High Hurdles

by Lauraine Snelling

  The washed-out stretch on the fire road flowed deeper and wider, but Major splashed right through it. Birds twittered and chirped in the trees overhead, and high above the hill she could see a pair of turkey vultures catching the thermals on broad wings. Cows bellowed for their offspring, and the creek played bass in crescendo power. DJ hummed along, the words running through her mind: And Mary’s boy child, Jesus Christ, was born on Christmas Day. She liked the song’s catchy Latino rhythm.

  When they crested the hill to the meadow, she groaned. Clouds were sneaking peeks over the tops of the Western hills. “Too bad, you can just hold off. We’re taking a new trail today, and a little more rain won’t stop us.”

  Major snorted as if he agreed. When she turned off before climbing to the bluebird saddle and angled along the side of the hill on what looked more like a cow path than a trail, he trotted willingly along. Ears flicking back and forth, he kept track of all the sounds around them.

  DJ left off the humming and started singing. She sure wasn’t an opera star, but with no one to hear her and make faces if she wasn’t exactly on key, she felt free to really sing. From here, DJ could see more of the straits. She stopped once to watch an oil tanker make its way upstream, and the breeze kicked in. It was beginning to feel a little wild.

  They came around a corner and Major stopped. Some of the hill had slipped and covered the path.

  “We should go back, huh, buddy?”

  Major’s ears flicked. He lowered his head to sniff the trail.

  “But look, it’s only a few feet. We’ll go down and around.” She turned Major off the track, and watching for ground squirrel holes, they made their way back up to the track. DJ stood in her stirrups. They should meet up with one of the main trails again pretty soon. They’d take that one back.

  The clouds seemed to be racing to the east. While the sun was putting up a battle royal, it was definitely losing.

  They rounded another curve, and the hillside below dropped off.

  Major stopped. DJ nudged him forward.

  “Come on, fella, what’s the deal?” She squeezed her knees again. He quivered.

  Major took two more tentative steps forward—and the hill dissolved around them. Panicked, DJ slammed her legs into his sides. Major leaped forward, but the moving mud carried him with it.

  Too scared to scream, DJ kept a firm hand on the reins to help hold her horse upright. He leaped again, trying to slog their way out. A young oak tree quivered on the lip of the cliff.

  DJ grabbed for it. Rough bark bit into her hands.

  She clung and felt the saddle slip out from under her. Quickly, she kicked her feet free of the stirrups. There was nothing more she could do.

  Major screamed as he slid over the edge of the cliff.

  CHAPTER • 19

  “Major!”

  All DJ heard in response was the ominous rumble of sliding, saturated clay.

  “God, please help me.” She kicked against the face of the cliff, searching for a toehold—anything. Her arms felt like they were being pulled right out of the sockets. She tried to look down, but that put more pressure on her shoulders. She looked up instead. The lip of the cliff wasn’t so far away. If only she could get a toehold. . . .

  She dug into the hard clay with the toe of her boot. Finally she came into contact with a round, solid piece. Sandstone. Praying, whimpering, the pain growing more unbearable, she dug with her foot around the top of the stone.

  Keep a cool head. She could hear Bridget’s voice in her ear. “I can do all things. I can do all things.” She sobbed out the verse. “God, please help.”

  How far down was the bottom? How was Major? Get a toehold! With one more kick, she could feel enough solid foundation under her foot to stand—with the toe of one boot. The relief from even that small help brought tears to DJ’s eyes. She took in a deep breath. “Thank you.”

  Kicking with the other foot created enough space for her to balance on. She let go of the oak with one hand and looked down. The cliff fell away beneath her to a ledge, then fell away again. She could see no farther.

  “Major!” She tried to whistle, but her lips couldn’t manage it. Besides, you had to have spit to whistle.

  The clouds rolled over the hill like a puffy gray waterfall, sending tendrils down to drip in her face.

  Her right foot cramped, sending pain shooting up her leg. She shifted the weight to the left and clamped harder on the tree. Stretching her right leg, she tried to release the cramp but failed.

