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Authors: Karen Wood

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BOOK: Opal Dreaming
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After school the next day, Jess visited Opal at the vet's, and was annoyed to find that Chelpie occupied the stall next door to her filly's. Chelpie was alternating between biting and chewing on the timber door and rocking from side to side with her head between her legs.

‘She's a basket case,' said Jess, peering over the stable door at the wretched white horse.

‘I've never had one so bad,' said John, joining her.

‘She's been stabled since she was a week old. No herd to run with.' He shook his head. ‘Totally dysfunctional.'

‘Does she have to be next door to my horse?' asked Jess.

‘It's the only other horse she likes,' said John, apologetically. ‘She won't eat unless she's next to Opal.'

‘Wouldn't she be happier in a paddock?'

‘Undoubtedly,' said John. ‘She just needs a few days to pick up and then we'll try to integrate her into a herd, if we can find one.'

Jess moved on to Opal's stall. The filly rushed to hide behind her mother as soon as Jess opened the stable door, where she stood with her ears back and a hind leg raised. She was jittery and nervous, impossible to catch, and John had to sedate her again to handle her. Jess tried to help John while he updated her needles and checked her over. It did seem that Opal was looking healthier. Her temperament, however, was a different story.

As the filly grew stronger she became more difficult to handle. The following day, John was able to catch and restrain her, jostling her to the ground. Jess had to hold Opal down by the neck while the vet checked her temperature and injected antibiotics and other drugs. But the whole forceful episode just made Jess wish he had sedated her again.

On the third day, the filly rushed at Jess as she approached the stable, slamming hard against the stable door. Jess backed away, hurt and distressed, and waited for John to come and help. When she did manage to get a look over the stable door, she noticed that Opal's head stayed slightly tilted, and one ear seemed to lop unevenly to one side. As John finished another round of X-rays, Lawson arrived with a horse float to pick up Marnie.

‘You promised you would leave her here until Opal was better,' said Jess, as he walked towards the stable with a halter in his hand.

‘I promised I'd leave her for a few days, Jess,' Lawson corrected her. ‘And
you
promised
me
I could bring her back into work after seven months. It's already been ten. Sorry, but I need my good mare back.' He looked through the stable door just as Opal rose groggily to her feet. As John put a hand out to help her, she reared away from him, shaking her head violently and stumbling backwards.

Lawson watched the filly pull itself up off the ground, his face grave. ‘Are you sure all this is worth it?'

‘What do you mean?' asked Jess.

‘I mean, look at her,' said Lawson. ‘She's got her father's temperament. She'll be totally unpredictable. Why do you think I'm selling her to you so cheap?'

‘She's just sick, that's all,' said Jess.

At that moment, Opal lunged at John. ‘Whoa!' he said, waving her away.

‘Sick horses don't do that,' said Lawson, opening the stable door and walking in. He raised an arm at Opal and yelled,
‘Get out of it! '

Then he haltered Marnie, led her out of the stable and looked Jess in the eye. ‘There are a lot of other good fillies out there, Jess. I can help you find one if you like. You don't need to pay me for this one.'

Jess looked at him, bewildered. ‘What are you saying?'

‘I'm just saying it might be kinder to . . . find something else.'

‘No way!' said Jess. ‘How could you even think that?' She looked around for John, who was letting himself out of the stable.

‘I don't think we need to consider that yet,' said John, frowning at Lawson.

‘Go away,' said Jess, angrily. ‘Take Marnie and just go home, Lawson. I'll drop your money off later this afternoon.'

Lawson tried a gentler tone. ‘If you want my opinion—'

‘I
don't
want your opinion,' said Jess, her voice rising. ‘I already
know
what your opinion is!'

‘No, you don't, so shut up and listen,' snapped Lawson.

Jess set her jaw hard, folded her arms tightly across her chest and glared at him.

‘If you really want her to get better,' Lawson began, ‘then we should wean her as soon as possible. Don't leave it until she's on a truck and on a long stressful journey to Longwood. Give her a couple of weeks at Harry's place to bond with the other young horses, and then let me take her out to the station. You should still put her out there and see if she heals. Do or die. If she's got any heart, if she's worth her salt at all, then she'll fight. She'll get through it.'

