Jennifer

 by Arabella W.

Photo Prompt "Riley and Silverado"

         The girl was tiny, even for a seven-year-old. In a maze of massive rocks and boulders, each towering over her and threatening to fall at any moment, she seemed even smaller. Afraid, but refusing to cry, she dragged the tattered bundle behind her.

She wanted her mother.

She had been walking for hours, and now she was lost in a maze of rocks. She was cold and scared and sore. A gap in the boulders caught her eye, and the small girl scrambled through, feeling jagged edges scrape her skin. Finding herself in a narrow tunnel, she let her blue eyes adjust to the dim lighting of the tunnel.

She squinted. Was there light coming from somewhere down there? Yes! She scurried over sharp stones and twigs as the glow became brighter and brighter until she reached the end of the tunnel.

She looked around with her mouth gaping and her tired eyes wide. Right before her eyes was a beautiful glade with a deep blue bubbling stream running through it. The stream had a waterfall gushing over smooth stones that appeared silver beneath the surface. Tiny flowers sprung up in the lush green grass, it looked more like Spring than the early November it really was. A little grey rabbit and her baby bunnies hopped past, outlines glowing from the slowly setting sun.

The girl smiled dreamily in her tired state and curled up under a tree on the soft emerald carpet of grass. She untied her bundle and wrapped the small, patched blanket around herself. She was hungry, but warm. She was aching all over, but she was no longer lonely. To a carefree, seven-year-old mind, bunnies were all the company needed.

She lay down and closed her eyes. Everything would be all right now.   

                                                                ***********  

‘’Oh, Riley! He’s stunning! I knew that he was pretty, but I didn’t expect …….’’  

Andi gazed in awe at the majestic white horse that stood before her.   

‘’I know.’’ Riley answered. ‘’Quicksilver is already 17 hands high, so he will be one of the tallest horses I’ve ever had. But he’s gentle as a lamb, even though he’s only 3 years old. Quicksilver is almost completely white, which is rare for such a young horse.’’  

‘’Are you sure that you’ll use him for ranch work?’’  

For the last month, Riley had been hunting for another work horse. He hadn’t been expecting one quite this big, or as stunning. He frowned thoughtfully.   

 ‘’I don’t know, Andi. He’s nothing like the work horse I wanted. I don’t really know why I bought him, not yet anyway. He may not be the work horse I was looking for, but there’s something special in this colt. We’ll find out what he’s meant to do.’’  

Andi and Riley admired the stunning horse for a while longer, then walked back to the house as the sun crept lower in the sky. As the day merged into night, both Andi and Riley were oblivious to the fact that one small, helpless person was alone, in their own special glade.  

                                                              ***********  

The girl sat up slowly and yawned. She shivered, glancing around for the bunnies, but they were gone. Disappointed, she stood up, blanket still draped around her shoulders. Her stomach growled, and she still felt exhausted even after a full night’s sleep. She suddenly felt so alone that she crumpled to a heap on the ground and sobbed her heart out, because the bunnies were gone, and Mama and Father were gone.  

After what seemed like hours, she stood up and wiped her eyes. She walked straight to the tunnel opening and scrambled through. Although she didn’t know it, there was almost no chance that she would find her way out of the maze. But God was watching over her as she walked on and on, through gaps, over small boulders, around tall rocks. After hours of walking and climbing, she found herself free of all rocks in the middle of a field.  

The girl threw her thin arms up in the air and ran across the green field laughing. She ran as fast as she could until she came to a fence. She stopped, panting, and thought things over. She decided to keep going and find some food. But she couldn’t let herself be seen, because they would take her back to the orphanage.   

It was hours before she found anything. For a girl as small and hungry as she was, she could walk for a surprisingly long time. Just when she thought she could walk no longer, she saw a young woman picking the last apples of the season off a small tree near a small ranch house. Even at a distance, just looking at the shiny red fruit made her mouth water.

Hiding behind a bush, she stared at the girl until she set down the basket, scooped up her baby from a blanket on the grass, and went inside the house. As she walked she said to her baby, ‘’I’ll come back for the apples later. Let’s go get your lunch, Jared.’’  

The minute they left, the girl made a dive for the apples. She fished out the biggest one and scurried back to her bush. She ate it so fast that she nearly choked. When she finished, her hunger almost disappeared. But her conscience didn’t.  

‘’I’m a thief,’’ she whispered ruefully.  ‘’I’ll pay it back one day.’’  

She stood up and looked around. Her mouth dropped open when she caught sight of a beautiful grey horse standing alone in a paddock, surrounded in tall trees.  

