Pony Dreams (3 page)

The little girl was Grace, and she wore a
store bought dress. I'd never had a store bought dress in my whole
life. Ma said they were too expensive, but this daydream was so
real I took in every detail of that store bought dress Grace wore,
the bright blue satin, shining white lace, and buttons in the shape
of little flowers.

Thinking about that brought great pain in my
head and neck. I shook off the remembrance and stared at the pile
of snapped beans. It didn't seem like I had taken that long
dreaming, but sure enough the worst part of the chore was over.

“Well, if that don't beat all,” I said with a
smile. “I'll have to remember that from now on. Work sure doesn't
seem hard when my mind is occupied.”

As I reached for a pot, the sound of laughter
outside distracted me. Jealousy rose in my heart along with black
hatred for Peter and Paul. They were having fun while I sweated
buckets canning food they'd gobble down without tasting.

Chapter Three

I looked out the
window as I pumped water into the canning pots and giggled. Visions
of my lazy twin brothers getting their just desserts ran through my
mind at the sight I saw.

Ma marched toward the clothesline beside the
barn. She stopped, cocked her head, and faced the corral.

“Peter and Paul,” she hollered. “You aren't
doing as your pa told you to do. Do I have to hunt up my
broom?”

They dashed out from behind the barn. Hay
stuck out from their hair in all directions, which they tried to
brush away while also tucking their shirttails into their pants.
Both looked like she had jolted them awake from a wonderful dream
and thrust them into a nightmare. Rubbing their eyes, they ran into
the corral and shoved bits into the horses' mouths. The animals set
up a ruckus from the treatment.

“Don't ruin those ponies. And you'd better
hurry it up. But don't you short those horses their training,” Ma
said, “and don't you dare sneak off again. You'll miss your dinner
if you do.”

Her reminder that the time for our dinner was
approaching pushed me to working faster shoving beans, salt, and
water into jars. I put a lid on each one before placing the
containers into the pots. After I had three of the pots bubbling
away, I made cornbread, slid the pan into the oven, and pulled out
a smaller pot to boil up a mess of beans. For flavor, I added bacon
grease from a jar beside the stove and chopped up a couple of
potatoes. It was a busy day lunch, and one we had quite often when
Pa and my older brothers were away. By the time Ma checked on me, I
had made sure the canning pots hadn't overflowed, the pan with our
midday meal simmered on the back of the stove, and picked up the
bucket of potato peels and bean ends.

“I need to take this to the pig,” I said.

“What do you have left to finish?” she
asked.

“Take the canning pots off the stove and set
the jars out to dry,” I said. “Dinner's cooking. I'll take out the
cornbread when I get back.” I glanced at her. “I'll do up the peas
after dinner.”

“Good job.” She peered into the bubbling pot
of our meal. “Did you season these?”

Fiery heat that didn't come from spending the
morning cooking lit up my cheeks. “I'm sorry.”

“It's not too late.” She added salt and
pepper to the meal. “Go on, Abigail. It'll be dinnertime soon
enough. Tell your lazy brothers to wash up on your way to the
pigpen.” Ma shook her head after looking at the peas. “We'll do
those together after supper.”

The offer was far too good to speak about,
even to say thank you, lest she change her mind. I hurried to the
corral, grateful for a respite from my duties. Peter and Paul
grinned at me when I stopped.

“Feeding the pig, Abby?” Peter hollered at
the top of his lungs.

“Ma says it's time to clean up for dinner,” I
said. “You'd best hop to it. She's downright upset about you
sleeping away half the morning.”

They jumped off the horses but left the bits
in the animals' mouths. Those lazy boys ran toward the house
without even offering to help me, or caring about how uncomfortable
the animals were. I shook my head, set down the pail, and climbed
under the railing. The Mustangs shied from me at first, but I held
out a hand until they came over and then removed the bits.

“That hurts, doesn't it?” I asked.

One nodded and stood in front of the others.
He had the most beautiful white blaze on his forehead. The marking
stood out like a bright star on a dark night against his deep brown
hair. I stroked the blaze until he nudged the side of my face.

