The Spanish Stranger

Peter's_Unicorn

Peter's_Unicorn

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“Jesse, telephone for you!” called Caitlyn, Jesse’s younger adopted sister.

“OK, I’ll be right there, just let me put Loulou in her stall,” came 16-year-old Jesse’s reply. Jesse’s name is actually Jessica, but everyone calls her Jesse, mostly because she likes it more.

“Good girl,” Jesse said as she unclipped the light gray mare’s halter. “How about we go for a hack tonight to see the sun set? It’s supposed to be cool tonight.” Loulou nickered in response. “Justin, can you bring in Blake?” she asked her 16-year-old twin brother.

“Si, senora,” Justin said from a stall a little farther down. “I’ll get Batal, too.” Jesse smiled, knowing the strong bond between her brother and the stallion.

“Thanks. I’ll bring in the mares when I come back out.”

“Who is it?” Jesse mouthed to Caitlyn as she took the phone.

“Your boyfriend,” Caitlyn replied as she walked into the living room to watch TV, “It sounds… important.”

“Hi, Brian,” said Jesse.

“Jesse… we… need to talk…”

“Are you ok?” Justin asked a few minutes later as Jesse came back to bring in the horses from the field.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said, trying to keep from crying, “I’m gonna go for a hack with Loulou when I’m done.”

“He broke up with you,” he said, not expecting an answer.

“He said, ‘this time, it’s for real.’”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Even though Justin was Jesse’s brother, she told him almost everything, and he’s the person she runs to when she needs help.

“No.” she replied flatly.

“I still love you. And I always will,” Justin said, giving her a hug.

“I know.”

“Come on, let’s finish bringing the horses in, then we can go on a hack. We should take Solo,” Justin said with a grin, referring to their black and tan German shepherd.

“And ride Invador!” Jesse said as they walked toward the pastures with halters in hand, meaning the huge black Percheron/Shire cross that came to Faithfully Free abused, 400 pounds underweight, and with a fear and hatred for humans that is only a little less then it was.

“I don’t think so!” Justin said, even though he knew she was joking.

As they entered the main pasture, a butterfly spooked a Thoroughbred mare, causing her to shy into Justin, pushing him back a little. “Whoa, Honeysuckle, no está asustado,” Jesse heard him say softly. The mare quieted down quickly.

“How do you do it? I’ve never really understood,” she asked him as she clipped a halter onto the Norwegian Fjord mare, Esperanza.

“Do what?”

“Calm down a horse so easily with just a few words.”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s the way Spanish words sound. Maybe it’s a reassuring tone. I really don’t know.”

“Could you teach me a little? I already know some of the words you use a lot, like ‘si,’ ‘gracias,’ ‘senora,’ ‘senor,’ ‘de nada,’ and obviously I know ‘esperanza,’ but I want to know more,” Jesse said as she clipped a halter onto a third horse.

“Si, of course I will, starting with ‘no está asustado.’”

“What does that mean?” she asked.

“It means ‘don’t be afraid.’ I say it all the time to spooky horses,” Justin explained. “Sometimes I sing to them, too. Usually I sing Spanish love songs when I sing to a horse.”

“I love it when you sing. You have an awesome voice.”

“Gracias,” Justin said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I hope you like it! I'll post more tomorrow. (It'll get more interesting in a few posts ;) )
 
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“Come on, we gotta bring these guys in so we can go on our hack,” Jesse said. “Do you think we could go to Unbridled Ridge to watch the sun set? I promised Loulou we would tonight.”

“Si, I haven’t been there in a while.”

“Should I ask Katie if she wants to come with us and ride Colores?” Jesse asked.

Katie is Jesse’s best friend who she has known since they were three years old.

Justin chuckled. “Si, of course you should ask her.” By now Justin and Jesse were at the barn.

“Where are y’all going?” Caitlyn asked from Teacup’s stall.

“To Unbridled Ridge to watch the sun set,” Jesse answered. “I’m going to call Katie in a few minutes to ask her if she wants to come. We’re taking Solo, too.”

“Can I come, too?” Caitlyn asked.

“Yeah, sure. Esperanza just came in from the pasture, and I rode her for an hour today, so how about you ride Tango or Shams?”

“OK, I’ll ride Tango,” Caitlyn replied over her shoulder as she started walking toward the Thoroughbred’s stall, whistling quietly.

“I remember when she barely looked anybody in the eye,” Justin said twenty minutes later as he, Katie, and Jesse were tacking up their horses.