Instinctively, the girl walked straight to the horse. It didn’t matter to her that this horse could knock her to the ground with a flick of his hoof. The girl did not have height, did not have strength, no longer had a family, but she had courage.   

She ducked under the three-railed fence and called the horse.   ‘’Come on, Cloud.’’  She didn’t know why she called him Cloud, but it fit him perfectly.   

Cloud trotted over to her, stopping just inches before her face. He lowered his aristocratic head, as if bowing to the girl. Now that she could reach his face, she stroked his muzzle gently.  

‘’Hello, Cloud. My name is Jinny, an’ I’m gonna ride ya.’’  

Jinny climbed up one of the trees and whistled. Cloud followed her and stood beside the tree. She wriggled out along a branch and let her legs swing down, holding on with her arms. Jinny let go of the branch. She landed with a soft thud on the horse’s back. Cloud didn’t flinch. Jinny didn’t weigh very much at all, and Cloud was a gentle horse.   

She tried to remember what she had seen people do when they rode horses.  ‘’They kick their horses with their boots. I don’t wanna kick you, Cloud.’’  

Jinny sighed. She gave the horse one tentative tap with her heels. Cloud looked confused, her legs didn’t even reach halfway down his sides, but he walked on obediently.   

‘’Good boy! Did you know, Cloud, that I’ve never rided a horse before?’’  

Cloud snorted. Jinny decided that she was tired of plodding around slowly, so she tapped him again. He started trotting, and Jinny began to bounce around like a ragdoll.

‘’Hey, boy, stop bouncing!’’ Jinny lay down on his neck and grabbed his mane. She began to relax again, and soon wanted to go faster. She squeezed his flanks and gripped more of his silky white mane. Cloud broke into a smooth, rocking-horse canter, making Jinny laugh with joy.  

Jinny sat back up. She felt like she was flying. It was so thrilling that she didn’t see the overhanging branch stretching out into the paddock. Cloud ducked under, expecting Jinny to duck as well. The branch collided with Jinny’s head, and she felt herself fly up, up, up, and then down,  

                    down,   

                             down……  

  

                                                                          ***********

Half an hour earlier  

 

‘’Andi!’’  

Andi looked up from the bread dough she was kneading. She swiped her hair out of her face with a floury hand.   

‘’What’s wrong?’  

Riley appeared on the doorstep with an excited smile on his face.   

‘’Nothing’s wrong. I just finished riding Quicksilver. He’s fast, Andi! As fast as Shasta, maybe even faster. I think he could win next years’ Fourth of July race’’  

‘’The Fourth of July race! He’s only three years old!’’  

‘’I think he could win it. He’ll be four by then. And besides, if we win, I’ll buy you a new saddle with the prize money.’’  

 Andi’s eyes widened. Her saddle had been lost when their barn burnt down a few months earlier.  

‘’Really? Oh, Riley, I would love a saddle. But it’s still fine to pull out, if you think Quicksilver isn’t ready yet.’’   

Andi picked up the plate of biscuits. As she walked to the table, she glanced out the window, and saw something in Quicksilver’s paddock that made her drop the plate in shock.  

‘’Riley!’’ she gasped. ‘’There’s a girl riding Quicksilver!’’  

Riley reached the window just as the girl slammed into an overhanging branch, and fell to the ground.  

                                                      **************    

Jinny woke up on a soft bed and couldn’t remember how she got there. Then she remembered the horse and realized that the same woman that was picking apples was beside her.

She shrank under the covers in fear. ‘’I’m sorry! I was just so hungry! Please don’t take me back!’’  She started sobbing. Much to her surprise, the woman hugged her.  

‘’Hey, it’s alright. The doctor’s coming soon. What do you have to be sorry about?’’  

Jinny sniffed. ‘’The apple I stealed. I stealed an apple from your basket ‘cause I was so hungry.’’  

‘’Don’t worry, I didn’t miss it,’’ she soothed. ‘’What’s your name?’’  

‘’Jennifer, but everyone calls me Jinny.’’  

‘’I’m Andi. Where did you think I was going to take you back to?’’  

‘’The orphanage.’’  

‘’Oh. I see. Why were you riding Quicksilver?  

‘’His name is Cloud.’’ Jinny said softly. ‘’I’ve never rided a horse before.’’  

Andi was shocked that such a tiny girl had ridden Riley’s stallion.   

‘’How did you get here?’’ she enquired, looking into eyes that were possibly the bluest she’d ever seen.  

