FREEDOM AFTER 30 DAYS
Written by Leona NielsenPublished on January 2018
The wind tossed the snow around with a vengeance. Even the snow wanted to escape its force by allowing the wind to blow it through the cracks in the barn.
Inside, was a repeat of the last several days – eat, sleep, lie down, get up and do it all over again. There wasn’t much to do when the weather was bad. Even talking with each other was getting to be a bit boring. Annie peeked through the boards of her stall
“What are you doing Scout?”
“Nothing Annie”
“Can you see anything through that tiny hole in your window Scout?” Annie wanted to know
“Maybe I can. I might take a look later Annie”
“There you go Scout you have got something to do now”
“I suppose I do Annie’
“What do you think you’ll see when you take a look later Scout?” Baby asked
“I imagine about the same as yesterday and the day before that…snow snow and more snow plus wind”
“Oh Scout, you are just guessing. It may have changed, can you take a look please?” asked Baby
“What do you except Scout to see? The sun shining and birds singing?” said Joseph
“Oh Jospeh, something may have changed. We don’t know. Wouldn’t it be great if it has?”
“I
doubt it” Joseph mumbled
“Scout,
please, can you take a look?” Baby asked
“Open your window Scout” Annie said
Baby
looked at Joseph “Is Annie for real?????”
“Sometimes
I wonder”
“If
it will keep all of you quiet I will”
“Okay
Scout I will be quiet” answered Annie
“You
promise?” Scout said as he turned his attention to Annie
“Promise
what?”
Just
what I thought, Scout said to himself, knowing Annie didn’t have a clue what
promise meant.
“Can you open your window?” asked Baby
“I
think I could if I wanted too” answered Scout
“I
wouldn’t mind seeing what was happening out there”
“Well
then let’s give it a try and see what happens” Scout started wiggling his nose
on the latch in such a way that the window opened……
A big gust of wind
and snow came rushing towards Scout.
“WOW!!” Scout
shouted as he ran towards the back of his stall. Scout was completely white
with snow on his face. Only his eyes were visible and they looked as big as
dinner plates.
TC could hear the
commotion and decided to investigate.
“What has happened
over here?” asked TC
“Scout opened his
window” replied Annie
“Oh really! I
wonder why?” answered TC as she looked at Scout knowing only too well the
Little Ones played some part in this.
“Baby wanted to
see what was outside” Annie answered as she stood tall in her stall.
“ME!!!!…….Annie
you started it” Baby yelled back
“No I didn’t”
“Ok kids, the
truth is you all have had something to say I do believe. It doesn’t matter who
started it, what are we going to do now? Scout has a blanket of snow in his
stall” TC answered with a motherly tone to her voice.
“Scout can move in
with me if he wants” Baby answered
“I guess that is
the right thing to do Baby, seeing where it was you that wanted to see outside”
Joseph replied
Baby was about to
say something to Joseph when Scout said,
“Thanks Baby but
the two of us can’t fit in your stall”
“We can make it
work Scout”
Joseph was looking
at Baby and he knew there was something more that Baby wanted to say.
“It’s okay Baby
you can say whatever it is that you are holding back”
“I’m not holding
back anything Joseph”
“We have been
stall mates too long Baby for me not to know”
“Are you sure it
will be alright?”
“Baby, sometimes you just have to jump buildings and
use your wings on the way down”
“Thanks Joseph for
caring”
“Scout, I’m sorry
that I asked you to open the window”
“Me too” came a
small voice from Annie’s stall
“It’s alright, you
realize I could have said no but said yes instead. When you do that then you have to be
responsible to what you said yes to in the first place” Scout answered as he
turned to TC
“You will never
stop being a kid at heart will you Scout? I am very pleased with the way you took
responsibility too” TC said in a low voice
Scout just smiled
and TC knew he understood. Just then the owners opened the door and saw what
had happened. Everyone looked at one another wondering what they were going to
say. The door was left open and Joseph looked out the door noticing that the
wind had stopped blowing.
“Baby listen, can
you hear the wind anymore?”
“No and it is not
snowing either.” Scout looked out the
door.
“I see it.
Remember my window is open”
Instead of
cleaning the snow from Scout’s stall the owners reached for a halter.
“TC, does this
mean we are going out?” asked Annie
“It could be
Annie, maybe for just a walk”
From Joseph came
“Right now I’ll take anything”
“Me too Joseph. I wonder how long we have been in because of the
bad weather. TC or Scout do you know?” asked Baby
“I would have to say Baby that it has been
about 30 days since we were out” answered TC
“Wow!! That is
old, older than me!” Annie answered
“Oh Annie that is
not years, it’s days.”
“Oh! It is still a long time. I wonder who will be
going first” Annie wanted to know
“I hope it will be
me” said Joseph
“Maybe me” Baby
answered
“Well seeing where
Scout is the oldest maybe he will be going first” TC added
“You would go
before me Baby” Joseph replied
“That’s right Joseph
I am a few months other than you”
“I’m the baby. I
should go first” Annie answered
“Oh no Annie it
will be dark before you get back” Joseph replied
“That wasn’t very
nice Joseph”
“Well Annie you
walk, too too slow was what I meant”
“We will just have
to wait and see who goes first” TC whispered as she made her way back to the sidelines
to watch it all unfold.