“That tickles!” I giggled and cast a guilty
look at the house.

Peter and Paul were busy tossing water at
each other instead of washing up at the shed where Ma did laundry.
She puttered around the kitchen, but unlike me, she never took the
time to look out the window. No one would notice if I took a minute
or two with the mustangs. I returned my attention to the
horses.

“No one's explained what an important a job
you have,” I whispered. “You'll deliver the mail, so people all
over the United States can write to each other. Isn't that
wonderful?”

The mustang bobbed his head up and down. A
thrill ran through me, as it did every time I knew the horses
understood me.

“Before you can do that, you have to learn
how important it is to have someone riding you, but Peter and Paul
just want to play.” I checked the house again and looked back at
the horse when I discovered no one watching me. “Tell you what.
I'll come out here early every morning. We'll show Pa and all my
brothers I can train you right.”

I left the corral and picked up the bucket.
The mustang hung his head over the split-rail fence. He watched as
I walked around the barn to where the pig wallowed in happiness
under the only shade around our ranch.

“Here you go.” I dumped the vegetable scraps
over her fence. “Enjoy yourself.”

She lumbered over and nudged her nose through
the food. I returned to the house and hoped the rest of the day
moved fast. I looked forward to training the horses before anyone
else woke up so much it seemed like every minute was crawling
now.

Right after supper with the sun hanging low
in the west, Ma shooed Peter and Paul out the door.

“Bring me back a couple of bushels of corn,”
she said. “We have to get busy on the vegetables, or the wild
animals will eat them.”

She turned to face me, but I was already
making my way toward the pantry. From the set look in her eyes, she
wouldn't give me a moment to breathe now that she'd decided to put
up vegetables. If I was very lucky, I might see my pillow about
ten.

Hours later, she counted jars of corn and
peas. Her happy nod didn't ease the soreness in my muscles as I
pumped more water to wash the pile of pots.

“Go on to bed,” she said. “You've worked hard
all day.”

“Thank you.” I set the pot on the stove.

My eyes closed as soon as my head hit the
pillow.

The next morning, even though I wanted to
burrow under my blankets, I put on my clothes and slid out my
window. The sun still had to break over the eastern horizon, but if
I wanted to help The Pony Express, I had to do this in secret. As
soon as I reached the corral, the mustang with the blaze met me. I
put a bit into his mouth and spent an hour teaching him to accept
the unfamiliar restriction.

The sun had just begun to rise when I
scurried to the chicken coop to feed the birds and gather eggs.
Peter and Paul ran past me to the barn, where the cows mooed loud
enough for Pa to hear on the trail.

“You ain't tryin' to make us look lazy, are
you, Abby?” Peter asked.

“I don't have to try to do that,” I shot back
at him. “You are lazy. Best move it. Ma's probably going to want to
make butter today.”

“Says you.” Paul pointed at the corral. “We
have important work to do for The Pony Express.”

Oh, how I wanted to tell them I'd already
done their work, so the horses didn't languish for lack of
attention. Instead, I trudged across the already warming desert
sand.

“Holy heck,” I muttered as I approached the
house. “Boys have all the fun.”

* * * *

Getting up before everyone else tired me out
fast, but I never let that slow me down as I trained the horses to
make up for Peter and Paul's laziness. On the tenth morning after
Pa and my older brothers left, I woke far earlier than normal. The
nightmare that had jolted me out of sleep left me trembling in
every muscle.

I'd seen the little girl, Grace, and her ma
lying in the horse corral near the boy whose name I still had to
figure out. The rest of my family and Trapper Andy had hollered
while I lay beside the others with blood running down my neck.

“It's not real.” I slipped into an old calico
dress and pulled on my boots. “Ma and Pa wouldn't have let me
anywhere near the corral again if that happened.” I listened hard
but heard nothing except Ma, Peter, and Paul sleeping. “Where are
the others?”

Even though Pa, Adam, Charles, Bart, and Mark
should have returned last night, none of us had worried much when
they didn't. As she said at supper, any number of things could have
held them up. While hooking up my boots, I tried to shake the
fuzziness from my brain, but nothing worked. Concern about my pa
and brothers combined with my awful dreams since Trapper Andy's
visit had me walking around like one of the barn cats on the hot,
sandy ground.

