Maple Dale ~ My Forever Home (Maple Dale Series)

by MaryAnn Myers

  All of the horses were intrigued by the Yorkies though, even the new horse. Mr. Thackeray glanced at Mindy’s laptop. “Fracking,” he said, with disdain.

  “I know. I don’t know what to do about it. They’re marking out front.”

  The man shook his head, downed the rest of the water, rose to his feet, and handed Mindy the empty bottle. “There’s no way we’re going to stop them. Not in this day and age. It’s all about money.”

  “What about the Homeowner’s Association? Can’t we get together and…?”

  The man shook his head. “Good luck with that one, Mindy. We don’t even own our home anymore. It belongs to our kids.” He looked her square in the eye. “Our Wall Street kids. How do you think they’d vote?”

  Mindy judged Mr. Thackeray to be in his late sixties – early seventies. His children would probably be in their forties. Not good, she thought. As the man implied, it would likely be all about the bottom line for them, the profit margin. Less taxes. Less government.

  “Is everything okay? Is everything all right here?” he asked, glancing back as he ushered his little entourage of Yorkies toward the back barn door.

  “Thank you. I’m fine. I’m just keeping an eye on a horse for a while. My dad will be up shortly.”

  The man smiled. “Good night.”

  “Good night. Tell Mrs. Thackeray I said hello.”

  “Will do. She misses you trick or treating, you know.”

  Mindy smiled. She hadn’t trick or treated for about eight or nine years now. When Mr. Thackeray had gone, she made herself comfortable and here came the cats. She watched them climb down the ladder from the loft and quickly picked up her laptop and held it high to make room for them to settle back onto her lap.

  “There. Now where were we?”

  The lights in the tack room flickered on and off.

  “That’s annoying. The lights,” she said, when the new horse looked at her curiously. “Wish they’d stop doing that.”

  He pricked his ears.

  “I wonder how much you understand. How much any horse understands. Is it the words? Body language? What would it take to reassure you we have your best interests at heart?”

  The barn cats were purring up a storm.

  “What do you say? Talk to me.”

  The horse put his head down, disappearing, and reappeared, chewing a mouthful of hay.

  “I guess I don’t have the gift,” Mindy said.

  When her father arrived toting a thermos of hot chocolate and a container of warm snickerdoodles, Mindy welcomed the break from researching fracking to death. “Did Mom just make these?”

  “Yes. She’s a little nervous, you up here by yourself. And you know her. When she gets nervous….”

  “She bakes.” They both laughed.

  “So which horse is it?” Richard asked.

  Mindy pointed discreetly with a snickerdoodle.

  Her father looked in at the horse. “He’s pretty.”

  The horse pricked its ears again.

  “So where’s the other chair?”

  “You don’t have to stay.”

  Richard smiled. “It’s here or on the couch in the den. If I go home and leave you here alone, you’re mother’ll have a fit.”

  Mindy laughed. “On the top shelf in the tack room over by the window.”

  Richard walked down and turned on the light. “It’s working.”

  “Yeah, and on its own too.”

  Richard glanced back at her. “Still?”

  Mindy nodded, helping herself to another snickerdoodle. The cats batted at her hand with their paws. “No. You can’t have any,” she told them. “All right. One piece and you’re outta here.” They each took off with a hunk of cookie in their mouth.

  Richard came back, opened up the chair, sat down and got comfortable. “So how long are we in for?”

  “I don’t know. So far, he’s been really calm,” she said, emphasizing each word. “He’s a good boy.”

  Richard smiled, took a cookie when she offered him one, and leaned back. “These chairs were the best investments I ever made.” After years of going to horse shows and sitting in stiff folding chairs hour after hour, when he first saw this version of the canvas fold-up chair with the added benefit of a leg rest, he couldn’t buy them fast enough. He bought six. “Wake me up if anything goes wrong.”

  “Dad!”

  He opened an eye to see his daughter looking at him imploringly and tipping her head toward the horse. “I forgot,” he said. “Sorry.”

