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Chapter Fifteen

"Where do these kids come from?" I asked Addy three hours later. I was leaning against the arena fence, watching the horses drink from a long wooden trough. Addy settled in beside me, her arms folded.

"I work with a lady named Karilyn Wright. She brings kids from all over the area as far as Lexington. Sometimes she works through hospitals but she has a dozen other connections including some individual parents."

"I'm not sure I'm going to be much help," I admitted. "You know I haven't hard a lot of practice with horses."

Addy smiled. "The main thing I'm going to need you to do is just to take the horse's lead rope. Remember what I said about what to do if they get antsy?"

I nodded. We had been practicing for the last hour.

"Good," Addy said. She turned at the sound of a vehicle hitting the graveled driveway. A large van rumbled up, parking close to the arena. "Here they are."

Addy and I stepped out of the ring and walked towards the van. A large door lowered down. I saw a wheelchair ramp inside, but it wasn't lowered. The driver side door opened and a muscular brunette walked around. Addy smiled.

"Hey, Karilyn."

"Hey, Addy. How you doing?"

Addy seemed to hesitate. "Not bad. How many do we have today?"

"Five." Karilyn stepped away from the van. Addy followed and, for lack of anything else to do, I joined them.

"Four of them live together. We have two eight year old little boys. One has some burns, the other has some mental disabilities. We have one teenage girl who's missing a limb and a teenage boy who is blind. The other young girl comes by parent request. She's a five year old with Down Syndrome."

"Down Syndrome?" Addy repeated. Kim nodded. "She's been talking my ear off the whole ride here."

Addy seemed distracted. She glanced towards the van. "The horses are ready for them," she said after a pause.

I hadn't been sure when Karilyn was describing them, but the moment that little Owen climbed out of the van I realized my suspicions were correct. Owen spotted me right away, his face lighting up.

"It's Ally!" he shouted. "Do you put make-up on horses?"

I laughed. I hadn't been able to see anything physically wrong with him; I now realized he must be the one Karilyn said had only mental disabilities. He did act younger than he was, but it only made me like him more. "No, this is my other job. I help with the horses you guys are going to be riding today."

"You do? Cool!"

The other little boy, the one with the burns, got off next.

"Greg, look!" Owen said. "It's Ally!"

Greg looked at me and waved, but he wasn't anywhere near as exuberant as Owen. Karilyn had confirmed what I had first suspected, that they were the same age, but now I realized why Greg had gotten bored so much more easily than Owen.

Krista was the next one to appear. She looked at me in surprise.

"Hey."

"Hey," I responded. I noticed that she was still wearing the blue eyeshadow Kim had given her.

I was waiting, just waiting for Cole to get off next. Instead, Karilyn walked over and scooped a little girl out of the van. She had her blonde hair in messy pigtails tied up with lime green bows. Bangs framed a small face that was taken up by wide set eyes peering out from behind a large pair of glasses. She wore a pair of tiny jeans rolled up in cuffs and a lime green plaid shirt.

"Horth-sie!" she said happily even though she hadn't even turned towards the arena. She clapped her hands. "Horth-sie!"

Addy seemed frozen in place. I knelt down. "Hi, I'm Ally."

"I'm Ma-issa," she said, her tongue seemingly unable to wrap around the word. Karilyn smiled. "Melissa," she repeated for clarification.

"It's nice to meet you," I said. "We have a very nice horse for you today and--"

"You get around don't you?"

I looked up. The first thing I saw was the aluminum cane hovering out of the van. It connected with the ground once, twice, three times. Cole stepped out of the shadow. He tapped the ground again and took a cautious step. Karilyn turned and hovered by him, her hands close, but not touching his elbow.

"Hi, Cole," I said. I stood up.

"How do you know everyone?" Karilyn asked.

"I met them just a few days ago," I explained. "I--"

"She came to the home a few days ago to try to make some of the girls think they're pretty," Cole said. Krista turned and glared at him.

"Even if I wore a grocery sack over my head I'd look better than you," she snapped. "You're a fucking sheepdog."

"I see you took your bitch pill today, Krista," Cole shot back.

"I warned you two on the way here that if I heard you use language like that again you're not going to be participating today," Karilyn said angrily.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Joe watching us from across the arena. He was squatting in a tall patch of grass. I wondered what he was doing.

"Sorry," Krista grumbled.

"How about we let the youngest ones go first?" Karilyn said. She turned to me. "Can we get them outfitted with helmets?"

"Sure," I said. I turned for Addy, but she was gone. I frowned.

"Horthsie!" Melissa exclaimed.

"Um," I felt a momentary wave of panic. I opened the gate to the arena.

"Come on in and stay by the fence," I said, sounding more knowledgable than I felt. My eyes roamed the entire area. Where was she?

I was saved by Kevin. One minute I was holding the helmet and staring at the straps, furiously trying to remember what Addy had told me, and the next minute Kevin was smiling at Owen, Greg, and Melissa and explaining what a helmet does and how to put it on. He handed Owen and Greg each a helmet and knelt down to help Melissa.

"Horthsie!" she said happily. She had spotted the black one I liked and was now saying it over and over again. Her hand wrapped around Kevin's arm. He tightened the strap to the helmet and she suddenly paused. She reached up and knocked on the hat. She looked at Kevin.

"It's a special horse hat," he said as I knelt down to help Owen with his hat. She knocked again once with her left hand, then with her right. Then she held both arms open towards Kevin. He seemed surprised, but he leaned over and she hugged him tightly. When he pulled back, I could see that his tanned face had grown blotchy.

My eyes widened. He wasn't the type to cry. My dad? Yes. Uncle Kevin? No. He stood back up and cleared his throat several times.

"Alright, wait here and Ally and I will get the horses."

He nodded towards me and I followed him to where the horses were grazing on the other side. I saw Joe quickly scamper away, lest he get caught not working.

I reached the ebony horse first and took the reins in my hand. Kevin ran a hand down the muzzle of the white one. The horses' head lowered and Kevin pressed his forehead against it and sighed.

"Is everything okay?" I asked shakily.

He didn't answer right away. It was a full thirty seconds before he looked at me. I was horrified to see the moisture in his eyes.

"Addy and I are going to explain later tonight," he said quietly.

"Is she sick?"

Kevin glanced back towards the three waiting kids. "She just can't be out here today," he said. With that, he began to lead two of the horses towards the excited kids. I tugged at the reins and my own horse began to follow me.

Suddenly, I didn't want the day to end. I didn't want 'later tonight' to roll around. There was already so much going on...

I didn't know if I could handle any more bad news.