“I won't do anything but talk to the horses
today,” I whispered while sneaking out of the house. “They'll
understand.”

Even though it was still dark, I didn't
falter while walking to the corral. I saw wide eyes watching me and
smiled. The mustang with the blaze never balked now whenever I
touched him or slipped a bit into his mouth. This horse had become
so much more than another animal to deliver to The Pony.

“Hello,” I said. “What name do you want?”

Pa had always forbidden us from naming the
horses. He didn't want us attached to them since they came and went
from our lives so fast, but I had trouble resisting. I had finally
met a horse that retained his spirit while also learning to carry a
rider.

“Pony sounds dumb.” I stroked his forelock.
“What about Blaze? Do you like that?”

He nickered approval.

“We won't tell anyone else.” I climbed onto
the fence and slipped the bit into his mouth. “Does that hurt?”

Blaze snorted and tossed his head. I giggled.
He sidled sideways against the fence. Temptation proved too hard,
and I swung a leg onto his back. Unlike my brothers, a horse had
never bucked me.

“Let's do it,” I said, unable to resist the
temptation to ride this wonderful horse.

Blaze lifted his feet proudly while trotting
around the corral, and I hung onto the reins. The feeling of his
strong muscles moving under me lulled me into a dream-like state,
where nothing else existed. We kept riding until a sliver of light
appeared on the eastern horizon.

“Oh no!” I exclaimed. “Ma'll be up.”

Without any urging, Blaze took me back to the
fence and waited while I climbed off his back. I took off the bit
and hung it on a fence post. In minutes, she would chase Peter and
Paul out of their beds to do chores.

“We'll ride again tomorrow,” I whispered.

The troublesome twins' protests filled the
still chilly air. I ran over to the chicken coop and took care of
them. There were less eggs than usual so I began a hunt, certain
the hens had hidden them. To my horror, I found eggs spattered
against the side of the coop.

“The Johnsons,” I said but knew I couldn't
say their name around Ma, or even tell her about the ruined eggs.
“Why do they keep coming around?”

My brothers would have agreed with me and
gone looking for the Johnsons. A more annoying group of men existed
nowhere else on Earth. Surely, the Lord wouldn't have made more
like them to vex decent folk.

While returning to the house, I glanced at
the barn. We owned four cows, and none of them sounded happy. I
hurried into the kitchen and set the egg basket on the counter.

“You're up early again.” Ma glanced at me.
“Are you messing around with the horses?”

Chapter Four

Worry chased across
her face, leading me to believe my nightmares might have some truth
attached to them. Her look sharpened as she studied me closely. The
examination made me want to squirm, but the cows saved me from
further interrogation when they mooed again.

“Peter, Paul, I sent you to do your chores an
hour ago!” she called out. She handed me a long, two-pronged fork
and took off for the boys' sleeping quarters. “I won't tolerate
your impudence any longer.”

Their outraged howls sent me into a flurry of
motion. I pulled biscuits from the oven, stirred grits, and turned
ham as they bolted through the hallway with her on their heels.
Both boys scrambled past me and raced toward the door. They were
bare foot and tugging up their pants while pleading for mercy.

“Ma'll be in an awful mood.” I set the table
and covered the food. “I'll start some pie filling. That'll make
her forget about my going outside too early.”

After going into the pantry, I picked up a
packet of dried peaches from a case her mother sent us from
Kentucky. My hand hovered over another case, and I lifted a package
of dried apples.

“Maybe having two pies will make the others
come home,” I whispered.

I put the fruit on to simmer with water and
sugar on the back of the stove. A delightful aroma floated around
me, and I lost myself in the day Trapper Andy's words had brought
out of my memories.

Grace and I had played in front of the porch.
A boy threw pebbles at us. Adam, Bart, Charles, and Mark had raced
in circles around the barn. Peter and Paul had sneaked across the
porch and tried to slide off it. Pa and Trapper Andy caught them
before they made it to the ground.