Cracker-Jack

Chapter sixteen

 One day Earlier...

 "Hey Mom! One of the neighbors are having a yard sale, you wanna come?" I yelled from upstairs as I buttoned the last three buttons on my shirt.

 "No, hun, but you can go if you want! Don't stay too long!" She responded. I quickly slid my boots on and jogged downstairs, struggling to shove my wallet in my back pocket. Before leaving, I opened the pantry to find something quick for breakfast, I grabbed a box of Cracker Jacks caramel popcorn and stuffed it in my pocket, eating a few pieces as I left.

 The screen door slammed shut as I jumped off from the porch, I pulled my hair behind my ears as I glanced down the road, I could see the bright yellow "Yard Sale Today!" sign from here. I began to jog to their house, then I moved my legs in a loping motion, like a horse cantering, I imagined myself on Jack, riding down this driveway, showing him off to all my neighbors.

 I skid to a stop and pulled my hair back once more when I got to the sale, I slowly scanned the tables for any thing that 'tickled my fancy' as my mother would say. I picked up a cute, blue messenger bag that was on the first table and draped it over my shoulder as I moved to the next table, then something caught my eye, a whole table full of horse supplies, leads, halters, grooming stuff, all sorts of things! I carefully sorted throughout the items carefully looking at each object.

 "You interested in any of those?" A voice said from behind me, I turned around. A tall, skinny woman stood behind me.

 "Uhh, yeah, thinkin' 'bout it, why are you selling these?" I asked. The woman held a dandy brush in her hand and sighed.

 "My horse, Panda, past away last month, and I don't have anything else to do with em', poor gal died of old age." I paused.

 "Im so sorry," I said, feeling bad for asking.

 "Oh, it's alright," She said, a voice called from across her yard, she looked back then waved at her. "Be back in a second, hun," She said as she walked away. 

 I  gently placed a grooming brush and a hoof pick in the messenger bag and was about to walk away, but on the corner of my eye I saw something under all of the supplies, I carefully pulled it out and held it in front of me, a shiny, dark leather bridle with a new bit and braided reins was held in front of me, I quickly fumbled for the price tag that was tied to the brow band with a small piece of twine. $8 I can't believe that she is selling this gorgous bridle for eight bucks! I stuffed it into the bag and walked up to the lady I was talking to earlier. I handed her the bag as I pulled out a few dollar bills out of my wallet. She removed the price tags and stickers and placed them into old grocery store bags.

 "Nine dollars please," She asked, I handed her the money and grabbed the bags before walking back home. If I could come up with the stuff, I could totally transform Jack!

  I walked in Jack's pasture to the bale of hay to pull off the bailing twine, I tugged until it slipped off and dragged on the ground, I shook out the hay and pulled it into my bag. I walked in the door and saw Mom cooking lunch.

 "Hey, hun, did find something nice at the sale?" She said while flipping a grilled cheese. I quickly closed the bag so she would not see the horse supplies inside, she would croak if she knew that I 'wasted' my money on a bridle, brush, and hoof pick.

 "Uhh, yeah, I got this cute messenger bag!" I patted it.

 "Oh, that is cute! Go put it in your room so it won't get lost," She suggested.

 "Uhh, right, yeah..." I trailed off then ran upstairs into my room. I closed and locked the door, pulled out the twine and looked in my closet for my knitting needles. I pulled them out and began to knit the twine into a pot-holder like square. This should get all the dirt and hair off of Jack. After using my messy knitting skills, I yanked my least favorite shirt off of a hanger in my closet and grabbed a pair of scissors to cut off a big rectangle of it until it resembled an old rag. And this should get rid of all the tiny pieces of dust. Finally, I searched through my 'junk drawer' and found my old hair brush, I pulled it out, cleaned it, and set it with the other supplies.