Andi's Barn Mystery

 by Nora H. 

The latch rattled and began to rise. Andi frantically looked around for a place to hide. She was in the tool shed in the barn, sitting on top of the windowsill. It was too late; the door started to open. She had nowhere else to go… *** “Ridiculous. Prince Loco was the one who should have been blamed. I was only trying to help Chad…”, Andi murmured to herself as she lifted the latch and slid the heavy door aside, entering the stable. She was on her way to console Taffy. Recovering from a recent abscess in her hoof, Taffy needed Andi’s complete support. Andi had snuck out of the house, looting a bag of sugar cubes, Taffy’s favorite treat. No one knew where she was, because she was not supposed to be in the barn. Mucking out Loco’s paddock had ended up not being the brightest idea of the day. Now on her way to the tool shed, Andi thought of a good place to hide her bag full of sweets. *** Sneezing, Andi opened the old trunk. Peering inside, she found a good place to set her bag. Andi was about to shut the trunk when she heard a donkey braying outside. There was a long rectangle window that sat above the top shelf on the wall. Knowing she could see the ranch yard from there, Andi shimmed up the rickety shelf and sat on the windowsill. Hee-Haw Handyman was Circle C’s newest addition. Right now, he was giving Chad a run for his money. Kicking up his heels, Hee-Haw got loose and galloped into the barn, as if it was a place of refuge. Andi quickly realized with dread that she had left the toolshed door wide open! Trotting brown legs and some big, fuzzy ears came into view. Chaos struck as Hee-Haw Handyman not only found the sugar cubes but ate most of them! With the door having been kicked shut, the latch rattled and began to rise! Chad could be heard yelling something incomprehensible on the other side of the door. Andi, perched on the windowsill, had nowhere to hide. *** Later that day… Andi sat on her bed and waited for her mother to come in. After Chad had found her, put Hee-Haw away, and brought her inside, he let loose to mother about the whole ordeal. Stealing the sugar cubes, being in the barn, and the fact that their new donkey had devoured too many treats. She knew that she messed up, and she was sorry. Everything that had been done was wrong and she knew it. She picked up her bible and flipped to 1st Kings 3: 9 “Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil.”