‘’I was lonely in the orphanage so I runned away, but I got lost in a rock maze, then I came here an’ rided the horse an’ stealed the apple.’’  

‘’A rock maze?’’  

The small girl nodded. ‘’I found a special grassy place in the middle of it, but I was hungry so I left it.’’  

Slowly the pieces were beginning to click together in Andi’s head. A rock maze. A grassy spot. That meant that this tiny girl had stayed the night in the glade, and then somehow found her way out.  

The doctor arrived after that, and Andi’s husband, Riley.   

The doctor checked her over. Other than the lump on her head, and a scrape on her knee, he said she was fine.  

After he left, Riley asked Jinny if she had any relatives. She didn’t know.  

‘’Did you have an aunt, or an uncle?’’  

Jinny’s face lit up. ‘’Yes! Yes, I remember Aunt Leila! She used to come an’ see us every week until a few months before Mama an’ Father died. She lived in San Francisco.’’ 

‘’Do you know what her surname is?’’   

‘’Rolfe, ‘cause that was Mama’s name before she was married.’’  

Riley smiled confidently. ‘’We’ll do our best to find her.’’   

                                                                 ***********  

Over the next few weeks, Jinny spent her time either helping Andi around the house, playing with Jared, or staring longingly at Cloud through the fence rails.  

Jinny had had a long talk with Riley about the dangers of entering an unknown horse’s paddock.  

‘’But Cloud would never kick me,’’ she had protested.  

‘’I know, Jinny, but not every horse is like Cloud. And I don’t want you to go near Cloud unless I’m with you.’’   

But a week later she saw Riley bridling Cloud.  

‘’Are you going to ride him?’’ Jinny asked.  

‘’No, you are.’’  

Jinny’s eyes went as big as saucers. ‘’Me?’’ she squeaked.  

‘’Yes, but only if you want to. Cloud’s saddle is too big for you, so you’ll have to ride bareback.’’   

Jinny didn’t have any objection to this, so Riley lifted her up onto the broad white back.  ‘’ Are you ready?’’  

Jinny nodded.   

‘’Good. Gently squeeze him with your legs.’’   

She squeezed, and Cloud walked off obediently. Soon Jinny was trotting around confidently.  

‘’ You're a natural!’’ Riley laughed as she rode.   

From then on, Jinny rode Cloud every day.

*********

Three weeks after Jinny came to the ranch, Riley received a letter from San Francisco.  

  

Dear Mr and Mrs Prescott,  

Thank you ever so much for caring for my niece Jennifer.  

A few months before her parents’ death I moved to Kansas take care of a sick friend of mine. As soon as I heard that Emma and Arthur were killed in a fire, I came as fast as I could to find Jennifer, but it was weeks before I could find the money for the train fare and find someone to care for my friend, so Jennifer had been in a foundling home for a month by the time I arrived. Unfortunately, no one could tell me where she was.  Two weeks ago, I discovered that she had been put in an orphanage just outside of Fresno, but by then she had disappeared. 

 I will be coming by train on Thursday afternoon.  

Please tell my Jinny that I love her and have missed her greatly.  

L.M. Rolfe.  

  

The next day was Thursday, and so Jinny and the Prescott family were waiting at the station as Leila arrived.  

‘’There she is!’’ Jinny exclaimed, dragging Andi by the arm through the sea of people.  

‘’Jennifer!’’ the woman cried, wrapping her arms around the tiny girl.  She looked up at Riley and Andi with eyes as blue as Jinny’s. ‘’Thank you.’’ she whispered, in a voice full of emotion. ‘’You will never know how much it means to me.’’  

‘’I’m gonna miss you,’’ Jinny said to Andi and Riley. ‘’You’ve been like a mamma an’ father. Jared was like a baby brother. An’ I’m gonna miss Cloud.’’  

She told her aunt about Cloud.  

‘’I’m going to stay in San Francisco because my friend in Kansas is feeling better, so maybe we can buy you a pony of your own.’’ Leila promised. 

‘’Jinny can keep Cloud,’’ Riley blurted. Andi and Jinny looked at him in surprise.  

‘’I’ll get someone to bring him to San Francisco for you.’’ He added.  

A big smile spread across Jinny’s face. Unable to think of anything to say, she hugged Riley.  

Soon the train had to leave, and Riley and Andi waved goodbye.  

‘’I hope you don’t mind too much about the saddle,’’ Riley began.  

‘’Mind?’’ Andi asked incredulously. ‘’Riley, the look on Jinny’s face when you told her that she could have Cloud, was worth more than all the brand-new saddles in the world.’’