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I had named her, actually, but I didn't take the bait, stepping into the stall and approaching the timid girl, even as she turned her whole body to face away from me. This was going to be difficult.
"I'm really sorry to have you kicked off your horse. I didn't know Slade was going to do that, honest! I just came out to watch. I wanted to see all the horses, not just Abigail."
No response from the rigid form as she stared at the barn wall, refusing to look at me.
"Men can sure be dumb, sometimes," I tried again, reverting back to the common thread of womanhood. Good old male bashing.
"Especially cowboys." The response was almost a whisper. But it was something. A starting point. I exhaled the breath I had been holding and took a step towards her.
"Yeah, but they really do mean well. They just can't help themselves, sometimes."
Again, no answer. I sighed and shifted tactics. "So, you don't like Abigail, huh?"
The soft, annoyed sigh told me Sara would rather be left alone than engage me in any sort of conversation. She was shit out of luck, though. I had come this far, I wasn't about to give up now.
"She's all right, I guess. She's just slow. Kind of boring."
"Yeah, she does well with beginners," I started. "Are you from around here?"
"Born and bred, unfortunately," she said with disgust, finally turning towards me. "I can't wait to get out of this dumb, two horse town. Soon as I turn eighteen, I'm gonna hop a bus to anywhere but here. A big city, where I can sing and dance and live on the fortieth floor of some sky rise apartment building and never think about cowboys and blue skies and horse poop, ever again."
"You sing?" I questioned, an idea beginning to niggle in the recesses of my brain.
Instead of answering, she belted out a few lines of a well-known country song in a voice that reminded me of spun silk.
"Well, damn!" She was good. Very good. I could have listened to her sing for hours, but I didn't want to ruin the current level of comradery I had worked so hard to achieve.
"Ever been around horses other than Abigail?" I had a sinking suspicion the answer was yes.
"Only most of my life. This is rural Texas, you know."
"You know, I bet if you had told them that, they would have paired you with a different horse." I knew exactly which horse I would have chosen, and I had known the girl for less than ten minutes.
"Well, I don't know when they were supposed to ask. They've never bothered to talk to me, besides to tell me what to do. Like I didn't already know." Her voice dripped with sarcasm, and I could have killed Blake and Slade both for being so dense.
"I haven't gotten a chance to look around yet. Do you know if Axel is still here?"
Sara jacked her thumb towards a stall near the back of the barn. "He's here, but Blake's the only one allowed to ride him."
"That's a shame." I started walking toward the stall, hoping Sara would follow. It took a minute, but she did.
Axel was a beautiful horse. A purebred Mustang stallion that had a reputation for being a little difficult, but the trouble he gave you was worth it, if you could get him to like you. I didn't think Sara would have a problem. I knew a little secret about Axel. He loved music.
I reached over the gate and opened the latch, hoping he remembered me, after all these years.
"What are you doing? Blake is going to kill you! Oh man. Oh man." Sara was frantic behind me, but I just smiled at her.
"Don't worry about Blake. C'mon in here; don't worry." I could see that she wanted to and that her fear of Axel was a healthy one. But, oh, she wanted to ride him. I could see it in her eyes.
I stepped up to Axel and pet his nose, whispering softly to him and calling him by name. I could hear Sara tiptoeing in behind me. I waited until she was almost beside me and then moved to the side, putting her face to face with the gentle giant. "Sing to him."
Her eyes bulged from her sockets as she gaped at me in disbelief. I nodded.
Quietly, timidly, she began to sing The Star Spangled Banner. Axel closed his eyes and seemed to sway with the music, nuzzling her hand every so often as if to say "keep going."
When she had sang the last note, I handed her a saddle and a stool so she could reach. "Go on, he likes you."
She followed instructions, glancing toward the barn door every few seconds, seemingly waiting for Blake to come in and get angry. I wasn't worried. I knew he wouldn't come in here. I wasn't so sure he'd be an easy sell on the pairing of Sara and Axel, but that was his fault for not doing his homework.
Axel was a huge horse and Sara was quite petite, but I knew the pairing was a sound one. I helped her mount him and used the reins to lead them out of the barn and over to where Blake stood with Slade and Abigail. I took her reins without a word and climbed atop the saddle, smothering a giggle when both men caught sight of the diminutive form atop the huge horse and gaped at me with fury in their eyes.
"Oh, just chill," I told them, winking at Sara as we took off across the arena, trotting side by side. Her eyes were wide with awe, and I knew I had just made a new friend.
