long time running x @yeehawgust
excerpt, chapter 18: 'it's a good life if you don't weaken'
“Some radhorses don’t want to stay in the paddock just because you put them there, you get me?”
“I get you,” she grinned. “So, I’ve fully hopped the fence, and you stopped me to tell me I can go if I feel like it?”
“I wouldn’t say you were all that successful. I think you got stuck.”
Her smile turned into an offended jaw drop. “I- What? I can clear a fence just fine if I feel like it, the fuck?”
“I’ve helped a radhorse get unstuck once or twice in my time, I know one when I see one.”
“Sure you do,” she scoffed.
“One time, back at my homestead in Virginia,” RJ smiled at the memory. “I was mucking stalls in the barn. There was this filly, almost a mare, who decided to jump a fence. I hear this awful crash and a thud and- You ever heard a radhorse scream?”
“It’s horrible, it’s like.. I don’t know, it’s like hearing a child scream in pain, but if it sounded like thunder. So, I run over, and there she was scramblin’ in the dirt with one of her front hooves caught up in the fence. When I tried to help, she’d snap. Turns out she sprained her fetlock when she fell.”
Olivia’s head tilted as she listened. You get a little bit of twang in your voice when you talk about your animals, she thought.
“I had to wait for her to calm down. Tried to get one of the farmhands to help, but she didn’t like that either. So I had to sit and wait and watch this poor filly look so sad. I think she felt humiliated. Eventually, she let me free her hoof and she got up. She tried to make a run for it and almost tripped herself, her leg was so messed up.”
“Why did she want to jump the fence?”
“Figured she hated being there and wanted to go. I’d only had her around a couple months. We had some shitty moments, I lost my temper with her. Wouldn’t eat mutfruit out of your hand. One of the mares excluded her from the group, so all the other horses left her alone. Almost chomped my finger off for trying to put a bridle on her. She just never settled in. So, I’m sittin’ there all frustrated- Horse hates me, gonna cost me caps to get her leg checked and fix the fence; spent all afternoon sitting with her and she’s walkin’ away. I thought, maybe I should let her go and be done with it, if it’s what she wants. But I’m watching this poor horse limp away, trying to be brave even though she’s hurt, and.. I just couldn’t stand the idea that she’d be someone’s dinner by the time the sun came up.”
Shame furrowed Olivia’s brow; her gaze fell to her boots.
“So, I caught up with her. I get her attention and offer her a piece of dried mutfruit. If she’s gonna go, it’s her choice, but I just wanted to try one last time to make things right. Maybe show her that even though we had some really rough times..”
RJ reached into a deep coat pocket. Liquid sloshed against glass; he held up a Nuka-Cola.
“I’m not out to get her, and I’m definitely not pretending to care.”
Olivia accepted the bottle, then sniffed and cleared her throat. She raised her chin up and glanced at the sky to avoid letting tears fall.
“And does this horse have a name?”
“Sweet Briar,” he replied.
“And what did Sweet Briar do?”
“Well, she’s lookin’ at me like,‘Who does this guy think he is, trying to bribe me with a damn piece of mutfruit’. All standoffish, like she was trying to figure out what would happen if she took it. Blowing air through her nostrils, ears flat against her head. So I set it on the ground for her and walked back to the paddock. I’m reaching for the doorknob, about to go back in the house and hang my rifle up for the night,” RJ continued. “And there Sweet Briar is on the other side of the fence, whinnying at me and pawing at the ground, almost like she was trying to say, ‘Hang on, where do you think you’re going without me’?
“Did you, um..” Olivia croaked. “Did you let her back in?”
“Of course,” he said. “She was limping and pacing the fence, all offended. I brought her in, fixed up her stall and gave her a bunch of mutfruit. When I came back in the morning, she’d eaten every last one. I refilled her hay, and she snorted at me, like, ‘Hey asshole, you forgot my mutfruit’!”
“She sounds funny,” Olivia sniffed, her eyes still glassy.
“You and Sweet Briar are two peas in a pod, I tell you.”
“No, you’re not. So, getting back to the point,” RJ sighed. “I wanna make you a deal, okay?”
(Vintage Polish & Czechoslovakian matchbox illustrations; artists unknown)
