The Elite

Several hours later, Nathaniel came over to join me and my dad. He sat on the other side of Spirit’s grave. He looked pretty much like the rest of us: covered in soot, sweaty, and exhausted. My dad tightened his hold on me as I stared apathetically at the ground.

“Fire’s out and all the horses are in their stalls,” he said in a raspy voice. He coughed a couple times. “Smoke’s all cleared out finally. Joshua is feeding the horses now. Some of your neighbors have offered to stay overnight to watch over the foal and Little Bit to make sure they’re still okay. Dr. Mack’s down there, too….”

“Where are we going to stay?” I asked, speaking for the first time in over six hours.

My dad sighed heavily. “A hotel,” he answered. “That’s the best we can do.” He cleared his throat. He had cried a lot. “We’ll go to WalMart or something to get some clothes for a few days and go from there I suppose.”

Someone else came over and I looked up. It was one of our neighbors who we didn’t see very often. He was carrying a bag and handed it to my dad.

“We… we went through the house,” he admitted. “This was under your bed.”

My father burst into tears and I put my arm around him. The bag was filled with everything my father had kept of my mother.

“I was sure it was lost!” he cried and I kissed his shoulder.

More people were surrounding us and someone passed me five trophies.

“I found them in the trophy room,” Nathaniel said. “They’re all that made it.”

I held them close to me as almost everyone that lived near us and our friends stood around the grave. No one spoke but they didn’t need to. We all smelled of smoke and I stood up slowly.

“Thank you,” I managed, looking around at them all. Most of them were crying. “We wouldn’t have gotten the horses out without your help. We….” I cleared my throat and Nathaniel put his arm around my shoulders. “I’ll still be down here on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for classes. If you- If you could spread the word to the others I- I would appreciate it.”

“Where will you go?” one of the parents of my students asked.

“A hotel,” I answered. “I’ll get on the phone with the insurance company and….” I looked at what remained of our house. “Whoever did this should be ashamed of themselves.”

“You have our support,” a man said and I smiled, trying to keep back my tears. “You lost some feed so my wife and I are gonna go get some tomorrow.”

“We’ll get you more hay,” another said.

“The saddles?” my father whispered.

“They made it,” Joshua said quickly. “It’s a good thing you kept them on the other side of the barn.”

My shoulders dropped in relief. Those saddles were expensive….

“We’ll keep an eye on the foal,” Dr. Mack said, gesturing at her nurses. “It doesn’t look like anything’s wrong with him but I don’t want to take any chances. Little Bit’s fine. Your older horses are all sleepin’. The scare of the fire wore them out but none of them got too overwhelmed.”

“So everyone’s still alive,” I muttered to myself. “Okay, thank you.” I looked down. “Daddy, let’s go. We-We need to get cleaned up.”

He nodded. The neighbor that brought him my mom’s belongings helped him to his feet. Everyone parted as the three of us walked up to our truck that had been parked on the curb.

Thank God for small favors.

-

“We need a room,” my father said.

We were at the nearest hotel, still covered in soot and reeking of smoke.

“You the Turners?” the manager asked and my father nodded. He passed him some keycards. “Heard what happened to your barn; don’t worry about payin’. Y’all taught my little girl how to ride.”

“Thank you,” my father whispered.

“We’ll send extra towels and soaps to your room,” he added.

“In other words, y’all stink,” I joked and we all laughed a little.

My dad and Nathaniel insisted I shower first and I scrubbed myself until I couldn’t smell the smoke anymore. I had bought three outfits and two pajama sets from WalMart. I pulled on the first one from my bag and stepped out, my hair still damp. My dad had opened the window so the smell of the smoke wouldn’t linger.

While my dad showered, I sat down and looked at the bottoms of my feet. I had burned them when I went in to save Spirit’s necklace. I dug the necklace out of the shorts I had been wearing before shoving them in the laundry bag. My dad and Nathaniel would put their clothes in there, too, and we’d through them away. There was no salvaging them anyway.

“Looks like I won’t have to use bleach on that shirt,” I joked.

Nathaniel had just gotten out of the shower last and brought me a cold rag for my feet. He sighed and sat beside me.

“What’s the necklace?” he asked quietly.

My dad ordered pizza while I held it.

“When I was first learning how to ride, I accidentally pulled out some of Spirit’s mane.” I winced at the memory. “The strands were thick, though, and I kept them mostly because they were fascinating to me. When she… when she died I found them in a small box. I braided them together.”

“Why was it in her stall?”

“I buried it there,” I muttered. “Seemed like the right place…. I’m just glad it survived the fire.”

I found my phone and looked at it.

“Don’t,” my father said suddenly and I looked at him. “Do not call them.”

“We have to,” I mumbled, searching for the number. “How else are we going to get the money for the house?”

Nathaniel took my phone from my hands and I glared at him.

“Let me do it, Willow,” my dad said, sitting on my other side.

“You have enough to worry about, Daddy,” I murmured.

He scoffed. “Like what? Starin’ at the ceiling and countin’ sheep?”

“Are you really going to do the classes still?” Nathaniel asked and I nodded. “I’ll join you if you want.”

“That’ll give me time to talk with the insurance company,” my father said.

“I was serious about that check, guys,” I said when silence fell again. “We’re going to the news. This is…. This has gone too far.”

“If I find out who did this, I’ll kill them,” Nathaniel said through clenched teeth.

We all stared at the wall.

“Never a dull moment,” I murmured and they chuckled.