Amy breathed the sharp coldness of the air as she trudged through the snow drifts. The depth of snow varied as she walked, some depths as much as three feet, with other areas swept almost clean. Two days ago, the storm that blew in that snow had been blustery and frigid. The weather now was pleasant compared to that. She figured the temperature was hanging around thirty degrees Fahrenheit. The warm feeling of the sun was welcome, but the glare off the snow hurt her eyes. She had been wearing sunglasses earlier, but they had disappeared into a snow drift when she was thrown from her horse, Poppy.
The fall had literally knocked the wind right out of her and now Amy could feel some of the bruises she would see later. By the time she regained her bearings, Poppy was long gone. Probably on her way back to the barn on Amy’s family farm. Poppy had been with them for about six years now and there weren’t any highways or roads that would be on her way back. Amy was about 2 miles or so from home and she had about an hour left of sunlight today.
What she needed to do was to stay focused and pace herself. There was an urgency nagging at her. The cold had long since numbed her toes inside her riding boots. Fortunately, Amy was wearing multiple layers and the rest of her was comfortable. She paused a moment to remove one glove and wipe at her eyes. She could quite plainly see the beads of half frozen moisture resting on her eyelashes. She cleared her vision and was about to put her glove back on, when she noticed a streak of red on her hand. Her first thought was that it was a deep scratch from scrambling out of the low bushes that had broken her fall. It wasn’t. The warmth on her forehead was blood oozing from somewhere under her riding helmet.
Great. Just fantastic. So, maybe her headache was from more than the sun’s glare after all. Amy removed her helmet and gingerly felt under the thin scarf that covered her head. There seemed to be a graze that perfectly landed between the open ridges of this particular helmet. Likely, it was a well-aimed stick that had forcefully found its way in. Her irritation grew with every step. Jordan was going to be so angry with her for this one. If she had been patient or if she hadn’t ridden so far away from home, then maybe she wouldn’t be in this mess.
Amy sighed as she looped the helmet’s straps over her elbow. Was it really that bad? No. At least she was in one piece. She knew her brother wouldn’t see it that way. He had taken the responsibility of the farm and her well-being very seriously. But, there were times she just couldn’t stand listening to one more of his lectures. The anger was beginning to literally heat her body up. Her toes were starting to tingle. Riding is the best part of my life right now, she argued with herself. It almost made her feel as though some of the horse’s strength and power became a part of her for a little while.
There was so much of her life that was out of her control right now! Two months ago, her father had changed, he looked like a shell of his former self. His weight had plummeted suddenly, his skin started to look sallow, and dark circles surrounded his normally warm brown eyes. Cancer. It was the dirtiest word in the human vocabulary. The doctors had convened and they announced a plan to fight the monster inside her Dad.
“Take me home,” he had told them. “Let me sleep on all of this and figure out what I want to do.” This scared Amy more than anything. He had always been a rock in her life, an anchor. Decisive and healthy.
Thoughts of Enigmatic Minds 