Abandoned (16 page)

“One more time, Trooper,” she called
from her side of the door. Trooper nickered in response and when he
bumped the door, Lauren pushed against it. The door swung open,
almost hitting Trooper in the face. He jumped back and Lauren
staggered out into the morning light. Laughing, she flung her arms
around the gelding’s neck.

“You are the most amazing horse in the
entire world, Trooper,” she gushed into his mane. Then she pulled
back and kissed his sore nose. “The most wonderful, smartest, most
beautiful horse that ever existed!”

A tiny mew came from behind her and
Lauren turned to find Spunky and Tiger blinking in the bright
sunlight. She scooped them into her arms and snuggled them close.
Rumbling purrs vibrated their tiny bodies.

“Trooper saved us,” whispered Lauren,
and was tempted to spin in a circle again. Just in time, she
remembered how she had scared Tiger the last time and stopped
herself. “Now I’m going to introduce you to him. Our hero. Don’t be
scared because he’s huge. He’s just a big softie.”

Lauren gasped and her mouth fell open.
She snapped it shut when Tiger put his paw on her tongue. Slowly,
she turned toward the golden gelding.

“Trooper, I almost left the goats,” she
whispered. Her knees felt weak. “I almost didn’t have enough
strength. If I had collapsed just ten seconds sooner, you couldn’t
have saved me. You wouldn’t have known how.”

It was so
close
, she thought.
What if I
had listened to my own doubts, or decided that I’d saved enough
animals and left them? What if I faded out just seconds too
soon?

Lauren looked up at Trooper. “You saved
me, Trooper. But in a way I helped you save me.” She glanced down
at the kittens. “So I’m the hero too, guys,” she added and smiled.
“You don’t look too impressed, but just wait until I tell you all
about it. Later, when we’re back at Aunt April and Uncle Chris’s.
They probably have the whole police force out looking for us. And
Dad’s probably here too by now.” Lauren’s smile disappeared. So
would her mom.

Trooper caught her mood and nuzzled her
shoulder. “I’m not mad at you, Troops. I could never be mad at you.
It’s just my mom.” She looked down at the kittens nestled in her
arms. “I don’t want to see her.”

Lauren leaned against Trooper’s shoulder
and snuggled the kittens closer. When she spoke again, her voice
was rough with emotion. “I can never accept her back. Not after she
abandoned us, Trooper. She didn’t want me before, and now it’s too
late. As far as I’m concerned, she really
is
dead.”

Within a few minutes, Lauren had
the kittens inside Lightning’s old feedbag. They settled on top of
the rags she put at the bottom and closed their eyes, their bellies
still round from their feast the night before. She untied Trooper
from the pillar and adjusted his halter so it wasn’t rubbing the
sore spot on his nose, then with the feedbag in hand, led Trooper
toward the old road. They only went a few steps before Trooper
stopped.

“What’s wrong, Troops?” she asked.
Trooper tossed his head and took a step backwards. Lauren walked
back to him; she wasn’t about to doubt him now, not after he freed
her and the kittens. Trooper nickered quietly and turned to walk
back to the barn.

Lauren pulled on the rope when he tried
to step inside. “Whoa, Trooper. Wait until I block the door open.”
She rolled a stone in front of the open door, then followed him
into the barn.

The gelding stopped where Lizzie’s dad
had first fallen. He sniffed the ground as Lauren patted his
shoulder. “What are you doing, buddy?” she asked. “Why did you want
to come in here again?”

Trooper touched the farm machinery
parked against the wall with his nose, then pawed the floor. He
looked back at Lauren and neighed.

“What’s wrong, Trooper?” she asked
again, her eyes puzzled. “I don’t understand.”

The gelding struck out again with his
hoof and the clang of his shoe against the rusted metal echoed
through the barn. Lauren stroked his side. “You’re trying to show
me something,” she whispered in sudden awe. She bent down and
looked beneath the machine. A dusty envelope laid there – a letter,
the one Lizzie’s dad had written.

It
must’ve slipped from his pocket when he collapsed after leaving the
chicken coop
, realized Lauren.
Then maybe the dog accidentally pushed it under the machine
when he was licking up the eggs.

Lauren reached to pick it up. “And you
saw it fall, Trooper,” she said, straightening and looking into his
eyes. “You were in the barn and you saw it slide under the machine.
And all these years later, you still remember.” Trooper looked back
at her with dark eyes. Lauren shook her head. She didn’t
understand. How could Trooper know the letter was important? But
somehow he did.

“You’re one in a million, Troops.”
Lauren looked down at the letter in her hand. “So she never got to
read it. Poor Lizzie. I wonder if Aunt April knows who she is and
where she is now. Lizzie should know her dad didn’t send her away
because he didn’t love her. He was just trying to take care of
her.”

Lauren took a tentative step toward the
door. When Trooper followed her, she led him out of the barn and
toward the overgrown road. Halfway there, she walked him to one of
the old fences, climbed up the wooden rails and slid onto his back,
being careful not to jostle the kittens. At the fallen gate, she
pulled the gelding to a stop. Together they looked back.

Lauren smiled. “It doesn’t look scary
anymore, does it, Troops? The animals are at peace. They went on to
lives with other people and none of them died here.” She smiled
again as she thought of the frisky little goats, the productive
chickens, the pretty jersey cows. Lightning, big, strong, steady
Lightning, afraid that Trooper was going to steal his oats and
almost dying for his greediness.

