Wind Dancer (11 page)

Wind Dancer nickered. Danny patted him affectionately. “I’m going to need a job so I can support this beast and all the food he’s going to eat. I want to get him back into shape so I can learn how to ride him correctly.” He rubbed his backside. “I smacked the saddle pretty hard while I was riding Dumpling. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t doing it right.”

Ali laughed.

“And next time, sis,” Danny added, “when you ask if you can follow me out into the desert, I’ll say yes.”

Ali hugged her brother.

For the first time in a long time, she felt like things really were going to work out. Danny was going to get the help he needed, and they had two great new horses as well.

She watched proudly as Danny walked Wind Dancer into his pen. The gelding was so tired he could barely make it, but he managed to nuzzle her brother’s shoulder as he was taking off his halter.

Ali climbed the fence to join Cara. She pulled the licorice from her pocket and gave Cara a piece. “It’s going to feel good to be a horse girl again.”

“Hmmm. Maybe we can ask a certain boy to join us for a ride when your horses are ready to go?” Cara asked.

“Well, sure,” Ali said with a smile. “It’s going to be a long
road to recovery, and a lot of hard work before these horses will be ready for that, but I can’t wait!”

Ali and Cara lifted their pieces of licorice high in the air and crossed them in salute.

“To new beginnings,” Cara said.

“To new beginnings,” Ali agreed.

Many of our soldiers are returning from war with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. Most of them will recover over time, but for some, the symptoms won’t go away and might even become worse.

For those seeking additional information on this disorder, here is a list of places that offer help and insight:

CHRIS PLATT
has been riding horses since she was two years old. At the age of sixteen, she earned her first gallop license at a racetrack in Salem, Oregon. Several years later, she became one of the first female jockeys in that state. Chris has also trained Arabian endurance horses and driven draft horses.

After earning a journalism degree from the University of Nevada in Reno, she decided to combine her love of horses and writing. She is the author of several books, including A
STRA
, M
OON
S
HADOW
, S
TAR
G
AZER
, S
TORM
C
HASER
, and W
ILLOW
K
ING
.

Platt lives in Nevada with her husband, four horses, two cats, and a parrot.

www.chrisplattbooks.com

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2014 by Chris Platt

Cover design by Nicola Carmack

ISBN 978-1-4804-3453-0

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