The Fence - cont'd
Written by Leona NielsenPublished on February 2013
THE FENCE As TC watched the sun slowly disappear behind the mountain, she was beginning to feel tired and was looking forward to a good night’s sleep. Before that could happen she thought she better check in on the Little Ones. As she made her way towards the other side of the barn she stoppedand listened. Much to her surprise there was total silence.
“What do you make of that TC?” Scout said in a soft voice. “I think I will just take it all in Scout, you never know what tomorrow will bring. This certainly, doesn’t happen every day.”“So true TC. Let’s have a quick look before we call it a night.”Very quietly TC and Scout peeked around the corner.There lie Baby with his head on Joseph’s belly and Annie nestled in between the two of them.“Look at Annie, Scout. She looks like a peanut in a shell. She also knows that Baby and Joseph will take care of her.”“It’s not easy, sometimes, to put your trust into someone else.” Scout replied. “You are so right Scout. I could stand here for a little longer watching them sleep but my bed is calling.” “Good night TC.” Scout whispered as he made his way to the soft mound of sawdust in the corner.”In the morning Joseph opened one eye and realized his belly was hurting.“OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”“What’s wrong Joseph?” “Nothing. I guess. The pain is gone” answered Joseph.“It may have had something to do with………..”“ANNIE!!!! Haven’t you got something to do!!” Baby yelled.“You just gave yourself away Baby. Come on, give it up.” “I’ll give it up for Baby.” Annie yelled.“No, Annie, you won’t because I will tell on myself. Joseph, I slept with my head on your belly last night and that’s maybe why your belly was hurting.”“I knew you did Baby”.“Good morning Little Ones and how did everyone sleep last night?” TC asked as she walked closer.“Baby had to give it up TC” shouted Annie.“It’s nothing TC. I’ll tell you about it later.” answered Baby.“I think I will go for breakfast because that pain I had was telling me I was hungry. You know what I like the best about you Baby?” Joseph said as he walked towards the hay. “What’s that Joseph?”“I know you will always tell me the truth no matter what”“Thanks Joseph. I listened to my Mom even when she thought I wasn‘t. So it wasn’t because I had my head on your belly after all! JOSEPH you had me believing my head caused the pain in your belly!Joseph didn’t answer but smiled to himself as he ate.Baby looked around, noticing that Annie wasn’t there. Before he could say anything Annie came bouncing in.“Where were you Annie?”Annie moved closer and with her mouth right next to Baby’s ear she whispered “Meet me by the water bucket when you finish - and hurry.”“What’s up?”“Meet me and you will see.”“What was that all about Baby?” “I’m not sure Joseph but it must be something big.”“Why do you say that?”“Joseph, when did you ever see Annie miss breakfast?“True. Maybe we better go and see.”“Maybe I should go by myself first.”
“You know, Annie can be a drama queen at times. I don’t think it is much to worry about.” Joseph answered.“Yeah, I know but let’s give her the benefit of the doubt. You can come with me.”By the time Baby and Joseph arrived at the water bucket, Annie was pacing back and forth. “Did anyone follow you?” Annie said with nervousness in her voice.“No just me and Joseph” “I just wanted you, Baby.”
“Why didn’t you want Joseph to come with me Annie?”Before she answered she stood on the tips of her hoofs and looked around.“Can you really keep a secret Joseph, if I tell you something?”“It depends upon what it is Annie.”“See Baby, that is why I wanted you to come alone.”“What is this big secret to start with?” Joseph asked.“Before I tell you that, I need you to swear that you won’t tell anyone.”“I can’t do that before I know what I am swearing to Annie.” Joseph replied.“Okay then, I guess I’ll have to trust you”“That’s right Annie.” As Annie moved closer she still wasn’t sure about telling her secret.“You got to swear you won’t tell.”“I will swear on my supper.” Joseph said.“I know now that he won’t say anything Annie because you know how much Joseph loves his food.” Baby answered.“You have to swear on something too Baby.”“On the same thing as you said Joseph?”“This morning when I was gone at breakfast, I discovered a hole in the fence.”“The fence has holes all the time and the owners fix them. I don’t think that is a big enough secret for me to lose my supper if I told.” Joseph answered.“I agree with Joseph” Baby added.“Well, maybe you may just change your mind when you see the hole.”“Then let’s see it Annie.” Joseph said.“If I show you then you really will know the big secret.” Annie whispered.“That’s alright Annie, we swore on our supper. Remember?”Moments later, after following Annie to the far end of the field, Baby and Joseph saw first hand what she was talking about.“Wow!!! What a hole!!!!!!! It’s big enough for TC and Scout to go through.” Baby yelled.“You see now why it is a secret?”“Why do you want us to keep quiet about this Annie?” Baby asked. “I want to see what it is like on the other side of the fence and I know if TC knew she would stop me from going.”“You are right Annie, TC would try to stop us if you or any of us tried to go outside of the fence” Joseph answered.“You remember the trouble we got into when we went to the big tree by ourselves? Well this is so much bigger than that.” Baby added.“I know, but think about the adventure we could have.” Annie yelled“Oh, what an adventure it would be when we got back.” Baby mumbled “Annie, I don’t know if I want to explore the other side of the fence.” Joseph said. After much thought Baby looked at Joseph.“Well, we can look at it this way, we might not ever get another chance like this and besides we won’t go for long if we do go.”“That sounds like two against one. You know TC is going to be angry with us.” Joseph said.