Jackie startled awake when she felt a breath of
warm moist air blow across her face and heard a loud snort near her left
ear. Then she felt something soft but
heavy nudge her left shoulder. But the
sensations stopped. Now another snort a
little farther away. What the heck? She opened her eyes. Dark all around. Where am I? she wondered as she shrugged
out of grogginess into quickening alarm.
Realization: she was at the Philips
County fair in the horse barn––the warm air, the snorts, and the nudge were all
from her small hinny Shimmer. Guess I
fell asleep a few hours ago, Shimmer. What am I going to do now? I’m wide awake!
She stood from the pile of straw and touched her
phone. Twenty past midnight. She reached over and rubbed Shimmer where she
liked, up along her mane to between her long ears. Jackie looked around in the scant light––no
sign of anyone, only a few horses now quiet in their stalls. Shimmer, I’m going out to take a walk and
look around, okay? The hinny turned her head to look at her and huffed her
permission.
As Jackie emerged from the horse barn she looked up,
taking a deep breath. The air was
fresher outside, the sky starry. The
county fair landscape in this town was dimly lit by a thick crescent moon in
the Montana night sky. She struck out
cautiously toward the midway, her boots thudding softly on the hardened
dirt. Soon she passed between rows of fair
amusements: guessing game booths, strength and skills games, rifle
gallery, a toy shop. All dark and quiet. Then she turned toward the carnival area and
passed the beckoning venues: Forbidden
Canyon, House of Mirrors, Jurassic Island, and Madam Cortavan’s Cabaret Erotica. Their garish signs now looked serene but a
little frightening in the moonlight. She
came into the carnival area where pathways weaved among the rides, none of
which she had been able to take this year.
They seemed to be the same ones she’d ridden in past years, in the same
spots too. She had always liked the
Cobra and the Wild Mouse––certainly the scariest––and always the double Ferris
Wheel, because she could see most of the whole town from her seat pitching
worryingly at the pinnacle. She secretly
wished she had a boyfriend to take in that sight together. Despite her reverie she felt a little frightened
in the pervasive stillness now enveloping the amusements. Everything seemed
weirdly surreal.
Jackie stopped short
when she heard a soft noise. It sounded
like footsteps though just faint, but when she stopped, the noise stopped. She took a few more steps and stopped again
but heard nothing. When she reached the
Wild Mouse ride a little farther on, she heard the steps again. She decided to walk on but then turn around
quickly to look. When she did, she caught
sight of a movement. Hard to be sure,
but it seemed to be a boy ducking in behind a ticket booth. ‘Who’s there!’ she shouted. A slightly sinister echo shadowed her
voice. Cautiously she began to walk
toward the booth. Then a young boy
darted out from where he was hiding there.
He ran back toward the Merry-Go-Round.
He ran hard, but Jackie judged him to be young, maybe eight, and she was
an athletic country girl fast enough to catch him. She broke into a run, closed in, and grabbed
his collar. It surprised him enough that
he lost his balance and tumbled backward onto a patch of dry grass, breathing
hard and kicking. ‘Let me go you bitch!’
Incensed, Jackie pinned
him on his back, then sat astride his chest and held his wrists to the
ground. ‘Just take it easy, kid. I won’t hurt you if you’ll settle down.’
‘Let me go! I’ve got a knife and I’ll slice your face
into bloody strips!’ She held him to the
ground.
‘You might have a
pocketknife in your jeans, but I won’t let you up unless you calm down. Don’t make me hurt you.’ He tried to kick her off with his knees, but that
was useless. Then he spit up into her
face.
‘Okay, kid, that’s it!’ She shifted her left knee to his right arm
and swept her left hand quickly to grab his left arm with both of hers; then
she twisted his forearm back until it hurt just enough...
‘Ow!’ the boy screamed
into the night air. ‘Let me go bitch!’ Jackie’s eyes widened and she twisted
harder. Finally, he relented and went
limp. She eased the pressure.
‘You’ve got a foul
mouth for a little twerp––you will apologize right now!’ She resumed the pressure on the arm.
‘Okay, okay...damn it,
I’m sorry. SORRY!’ She let his arm go and stood over him. He reached toward his pocket, but she quickly
pinned his wrist with her boot. Then she
looked down at him sternly and gradually lifted her foot away. She saw tension leave his body. His breathing slowed and tears flooded his
eyes. He lay defeated. After a momentary pause she reached down,
took his hand, and pulled him to his feet.
He stood looking down, rubbing his left arm.
‘You must be about
eight, right? What’s your name and what
are you doing here in the middle of the night?
My name is Jackie.’
‘Name is Jamie Duke’ he
mumbled. ‘I got lost this afternoon from
my big brother. And if he shows up
looking for me, I’ll have him beat the snot out of you! He’s fourteen.’
‘Well I’m fifteen and I
can probably handle him.’
‘I think he just wanted
to be with his buddy Amos when we ran into him waiting to get on the Wild
Mouse. I don’t think you could handle
two guys.’
‘Maybe not. He
doesn’t sound like a very nice brother going off and leaving you here. Can’t believe he hasn’t come back looking for
you.’ She paused fixing him with her
eyes. Her voice softened. ‘Have you eaten anything since he left you?’
