Lauraine Snelling (25 page)

Maggie stared at him a moment. “I guess.”

“Come on. We can play on the one in the family room.”

Maria leaned closer. “He beat your socks off. Be careful.”

What have I gotten myself into?
Maggie wondered as she followed the wheelchair into the family room. Sitting on the floor in front of the large television, Eddie handed her a controller.

“This is what you use to move around on the screen to attack and keep from getting shot out of the game.”

“This sounds pretty bloodthirsty.”

“It’s good for eye/hand coordination.”

She looked at him and shook her head, then stared at the thing in her hand. While she’d played earlier versions of video games when she was a teen, she knew the world of gaming had changed a lot in the years in between. “Couldn’t we read a book instead?”

“Two people can’t read a book at the same time.”

“Sure they can if one reads to the other.”

“Easier to listen to the book on audio.” He pushed a button on his controller and an action game showed up on the screen.

She tried to listen as he explained the story and the rules, but her mind flipped back through the years to playing Candy Land and LEGOs with Charlie. He loved building towers and then smashing them. And he loved to be read to, enthralled with the pictures from the beginning with board books and as he grew older chanting the rhyming couplets after a few times through.

“Okay, you ready?”

Maggie came back to the room at the question and nodded.

Maria was right. Eddie beat her so badly that she vowed never to play again.

“How can you get good then?”

“What if I don’t really care much about video games?”

“Well, Arthur can’t come over often enough and Maria and Dad got tired of losing. Guess I’ll just have to play by myself.” Eddie assumed a doleful look that closely resembled Bonnie’s, who as usual, was lying right next to Eddie’s chair, snoring away.

“Sorry, but I’d rather read a book.” Would Charlie have become a master gamesman like Eddie? “I need to head home. Thanks for trying to teach me. Remember if the weather is warm, we’re giving Freebee a bath.”

“I know.” He spun away from the television. “Maybe Dad will help.”

Oh, I’m sure he’s going to love that
. But Maggie followed the chair back into the great room where Gil sat reading the paper.

He glanced up. “I warned you.”

“I know. This is pretty hard on the ego.”

“Don’t let it bother you. He’s beaten experts.” Gil smiled at his son.

Maggie paused on her way to the door. “I have a favor to ask.”

“What do you need?”

She cocked her head at the guarded tone but continued, “I’d like to research spina bifida. Do you have a computer I could borrow?”

“I’ll see about a computer, but here . . .” He rose and went into his office, returning in a few minutes with an armful of books and pamphlets. He handed them to her. “You want a bag?”

“No, this is fine. Thanks.” She nodded. “See you in the morning. After riding, you want to help us give Freebee a bath?”

“If it’s warm enough,” Eddie added.

Gil caught his breath along with the challenge in her eyes. “Ah, of course.”

Bathing a horse was not Gil’s first choice for a Saturday afternoon activity, but after the workout of the morning and lunch on the patio, he joined Maggie and Eddie at the barn.

“Putting a hot water tank out here was a good move,” Maggie said as she unwound the hose she’d already attached to the faucet in the room next to the tack room. She’d set up the wash area on the gravel at the back of the barn.

“Thank Carly for all the right things in right places down here. She made me a list with instructions, then checked to make sure everything met her approval.”

With Breaking Free cross-tied between two posts, Maggie handed Eddie the hose. “You soak him down and then we’ll all soap him.”

Bonnie backed out of the way as soon as the water spurted from the hose and went to lie in the shade. Eddie got as wet as the horse, and before they were done everyone needed dry clothes. Hearing Eddie laugh and tease made Gil’s day.

“He enjoys this?” Gil inclined his head toward Breaking Free, all the while looking at Maggie.

“Of course he does. All this attention and the rubbing and scrubbing, it all feels great. Think how much you enjoy having your hair washed.”

“You mean when someone else washes it?” Gil caught himself in a not really proper thought—he’d seen Maggie washing his hair in his mind’s eye. Her strong fingers massaging his scalp would feel mighty good. Good thing she wasn’t a mind reader.

She handed Eddie the hose. “Okay, let’s rinse him off, then we use the scrapers to dry him.” She handed Gil a tool that looked the same as a window squeegee. “You spray the horse, not the humans,” she reminded Eddie as she and Gil wiped water off their faces.