Jess looked to John, who stood listening with his hands in his pockets. He nodded at her. ‘I think Lawson could be right, Jess. She's obviously had some sort of knock around the head, but there's nothing showing in her X-rays. I've treated her with some long-acting antibiotics and pretty much done all I can for her. It's up to her now. She needs to go and heal.'

Jess looked at Opal, pacing anxiously around the stable, occasionally stumbling with the lingering effects of the sedatives. She would be a mess when they totally wore off. But she looked generally upright and alive – there was no way Jess was giving up on her yet.

‘Can you leave Marnie here for just one more night? Please?'

He dropped his shoulders and let out a slow, unimpressed sigh.

‘Come
on
, Lawson,' she begged. ‘Just one more night and I promise I won't argue anymore. Tomorrow Marnie and Opal can travel together to Harry's place and I'll put her in with Luke's brumbies. Then you can take Marnie home.'

She also wanted to get Opal away from Chelpie. She had a gnawing feeling that the filly would come good if Jess could just get her away from that psycho white horse. She looked pleadingly at Lawson.

Lawson gave a reluctant nod. ‘
One
more night, then.'

6

JESS STUCK TO
her word and helped wean Opal the next day at Harry's place. They put the filly in with Luke's two brumby foals, Rusty and Tinkerbell, and Jess spent the afternoon listening to her scream piteously for her mother while she paced about the yard.

Over the next week the filly gradually stopped pacing, and stood sour-faced in a corner by herself.

As Jess stood by the yard gate, Luke walked out of the stables with a bucket of tools in one hand. He seemed even lankier than when she last saw him, and his rusty brown hair was as wild as ever. He still lived at Harry's, helping Annie to take care of the place in return for his keep. Lawson had helped him convert a couple of the stables into a flat.

‘How's she going?' he asked, as he joined her at the gate.

‘Anytime I try to go in there she just rushes at me,' said Jess. ‘I can't get anywhere near her.'

‘Don't forget she's only just been weaned. She's had a rough week,' said Luke.

‘I wish she'd eat a bit more. She's so skinny.' Jess watched Opal cower behind the other horses in the yard. She had tried to tempt the filly with everything from bran mashes steeped in molasses to small portions of oats. Opal remained uninterested.

‘She'll put weight back on when she goes out onto the station and settles in a bit more.'

But Jess knew it was more than just weaning. Something was wrong. It wasn't Opal's body that was sick. It was her spirit. ‘I don't want her to go,' she said, ‘not while she's so . . . miserable.'

‘She's not happy, that's for sure,' Luke said, pulling out his chaps. He swung them around his waist and began to buckle them over his jeans. ‘Do you want me to give Dodger a trim?'

‘Sure, that'd be great.' Jess opened a stable door and pulled Dodger out. In the next stable, Luke's two wolf-dogs whimpered and barked. Filth stuck his wet nose between a gap in the doors and Fang howled. With their huge feet and soft, shaggy coats, they were like bears, the most huggable of dogs. ‘Can I let them out for a run?'

‘Yeah,' Luke shrugged.

Jess unlatched the door. She threw a stick for Filth and Fang and laughed as they gambolled clumsily after it. She swung Dodger around and stood him up for Luke. ‘Thanks for doing him on your day off.'

‘No biggy,' said Luke, reaching for a hoof.

Jess sat on an upturned bucket and let Dodger put his big head in her lap. She scratched his forehead while she watched Luke work.

Luke reached a hand out behind him. ‘Pass me the trimmers?'

She peered into his toolbox and rummaged around. ‘These ones?'

‘Yep.' Luke grabbed them and got to work on the hoof.

‘Lawson reckons Opal's got a bad temperament,' said Jess. She grabbed a rasp and held it out, anticipating his next request.

‘Ta.' Luke reached back and took it from her hand.

‘But it's just all this forceful handling she's had,' said Jess. ‘It's teaching her to hate people.'

‘She'll be okay with the right handling. Harry always said, “The younger they are, the more you can turn them around.”'

‘Wish Harry was here now so he could tell me what to do,' Jess said, almost to herself.