“Yeah. I think she was most comfortable around you, though, Justin,” Katie said. Jesse had called her and she had just gotten there a few minutes ago.

“It’s his Spanish. She totally likes it.”

“Are y’all ready yet?” Caitlyn asked as she led Tango past them to the mounting block, tightening the gelding’s girth when she got there.

“I’m ready, but I don’t think they are!” Justin said, mounting Batal and checking his stirrups.

“Yes we are!” Jesse and Katie exclaimed. “Come on, Solo.”

“Can we go along the stream? I haven’t been that way in a while,” Katie said.

“I don’t think so, it was pretty muddy yesterday,” Caitlyn answered.

They rode wordlessly for a while, listening to the birds, the small breeze, the horses whinnying in the distance.

“No está asustado, Batal, no está asustado,” Justin whispered.

“Are you OK?” Jesse asked.

“Si, senora. A butterfly tried to sit on Batal’s crest,” he replied with a smile.

“Justin, how big of a tree can you move?” Caitlyn asked from in front of everyone.

“Depends on what kind it is. Why?”

“Because there’s a big pine tree that fell up here, and this is where the trail gets a little rougher, so we shouldn’t jump it,” she said.

“Let me see it,” he said as he walked Batal alongside the trail. “Maybe I can move it.

“We can just go around it for now,” he said, pointing to a little opening between the tree and the left side of the path.

“OK, but we should tell Daddy about it.” Jesse replied.

They walked carefully past the fallen tree and on through the sun-dappled archway of oak trees, maple trees, and a few birch trees. In a few minutes they were in a little open field they knew was perfect for cantering.

“See ya. Come on, Solo,” Caitlyn said, nudging Tango into his smooth, ground-eating canter with Solo barely keeping up.

Katie, Justin, and Jesse didn’t need to encourage their horses any more then giving them their head. They were off like a shot trying to catch up to Tango’s much longer legs, although Colores, an ex-racehorse retrained by Justin for cross-country, had no problem with that.

“Slowpokes!” Caitlyn playfully shouted.

“Cheater!” Justin shouted back, laughing. Solo joined in the fun by barking. Jesse just rolled her eyes as Loulou leapt into a gallop.

“We should hurry up and get to Unbridled Ridge before the sun,” Katie said, slowing a very winded Colores. “At least it’s not far.”
 
“Wow,” Justin said just as the sun hit the horizon. “I never get tired of seeing that.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s always so perfect,” Caitlyn said. Click.

“You’re taking pictures?” Katie asked Caitlyn.

“Yeah, I almost always do when I come up here.” Click.

“Come on, we’d better head back before it gets dark, and we still have all of the horses to feed,” Jesse said.

“Yeah, I gotta get home, too,” said Katie.

“At least it wasn’t really humid tonight,” Justin said as he mounted Batal. “Not like last week.”

“Come on, Solo, it’s time for dinner,” Caitlyn said, laughing when his ears perked up at the word ‘dinner.’

“I’ll cool Colores off for you, Katie, since your mom is here,” Caitlyn offered when they got back to the barn and saw Katie’s mom’s Ford F-150 parked in the driveway.

“Thanks, Caitlyn, I told Mom we’d be back twenty minutes go!” she exclaimed with an “eek!” look on her face. “Bye!”

“See ya tomorrow!” Jesse said.
 
~ {O} ~​

“Goodnight, Mama. Goodnight, Daddy. Goodnight, Caitlyn,” Jesse said as she walked into her room to get in bed.

“Hey, sleepyhead,” Justin said as he walked into her room. Jesse smiled when she saw his pajama bottoms pocket puffed out. She knew he had a little piece of his teddy bear that got ruined when he was about four years old stuffed into it.

“Remember when Sam rode over Rupert with his bike? And I held you for an hour while you cried?”

“Remember? How could I forget?” Justin replied, sitting down on Jesse’s bed next to her.

“Yeah, I felt like I was gonna be flat!” Jesse teased.

“Hey! I don’t have to sing you a song tonight, you know.” Justin sings a song to Jesse every night, and it’s one of many things Jesse loves about him.

“OK, fine!”

“What song do you want tonight?” Justin asked in a softer tone.

“Surprise me.” She said, her eyelids getting heavy.

“OK. No me abandones asi, hablando solo de ti, devuelveme la pasion de tus brazos, regresa a mi, quiereme otra vez, borra el dolor que al irte me dio cuando te separaste de mi, dime que si, yo no quiero llorar, borra el dolor que al irte me dio cuando te separaste de mi, dime que si, dime que si, regresa a mi, regresa a mi.” Justin smiled. Jesse had fallen asleep on his shoulder. He kissed her forehead, laid her down carefully on her bed, turned off her bedroom light, and whispered, “Goodnight. I love you.”


