The Gift Horse

Chapter I

Meredith Smith is in the passenger seat of her husband's Mercedes and she's blindfolded. All she can see are her hands in her lap if she looks directly down. The satin sleeping mask she normally keeps tucked in her nightstand drawer blinds everything else. Its elastic band pinches her hair like a thorn crown and she keeps touching it because she doesn't want it to make a crease in her hair.

She isn't ready for the speed bump as the wheels of the car pop up and over it and she gropes for the door handle, her hand smacking against the leather interior. The car vibrates over the uneven ground and comes to a stop. Meredith hears her husband, RJ, press the Engine-Off button and unclip his seatbelt.

"Okay Liv, help your mom," he says as he opens his door, his voice soft but demanding.

"Can I take off my mask?" Meredith asks, unclipping her seatbelt and opening her door. She hears her daughter, Olivia, get out of the backseat.

"No, Mom. You can't," Olivia says, clamping her hand around Meredith's wrist like a cuff. Meredith plants her tan wedges onto the pavement, which she can see by looking straight down, is covered in gravel. They crunch underneath her heels.

Even though Olivia plays defense on the Varsity lacrosse team, she still doesn't seem to know her own strength as she yanks Meredith out of the car. Meredith stumbles, flinging her arm out to find something to grab. Her fingers smack against her daughter's chin.

"Ow, Mom!" Olivia hisses. She lets go of Meredith for a second, then returns her grasp and leads Meredith away from the car. Meredith can hear RJ's Oxfords clapping on the rocks in front of them.

Suddenly, a smell hits Meredith so hard it makes her dizzy. A smell that's thick and intruding, that should be ghastly but yet it's comforting. She can't place it at first, it's been so long, but then—she knows.

She rips off the mask with a short breath and scans what's around her. She is standing in the middle of a private road between six barns, each lined with ten windows reflecting the orange hue of the setting sun. There's a horse walker—a round metal structure with moving panels and there are two horses inside it, walking in circles. Beside the horse walker are three wooden outdoor wash-stalls with hoses neatly coiled and draped over hooks. A man in a baseball cap appears from one barn, sweeping out the dust, and another man begins dumping dirty water buckets into a drain.

Although she's never set foot inside this place, she knows that it's the Westport Hunt Club—an equestrian club only three miles from her house. She's seen photos of showing events covered in the local newspaper and she knows the layout of the property just by driving past it nearly every day.

"I don't..." Meredith can't find her words.

RJ reaches his hand out to her, "Come on."

"You weren't supposed to take the mask off yet," Olivia scolds behind them.

RJ leads Meredith up the road toward the barn at the top. This barn is different from the others—it's painted grey with hunter green shutters and doors while the others are off-white without shutters on the windows. There are two matching cupolas on the roof and clean-cut hedges lined in front of the doors like a fence.

A man with tanned olive skin and dark brown eyes wearing a black t-shirt and jeans with a hand-towel tucked into the back pocket stands at the entrance. He smiles and nods his head as Meredith and RJ approach.

"Hello," he says in a soft, timid accent.

RJ nods in response but Meredith still can't speak. The man motions into the barn, as if to invite her in, and RJ lets go of her hand and gives her a light push forward.