The Time Giver

June 13th: Praises

Zach rubbed the soreness from his shoulders as he took a lunch break on the porch. Since seven that morning, he'd been mucking stalls, letting the horse loose in the arena while he cleaned. He knew that meant he'd have to clean that, too, but sifting sand was a lot easier than scraping concrete.

Piper rested her head on his knee, looking up at him with her big brown eyes. She whined softly. "I know, girl," he sighed, rubbing the Bernese Mountain Dog's head. "I miss her, too."

Last night, he'd ended up letting Piper stay with him. After eating, she'd ran upstairs to lay in front of Kelly's room, looking completely miserable as she softly whined. When Zach stepped out of the shower, he grudgingly let the dog into his room. He expected her to be excited about sleeping on the bed, but she simply curled up at the end, her head facing the door as she waited for her owner to come back.

Mooney, in classic cat fashion, seemed indifferent to Kelly's absence. However, this morning when Zach once again placed his food in the cup, he flicked his green eyes up to the boy, glaring in an accusatory manner. So he must have a preference of her feeding him, Zach reasoned.

He gently nudged Piper's jaw away, then stood up stiffly. His muscles protested, not used to doing so much work by himself. However, it needed to be done, so with another sigh, he tossed Piper the crust of his sandwich and clomped back down the steps.

In the barn, he was now in front of Turner's stall. The grulla filly hung her pretty head over the door, and Zach let her lip his hand curiously. She gazed at him from under those long lashes. Since he had to work her, why not do that first? Then, when he let her roll, he could clean the stall. He grabbed her halter, and she thrust her muzzle through the nose band, then held still while he buckled the straps behind her ears.

"Such a smart girl," He mused as he clipped the lead rope under her chin. He led her to the arena, grabbing the lunge line from the tack room, and swapped leads as he passed the bleachers. Turner knew what he meant, and danced away from him as he neared the center of the arena, floating on his laughter. Zach decided to use her energy to his advantage, and smooched to her.

The reaction was priceless. With a flick of her tail, Turner leapt into the air, corkscrewing her body into a twist as she kicked her back legs out behind her. When she landed, she immediately picked up her canter, tossing her head and trumpeting loudly. Zach laughed at her, throwing his head back while she played the part of a rocking horse. A few times, she swung her rear end toward him and aimed a kick, but she was nowhere close enough to touch him. Still, he reprimanded her by smacking the ground with the end of the lunge line, calling her attention back to the work at hand.

As she circled, Zach couldn't help but hope they wouldn't keep Kelly longer. He didn't mind working, and certainly wasn't having second thoughts about his decision to stay. However, it was hard to do everything by himself.

Suddenly, he realized that Kelly had been doing all the work by herself for a few years. He wondered how often she had wanted to stop working, how many times she had paused to think about how much work she had, and cringe as her muscles protested. He felt respect for her, more than he had before, when he considered how much work she had to do alone.

No wonder she brought him here.

It wasn't long before Turner was slick with sweat, but she waited patiently until Zach asked before she halted. She started to approach, and he flicked the lead rope. "No!" She flung her head, but stopped, watching him carefully. He waited until she stopped before raising his hand and asking her to approach. She did so with a sigh. "Go on, sweetheart," he murmured as he slid the halter off her nose. She snorted, then trotted off to roll. He laughed, then went to her stall to begin cleaning.