“It was an accident.” But the boy’s eyes danced.

Maggie took the hose and rinsed off the horse’s rump and along his topline since Eddie couldn’t reach that high. “There now, scrape away. Eddie, let us do the top first, then you get the sides and legs.”

“How come we don’t use towels?” Eddie asked, waiting his turn.

“How many do you think it would take?”

“Oh, lots.”

“Would you like to wash all those towels?”

“He’d let Maria do it.” Gil’s comment made Eddie giggle again.

When they were done, she unfolded the horse sheet and buckled it around Breaking Free. “That’ll finish him off. Later we’ll let him out in the pasture.”

“So he can roll?” Eddie asked.

“But he’ll get dirty again.” Gil kept on coiling the hose and hung it over the rack on the wall.

“That’s the way it goes.”

Gil looked down at his wet clothes. “Come on, sport, let’s go change.”

By evening he could tell Eddie was getting more apprehensive by the minute. Instead of playing with Bonnie, he sat in his chair, staring out over the pasture. “You want to beat me at Xbox?” Gil asked.

“No thanks.”

“Are you worried?”

Eddie nodded and then wrote something in his spiral-bound notebook.

At six-thirty, as arranged, Gil dialed the number and handed the phone to Eddie. “You can say good-bye any time you want to.”

“I know.” Eddie took the phone. When she answered, he said, “Hello, Mother” in the gravest tone.

Gil held the other phone to his ear.

“Oh, Eddie, I am so happy to be actually talking with you. How are you?”

“Fine.” Eddie glanced down at the list. “Where do you live?”

“In Santa Barbara. Do you know where that is?”

“Yes, west of us, out at the beach.”

“Why yes.” She sounded surprised at his answer.

Gil turned his back so he could smile. She had no idea what a bright and articulate young man she was talking with.

“Do you have any other children?”

“No, I’m sorry to say I don’t. Do you have other brothers or sisters?”

“No.”

“You mean your dad never remarried?”

“No.” He looked down at his list again after a glance at his father. “Do you like dogs?”

“Ah, well, I guess they’re all right.”

“Do you like horses?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never had one, but they’re awfully big.”

Gil rolled his lips together. Unless she’d changed in that area too, Sandra had not been an animal lover.

“Do you have a cat?”

“No.”

“A husband?”

“Yes, a very good man named Frank.” A slight pause seemed longer. “Eddie, I would like to come and see you.”

“I-I’ll ask my dad.”

You pushed him Sandra, not a good move
. Gil watched his son’s face. A frown creased his forehead, under the lock of hair that insisted on flopping forward.

“Good-bye.” Eddie set the phone down.

“Eddie?” Sandra sighed and hung up.

Gil set both phones back in their cradles and leaning against his desk watched his son.

Eddie rolled over to the window and sat looking out, his chin propped on one hand. When Bonnie laid her head on his knees, he stroked her head with his free hand. “I wanted to ask her why she left me, but I chickened out.”

Gil felt his heart clench. If only she hadn’t called and set all this in motion, bringing her son more hurt. For this wasn’t a joyful reunion as far as he could see. “Do you want to see her?”

“Maybe.” Eddie sighed. “It might be best.” He turned and looked at his father. “She doesn’t like dogs. And maybe not horses.”

TWENTY-FIVE

I
talked to my mother on the phone last night.” Eddie tossed the flakes of hay into Breaking Free’s hay rack.

When he drove out of the stall, Maggie asked, “How did it go?”

“She doesn’t like dogs.”

Maggie looked from Eddie to Bonnie. That could indeed be a problem. “She hasn’t met Bonnie yet.” How could anyone not love Bonnie?

“And she said horses are awfully big. I don’t think she likes horses either.”

His matter-of-fact tone caught on Maggie’s heart. “Did you ask her your questions?”

“Some. She doesn’t have any other kids, lives in Santa Barbara, and is married to a man named Frank.” Eddie stroked Bonnie’s head. “She wants to see me.”

Maggie turned off the water from filling the water bucket. “That’s not surprising.” She fought to stay noncommittal when she wanted to call the woman up and give her an earful. At least she had the possibility of seeing her son. Sandra had chosen to leave her baby, not had him torn away from her. Deliberate versus accident. Either way they were both the losers.