  How to escape her trap? Could she go down? Sideways? Mountain climbing had never been one of her aspirations, but she’d watched rock-climbing on TV. How did they do it?

  She reached out with her right hand, searching for anything to grab on to. A chunk of dirt broke away. DJ’s heart leaped back into her throat, racing as if to burst out of her chest. Back to the oak. She sighed in relief as she grasped it with her left hand. The cramp let up. If only she hadn’t tied her slicker on behind her saddle—so what if it hadn’t been raining.

  “Major!”

  Was that a nicker she heard? She called again. Only a crow answered, his harsh caw anything but comforting.

  No one knows where I am. The thought sent her heart into overdrive again. “Come on, DJ, keep a cool head.” Talking out loud helped. “Okay, now start with the left hand.” She looked to the left, imagining this hand move over the surface of the cliff.

  Giving up on her hands for the moment, she began kicking a broader shelf for her feet to rest on. She focused all her concentration on her feet. The slippery wet clay clung to her boot, threatening to make her lose her balance, but DJ kept on kicking.

  The wind blowing up the river cut through her sweat shirt as though it wasn’t even there. She shivered and kept on kicking until she could finally stand on both feet. DJ breathed a sigh of relief. Her legs shook. Her arms ached. She shivered again, this time more like a shudder.

  The mist grew heavier, turning to rain. The sky darkened and wind whipped the trees.

  “Help!” she screamed as loud as she could. What other idiot would be out in the park late on a day like today? DJ screamed again. And again. Until her throat closed in pain.

  Who would look for her? Her mother wouldn’t be home from work yet, and Gran and Joe weren’t coming home till late. No one knew where she was. Tears joined the raindrops sliding down her cheeks.

  I know where you are. DJ sucked in a breath. Of course—God knew where she was. “Then how about telling someone else? Please, please, make someone come. And please, please let Major be okay. Please keep him from suffering, God.” The thought of her horse in pain made the tears flow again. “Please.”

  Should she just let go? How far down was down? What was below her? She tried to figure out the landscape, but this was new territory.

  “Bridget’ll kill me for letting myself get caught in a situation like this after all the years she’s drummed safety in our heads.” Talking out loud helped drive the darkness back. “Okay, God, what do I do?”

  The smell of wet clay filled her nostrils as she hugged the cliff. What a way to spend an evening.

  As soon as she stopped talking, panic stalked her. Panic that made her stomach roil, like it would leap out of her throat. Panic that set her heart to pounding and made her weak knees even weaker.

  “So sing.” She forced the words past the huge lump in her throat. “The Lord liveth, and blessed be the rock . . .” That one came easily since she was sort of standing on a rock, more grateful for a piece of solid earth than she’d ever dreamed possible. She continued the verse and found another song, then another—each like a friend come to comfort her. DJ set her verse to music. “I can do all things, I can do all things . . .” The tears streaming down her face made singing hard. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

  When she could no longer force the words and tune past her parched throat, she sang them in her mind.

  Huddled by herself on the face of a cliff in t
he dark and pouring rain, DJ could sense that she wasn’t alone. Not really. How much time had passed? How long since darkness fell? She had no idea.

  What was that? A horse whinny? “Major.” What she thought would be a yell barely went farther than the face of the cliff.

  “DJ!” A voice came from far away, then a whinny again—this time from the same direction as the voice. And then an answering one from below her.

  Major was alive!

  “D-e-e-e J-a-a-ay!” The voice sounded closer.

  “I’m here.” She gathered all her strength and tried again. “Here, over here! Thank you, God. Thank you, Jesus. Oh, thank you!”

  A light pierced the darkness coming around the side of the hill. Whoever it was must be on the trail she took earlier.

  “DJ!” The shout again.

  Another whinny from someplace below her.

  “Keep at it, horse, you can make more noise than I can. Please, God, give me strength to holler.” She sniffed and wriggled her dripping nose. “I’m here. Down here!”

  The light stopped above them. “DJ?”

