Author Topic: Changes (Read 12284 times)

22639 · « **Reply #15 on:** January 16, 2013, 05:46:48 pm »

The year was 1844. A nine year old Nikki was standing at the living room window, watching for her father, who had been called to the ranch's north pasture where one of their prize racing stallions was pastured, as she did every time her father was away.

Liam rode up to the barn...but instead of riding his horse, he was kneeling in the back of the buckboard that was being driven by one of the ranch hands...his focus on the stallion lying on its side in the back of the buckboard.

Nikki jumped from chair she had been kneeling on as she held vigil at the window, and ran through the living room and kitchen and burst out of the back door as her mother called after her, “Nicayla Flynn...don't run through the house!” She ran the distance between the house and the barn as fast as her legs could carry her.

“Easy now,” Liam instructed as he and three ranch hands pulled the litter the injured horse was lying on, out of the buckboard. They, carefully, carried the litter into one of the larger stalls in the barn and, gently, lay it on the floor.

Nikki ran into the back door of the barn just in time to see her favorite stallion being carried into a stall and her stomach knotted up. “Daddy?” she called out. “What happened? What's wrong with Ghost?” she called out as she ran toward the men and the injured stallion.

“Not now, Nikki,” Liam warned as he helped carry the litter into a stall. “Now set him down easy, lads,” he instructed.

Nikki ran up to the door of the stall and stopped, making sure to stay out of the way. She muffled a gasp by covering her mouth with her hands, when she saw how the pure white stallion's front leg was bent and tears began to flow down her cheeks.

“Michael! Go for Doc Sweeney!” Liam ordered and one of the ranch hands left the group and sprinted out of the barn. Liam knelt by the injured horse and placed his hand on the stallions cheek. “Easy boy. Easy now,” he said soothingly. One of the ranch hands brought in a bucket filled with bandages and set it down next to Liam.

“What do ya think, boss?” one of the ranch hands asked as he knelt on the other side of the litter and began, gently, caressing the stallion's neck.

Liam shook his head, slowly. He had seen a lot of horses with broken legs but never one as severe as this one. “It doesn't look good,” he said quietly. He looked into the stallion's eye and could see how much he was suffering. He glanced at the stall door and saw his daughter standing there in tears and his heart went out to her. He motioned to her to come in and pointed to the floor behind the stallion's head. Winter's Ghost and Nikki had been practically inseparable since the pure white Andalusian made his entrance into the world two and a half years before. He was hoping that her presence would help to calm the injured horse as well as giving her something to do so she felt helpful.

Nikki rushed into the stall and dropped to her knees at the horse's head. She lifted his head and cradled it in her lap, rubbing his neck, comfortingly. “Help him, Daddy,” she begged with tears streaming down her face. “You gotta help him.”

Liam's relationship with his daughter had always been based on his being honest with her...some times against the wishes of his wife...no matter how difficult it may have been for her to hear. So he wasn’t about to go against that now, even though it would have been easier to shield her from the truth. “I'm afraid it may be too serious a break, honey,” Liam said, softly.

“No, Daddy! You gotta help him,” Nikki pleaded. “You can fix him, Daddy. I know you can. He'll be Ok. I know you can fix it,” she said, tearfully. Confidently but tearfully.

“Some things can't be fixed,” Liam said, sadly, as he looked down at the stallion's fractured leg. The horse's cries of pain cut him to the bone as if he were feeling the pain himself. “What is important is that he is suffering,” he said and looked back at his daughter.

“No, Daddy! No!” Nikki wailed, knowing what her father meant. “You can't, Daddy. You can't!” She hugged the horse's head, protectively. The last time her father had to put a horse down, Nikki was only five years old but she still remembered the sound of the gun shot and she couldn't stand the thought of hearing it again...especially to the horse she had considered hers for two and a half years.

Liam reached out and placed his hand, lovingly, on Nikki's cheek then he glanced at his foreman who was kneeling next to him.

“If we rigged up a kind of harness suspended from the rafters...,” the foreman began.

Liam looked up at the rafters and was able to picture where his foreman was going. As good as the idea was...it all depended on one thing and that was the one thing Liam wasn't confident that he would be able to do. “All depending, of course, in whether or not we can successfully set the fractured bones,” Liam said more to himself than to anyone particular.

