[ 05 ] - ella tremaine for jack dawson
Out in the barn, Jack was working with a new foal that had been birthed just a fortnight ago. He didn’t know shit about horses but he was passing through and he needed money.
Finding work was simple enough if you knew the kind of people to ask, the places to frequent and Jack knew how to talk to people, make them feel seen and heard. Jack was a people person, that’s what his dad would say anyways. Hanging around proved rewarding when an older man came seeking after a younger man for labor work with horses and Jack ran right over, introducing himself as a bit of an expert on horses. A few hours later, he was employed and had a roof over his head, sleeping in a dry shack next to the barn.
Not too shabby if he would say so himself, which brings us back to the foal. The damn thing was lucky to be alive, having been born breached which means it only had one hoof out at a time. The birth took hours, all of Jack’s strength and two other farm hands like himself, and a ton of grease to finally have gotten the foal free. No harm done to the mother or the foal, they considered the birth a success.
Two days in, he’d been staying with the Tremaine family and he had finally noticed the daughter of the house. Like him, she seemed to be working constantly. Every time he had the chance to see her, she was busy cooking or cleaning. Three more days had passed before she even noticed him. Their greetings started out shy and small, tentative waves and a polite hello here and there. A week and a half in, Jack and Ella carried out small conversations about their daily chores or they would talk of different things.
Jack had learned a significant amount from being there, he learned about farm life and about the animals and horses around him. He was no expert, but he could change a shoe or two now on his own. “You’re going to hurt yourself doing it like that, Ella.” He had been walking by and had noticed Ella trying to fix the donkey’s shoe. Jack would have stopped to help her, but he was already carrying items for someone else and they were becoming impatient with him. “Just relax and I’ll be back to help you.”
Continuing his task, a short while later Ella walked up to him, clutching her hand to her chest as a white cloth was wrapped tightly around it. “Are you okay? I told you I’d be along to help.”
@d1eonthishill
