She climbed up the side of the chute. He’d watched her clonk over in his old pair of runners and he couldn’t help but smile. Not only because she’d looked pretty funny, but also because there was no way she could run away wearing them. They were perfect.
Jessica peered over the chute wall. There was barely enough room to slip onto the horse.
“Be careful Jess,” Jimmy said, “you don’t want to fall in there!”
Oh yes she did!
“Can I …” she began, but a whinny from within the corral interrupted her. Josh and Scott were still on the brown mare, but she pranced back and forth, lifting her legs.
“Jim! It’s a God damn snake!” Josh yelled.
“Shit!” Jimmy hissed as he grabbed his rifle from where it leaned against the far chute wall. He flew over the fence and into the corral.
Jessica went into auto pilot. Without thinking she straddled the chute wall and lowered herself onto Ebony’s back. He snorted his disapproval. She wrapped the rope attached to the saddle horn around her hand, and without so much as a hesitation she leaned forward and pressed the lever that unhitched the gate. The horse flew out of the chute.
Jim heard the horse coming. He’d fired off a round, killing the snake, and then he spun around. His mind couldn’t grasp what it saw. There was the black stallion, bucking around the corral, and Jessica sat on top, rolling with the motion of the horse. Something about the scene wasn’t right, but it took him a few seconds to understand that it was Jessica, and she was about to kill herself falling off the horse. Dread grew within him.
“Holy Shit!” he heard Scott yell from behind him, and he saw Josh on the mare race up to the head of the stallion, and try to get a hold of it. In what seemed to be the longest two seconds of their lives, Scott, Jim and Josh watched helplessly as Jessica went around and around on the horse. And then, with a magnificent buck from Ebony, she flew off, and all they could see was dust. Josh took the opportunity to rope the stallion and lead him away. Jim and Scott ran to Jessica. She was getting to her feet, her body heaving in silent spasms.
“Jess! Jess!” Jim shouted as he reached her, grabbed her and pulled him to him. He ran his hands over her body, looking for broken bones, sprains, gashes. Jessica continued to vibrate. When he was certain there weren’t any obvious injuries, he pushed her away from him and looked into her face, ready to soothe and calm her terror, but unprepared for what he actually saw. Jessica wasn’t crying, like he’d suspected, but laughing. She was laughing so hard she couldn’t get a sound out.
“Is she alright?” Scott asked.
“I’m not sure,” Jim replied, “oh crap,” he said as he looked over Scott’s shoulder and saw Riley and Angus barreling at them full speed. Jessica’s back was to them, she didn’t see them coming, but Jim doubted that at that moment she really cared.
“Did you see that?” she demanded from Jim. She moved into his arms, put her hands on his chest and grabbed handfuls of his shirts. She tugged on his shirt. “Did you see that?” she repeated, “that was so much fun!”
“Jess …” Jimmy began.
“Can I do it again?” she asked.
“What the hell happened?” Riley demanded as he reached them. He grabbed Jessica’s arm and spun her around to face him. The smile he saw there made him hesitate. It wasn’t her usual ‘in your face’ victorious smile, but a smile he’d never seen on her before.
The fear Riley’d felt moments before dissipated He and Angus had just returned from town, just gotten out of the car, when they saw Jessica fly from the horse.
As her body had hit the ground, Riley had felt something lodge in his throat. He’d wanted to scream her name, but nothing came out. He was certain she had broken her neck, but here she stood, smiling up at him.
A real smile. And much to his surprise, it didn’t fade when she saw him, or Angus, who’d brushed past him and pulled her from Riley’s grasp and into his own. His hands ran over her body as if he were frisking her, and yet she smiled. She was delirious, it was the only explanation.
“It was so much fun!” Jessica repeated, “Did you see it?” she looked down at Angus as he crouched beside her, hands running over her legs. He looked up at her. What the hell was she on?
He stood up, towering over her, not sure how to react. Jessica spun back to Jimmy. She felt so alive again, so exuberant. She stepped closer to Jim, “Can I do it again, can I?”
“Hey!” Angus roared, Jessica moving away from him being more than he could take. “Get back here Jessica. You don’t leave me unless I say to!” and he reached out, grabbed her arm and jerked her back.
That was a reality check for Jessica. The smile disappeared as she found her footing. She stood beside Angus, head lowered.
“Sorry,” she mumbled, “I forgot.”
Angus paused. She never normally said anything, just stood and glowered. Angus looked to Riley. Riley watched Jessica through squinted eyes.
There hadn’t been any eye contact, and it wasn’t loud and clear, but she’d responded. He turned his attention back to Jim, Josh and Scott.
“What was she doing on that horse?” he demanded.
“Trying to get us to take her to the hospital again!” Angus interjected in a gruff voice. Memories of the aspirin incident flooding back to him.
How she’d found the bottle, they could never figure out, but she had, and she’d eaten practically the whole thing before any of them had realized it. She’d never tried to kill herself prior to that … the men were horrified to think she’d found a new purpose that they’d have to guard against. It soon became obvious that her intention hadn’t been to off herself, but to force them to take her to the hospital. She’d looked almost triumphant as she kept repeating the word ‘hospital’.
Riley had dashed any hopes she had of that when he ordered Angus to get him a mixture of warm water and soap. He had poured it down her throat, until he was sure she’d vomited everything up.
“If you want broken bones Jessica,” Angus continued, “you don’t have to ride a horse to get them … I’ll gladly oblige!” He’d hung on to Jessica’s arm and now he pulled her by it until she was on her toes. He stuck his reddening face into hers.
“She just wanted to have a little fun!” Jim said quickly, trying to divert what he knew was likely to come for Jessica.
“Fun?” Angus asked, staring into Jessica’s eyes. Their faces were so close she had little choice but to look back. “I can dish that out too!” with a sound that resembled a growl he turned on his heel and began stalking back to the house, dragging Jessica behind him.
“Stop!” Jim yelled and ran to stand in Angus’ way, “she asked me if she could ride Ebony.”
Angus glowered at Jim as they stood facing each other, and Jim began to wonder if he’d end-up with a few broken bones too.
“That was fucking stupid!” Angus finally said. “Really fucking stupid. Jessica can come up with her own ways to escape Jim, she doesn’t need your help!” He yanked Jessica to his side. “Besides, it doesn’t matter whether she asked you or not, I have a few things I’d like to say to Jessica in private anyway.”