Nikki looked up at the rafters and her face lit up as she suddenly understood what her father's foreman was getting at. She looked at her father and said, confidently, “You can do it, Daddy. I know you can,” because in her mind....Liam Flynn was her hero and could do anything.

“I wish I had your faith,” Liam said and looked, doubtfully, at Ghost's broken leg. Just then the sound of horse's hooves pounding against the cobbled ground outside of the barn made them, all, look toward the door of the stall and the front of the barn.

“It's Michael!” one of the ranch hands standing at the stall door announced.

Michael came running to the stall door and said, “Doc Sweeney is out of the county.” As he tried to catch his breath, he continued. “He's not due back until late tonight...maybe morning.”

The ranch hands groaned and grumbled.

“Cac!” Liam cursed in Gaelic.ⁱ “That means it's up to us,” he said, looking extremely dubious.

“Please, Daddy!” Nikki begged. “Please try. Ya gotta try, Daddy. Please?”

Liam looked at his daughter eyes and saw the hope in them. Then he looked down at the stallion's injured leg. The barn was, uncharacteristically, quiet. You could hear a pin drop as everyone looking on waited, expectantly...and held their breath. Finally...after what seemed like an eternity...Liam cleared his throat. “Michael? Bring me as much ice as you can,” he said without looking away from the fractured leg. “Sean? I need some ether, two pieces of wood for a splint and some strong tape,” he went on. Then he got an idea. His wife, Mary, had started playing around with crafting small plaster figurines a few months ago and had some of the dry plaster mix that she hadn't used yet. “John? Go ask my Mrs. for some of that plaster mix of hers. Enough to make a cast...of sorts,” Liam instructed and glanced at his foreman who was nodding his head in agreement. Then he looked back down at the stallion. “Hang in there, boy,” he said, quietly. Silently to himself he prayed, “Dear Lord...give me strength and guide my hand,” then he crossed himself.

Nikki laid her cheek against the stallion's. “It'll be Ok, Ghost. Da' will make everything Ok,” she whispered. “He's mo laochⁱⁱ.”

Present Day

Nikki silently stands out of the way in a corner of a large stall in the main barn and watches as her father, with the help of his on site vet, sets the broken leg of a white Andalusian mare and puts her in a modern day version of the harness he had used on Ghost one hundred and sixty nine years ago.

Liam finishes buckling the straps of the sling and steps back to see if the mare has been raised high enough to prevent her from putting too much weight on her injured leg as it healed. Satisfied, he steps back up to the horse's head and rubs her forehead, affectionately.

[Liam] How's that, girl? Better?

Liam asks in a soft and soothing voice. The mare tosses her head a little as if to say, “yes” and Liam gives her neck an affectionate pat.

[Liam] You get some rest now.

Liam says to the mare, who is still groggy from the sedatives given to her while her fractured bones were set. Then he steps away and turns to leave the stall. As he turns he sees Nikki watching him from the corner of the stall and he stops.

[Liam]She's going to be fine.

Liam says, reassuringly.

[Nikki] Of course she is.

Nikki says as she steps out of the corner and walks up to the mare and gently rubs her soft muzzle.

[Nikki] She has the best trainer in Universe.

Nikki says, looking up into the mare's eye.

[Liam] I wouldn't go that far.

Liam says, humbly.

[Nikki] I know YOU wouldn't.

Nikki says, walking up to her father and linking her arm through his.

[Nikki] But I would, mo laoch.

Nikki says, looking up at her father, lovingly.

Liam looks down into his daughter's eyes and sees the look he remembers seeing in her eyes when she was a child...a look filled with love and admiration...and he remembers how it felt to be Nicayla Lynn Flynn's hero and it warms him. Unable to say anything, he simply puts his arm around Nikki's shoulders and gives her a squeeze as he guides her out of the stall.

As Nikki walks alongside her father, she lays her head against his upper arm and smiles, contentedly.

To be continued

iGaelic for “****!”

iiGaelic for “my hero”.

Author Topic: Changes (Read 12284 times)

22639

Part 16