  When the barn phone blipped a half-ring, they both turned. “Has it done that before?” Richard asked.

  “No. That’s the first time.”

  Richard closed his eyes and sighed. “It’s going to be a long night.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Twenty years ago Richard and Bill Forbes had spent a night at Maple Dale Equestrian Center on the lookout for Halloween vandals. It was the night the two of them first saw the ghost of Leah Oliver. That night was the beginning of their lifelong friendship. They often joked how “seeing a ghost” had them both suddenly looking for a new best friend.” They’d been best friends ever since.

  Richard was thinking of that day as he drifted off to sleep all stretched out on the canvas chair. A gentle breeze wafted down through the barn aisleway. When he opened his eyes and looked at Mindy, she was sound asleep, all covered up in the blanket with both barn cats in her lap.

  He stood up quietly, no easy task considering how low the chair was to the floor, and stretched, then adjusted his daughter’s blanket. Even as a baby, she could sleep like a log. He looked at the horse - which stood looking back at him, apparently wide awake.

  “You watching over us, buddy?”

  The horse nuzzled Richard’s face and sighed.

  “We’re supposed to be watching over you.” When he petted the horse’s forehead, the horse pressed against his hand. “I think you need to get some sleep though. Seriously. Go to sleep.” Richard walked quietly out of the barn, over to the office and observation room and into the men’s room. On his way back outside, again he thought of the night he and Bill kept watch over Maple Dale.

  There were times, like tonight, that he would almost swear he could feel Leah Oliver’s presence. The last time had been when a boarder’s horse had been sick and they didn’t think it would make it through the night. It did.

  Mindy was still asleep, the cats still comfy cozy, the horse still awake. Richard eased himself back down into his chair, got comfortable again, and closed his eyes. When the horse stirred, he took a peek. With a big sigh, the horse had decided to finally lie down and stretched out completely.

  ~ * ~

  Mindy woke near dawn, yawned, and stretched quietly. Her father was still asleep, and snoring. She glanced at the new horse, stall empty, and was just about to panic when she noticed Piggly and Squiggly sitting in front of his stall gate, appearing perfectly entertained by the horse all stretched out. It was him snoring. She watched for a moment, smiling, and then noticed the cats raising their backs and tails, over and over, the way cats do when they’re being petted.

  Her father stirred. “Well good morning, Sunshine.”

  “Morning, Dad.” All the horses started nickering and whinnying for breakfast. The new horse stood and shook off and joined in the litany. When Mindy offered her father a hand getting out of the chair, he laughed.

  “I’m getting too old for nights like this.”

  “Nonsense.” Her dad still played tennis, golfed and jogged. Though he was jogging less and less and slower and slower these days. “Wonder if Mom will bring us breakfast.” Mindy fed the cats, then climbed the ladder to the hayloft and threw down five bales of hay. Her father helped her hay the horses and watered while she grained. She looked in at the new horse, contentedly munching his hay and tossed his morning feed into his feed tub. “Greetings!”

  The horse looked at her a moment, then went back to eating. After they were done feeding, Mindy and her f
ather were just about to hop in their cars and head for home, when Christine came down over the hill.

  “Yes!”

  She had brought them breakfast. “Eat while they’re still warm.” Along with homemade cinnamon rolls, Mindy’s favorite, she brought a large thermos of coffee. The sun was just starting to peek over the horizon.

  Mindy hurried home right after she ate to shower and get dressed, and was on her way back by eight-thirty. The barn-cleaning crew was there. They’d already turned out the mares and were “gearing up” the geldings to go out, ankle boots, shin boots, some wore turnout sheets, fly masks. When they had worked their way down to the new horse, they stood debating whether to turn him out or not. Usually there is a note posted if a horse isn’t supposed to be turned out.

  As Mindy drove back down the hill, she saw four of the geldings being led to their pasture. The new horse was one of them and walking casually along with Dew Drop. Mindy waited for them to pass, parked down by the barn, and walked back up the hill to see how the new horse behaved.