  “Joe! I’m down here . . . on the cliff.”

  “Easy, kid, I’m coming for you.” Never had a voice sounded more like love in action.

  A chunk of dirt broke away and went crashing past her. “Stay back—the bank will give again.” More dirt and clumps of grass cascaded by her left shoulder. The oak tree trembled. “Stay back!”

  “Can you hang on, darlin’?” His voice came from farther away this time.

  “I’m okay—now. Major is down below me somewhere. He heard you first and whinnied.”

  “I know, that’s what brought us here. Are you hurt?”

  “No.”

  “Thank you, God! Okay.”

  She heard the crackle of a radio and someone else giving instructions.

  “DJ, we’ve got a rope here that we can send over the side. Can you get the loop over your head and down under your arms, or do you need one of us to help you?”

  “I can do it. I’ve got a little piece of rock cleared to stand on.”

  “Okay, here it comes.”

  She could hear movements overhead and another voice or two. She watched the glare of the lights, and slowly a looped rope came into view.

  DJ reached with her left arm and tried to snag it. “More to the right.” The rope swung closer. DJ grabbed the loop and slipped her left arm into it. Then, depending on the rope for support, she let go with her right and pulled the loop over her head. “Ready.”

  “Okay, now, if you can lean back in the rope and walk up the cliff, it will be easier on your arms. Think you can do that? Just brace your feet against the cliff and walk up it.”

  DJ gripped the rope with both hands, and with the loop holding her secure, she did exactly as Joe instructed. She walked up the cliff and right into his arms. The men with him cheered.

  “Oh, DJ, I . . . thank you, Lord.” He held her closer and rubbed her back. “You’re soaked and frozen clear through.”

  One of the men handed her his jacket. “Here, put this on.”

  DJ slid her aching arms into the sleeves. “Joe, how’d you get here? I thought you went to the opera with Gran?”

  “Something told me to go home.” He zipped the jacket for her since her fingers couldn’t. “I’ll never question God’s prompting again.”

  “How’d you find me?”

  “Ma’am,” replied one of the other men, his Southern drawl obviously put on, “I learned trackin’ back in the Boy Scouts. We just followed yo tra-il.”

  “In the dark?” DJ’s voice squeaked past her sore throat.

  “Let’s get her out of here,” another ordered.

  “What about Major? I can’t leave without Major.”

  “Here, put this around you.” Another man held out a heat-trapping emergency blanket. “This will trap your body heat and warm you even more.”

  “Joe, I can’t go yet. What about Major?” DJ grabbed the front of his jacket. “I won’t leave him.” She stared up at his shadowed face, the light catching the raindrops on his slicker.

  “Joe, ETA for the chopper is five minutes.”

  “No!” DJ clutched the blanket around her. “I can’t leave Major.”

  “DJ, listen to me. I will go down there and check on him.”

  “No, let me, Cap’n. I’ve got fewer years on my carcass,” one of the younger officers said with a grin. “Besides, we do these all the time—you’ve been out to pasture.”

  Joe snorted, but keeping one arm wrapped tightly around DJ as if she might run away from him, he agreed.

  The younger officer wrapped the rope around his waist and between his legs, then gave the thumbs-up signal.

  “Belay on,” someone called from above—and over the cliff he went.

  DJ shuddered at the thought of Major down in the darkness over the edge. The warmth of the blanket and Joe’s arm around her helped to keep her steady. “I know he’s alive, Joe.”

  “He’s a tough old horse—wise, too.”

  “But what if he’s hurt . . . bad?” She stumbled over the words.

  “That could be. But since these hills are all clay with so few rocks and trees, that old horse has a good chance. We’ll just have to have faith that God is in control. He will lead us through whatever is ahead.” Joe hugged her again. “He led us to you, didn’t He?”

  The walkie-talkie crackled in his hand.

  “Joe here.”

  “Yeah, Captain, we got a problem down here. This horse is stuck in the mud halfway up his rib cage.”

  “See any injuries?”