“Here you are.” Gil walked in wearing a frown. “I thought I told you to let me know when you were ready to come down here?”

“But you were busy on the phone, and I didn’t want to interrupt you.”

“Then you could have waited.” His abrupt tone caused his son to look down and Maggie to send a hard look his way.

And here she thought he was beginning to loosen up. Ah well, she should have sent Eddie back, but the thought hadn’t entered her head. All had been free and fun when they gave Freebee his bath. She glanced at the horse and saw his ears go back. A man was in the area with a harsh voice. “Ah . . .”

Gil turned to her. “What?”

She motioned to the horse who’d started twitching his tail. “He is reacting to your tone. Remember, men probably yelled at him. He’s come a long way, but right now . . .”

“Eddie, get away from the stall.” Gil didn’t soften his voice.

Maggie gave him a nasty look and went to the stall door to take the horse’s halter and murmur soothing words to him, stroking his neck all the while.

“See, this is one of the things I worry about. That horse is not dependable. That is why I don’t want you down here alone.”

“I wasn’t alone, Maggie and Bonnie were here and we were fine until you growled.”

“That’s enough, Eddie.”

Eddie spun his chair and headed out of the barn, Bonnie sending a reproachful glance over her shoulder as she went with him.

“What is the matter with you?” Maggie fought to keep her voice even and soft.

“I set up rules in the beginning, and I want them followed, that’s all.”

“Can we talk outside? There’s no sense reminding Breaking Free that he doesn’t trust men.”
Or like them for that matter and right now I understand why
. She led the way out to see a glorious sunset gilding the tops of the hills and reflecting pink off the clouds straight above them. “Oh, isn’t that beautiful?” Her voice reflected her awe at the way the sun tinged the western clouds in scarlet.

Gil rammed his hands in his back pockets.

Maggie drank in the peace of the moment before turning to Gil. “All right, we weren’t careful about the rule. If it happens again, I will send Eddie back to the house for either you or Maria. Will that solve the problem?”

Gil stared at her for what seemed like a long moment, shook his head, and headed for the house.

“Tell Eddie I’ll finish taking care of Breaking Free.”

He waved a hand to signal he heard her and kept on pounding the walkway.

“I feel sorry for whatever thorn got stuck in that lion’s paw.” Maggie stared after him, shaking her head. Back in the barn she dug out a carrot from the fridge, broke it into pieces, and fed them to the horse, all the while continuing to stroke his neck and face. “I don’t get it, fella. I just don’t. But there’s no sense in being angry at him you know, he’s the boss.”

Maggie retired to her trailer and after fixing something to eat propped the pillows up on her bed and picked a book off the stack on her nightstand—books on spina bifida, horse training, novels Maria had loaned her, and her Bible where the psalms calmed her in the night when she couldn’t sleep. Tonight might be one of those nights, thanks to Gil Winters.

Too restless to read, she took out paper and pen and began the letter she’d been meaning to write.

Dear Kool Kat,

I’m sorry I’ve taken so long to write. I guess life is finally calming down so I can believe it is real. Breaking Free is making great progress. He and Eddie have become best buds, along with Bonnie, a basset hound assistant dog. She fetches and picks things up for Eddie, more a companion than a helper.

I live in a travel trailer by the barn, brand new, both trailer and barn. I cannot begin to describe the peace and comfort of quiet and freedom. I know you dream of this too, and I believe that somewhere there is a place for you working with horses. So learn all you can. I’ll include a list of books that I’ve enjoyed and perhaps Mr. James can find some of them and add them to his bookshelf.

She went on to describe her average day, rejoicing again in the simplicity of it.

I’ve attended two AA meetings now. Maria takes me to a noon meeting and to see my parole officer, Mark Gillespie. He’s a good guy. Greet the horses and Mr. James for me. I would enjoy hearing from you.

Your friend,

Maggie.

She made a list of books, reading down the spines of those on her nightstand, folded the two sheets of paper, and addressed the envelope. After fixing herself a cup of tea, she made herself comfortable again on the bed and immersed herself in a mystery. The ringing phone made her jump and be grateful her cup was empty or it would have been all over the bed.