With halter in
hand one of the owners made his way to Annie’s stall. Annie was so excited she
was jumping up and down.
“Guess we will
have to pray for nice weather tomorrow. They won’t get back in time” said
Joseph
“Maybe it will be
a short walk Joseph” Baby added
As Annie walked by
she put on her girly charm, looked at Baby and Joseph saying, “I told you I was
the baby and was going first” as she disappeared on the other side of the
doors.
“That’s it!!!!! We
won’t get out today. Annie has one gear
and that’s slow. If they go as far as the pond it will be dark before we see
them again” Joseph said in an unhappy tone.
“Our owners are
fair Joseph and they will make sure we all have time out” Scout replied as he
settled down to eat some hay
“They gave us
something to eat before they left Joseph” Baby added
“Yea, they just
wanted us to forget about how long they were going to be gone. Why did they
leave the door open a little? That makes it even worse as I can see outside”
“Oh Joseph you are
getting grumpy”
“Call it what you
may, I just want to get out”
Baby decided that
it was better to eat his hay and leave Joseph alone for a little while.
Joseph settled
down and was telling Baby he was sorry for being grumpy when they
heard…………………….
“HURRY!!! HURRY!!!…….CLOSE
THE BARN DOOR!!!!!!!!!!!!
Upon hearing this,
the other owner came running from the other side to close the door.
“IT’S CLOSED” was
the answer back
No one knew what
was going on.
“Joseph, can you
see through that other hole where the snow was coming in?” Baby asked in an
anxious voice. He was worried something had happen to Annie
Joseph pushed his
eye as close to the hole as he could and in seconds he was rolling on the floor
in laughter.
“Joseph what is
going on” Baby yelled but Joseph couldn’t answer
“Move over Joseph
so we can see” both Baby and Scout replied at the same time.
What they saw
broke them into a fit of laughter as well and then they heard…………………
“KEEP THE DOOR
CLOSED I’M COMING FOR THE WALL”
“OKAY!!!!” replied
the other owner
When Joseph was
back on his feet, room was made for him to see as well and this is what they
saw…………..
Somewhere during
the walk one might say that Annie woke up. She caught the owner completely off
guard when she started picking up speed on the way back to the barn. Annie was
on a mission but the owner didn’t know what. She had bolted ahead in such a way
that he lost his footing in the snow and there he was on his belly holding on
to the reins parting the snow like a plow. Every once in a while they would see
little diamonds of snow being blown into the air. The owner was trying to keep
his eyes clear to see. Suddenly there was a THUMP……..
“What was that?”
Baby asked
“Annie’s hooves
hitting the barn”
“WHAT….is she
alright?”
“Remember Baby the
time you were in a rush to get back from the cart drive and the owner stopped
you by letting your head hit the wall of the barn to slow you down?” Scout
reminded Baby
“Oh, I remember
now and that is what just happened to Annie, right?”
“You got it”
Everyone found a
place to stand in the barn so they could see everything when the doors opened.
Even Seeker came to watch. Suddenly the doors opened…….
“WOW!! The owner
has more snow on him than Scout did”
“I guess he would
Baby, he was at ground level and I was up higher looking out my window” Scout
answered
Annie came in with
the biggest smile on her face as she made her way to her stall.
“There you go
Joseph I’m back before dark!!!! Annie said with a smile on her face.
Well Joseph had
only one thing to say as he looked at Baby and Scout
“Looks like she
found fifth gear – super speed” Everyone smiled
“Maybe after today
I’ll get a spot in the Olympics” Annie said with a big girl voice.
“Where did that
come from and what are the Olympics anyway?” Baby questioned
“Who knows?”
The owners didn’t
pick up any other halters. They opened
the barn doors letting everyone out for a few hours in the snow. Snow baths
were the first thing on the list even for Joseph
“Why are you
having a snow bath Joseph, you don’t like them?”
“I need something
to clear my head after the remark about the Olympics.” Joseph answered as he rolled.
“Why didn’t Annie
come out Scout?” Baby asked
“Annie’s legs
aren’t long enough for this snow that is why she went for a walk.”
Annie stood
looking out her door as the others were playing in the snow. She was happy with
herself even though she couldn’t join the others. She had wanted to prove to
Joseph that she wasn’t slow and she had done just that.
“What are Olympics?”
Baby asked as they made their way back to the barn.
“I guess I am
going to have to get my big ears on better alert because I missed that one”
Joseph said as he played with his ears.
“You never miss
anything Joseph”
“I don’t want to go there Baby’
Have a good sleep
Little Ones; you had a day filled with lots of excitement.
“We sure did Good
Night everyone!”
Hi everyone, we hope you enjoyed our story.
We learned a lot this time and the most important thing of all was when you
decide to do nothing and something happens, you have to be responsible for what
you do like Scout was. See you next time when we tell you about “Allergies and
Asthma” See you then
Baby,
Joseph, Scout and Little Annie