‘Well, no, I spent all my money on the Wild
Mouse...rode it three times.’ He wiped
his eyes and looked away. ‘I love that
ride. I didn’t even want to go home––this is my ultimate dream
world! I’m gonna ride it again as
soon as it opens in the morning––I swiped a dozen tickets from that booth.’ Jamie looked up at her, his face now more
innocent. ‘I am damned hungry though.’ He was defiant but calmer.
Jackie’s angry face melted into a look of
sympathy. ‘Listen here, Jamie. You and me are gonna walk over to the horse
barn where I’ve stabled my hinny––that’s an animal a lot like a mule––she’s my
4-H project. I have a couple of
sandwiches and a bag of blue corn chips.
So you’ll have something to eat. Your
pocketknife is gonna get locked in my horse barn locker. Then maybe we’ll try to get some sleep on the
straw. And tomorrow when the rides start
up again we’ll go back to the Wild Mouse, and you will turn in those tickets
you’ve stolen. Then we’re gonna call
your brother or your parents... or the police if we have to. You got all that?’ Jamie nodded reluctantly, thinking about his
empty stomach. Jackie turned and reached
out for his hand, but Jamie kept his hands down. They set out on the path she had come.
‘You from around here?’ Jackie asked in a kinder
voice.
‘I’m from Havre, but I have an uncle who lives
here. He lets Jake and me stay with him
when we come to the fair every year. He
runs the Cattleman’s Bar and Grill on 1st Street.’
‘Do you have his phone number?’
‘That’s none of your business.’
‘Okay, just askin’.
She paused a moment. ‘You gonna
go to the rodeo they have here tomorrow night?’
‘No... I would, but I don’t have enough money for that
stuff. Guess I’d like to see the bronc
riders someday.’
‘I hope you do.
I love it––I kinda root for the horses though.’ She looked up. ‘Have you ever been in any of these livestock
barns?’ She gestured to the row of long barns
coming into view. ‘They’re all
free. You can go into any of them and
we’re a friendly bunch, happy to show off our animals.’
‘Kinda stinks around here.’
‘Yeah, but you get used to it. Here we are, the horse barn. It’s dark and quiet in here now. So you just stick with me.’ She reached out her hand again. He took it nervously. They walked in slowly. As they passed the hindside of a large Shire
stallion it snorted loudly. Jamie jumped
back, squeezing Jackie’s hand. ‘It’s all
right... he’s just telling us he hears us.
He won’t kick. They moved on
cautiously and came to Jackie’s stall.
Gradually their eyes adjusted to the dim light and Jamie could see the
small equine turn its head to look.
‘This is Shimmer.
She’s a hinny––the hybrid you get when you cross a horse stallion and a
jenny mare. If you breed ‘em the other
way, you get a mule. Hinnys are strong,
agile, and highly intelligent. Shimmer’s
sire––that is her father––was a flaxen chestnut Connemara stallion. That’s an Irish pony and he was brown with
white feet, mane, and muzzle stripe. Her
mother was a bay donkey; bays are medium-to-light brown. I named her Shimmer for her coat because it
shines in the sunlight. Hinnies are
raised by their donkey mare mothers, so they behave more like a donkey than a
horse. Mule colts are raised by their
horse mothers, so they act more like horses.
Shimmer is small, brown with the
white markings, and friendly.’ Jackie
draped her arm on Shimmer’s shoulders. ‘She’s
the only one here and I thought I’d win a ribbon yesterday in the judging. But I didn’t.
Could be I didn’t show her well.
I was pretty bummed. But
Shimmer’s just fine...she didn’t care.
Go ahead and rub her between her ears––she loves that.’ She pulled his hand up and placed it. He couldn’t stop his smile as he scratched,
and Shimmer huffed in contentment.
‘She is a friendly one, isn’t she? Where’s her momma now?’
‘Her momma is Willow and she’s at home on the
ranch. But Shimmer is all grown up now––this
is as big as she’ll get.’
‘Ranch?’ Jamie asked as he looked down to the straw
and noticed her broad brimmed hat. ‘Are
you a cowgirl then... you have horses and cattle out there?’
‘Yep, Montana cowgirl born and raised, though I’m
about an eighth Blackfoot Indian. An’ we
have a herd of Red Angus and nine horses, plus three mules and five donkeys. My little brother is twelve and him and me,
we help take care of all our stock. I
don’t ride broncs, but I can rope and tie a calf pretty good.’
‘Wow, no wonder you took me down and pinned me back
there. Hey, I have a question... you said a hinny is born from cross breeding
a donkey with a horse... how do they... you know, do it... with a big horse and
a short little donkey?’
‘Well, you just sit down here on this bed of straw and
make yourself comfy. And give me your
pocketknife. I’m gonna pull out the
sandwiches and corn chips so you can get some grub in your belly. Then we can talk all that over.’
The two sat down on the straw with the food, Shimmer
watching as Jamie ate. They talked into
the night, Jamie launching many questions and Jackie providing her best
answers. Eventually he began to yawn and
then he leaned back on the straw. Sleep
came quickly. When he was sound in
slumber she brought out a blanket and covered the boy up to his chin. Then she locked away the pocketknife, found
another blanket, and went to sleep on the other side of Shimmer.
