far, we ain’t done nothing illegal, but you take them horses, and that’s stealing.”

I already thought this through. “It ain’t stealing if it’s yours. They stole ’em first. I’m just taking ’em back. It’s called cowboy justice.”

Smush shakes his head. “Okay, then, cowboy. Lead the way.”

I
push open the gate and walk up to Boo. I remember the first time I saw him and how big he seemed and how scared I was that he’d step on me. Now it feels okay, like we watching out for each other. I pet his neck, and he brushes his head against my shoulder.

“My man, Boo . . .”

Suddenly, we hear a noise coming from upstairs. Definitely the sound of footsteps.

Smush peeks in the door. “Cuz, we ain’t got time for no reunions. We got to get ’em outta here.”

The horses don’t got no saddles, but we don’t got the time to saddle ’em up, anyway. “Help me up on Boo,” I say.

Smush looks doubtful. “You ever rode bareback before?”

I think of the last time Boo dumped me without a saddle. “We don’t got no choice, do we?”

I grab Boo’s mane as gently as I can, and Smush gives me a lift. When I get up there, it feels all weird, nothing to hold on to but his hair.

“You don’t mind, do ya, Boo?” I ask.

He glances back at me, like,
What you doing back there?
But he seem okay with it. “Okay, now you guys get on them horses. The other six will just have to follow us on their own.”

Smush hops up pretty easy, but Snapper balks. “I ain’t getting up there. You crazy?”

There’s some more scuffling going on upstairs. Smush looks tense. “Snap, you best mount up. I know you ain’t afraid of no horse.”

Snapper scowls. He tries to get up on the horse, but it keeps moving around in circles. “You trying to wake the neighbors?” I say. “You got to act confident, like you know what you doing.”
Where’d I hear that before?

Snapper glares at me like he gonna knock me off. “I ain’t afraid,” he says, all steely. He stares down his horse. “You move again, and I’ll knock
you
out.”

I think the horse believes him, ’cause he don’t move again. Snapper gets up, though it ain’t pretty. He seem worried for a second until he sees me looking at him.

“What? I can ride. I just don’t like to.”

The horses is getting antsy. I whisper in Boo’s ear. “Okay, Boo, you gotta lead the way. The other horses will follow you.”

He nods his head. Smush acts surprised.

“Maybe he as crazy as you,” Smush says.

I click my tongue and try to steer him out the room. Boo moves slowly into the stall area but stops halfway through. I can hear more shuffling upstairs.

“Come on, Boo. We ain’t got all day —”

Someone drops something heavy upstairs, and suddenly Boo takes off. Not like racing, but a real fast walk, like you do when you know you gonna get caught. Fast enough that I almost fall off. I’m grabbing all around for something to hang on to, but there ain’t nothing. I squeeze my legs and pull back on his mane a little. He neighs and eases up by the front door.

“Quiet, Boo,” I hiss. “Don’t get all spooked on me.”

Someone nudges Boo from behind. Smush’s horse. I turn around, and after Smush, only Snapper and his horse is there. The others didn’t follow! Smush can see what I’m thinking.

“They ain’t dogs — they horses. What’d you expect?”

Suddenly, someone in front of us shouts, “Hey! What’re you doing?”

He don’t sound happy. I whip back around and see some guy carrying a trash can blocking our way. Before I can think of some crazy excuse, Boo takes off right toward the guy! This time, I fall sideways and I fight to hold on, almost kicking that dude in the face as we fly by.

The front gate to freedom that Snapper broke open earlier is barely open now, so Boo turns left and runs along the corral fence instead of going through the gate. I can’t see what’s going on behind me, but Boo stops for a second, long enough for me to try and right myself and see that janitor dude coming our way.

He trying to get in Boo’s way, but Boo ain’t backing off. Behind him, I can see Smush and Snapper busting a move for the front gate. Smush jumps off his horse and opens it all the way and waves me over.

“Stop messing around! We gotta go!” he yells.

I roll my eyes, then kick Boo in the side, which he don’t like too much. He steps toward the dude, who’s clearly not a horse guy. He holds his trash can in front of him like a shield, but Boo just brushes him aside and follows Smush out the front gate.

As we head out into the darkness, I can see the guy running back inside the stone building. Probly gonna call the cops. But I don’t care, ’cause I kept my promise — I freed Boo.

S
mush leads the way through the forest, holding a little flashlight in his mouth ’cause he gotta hold on to his horse. Snapper follows but looks like he never rode before, which is probly what I look like too. I think about them other horses we left behind and maybe how we shoulda gone back for ’em. But what’s done is done, and I’m just glad we got Boo. I wrap my arms around Boo’s neck and bounce like crazy as he trots along. He seem happy to be out in the open again.

When we get deep into the trees, Smush eases up. “We got to hang low. Cops’ll be patrolling for some black horse thieves, so it ain’t like they won’t know it’s us. I know a place where we can hide out in the park till dawn. Then maybe it’ll be quiet enough to head out.”

He whips out his phone and says to someone, “Meet us at the Devil’s Pool. And bring food and sleeping bags. Yeah, we going camping! Just do it!”

The horses move along slowly, ’cause it’s dark, and riding without a saddle is near impossible. I start thinkin’ about what Tex said ’bout the Old West, but I don’t suppose this is what the Chisholm Trail was like. It’s pitch-black out, and all kinda weird noises is going on in that darkness. I don’t know how Smush finds his way. I can’t tell which way we headin’ — it all feels the same to me.

When we finally get close to the spot, we have to go super slow ’cause the trail’s all rocky. Smush keeps pointing his light into the pit where the pool is. It’s like it drops into the center of the Earth.

We stop in a little clearing.

“Okay, this is good a place as any,” Smush says, hopping off.

“What about the horses?” I ask. “We can’t just leave ’em be. They might run off into that pit.”

Smush smiles, then holds up a rope he has around his shoulder. “Snagged it on the way out. We can tie ’em up.”

I watch him pull out a knife and start cutting off long pieces. I start thinking about what kinda trouble I got us into. I don’t even want to think about what Harp might do to me. So I try to think about something else instead. Like food. “I’m hungry.”

Smush pats me on the back. “Food’s coming. Don’t expect nothing fancy.”

I look over and see the horses munching on some grass and weeds. “Looks like they ain’t gonna wait for us.”