Bev's Five

Chapter Four Jason

Chapter 4 Jason

I watch as Mitch drives off and shake the dust off my hat and head down to the stable to meet the kid. I find him watching Mrs. P's riding class. It just happens to be a group of young girls. I shake my head with a laugh.

“So kid what do you know about horses besides how good a girl looks riding one?”

Sam turns around with a sly smile on his face. “Not much, we went riding when I was younger but I haven't had much time in my schedule to be riding horses lately.”

“Yeah, so I have heard. Well then come with me I will show you Thunder's new stall and show you how to maintain it so she stays healthy and happy. Here is the water trough and the feeder, there's the salt lick and here's where you will keep her saddle and reins. Every horse has their own equipment and supplies. Some of the other horses are on special diets so pay attention to what you’re grabbing and where you're putting stuff understand?”

Sam looked around and nodded his head.

“Do you have any questions?”

“Not yet.”

“Ok then let's move on.” We walk through the stalls and I show him where all her leavings will be put. Well, one good thing is coming out of this so far; I guess I won't need to be shoveling s**t anymore. Sam looks like he could use a workout. I just smile to myself with that thought.

“Gross” Sam says as he covers his nose with disgust on his face. “How does it get from the stall to here?”

“See those shovels and wheel barrel there?”

“Yeah” he answers slowly.

I laugh “yeah that's how. Every morning you come down and take Thunder out, strap her reins to the two posts there so she can stretch and eat breakfast. Then you grab which ever shovel you like and bring the wheel barrel over and shovel out her stall then dump it here in this pile. Easy?”

“Are you serious?”

“Do fly's like s**t? So make sure you don't show up with an empty stomach. Now let's go check on Thunder and get out of here. It smells like crap.” I laugh as we leave the stables.

“Man is it hot” Sam says as he wipes his brow.

“Yeah it's going to be one hot summer they say this year. Get yourself a hat, some old jeans, white muscle shirts, a pair of work boots and a bandanna.”

As we approach Thunder in the corral she starts to stir again. "Easy, easy girl," I say as I hold out my hand. She slowly approaches my hand, I let her smell me and she shakes her head and snorts. Sam laughs and climbs the wooden fence. I grab some hay and hand it to him.

“Hold your hand steady; let her come to you.” She looks over at him neighs loudly, back kicks her legs in the air and runs away.

"Awe you stupid horse" Sam angrily says and throws the hay. I laugh. "Give her time. This is all new. She's scared." I can't see that she had a great life with Ron."

"She is going to take a lot of patience and routine so she can learn that she can count on you. She needs you to show her what to do and make her know she is safe and cared for."

"Taking care of a horse is a full-time job." We stay there for about an hour watching Thunder. I'm teaching Sam on what to look for so he can learn what she is doing. What to look for before she bucks, what it means when she swings her mane. He seems pretty mesmerized by the way she moves.

"Well it's getting late kid, let's put her into her stall and tucked in for the night."

"Ok," Sam looks around "how do we do that?"

I laugh "here you head over to the gate I'll get in there and see if she will let me get close enough to grab her reins."

"What? You're going in there?"

"Yeah, she has to learn whose boss."

Sam just looks at me as if I am crazy. I smile and start to climb the fence. I look back over towards the road as I hear Mitch's truck pulling into the driveway.

"Awe looks like your day is over kid."

"What about Thunder?"

"It's ok I got her."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah it's no problem."

"Ok thanks, man."

I jump down and walk over to the truck with Sam. "How did it go?" Mitch asks as he gets out of his truck.

"Good I say." Sam starts to tell his dad all about Thunder's stall and how we watched her and that she wouldn't come to him yet, but tomorrow he was going to get her to like him. He boasts about with a huge grin on his face. "Well get in the truck" Mitch gestures to him.

"Thanks, Jason this will do him good."

"Anytime Mitch I can use the help. Thank you for bringing him." As Mitch gets into his truck I wave to Sam and holler out "I will see you six a.m. sharp."

"What?" Sam says bewildered "Are you serious?"

"Thunder's not going to want to wait until noon for her breakfast" I call out with a laugh. I could see Mitch laughing as he was turning around to leave. I wave and watch as they drive back to the road. I turn and look at Thunder thinking ok hope this goes well. I walk back to the corral and stand there for a minute. Thunder is across the corral looking at me like she knows this is a show down. I grab a rope and climb up on the fence. I throw my legs over and drop down.