Jackie
and Jamie shivered a little standing in the cool Montana morning, first in line
at the Wild Mouse ticket booth. Jamie
looked up into the cheerful face of an old man behind the window. He put his strip of tickets down under the
window arc. ‘I am sorry Mister. I stole these tickets from your booth last
night and I’m giving them back. I love
this ride too much for my own good, and I wanted to ride it as much as possible
today. But I was wrong to take
these. Like I said, I’m sorry.’ He looked the man in the eyes and then
averted his gaze to Jackie. The man
looked at him, then at Jackie, then back at Jamie.
‘Your big sister here get you
straightened out?’
‘She ain’t my sister, but you got it
about right. She caught me. I can’t pay for them, and I did get three
rides here yesterday, so that’ll have to be enough until I can get more money.’
The
man looked around them and back along the growing line of customers. He leaned forward. ‘Tell you what, kid. You see that concessions stand over there
sellin’ drinks? If you would go over
there and fetch me a cup of coffee, I’ll let you take a ride.’ He slid a five-dollar bill through the window
with two tickets. He winked at Jackie
and smiled. Then he looked back at the
boy. ‘And you bring me the change, okay?’ Jamie’s face broke into a big grin, the first
one Jackie had seen. He looked more like
the little boy he was. He nodded,
grabbed the bill with the tickets, and trotted off to fulfill the errand. After delivering the coffee and change, he
reached into his pocket for the pair of tickets and gave one to her, striding
toward the ticket-taker in high anticipation.
Jackie had ridden the Wild Mouse a
few times before, and she remembered it as thrilling and scarry. But she had never ridden it with an
eight-year-old boy who, despite his repeats, went wild. This kid she had come to know as a vulgar and
feisty thief, then as a defeated insular ingrate, and then as a curious child
with many questions about animals, 4-H, and ranching, had transformed into a wailing
cyclone of writhing ecstasy. The short
little car came up to ninety-degree turns at full speed, then zipped around
them like a demonic mouse with a cat on its tail. Jamie screamed through them continuously at
the top of his lungs. When it was over
her ears were ringing, and her first steps were unsure from the dizzy feeling
in her head. But Jamie danced and
skipped his way out in delirious joy through the gate in the surrounding
fence. He would have skipped right back
in line for another ride, had that been an option.
‘Jamie,’ came a voice from an
obnoxious looking boy. In a maroon hoodie, a pair of earbuds around his neck
vibrated visibly as they thumped out a steady drum beat. His expression was rude, though he had a face
that could pass for ruggedly handsome, framed by greasy dark hair. He
stood only an inch taller than Jackie. ‘Where
the hell have you been all night? You
were s’posed to stick behind me an’ Amos yesterday.’
‘I tried. But when you guys went into that cabaret side
show they wouldn’t let me in. So I went
back to the Wild Mouse. You shoulda
looked for me.’
‘Well, Shitface––ya coulda just
waited for us.’ He looked at
Jackie. ‘So who are you?’ His eyes drifted down and up again, taking in
her form.
‘Jackie. I found your little brother hiding here in
the night, upset and hungry. I took him
to the horse barn where I’m staying with my 4-H animal, and I got out something
for him to eat and a place to sleep.
‘So what the hell were you
doing here in the night?’ A creepy smile
slowly curled his lips.
‘Taking a walk after I slept a while. My animal woke me up just after midnight.’ AND, I was taking care of a lost boy who was
supposed to be your responsibility, right?’
‘I ain’t gettin’ paid to
babysit. The little dork took off when
he was s’posed to wait. What can I say?’ He looked her over again. ‘Looks to me like he did okay––found himself a
sweetie big sister to board him––even if she’s a hot cowgirl with a sassy
attitude.’ His face traded into to a
creepy grin.
Jackie pushed her hat back from her
brow a little and sighed. She turned to kid
brother. ‘Jamie, you have your uncle’s
phone number, don’t you?’ The boy looked
at her and nodded. ‘Let’s go back to
Shimmer. Seems like she’ll be happier
to see you than your brother is. She’ll
even let you ride her around some. Then
you can help me get her ready to load up...and we’ll get some lunch too. We’ll call your uncle when my dad comes to
pick up me and Shimmer, and then we can drop you off at his bar and grill.’
Jamie looked at his brother and
considered for a moment. Then he reached
up to take Jackie’s hand and the two started off toward the livestock
barns. ‘Could you show me how I can join
a 4-H club before we leave? By the way,
what do the four H’s stand for again?’
Jackie stopped. She turned back to glare at the feckless brother. ‘Sure Jamie, and that would be Head, Heart,
Hands, and Health,’ she said. And they
walked away.
Bio:
Darrell Wiens is Professor Emeritus of Biology in Iowa, now living in
Kansas City. He creates stories involving believable characters facing various
issues. An award-winning teacher and mentor, he is author of 27 scientific
papers and 53 presentations with students from his laboratory. He has eleven
published short stories.
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