“And the dog, Jessie, would have been
adopted too. Every one of the animals. Except for the cats.” She
looked down at the kittens, still asleep in Lightning’s feedbag.
“Your ancestors probably went wild before Lizzie’s dad was
discovered. But now it’s really over, kitties. The final orphans
are being adopted. You.” She sighed and took one last, long look at
the house, at the barn, at the overgrown yard and fields beyond.
It was such a pretty place here
once,
she thought before turning away.
I’ll never forget it.

Trooper’s hoofbeats on the overgrown
road were muffled and rhythmic. Slowly they wound their way through
the brush. It took them half an hour to reach the spot where she’d
had her battle with Trooper, when he’d tried to take her to the old
homestead the first time.
That was
only yesterday,
she reminded herself.
It seems so long ago. So much has happened since
then.

Trooper’s head shot into the air and his
ears strained forward. Instinctively, Lauren pulled back on the
lead rope. Then she heard it. Crackling branches. Someone or
something was coming along the old overgrown road. Lauren’s heart
lurched when she caught movement in the vegetation. Then she saw a
flash of blue cloth. A breath of relief exploded from her
lungs.

“Don’t worry, Troops. It’s just people.
They might even be searching for us.” She paused and listened to
them come closer. “Hello!” she called.

“Lauren! Lauren, is that you!” Her dad’s
voice, full of strain and relief. And barking. Sweetie’s
barking.

“Dad! Sweetie! It’s me! And
Trooper!”

She slid from Trooper’s back and pulled
him toward the crackling as fast as she could go, the kittens’ bag
thumping against her leg. She heard a questioning mew come from the
feedbag. “It’s okay, guys,” she had time to gasp and then Sweetie
leaped out of the bushes. She planted her feet on Lauren’s chest,
trying to reach her face to lick her, between joyous whines.

In a split second, the kittens were out
of the feedbag and halfway up a tree. Lauren dropped to her knees
and hugged Sweetie, then called to the kittens. “It’s okay, Tiger.
Spunky. It’s just Sweetie. And Dad. You’ll like them. I
promise.”

Then her dad was in front of her. Lauren
jumped to her feet and his arms were around her. He spun her around
and seemed to be laughing and crying all at the same time.

“It’s okay, Dad!” laughed Lauren. “I’m
okay. Really, I’m okay. And just wait until I tell you what
happened. I found…”

Her voice stopped short when a blonde
woman stepped out from the bushes behind them. Lauren stiffened in
her father’s arms and he lowered her to the ground.

“Mom,” said Lauren. The word held no
warmth. No welcome. No forgiveness. She felt nauseous.

The woman froze as if Lauren’s voice had
struck her. Sweetie and Lauren’s dad stood silent, sad faced,
watching Lauren.

Only Trooper stepped forward with a low
whinny of greeting, deep in his throat.

“Lauren, let me explain,” the
woman said, tears catching at her voice.

“What’s there to explain?” said Lauren,
as hard as ice. “Why you abandoned us? Why you ran out on your
daughter and your husband? Why you’re a horrible person?”

“Just listen to her, Lauren,” said her
dad. “There’s something you don’t know.”

Lauren looked up at him, speechless for
a moment. “You may have forgiven her, but I can’t. I won’t! Ever!
She doesn’t deserve us, Dad. She ran out on us.”

“Yes, but…” Lauren’s mom stopped
speaking. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “She’s right,” she added
in a choked voice. “I shouldn’t have come back. I shouldn’t have…”
She turned and staggered away from them. Lauren’s dad was at her
side in an instant. He put his arm around her and turned her back
toward Lauren.

“Lauren, it’s your choice whether to
accept your mom back or not,” he said. His face was weary. “We will
both
abide by your decision.
The only thing I ask is that you listen to why she went away.”

“But Dad…” Lauren couldn’t believe it.
He was taking
her
side.

“No buts. Will you listen or not?”

Lauren’s jaw tightened and she looked at
the ground. She kicked at the pine needles. “I’ll listen,” she
finally muttered. “But it won’t make any difference.”

Lauren’s mom dried her eyes on the
sleeve of her sweatshirt and took a deep breath. When she spoke her
voice was shaky and weak. “I didn’t leave because I didn’t love
you, Lauren. I left because I did. I was in a car accident. That
much you know. It wasn’t a serious accident. I was only in the
hospital for minor injuries and observation. But when I was there,
the doctors discovered I had cancer. After they did some tests,
they told me I had six months to live. A year at the most. And I
couldn’t bear to have you see me die. I didn’t know what to do.
Then, the night before I was to be released from the hospital, the
answer came to me. I would run away and then the people I loved
wouldn’t have to watch me die.”

She paused and Lauren’s dad pulled her
closer.

“So you
knew
she was still alive, Dad?”

“I knew, Lauren,” admitted her dad. “She
left a note for me with one of the nurses. But I didn’t know where
she’d gone. I looked everywhere. I even hired a detective. But she
just disappeared. And…” He looked at his wife. “And – I’m sorry,
Honey – after a year, I stopped looking. By then I thought it was
too late. That the cancer would have taken you from us anyway.”

“But it didn’t!” Lauren was almost
yelling now. “Why didn’t you come back after six months? Or even a
year? Why did you wait so long?”

“It took me years to get better. After
six months, I was so sick, and after a year, I wished I was dead.
Without you, without your dad, my life meant nothing to me. But I
didn’t
die. And then I
started to get better. Slowly. At first I didn’t believe it was
really happening. I thought I was imagining it. But then I knew I
wasn’t. Just this last spring, the tests came up completely
negative. The cancer was cured.”