Trickster

Chapter Seven

They whiz by, chasing toward Brenna and Blitzen. Mr. Quinn passes Trickster, rides alongside Blitzen, and reaches over to grab Blitzen’s reins. Starfire begins to slow down, and after a brief second, Blitzen does, too. They trot next to each other for a couple moments, and then walk, until they stop completely. Brenna gives Mr. Quinn a wobbly smile. Mr. Quinn slips off Starfire’s back and holds Blitzen so Brenna can dismount.

Trickster has stopped running, too. David reaches to his lead rope before Trickster and do anything else bad. David starts to lead him over to Mr. Quinn, but Trickster flinches and lifts his right hind leg. Mr. Quinn knows he’s hurt again. Strained the hock, maybe even fractured something. Mr. Quinn orders Brenna to go back to the other trail and look for Linda. Linda should get all the horses back to the barn.

Brenna looks shook-up, but Mr. Quinn looks awful. His face looks like someone drained the color out of it. All the friendliness, too. He looks like he’s grinding his teeth, and his eyebrows are pulled into a frown. David saw the same look on his face when he got in trouble last year.

Brenna takes off up the trail. David speaks up and says he doesn’t know what spooked Blitzen. She just took off. Maybe she got stung by a bee or something. Mr. Quinn doesn’t respond.

Mr. Quinn hands David both Starfire and Blitzen’s reins and goes to check Trickster over. David asks if Trickster will be okay. Mr. Quinn doesn’t answer the question, but instead says he was stupid. He thought David was ready, and that he’d done some growing up. Dr. Mac said David was reliable, and Trickster took a shine to David. But David’s not ready to be responsible around horses.

Mr. Quinn heard David holler across the exercise ring. What if that carelessness spooked a horse and caused a fall? He saw David slap Blitzen’s rear end, spooking him. He watched David let Trickster graze without tying him to anything. By the time Mr. Quinn got back on Starfire, Blitzen and Trickster were already heading toward the woods, with Brenna in danger.

David interrupts that he didn’t do any of it intentionally. Mr. Quinn, shaking his head, says that David was careless. Did it seem like too much work? Does he figure nobody would find out? David just doesn’t think. And people who don’t think don’t have business being around horses.

Mr. Quinn orders David to go back to the barn to get Dr. Mac. David knows he should go without arguing or debating. But he has to ask: what about their deal? Will David still get to ride Trickster when he gets better?

Mr. Quinn’s eyes narrow. The deal is off.