Once my feet hit the ground Thunder neighs loudly and gives a small buck. "Ok, Thunder," I say out loud "it's just me and you." She looks at me as I put my hand up and start to walk slowly towards her softly saying "ok girl, easy, it's ok, I'm not gonna hurt you, easy girl," I get about a foot from her and she does a little side step and puts her head up and neighs

"Ok, ok shhh, it's ok, easy girl, easy." I go to reach for her halter and she bolts to the middle of the corral “f**k” I yell. “Ok, Thunder let's try this again." No, she starts bucking and neighing. "Fine" I throw my hands in the air and move out of the way and go back to the fence, I climb up and sit on it looking at her. I yell out "Fine, tire yourself out I don't care I’ll wait."

Thunder takes a couple more turns around the corral making quite a nice little track for herself; then to my surprise, she looks up and slowly strolls over to me. She comes up so close I stroke her head and reach for her rein "Good girl." I slowly slid down off the fence and walk her to the gate. We walk down to the stables and I get her into her stall and she b-lines it straight to the feeder. "Ah, you’re a hungry girl?" I throw in a couple of carrots for her as a treat. "Good girl" I pat her on the head. "I'll see you tomorrow and we will get you brushed nicely and take you out for a good walk." I take a quick walk down through the stable checking in on the other horse, saying hi and giving pats on the heads, checking all their water troughs. It was a hot one today.

There was no one out at the front of Mrs. Pringle's. She must be out with a group. Three of the stalls were empty. I make sure Thunder is secure once more even though she is most likely to sleep all night. She was quite active for being in the heat all day. I head back up to the house to grab another shower and some food. I was getting pretty hungry. Hope Marie had left something good tonight. I'm feeling like barbeque would be good on a day like this. I could also use a cold beer with a scotch chaser.

I knock my boots clean at the door, pull them off in the foyer and drop my hat on the rack. I head up to the kitchen and to a nice surprise. Marie had made barbecue chicken breasts with a sauce and pasta on the side. There was some nice looking garlic bread to soak it all up with too. I grab a fork and dig in. I am so hungry I eat it right at the counter. When I'm finished I put the dishes in the sink and head to the shower.

I step out of the shower and I can still feel the heat. Man, I need to get the ac fixed. I'll have to call the repair guy in the morning. It is so hot I don't even get dressed. I tighten the towel around my waist and head to the bar. I pull out a crisp cold beer and pour myself a scotch and I take my drinks out to the patio. It is getting cooler outside now that the sun is starting to set. I sit back and look at the time on my phone. It is only eight o'clock. It's still early. I'm not used to being home so early and it's Friday night. Things should just be starting to get interesting down at the deli. I sit and enjoy my beer with my scotch chaser.

Yeah too early to call it a night so I start inside to get dressed. I pull on a pair of Wranglers, grab a black t-shirt and go into my closet to check out which cowboy hat I want to wear. I'm feeling like looking good tonight. Usually, I would just throw anything on. I have no one to impress. Tonight though was the first night of summer why not dress nice. I reached out for a black Stetson. “Like a glove," I say after I put it on. I also reach down to grab a pair of black boots. I grab a Rolex off the shelf and headed out to the kitchen where my keys are.

I decide to take my pick-up truck. I usually drive my work truck but I like my truck it is the first truck I bought when I got home from my tour. So I head out and as I come into town I notice signs all posted looked like it was a school function then I read the sign and noticed it was the first bon fire of the summer.

Man, I remember going to that in my younger days. I thought I would drive by to check things out. A little trip down memory lane, I drive down to the beach and see the big wood pile set up to be lit; it still wasn't dark enough to light yet. I pull off to the side to take a better look. Yeah just as I remember; all the high school kids enjoying the freedom. Looks like some college kids were back in town already too. I laugh to myself as I see Sam jump off a big rock with his arms up. A group of people turn to him and start cheering. Man to be young again. Too many bad things start to enter my mind. I smile and think times to go these girls are too young for you. I laugh at myself and start up my truck.

I pull out and head towards Butch`s to see what is going on. When I walk into the back my first question is where are the big players? Any big losers? Anything hot tonight? Butch gives me the low down but nothing exciting going on. There were some promising players earlier but things have died down. That is kind of depressing so I decided why to waste the night and head to my favorite local dive bar to see who is there and what is going on. Maybe I could catch a nice little kitty for the night.