Luke spoke from under Dodger's belly, still cheerful. ‘Yeah, he would've known what to do with her.' He finished the front hoof, dropped it, ran a hand over Dodger's hindquarter and picked up the next one.

‘Harry was like a father to you, wasn't he?'

‘Yep,' said Luke, snipping away at the hoof.

‘Where's your real dad?'

Luke kept snipping for a while before he answered. ‘Harry was my real dad.'

‘I mean your biological dad.'

‘Don't know, don't care,' Luke said in a neutral sort of voice.

He didn't offer anything more, and Jess wasn't sure whether to push it, because she couldn't see his face. She had never heard anything about Luke's real family, which was unusual in Coachwood Crossing. Everyone knew everything about everyone else in this town.

Luke silently cleaned, trimmed and filed the third hoof, and the fourth. When it was done, he dropped it and turned to face her, wiping the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve. ‘How come you asked me that, about my real father?'

Jess shrugged and twiddled Dodger's forelock. ‘I don't know.'

‘My mum died when I was little and then my father adopted me out when I was four. When that didn't work out, I went into the foster system.'

Jess was stunned. ‘Four? As in four years old?' She imagined Luke as a freckled four-year-old, with little four-year-old boots and four-year-old Wrangler jeans. He would have been so cute. ‘Why?'

‘I don't know. Because he's a loser.'

‘So what happened to the people that fostered you?'

‘Which ones?'

‘How many
were
there?'

Luke didn't reply.

‘You poor thing!' said Jess quietly.

‘I can look after myself,' said Luke, sounding slightly defensive. ‘Just because my old man's a dud, it doesn't mean I have to be. I've got a good job and I'll be able to buy a ute soon.' His voice lightened. ‘An HQ. Then when Legsy and me win some big drafts, I'm gonna buy a property out west and run cattle.'

‘How is Legs going?' she asked, letting the topic of Luke's father fall away.

‘Good,' nodded Luke. He was being modest. Luke won everything on Legsy, and the colt was only a five-year-old.

‘You ever gonna cut him?' asked Jess, pulling a carrot out of her pocket and taking a bite of it before giving the rest to Dodger.

‘Not sure yet. Don't want to.' He winced in a way that made Jess laugh and reached out to pat Filth, who was trembling at his feet. The big dog jumped up and put his paws on Luke's shoulders, his tail waving clumsily back and forth.

‘Taking Legsy droving?'

‘Yep! One week to go!' He took Filth by the paws and started dancing with him, making Jess laugh again.

‘Taking the dogs?'

‘Nah, Lawson won't let them come. They're not cattle dogs, they'll just cause trouble.' He dropped Filth's paws and gave him a rub behind the ears.

‘What about Tom?'

‘He's hoping to come out for a few days later on. He's got a lot of study now he's at boarding school. Don't wanna get in the way of that. Lawson said he could ride Chocky, you know, the brumby I gave him? He's green broke now.'

Jess nodded. ‘I saw Lawson riding Chocky the other day.'

‘Wal's going too.'

‘Wally?' Jess felt her hackles rise. ‘Lawson better not break her in while he's got her out there. He promised me I could do that.'

‘She's old enough to start, isn't she?'

‘I already have, a bit.' Jess had been desensitising the filly to ropes for weeks. ‘But don't tell Lawson that – he'll want to do it his way.'

‘She's just going for the ride, I think,' said Luke. ‘Why don't you come too?'

‘I already asked. Dad freaked.'

‘Couldn't talk him round, huh?'

‘He reckons there are too many blokes going,' said Jess. ‘It's no place for a
girl
.'

‘He's probably right,' Luke said, giving her a cheeky smile. ‘It's no place for a glam like you, Jessica Fairley.'

‘What do you mean?' she asked, indignant.

‘Nice shirt,' he commented.

Jess looked down at her scruffy red flannie, one of several she had pilfered from her father's wardrobe. They were comfy and warm and she didn't particularly care what they looked like. ‘From the Craig Fairley collection,' she smiled, grabbing the shirt tails and curtseying.

‘Guess it's the closest thing to a dress he'll ever see you in.'

BOOK: Opal Dreaming
13.17Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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