Taming the Wild

Chapter 2

“Dylan,” I hear uncle Marley say as he pushes open the door. “You can’t hide out in here all day. I need you to do some things for me. Get on some jeans, a t-shirt, those boots and the hat. Meet me outside in five minutes,” he pauses before going on. “And, if you’re not out there, I will drag you outside.”

I grunt as he shuts the door firmly and walks down the hall towards the kitchen. Sighing, I get up and sort through my things to find a pair of jeans. Once I have them on, I pull on the stupid boots, grab the hat, and storm out of the room in a bad mood.

Just as he said, Uncle Marley is standing outside the door. His dark brown hair is pushed out of his face and back onto his head. He runs another hand through his hair before plopping his cowboy hat back onto his head. His forehead is glistening with sweat from the pounding heat. He still has the same chocolate brown eyes as before and a height of 6’0”. Uncle Marley has not changed since I last saw him a year ago at my dad’s funeral.

“Dylan, come with me,” he says as he walks off the porch and farther down the dirt driveway.

Following him, I notice the huge stable beside the house, a round pen to my right, another barn ahead of us and there are fences everywhere else. People keep passing us and giving my uncle a slight nod and wave before continuing. He pulls open a big door to the barn at the end of the driveway. Letting me inside, he shuts it. Continuing to follow him, we turn down a hall and are greeted by at least ten horses who stick their heads out of the doors.

“Chad!” my uncle yells as we continue down the hall of horses.

“Yes Sir?” I hear someone ask from behind us and we both spin around to see a guy about 5’11”, with light brown hair and blue eyes standing there. I notice he is tanned with muscles showing in his arms.

“This is Dylan, my niece. I need you to show her the ropes around here.” They both look at me and I pop the bubblegum I am chewing and cross my arms over my chest.

“Alright,” Chad says as my uncle walks off pleased. “So you’re the Dylan he’s been talking about.”

“Clearly,” I roll my eyes at him as one of the horses grabs my shirt. “Stop that,” I pull back and glare at the black horse.

“I think he likes you,” Chad laughs.

“Yeah, whatever,” I mumble.

“Okay well follow me and we can start the daily chores and routine.” Chad starts to walk away and stops to watch as the black horse grabs for my shirt again. He laughs as I back up and stare at it. “His name is Scar, by the way.”

“Oh,” I turn and Chad is smiling at me. “Well that’s interesting.”

“Now let’s go and get it done before lunch.”

I follow Chad behind the barn towards a row of wheelbarrows. He gets one and then signals to me to follow him. He pushes the wheelbarrow forward and I tag along behind him at a slow pace. We walk towards the first barn that I saw before, the one beside the house. He opens the door and pushes the wheelbarrow hard to get it over the bump. Once inside, I watch as he disappears around the corner. Walking around the corner, I see a row of stalls on either side of the hallway and a big door with a window in it on the other end of the hall. There were about eleven stalls on either side I notice as I stop at the one Chad is in.

Chad hands me a scoop thing and I just stare at it. Laughing he says, “We have to clean these. This is what you do with it,” Chad shows me how to use it and I just stand there.

“How about you clean and I just watch you,” I remark as I lean the scoop against the wall and stand at the door of the stall.

“You might be the boss’s niece, but you aren’t getting out of it that easy.” Chad throws me the scoop and continues. “And it’s called a pitchfork, in case you wanted to know.”