Page 5 of The Only Seconds that Matter
Victor decided to let the ‘Vic’ go.“I have her Coggins and papers in the truck.Lemme get you that.”
“I’ll be in the barn untackin’ her.You can find me there.”
Victor nodded, then returned to his truck.
* * *
Sometimes Victor craved a boring nine-to-five when his job entailed sixteen-hour days.The barn was his office, and he was there when he wasn’t in his house eating or sleeping.When he got home at sunrise bone-tired and he still had several hours of work ahead of him left to do, he felt completely wiped out.He might just decide to curl up on the couch in his office—the one that smelled strongly of hay and dog—and sleep.
His barn manager Hannah was supposed to ensure that the place was spotless by the time night fell, but it wasn’t.The horses had been let out into their fields, which meant they’d probably been fed, but the hallway was scattered with hay, empty buckets, and a wheelbarrow full of manure and dirty shavings.
Hannah had been his aunt’s barn manager, and she rented the apartment attached to the west side of the barn, but Victor had never been happy with her.She and Jade didn’t get along because Hannah had wanted the assistant trainer position, something she’d never be qualified for, especially not with her bad attitude.He should have gotten rid of her after one of his boarders left due to some squabble over the management of their horse’s ringbone, but he knew that’d mean kicking her out of the apartment, too, and he hated to throw someone on the curb.
Victor sank into the chair in his office, offering his hand to his two cattle dogs, Piper and Bailey, who swarmed around him to jockey for his attention.They had been his aunt’s dogs before they’d been his, but he adopted them just like he’d adopted the three horses she’d left behind.He pulled Johnny’s check out of the folder where he’d put it.He couldn’t read any of the writing except the amount; hopefully the bank accepted it.He put that in a locked drawer in his desk, deciding he’d cash it tomorrow.After locking the office behind him, he spent a few minutes sweeping the aisle, then headed for the house.In one paddock the horses were standing by the fence, and when Victor passed, a boarders’ horses stretched out to touch him.He dug inside his back pocket and found a few pieces of broken horse treat.He gave those to him, which of course drew the whole herd, all of them looking for handouts.
“Sorry, don’t have anything else.I’m clean out.”He stroked the forehead of another gelding.“You guys will have to think faster on your feet next time.”
After giving them all a pat, he continued his trek to the house.It wasn’t anything fancy, just a modular that was built after the barn was erected.But his aunt had kept it nice, and so much of what she’d used as décor remained, from the tacky deer head his uncle had shot twenty years ago to the faded prints of wild horses running through desert terrain.
He fed the dogs before grabbing a microwavable dinner out of the fridge.He sat on the saggy flannel couch to eat it, and after wolfing down their meal, the dogs stared at him until his last bite.He let them lick the plastic tray before he tossed it out.
Afterward, Victor took a shower and dressed for bed.He didn’t look as exhausted as he felt, but even at thirty, his baby face got him clocked as early twenties.It had worried him years ago, but since then some scruff had grown in, and it did help him look like less of a teenage boy.
Victor settled down on his bed with a long sigh, dogs curled up around his feet.When he turned, he faced a framed photograph of his parents on horseback, with a 4-year-old Victor straddling the pommel of his father’s saddle while his baby brother rode in his mother’s lap.The dappled mare his father rode had died only four weeks after Victor’s father had, ten years ago.His dad had loved that horse, even though no one else did.She could be ornery and fickle, so that was why his father named herSonrisa—as a joke.She was gentle and quiet in his father’s capable hands, though, quiet enough that at four years old Victor was able to sit on her with his father behind and no one worried what she might do.
It was Victor’s favorite photo of his parents, though it made Victor’s chest clench to look at.He still deeply missed his father, and he wished his dad had gotten to meet therealhim.They’d been so close, close enough that Victor had considered his father his best friend.
“Buenos noches, Sonrisa,” Victor said to the photo of his mustachioed, grinning father.“Buenos noches, Papá.”
* * *
The next morning, Victor got an unexpected call from Johnny Stearns.
“Howdy and good mornin’ to ya,” Johnny said.Victor was shocked people actually saidhowdyin real life.
“Hello,” Victor replied.“Please don’t tell me the mare’s come up lame.”
“Oh, no, she’s fine.I had another guy ride her this morning and she’s all tired out from yesterday, so she rode alright.Nah, this about somethin’ else.I looked up your place last night cuz I had seen it a couple times from the road and always wondered ‘bout it… You give lessons?”
“For you?”Victor had to ask.
Johnny laughed.“No, it ain’t for me, This is for my niece.She’s a real firecracker—a redhead, go figure—and she can ride like the best of them but I think she wants to do more with horses than just run barrels like all the other girls, and it’d be nice to get her some real, uh, how do I say this?Technicalinstruction?Teach her how to ride well, not just how to stay on a nasty bitch of a horse and run fast, which is mostly what she knows right now.”
“I do offer lessons, but usually it’s my assistant trainer who works with kids.It’d depend on her skill level whether or not I work with her.”
“She’s a pretty good rider.I know I’m her uncle and that’s what uncles are gonna say, but she can stay on anything, and ain’t nothin’ in this world she loves more than horses.I’d love to get her her own pony, but I can’t afford to board another horse and her mama won’t spring for it, so she’s just been riding the feedlot horses around, which ain’t doin’ her any favors if you know what I mean.”
“Well…” Victor squinted at the calendar on his desk, which was useful insofar as he could read it.A lot of the pencil used on it had been smudged away by dirty hands.“I have a farrier coming by soon and a contractor coming after that to talk about some pasture drainage, but I should be free any time after four, if you wanna bring her down.”
“Aw, that’d be great if I could bring her down today.I’ll have to ask my sister, but she’ll probably be glad to get her out of the house.”
“Great.I’ll expect you some time after four then.”
Johnny hung up but had no time to process.Jade was calling his name.The farrier had arrived.
* * *
Victor was working in the round pen with his own colt when he saw an old junky pick-up truck wind its way down the gravel driveway, kicking up a plume of dust in its wake.When Victor lost focus, his colt Cyclone came to a standstill, waited a moment, then bent to nibble at the bits of grass poking through the railing.Victor chuckled and flicked the end of the lunge rope, which got Cyclone moving again.