  Usually when a new horse is introduced there’s some posturing from the other horses, some “talking trash” and feeling one another out. Normally this behavior lasts only for a few minutes. The horses soon get down to the business of grazing and over the next couple of days of being turned out together, they all come to accept the change in the herd dynamics.

  Mindy stood leaning on the fence rail and watched in amazement. The new horse had his head down and was grazing right along next to Dew Drop as if he’d been part of the herd forever. Don Pablo and Red Baron were grazing as a pair not far away.

  “Well, so much for that,” she said.

  “He nice horse,” Miguel said. “He good boy. Rex.”

  “Rex?”

  Miguel pointed to the bell boots he’d put on the gelding with the name Rex written on them in magic marker. Mindy smiled. Those boots had been in the blanket stall for years - the stall that was now used for the new horse. Mrs. Butchling or Hillary must have hung them on the halter hook outside the stall. Rex had been a beloved school horse that had lived into his mid-thirties. The bell boots were old and worn but fit the new horse perfectly. He even looked rather proud sporting them. There was a certain fanciness to the way he picked up his feet as he grazed along.

  Mindy sighed. “Rex.”

  As the two men from the barn crew walked back down the hill, she stood there, wallowing in sadness and self-pity. She just knew she was going to let this horse down. She watched as Miguel and Ramone led the next four geldings up the hill to the pasture. Easy To Do, Bethann’s horse, took it upon himself to go trotting up next to the new horse as soon as he was turned loose, squealed a couple of times and exhibited some posturing, and then walked on. The new horse stood his ground but apparently didn’t have much to say. He was no threat.

  Malaki watched the action from two pastures away, all puffed up, and obviously wishing she could come charging. Mindy walked back down the hill to the barn and spent the next hour cleaning tack. She did hers and Bethann’s, and then the saddles and bridles for the boarders that paid for the service. She liked doing tack. She didn’t think of it as a chore, even when doing someone else’s. Some boarders liked doing their own. Some didn’t.

  When the barn phone rang, she reached for it with a wet, sudsy hand. “Maple Dale.”

  “Mindy, it’s Hillary. I tried your cellphone, but….”

  Mindy fished it out of her pocket. “It’s dead again. What the hell?”

  “Anyway, I was calling to see how that horse is doing.”

  “Good.” Mindy beat on her phone. “I slept in the barn last night.”

  “That sucks.”

  “No, it was okay. It’s wasn’t bad. My dad was here with me.”

  “I’d be a basket case. Horses dream, you know.”

  Mindy threw her cellphone across the tack room. It landed in a pile of leg wraps.

  “I’m waiting to hear something from Veronica or Karen. I’ll keep you posted.”

  “Okay.” Mindy walked over and picked up her cellphone. The light on the screen was blinking. “I’ll talk to you later. Hey, by the way, we’re calling him Rex.”

  “Cool.”

  Mindy hung up and was just about to start on another bridle when she heard a commotion outside. She hurried out to see what was going on – the horses were whinnying, squealing, screaming. She ran up the hill, no easy task in riding boots, and got to the pasture gate just in time to see Rex charge the fence and without any hesitation, soar right over it. She’d instinctively ducked and straightened back up, jaw dropped, and shaking her head.

  “Wow!” The horse had literally jumped right over her. “Holy crap!” Before she could even think of chasing the horse down, Rex made an abrupt stop, turned, and came trotting back up to the gate. Mindy grabbed him by the halter. “What is the matter with you? Why did you do that?”

  The other horses in the pasture had been alarmed or spooked by something as well. They were all standing with heads high, tails up, and nostrils flaring. Mindy stared. Her first instinct was to open the gate and put him back in the pasture. But then, what if he jumped right back out again?

  “Think long, think wrong,” she said in her head. It was a saying Bethann used often when schooling riders at cross country. It had been one of Leah Oliver’s favorite sayings. “React. Just react.”