“Only if she finds out. We can be back before the sun hides behind the big tree. What do you say?” Annie asked.Joseph thought for a minute.“I can’t let the two of you go running off by yourselves. If we do decide to go, I will decide where we go and what time we come back.”“I guess I can live with that. What about you Baby? Annie asked.“You know, we all need to shake our heads. When TC yells at us we are all in this adventure together. OK?” Baby said as he looked from one to the other.“It’s settled then, let’s do it!!!!!! Time is a-wasting.” Joseph added as he took one last look to see if anyone had seen them. “Shouldn’t we put our hoofs together the same way as I heard the owners talking once about that TV show where they shout - Let’s do it before they start!” ?”Annie asked.Baby and Joseph looked at each other….“Annie!!!!!”“WHAT”!!!!!Seconds later they were off.“Oh, where are we going to go first? I know, let’s check out the neighbours’ horses” Annie yelled.“Wait a minute! Remember, I say where we go.” Joseph corrected Annie.“Oh, I forgot Joseph, would you like to pay a visit to the neighbours’ horses?”“Seeing where you put it that way I guess we could stroll over and see what is going on but we have to stay under the cover of the brushes so the neighbours won’t see us”“Oh, this is so exciting!” Annie said as she bounced around.As the three of them approached the bushes, they could see the horses were further up in their field.“How are we going to get them to come to us instead of us going to them, Joseph?” Annie wanted to know.“We will just send them signals.”“Signals? How are we going to do that? Annie asked.“Just like this.”Joseph turned around and started shaking the bushes with his head.“That’s not going to do any good Joseph.”“Oh yes it will Baby, you have to have faith.” As Baby waited for something to happen he couldn’t help but think that Joseph was just making this one up. Joseph decided to do it again. Within a few minutes the horses were running towards them.“Joseph!! The signal worked!!!!!! How did you know that?” Annie shouted.“Oh, that is just a bit of donkey talk.”“I’m a donkey, how come I knew nothing about that?” asked Annie.“It comes with age I guess, and wisdom” was Joseph’s answer.“Is that why you are the leader of this adventure Joseph?”“Could say that Annie. There is more of that where that came from.” Joseph added. “I hope we get back before you have to use anymore.” Baby said.“What are you doing over here?” asked one of the horses.“Well, you see, there was this hole in the fence.” Annie said.“Say no more, been there, done that.” the older horse said.Annie was starting to get anxious and wanted to move on.“Can we go and visit someone else now? We could visit the barn on the other side of the road.”“WHAT!!!!!!!! That is dangerous. I don‘t think I want to do that.” Baby shouted.“Neither do I.” Joseph said with irritation in his voice.“I do.”Before another word was spoken Annie was off and running in the direction of the road.“ANNIE!!!!!!!!” shouted Baby.Annie didn’t answer as she was almost to the other side.“JOSEPH what are we going to do? We can’t leave her over there by herself.”“Come on Baby take a deep breath, look both ways and when the coast is clear make a run for it.”“Oh Joseph. I didn’t like that.” said Annie.Joseph looked at her and said, “I agreed to come on this adventure and now I am not sure if I made the right choice. What did you do something like that for? You put us all in danger Annie.”“There wasn’t anything coming and this will really be an adventure to explore this side of the road.”“Before we go any further you have to promise Baby and me that you will not try another stunt like that. Agreed Annie?“Okay.” Annie answered as she hung her head.They could see someone moving around in the barn.“Maybe it’s not a good idea to go there just yet. We can check out the house first and come back later.” Joseph said.“Sounds good, Joseph. Hey! Look over there. I think we can get up those steps.” Baby said as he stretched his neck to see better.“Maybe if we went up on the step they may have a treat for us.” Annie added.The lady of the house had just taken a nice cookie tray of ginger snaps out of the oven when she noticed something moving on the step. Then suddenly, there appeared a set of long ears in the window. Before you knew it she started screaming HENRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The tray of cookies went flying all over the floor and then came this big BUMP. Joseph lifted his head a bit higher to see what had happen when he saw the lady had fainted and was lying on the floor in the middle of all the cookies.“Is she alright Joseph? Baby asked,“I don’t know but those cookies sure look good,” “JOSEPH. That’s not very nice to say. She could have hurt herself and it would be our fault for scaring her.”“Just kidding Baby….oh she is starting to move!”“You better get away from the window before it happens all over again Joseph.”Just then another voice was heard……..“WHAT ON EARTH!!!!!!!” It was the man from the barn coming towards them.“Let’s Do IT…..RUN everybody.” Baby shouted.They ran and ran until they thought it was safe to stop.“Oh! That was close. Let’s stop here for a minute and rest.” Joseph said between breaths.“I wonder if they had ever seen a donkey before?” Annie wanted to know.“Well, if they hadn’t, they got two for the price of one today, plus Baby.”Baby wasn’t saying much. He was too busy looking around.“Joseph. I don’t see anything that’s familiar to me.”“That’s because we are on the other side of the road Baby.”“I can’t even see the road. We ran quite a ways into the bushes.” “Are you thinking what I am Baby?”Annie turned around.‘Are you saying that we are…………LOST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! “ To be continued next month Hi everyone. Make sure you get the next month’s Newsletter to see how our adventure ends. We will say this - that it is far from over. Until then stay safe at whatever you do. Baby, Joseph, Scout, TC and Little Annie