  “Only dirt and more dirt, but I can’t see his legs.”

  “How’s his breathing?”

  “Seems to be okay. He looks alert, just stuck.”

  “Come on up. We’ll talk about what to do.”

  DJ could hear the thwunk, thwunk of an incoming helicopter.

  “Over and out.”

  “Cap’n, that chopper can’t put down here, so I’m having him land in the meadow. We can all ride out there to meet it. You want her to go home on it, right?”

  “Right.”

  “No! Joe, I’m staying with Major.” DJ flung herself at Joe’s chest. “Please, Joe, please.” She could feel herself spinning out of control. “I can’t leave him!”

  “No, you aren’t staying, child. That hill could give way again.”

  “But then Major . . .” The horror of what could happen to her horse was too terrible for DJ to contemplate.

  CHAPTER • 20

  “Let me go down there to see him, Joe. Please!”

  “No, darlin’, I can’t.”

  Fury, burning, raging fury, made DJ shake. She bit her lip till she could taste blood. “He’s my horse.” With every ounce of control keeping her from plunging back down the hill to Major, she whispered it again. “Major is my horse.”

  “And you’re my granddaughter.” As Joe swung aboard Ranger, DJ darted to the lip of the hill. An officer grabbed her around the middle and carried her kicking back to Ranger. With a shake of his head, Joe offered her a hand to swing up behind him. “DJ, I’ve been a policeman all my life, and I will always put a human life ahead of an animal’s. Even more so when I love that stubborn girl as much as life itself.”

  DJ settled herself behind him and looked over her shoulder to see the younger officer that had gone down to check on Major standing with the others.

  “Don’t worry, DJ,” the younger man called. “We’ll get him out in the morning when we can see to dig. He’s okay for the night.”

  Unless the hill slides down over him. She forced herself to call back, “Thank you.”

  “DJ, I know you are absolutely furious with me, but that’s the way it is. Melanie is waiting at the staging parking lot. The rescue team might decide to take you in to the hospital for observation.”

  I don’t think so, DJ argued back inside her head. She refused to answer Joe. Somehow she had to get back up to Major.


  They bundled her aboard the helicopter and wrapped her in more blankets. While she’d felt the warmth of the one, she still shook from the cold. Someone else handed her a mug of hot, sugared coffee.

  “Sorry, we didn’t bring hot chocolate. Can you drink this?”

  DJ nodded, but her teeth clanked on the cup rim when she put it to her mouth.

  A television station van was set up in the parking lot—she could see it as they came in for a landing. Her mom and Robert were there, too.

  DJ felt the tears burn behind her eyes. Don’t you dare cry, she ordered herself. But that was easier said than done. When Gran, her mom, and Robert wrapped their arms around her, she couldn’t live up to her orders.

  “Major is stuck in the mud, and it’s all my fault.” Deep, tearing sobs ripped through her. “If he dies, it’s all my fault.”

  “How about if we check her over?” a young female emergency medical technician asked.

  “I’m not going in any ambulance, and I’m not going to a hospital.”

  “Darla Jean,” her mother said firmly, “you will do what is needed.”

  “Can we ask you a couple of questions?” A tape recorder appeared in front of DJ’s face as if by magic. A reporter held the other end.

  “How about I answer questions while the medical personnel attend to her.” Robert turned DJ over to the medical crew with one arm and the reporter away with the other.

  The young woman sat DJ down on the rear edge of the ambulance and popped a thermometer in her mouth and a blood pressure cuff on her arm.

  “I’m fine—just cold.” Talking with the thermometer in her mouth wasn’t easy, but DJ managed.

  “Sure you are, kid. You want us to be out of a job? If we don’t check you out, my boss’ll yell at me. You don’t want that to happen, do you?”

  DJ glared at her.

  Once the plastic thing was out of her mouth, DJ took in a deep breath. “Look, I’m not hurt. I ache all over, but what do you expect?”

  “Your temp is subnormal, but not down to dangerous hypothermia levels. Pulse is fine, too. I guess you can go.”