  She unlatched the gate and opened it. “Every time you get out I’m putting you back in. Stay with your herd. There’s safety in numbers.” When she turned the horse loose, he trotted up next to the rest of the geldings and looked back at her. She sighed. Surely it was worth a try, she thought. Rex sidled up closest to Dew Drop, and one by one, the horses softened their posture and resumed grazing. Mindy stood there for a moment watching them until something way off in the distance caught her attention.

  It was a truck barreling through a field. From this vantage point Mindy couldn’t see exactly where Maple Dale property ended, but surely this truck had to be on Maple Dale land. She hurried down the hill and hopped into her Jeep. If she drove fast enough, she might be able to head it off on the back road. She turned her Jeep around, drove slowly past the horses in the pasture, and as soon as she made it to the road, put the pedal down. As she turned onto the highway in front of Maple Dale, she saw a cop car coming this way.

  “Damn.” She slowed down and at the light, took a right. Another cop car. Since she ended up having to drive even slower when two more cop cars passed her, she decided to give up the search and turned around at the gas line. There were fresh tire tracks coming out of the drive and bunches of mud clumps. It had to have been the same truck, she thought, and headed back to Maple Dale. As she drove past the pastures, she counted the horses, and parked outside the main barn.

  “The lights. They keep blinking in tack room,” Miguel said, in passing.

  “Thank you. I’ll let Bill know.” She didn’t mention she’d also noticed that peculiarity last night. She didn’t want to explain why she spent the night in the barn and draw any more attention to the new horse. She didn’t mention the horse had just jumped the fence. She finished cleaning the tack and headed for the office with the barn cats tagging along.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Mindy spent at least an hour on the computer continuing her research on fracking, and only had a few minutes to spare before it was time to bring the horses in. She checked on the new horse. He was grazing contentedly, so she drove to Finney’s for a veggie wrap. Since it was a gorgeous day, she had her Jeep top and side doors off, the wind blowing in her hair.

  Waiting at the stoplight on the way back, she spotted the fracking crew a little further down the highway. She glanced at her watch, took off and reaching them, pulled past the utility truck and parked sideways on the berm. Four workmen all turned to look at her at once. Three of them smiled flirtatious smiles. One of them laughed. Shane, the one laughing, shook his head and walked over to talk to her.

  Mindy didn’t know what to say at
first. How had she not noticed how muscular this guy was? “Here,” she said. “I brought you a peace offering.”

  “Really?” He looked at the veggie wrap, wrapped in a plain brown wrapper.

  “Well,” Mindy hesitated. “Kinda.”

  Shane laughed again and surprised her by taking the wrap. “Thank you! I was kinda hungry.” He peeled the paper back and looked inside. “Looks good. You got any Chipotle sauce?”

  “Uh, no.”

  “Okay. This’ll do. Thank you!” He walked away eating the wrap.

  All right, Mindy thought, now what do I do? She put the Jeep in gear, backed up, and pulled past the crew. Shane nodded, this while finishing off the wrap. She waved and ventured a glance in her rearview mirror a little ways down the road. He was watching her.

  The new horse had apparently jumped out of the pasture again and stood looking back in. “Rex, Rex, Rex,” Mindy said, walking up to him. “How many times are we going to do this? What’s your problem now?’ The horse raised his head and stared off in the distance.

  “That damned truck is back.” She didn’t have time to try chasing after it again and stared at it along with the horse. Maybe if she cut down through the field beyond the first cul-de-sac, that way maybe, just maybe she could catch up to it.

  She sighed. It’s not as if she didn’t have a full afternoon ahead of her, and now this, on an empty stomach, after having given her lunch away. She thought about just taking the horse down to the barn. All the horses would be coming in soon anyway. But hadn’t she told him every time he got out she was just going to put him right back in. What if he understood what she’d said? It was a possibility, even a probability depending on who you asked. Better safe than sorry. She opened the gate, put Rex back in the pasture, and drove on down the hill to the barn.

  “Someone here for you,” Miguel said.

  “Who?”

  “He no say. Have big truck and trailer.”