Bailey's Comet

Ch. 5 - Makes My Pulse React

Hello everyone! In case you missed it on Twitter, Instagram, or on here, I will be posting every other Sunday from now on. Life is super insane right now and I feel like I need to take a breather and do more things I enjoy, rather than stressing over this story and updates.

Thank you to the person who commented on the last chapter to tell me that they think my writing is ebook worthy. I appreciate you, copycat <3

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Friday morning rolls around and Cheryl is sitting on her front porch with the familiar thermos of hot chocolate next to her, with her own cup of coffee in her hands. The two pairs of boots and riding helmet she had gotten for Britta are on her other side, and she's patiently waiting to meet one of the Doiley's who brings the young redhead.

But Cheryl hasn't heard anything out of anyone. Toni never told her if Betty did a home check, and Betty hasn't spoken to her either. None of the Doiley's have called her, and Britta hasn't either.

Cheryl has been sitting on the steps of the large porch for an hour when she decides to get started on feeding. Her coffee is gone from her cup, and she feels like her shoulders are dragging on the ground.

It's going to be a long day.

She scoops up the feed into the buckets in the wagon and listens for the sound of an approaching vehicle. She makes sure to give Cherry extra love, noticing that he's looking especially gray in the face today. "Hey, old man. You can't quit on me yet. We still have to get Toni on a horse," she tells the large beast, with a soft smile on her face.

He winnies in response and blows a puff of air through his nose, causing Cheryl to laugh. She gives him a few range cubes before filling his food bucket and moves down the line of stalls to get everyone fed. Once she's done, she lets all of the horses out to the pasture like normal and takes a water break before she starts on cleaning the stalls.

Cheryl opens the small fridge in the tack room, sure that she had refilled it with more water bottles yesterday, but there's quite a few missing, along with snacks that were kept in it.

"Damn it, Jason," Cheryl sighed. She was aggravated and annoyed, and today just wasn't her day. Her brother was never good at restocking the fridge. So she restocked it while mumbling to herself.

While taking her much deserved break, Cheryl decided to call her cousin to see if she had any sort of update on Britta. She pulled out her phone, not finding any missed calls or new texts and quickly tapped on Betty's name. The phone only rang twice before being answered.

"Hey, Cheryl."

"Hello, cousin," Cheryl responded, trying to sound much more peppy than she felt. Like some sort of high school cheerleader. She rolled her eyes at herself. "I was just curious if you had gone to the Doiley's yesterday?"

"Oh, yeah. I did. I checked out the house and everything seemed fine. Britta and the kids were playing outside on a swing set and the house was clean." She could practically hear Betty shrug on the other end of the line.

Cheryl was sitting on a pile of hay bales, swinging her legs as she spoke. "I was just wondering because Britta is supposed to be here Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Since Toni is out of town, she said that one of the Doiley's would probably bring her."

"She's not there?"

"No," Cheryl shook her head before realizing that her cousin couldn't see her. "I haven't heard from the Doiley's or Britta today, either." She had slipped Britta a piece of paper with her phone number on it on Wednesday, just in case. And Toni told her that the Doiley's had her phone number and address, as well. "I'm just worried."