Play It Safe(116)

A weird light dancing through the opened window.

I blinked at it then it hit me what that hue and dance meant. I rushed to the window and saw the barn was on fire.

“Oh my God!” I cried, cutting off whatever the operator was saying and dashing back across the room to my jeans. “Notify the Fire Department. Our barn’s on fire. We have twenty horses in there! Hurry!”

Then I didn’t even bleep it off before I threw it on the bed, yanked up my jeans, zipped them and didn’t bother with the button. Then I raced out of the room, down the stairs, through to the kitchen and to the backdoor where I pulled on my wellies without socks. Then I dashed out the backdoor.

I didn’t hesitate to dash across the back lawn to the burning fire even as I saw Gray leading out two horses, smacking one on its rump and both galloped toward the opened paddock.

Gray saw me and, running back in, he shouted, “Get in the house!”

Then he disappeared in our burning barn!

Gray was in there.

Our horses were in there.

Horses I fed, horses I watered, some of them even nuzzled my neck with their nose.

And the man I loved who for seven years had been taken from me was in there too.

And again, I didn’t hesitate.

I ran into the barn.

Flames licked everywhere and if I gave them a chance, they would terrify me.

So I didn’t.

And it was hot, hotter than anything I’d ever experienced. The smoke was thick. And just the sound of the blaze burning was petrifying. That burn could burn me, that smoke could choke me and just thinking about it could paralyze me.

So I didn’t.

Gray, no longer leading horses out, just opening stalls, racing through them and shouting, “Heeyah!” saw me instantly.

“Get outta here, Ivey!” he roared.

I ignored him, rushed through the barn and did what he was doing. I opened an unopened stall and luckily the horse raced out toward safety without me having to prompt her. Then again to the next stall and again. The fourth stall the horse, one of the ones with foal, was backing against the wall, eyes wide and wheeling, front hooves making short, panicked hops. I remembered Gray telling me not to get behind a horse and there was no way I was getting in front of those hooves so I rushed cautiously to her side, put one hand to her ribs pressing in the direction of the exit, slapped her rump and shouted, “Heeyah!” like Gray.

It took three slaps then she heeyahed.

I got one more horse out before the horrifying sound of creaking wood and the terrified shrieks of penned horses penetrated my brain then, before I could locate Gray, he located me. His hand closed tight around mine and he dragged me toward the opened front doors.

We weren’t out of the barn when the back collapsed and I couldn’t swallow my terrified scream at hearing the booming crash and feeling the force of the wave of air and blast of heat that blew my hair forward.

But we weren’t back there. We were fifteen feet from the doors then ten then five then we were out. The much cooler summer air hit me like a slap and I sucked in its clean as Gray kept racing us away from the barn.

Then he stopped me, yanked on my hand and I looked up at his soot-streaked face.

“We need to get the horses in the paddock. They’re spooked. Be cautious. Don’t approach unless you get a good feeling. Guide them in, herd them in, chase them in, clapping and shouting, whatever you gotta do but stay away if they’re spooked. Yeah?”

I nodded.

He let my hand go and took off. I looked right and left seeing horses all around. I approached one then saw Gray with another one. It was the one he rode often, his horse, a stallion, white with big brown splotches called Answer. Then I watched in asstonishment as, bareback, he swung up then somehow wheeled Answer around and then started to race through the area, herding horses.

I did my bit, dashing around and herding them toward him.

My work was done, all of the horses near the house were in the paddock and Gray was galloping off toward a couple that were further away when I heard the sirens.

But I didn’t look to the sirens. I looked to the still burning barn, the flames dancing high, licking the air. Another section had collapsed.

Then I looked to the paddock and counted.

Ten horses.

Numbly, my head turned and I watched Gray driving the two other horses toward the paddock.

With his horse and those two, that made thirteen.

Thirteen.

Thirteen.

Listlessly, I turned back to the barn.

Seven horses were dying in there or already dead.

Seven.

The sirens got closer, I heard shouts, men working and the red, blue and white of emergency vehicle lights flashed through the dancing light of the flames.

“Ivey!” I heard my name shouted but I stared at Gray’s barn burning knowing which horses were in those back stalls, stalls Gray and I didn’t have time to get to. I’d fed them. I’d moved them to the paddocks. I’d even ridden two of them.