Spliced

A few days later...

Hooves beat the damp soil. A chestnut mane flared out in what was currently a very windy day. 8-year-old Lily watched it all in awe as Amanda raced the old mare around the ring for exercise.

After a few more laps she slowed the horse down and pulled up next to where Lily hung with her elbows over the fence.

Amanda smiled kindly down at the young girl. “Would you like to try?”

Lily pulled back shyly but a hesitant wistful smile twitched across her face. “I don’t know how to ride.”

The red-headed woman got down off the horse, giving her a fond pat on the neck as she crossed around the front of the mare to Lily’s side. “Don’t worry, it’s easy. I can teach you. We can just take it slow to start. Clover is one of the gentlest horses we have on this farm. She won’t move unless you want her to.”

Lily eyed the horse. Oh how she wanted to. Her parents had always promised her that one day she could have a horse but they’d never come through. Every year they promised and every year went by and Lily still hadn’t ridden a horse. Lily felt a stab of anger remembering all the broken promises and a touch of victory that now she had the chance. It was immediately followed by a flash of guilt. There was something not quite right about feeling so happy when the happiness was the result of her parents not being here.

Lily tried not to think too hard about that. To be honest she couldn’t really remember much of what had happened. All she knew is that she had been travelling in the car with her mother and then..., well then she didn’t remember that part, but last week she had awoken in a strange place, not a hospital but somewhere different, like an underground bunker, sort of, and her father had been there, except he hadn’t seemed like himself. He hadn’t been the warm and friendly man she knew. He had been more distant and he had seemed so worried about something. And then there had been these creatures and . . . and then he’d disappeared.

Amanda, and the others who had taken her and had said that he had done something bad but that it was alright, that sometimes people make mistakes. They seemed nice and all but whenever Lily asked about going home with her father once they found him they seemed to dodge the question, like maybe he wasn’t coming back. It was the same with any questions she asked about her mother. 'We’re looking,' was all they’d say.

Amanda and Sirius, the couple she was staying with, lived on a horse farm where Amanda trained and bred horses for competitions and other sorts of jobs that horses have. They had five kids of their own who were all a bit older than Lily and they had all been very welcoming.

Lily eyed the horse. Desire twisted within her again. She pushed the dark thoughts to the back of her mind. Her misery did nothing to help find her parents and they wouldn’t want her to be unhappy. She knew that. It was okay then, she decided, if she took a moment or two to forget them. Just for a moment.

“Okay,” Lily climbed the fence excitedly as Amanda held the horse steady for her.