Jesse woke up in the middle of the night. She couldn’t go back to sleep, so she sat down at her computer. When she logged on to AOL, she was surprised to see Justin's screen name on her buddy list. “It’s 2:30. Why are you awake?” she typed.

“I don’t know. Because I am. Why are you up?” came the reply.

“I couldn’t sleep.”

“Me neither.”

“Do you think I could go check on Invador?” Jesse asked.

“As long as you wear one of my sweatshirts, your green Eagles hat, jeans, and my sneakers. And promise you’ll act like me.”

“OK, I will, as long as you stop being so worried! :)” Jesse said right before she signed off.

Jesse rummaged around in her closet looking for Justin's sweatshirt she kept in her room in case she needed it for something. She found it and put it on over her pajama top, then pulled on some jeans over her pajama bottoms, shoved her hair into her Philadelphia Eagles baseball cap, then stopped in the hallway to slip on Justin’s Nike sneakers.

She was very quiet as she walked down the hallway to the back door, which was closer to the barn, and had the quieter door. Now just past the last porch step that creaks... OK, now I’m good, Jesse thought to herself as she walked toward the barn, hoping Invador wouldn’t freak out when he saw her.

Jesse walked quietly, not humming to herself like she usually does. When she got to the barn, she stopped in her tracks. She could hear a horse whickering gently to a human and a tear-choked voice singing, “…Mama, I hope this makes you smile, I hope you’re happy with my life, at peace with every choice I made, how I’ve changed along the way, along the way, and I know you believed in all of my dreams, and I owe it all to you, Mama.” Jesse fell into tears at this. Then she realized who’s stall the voice and the whickers were coming from. Invador’s.
 
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Aravis of Archenland said:
I bet it's Caitlyn.
Click to expand...
Hmm........... I guess it could be Caitlyn.......... Maybe...........



Jesse ran back to the house, quietly hurried to her room, closed the door, and logged back on to AOL. Justin was still online. “JUSTIN!” she typed frantically. “THERE’S SOMEONE IN INVADOR’S STALL!!!”

“Meet me on the porch!!! NOW!!!!!” came the urgent reply. Jesse wasted no time in almost running to the porch, desperate to tell Justin everything. She was glad when Justin came out after what seemed to Jesse like an hour, even though it was only 30 seconds.

“Justin, there was a guy in Invador’s stall and he sounded like he’s older than us, but it was hard to tell because he was singing and he was almost choked with tears and he was singing “Mama” and—”

“Whoa, he sounded like he was choked with tears and singing “Mama,” of all songs? Come on, if he can cry to a 2,000 lbs. horse that he doesn’t know, I think we’ll be OK,” he said quietly, although Jesse didn’t fully believe him, and she didn’t think he did, either.

When they got back to the stable, they heard the stranger singing, “Extraño el amor que se fue, extraño la dicha tambien, quiero que vengas a mi, y me vuelvas a querer…”

“Trust me on this. I’m going to start singing when he gets to the chorus,” Justin whispered into Jesse’s ear. Jesse just nodded.

“…Mi vida se apaga sin ti a mi lado, regresa a mi, quiereme otra vez, borra el dolor que irte me dio cuanto te separaste de mi…”

“Regresa a mi, quiereme otra vez, borra el dolor que irte me dio cuanto te separaste de mi…” Justin sang quietly.

The stranger immediately stopped, but Justin kept singing. “Dime que si, yo no quiero llorar, regresa a mi.”

Justin stepped into the barn, just out of Jesse’s sight. “Who are you?” he asked in the same patient tone he used for nervous horses. “And why are you in the World’s Most Stubborn Horse’s stall?”

“What’s it to you?”

“Because I need to know. And if you don’t tell me, I’ll call the police.” Justin replied with the same patient tone. “Come in here, Jesse.” Jesse just nodded, afraid to trust her voice.

“OK, OK!” the stranger said, seeing two “guys,” Justin and Jesse. He can’t be any older than I am! And he looks so intimidated. Jesse thought. “I was just trying to find somewhere to sleep!”

“What?” Justin asked, suddenly concerned by the honesty and fear in the boy’s voice.

“I—I ran away,” the boy said, hanging his head. “Well, I’m from Spain, but I moved to Maine with my brother Joaquin and Mamá about three months ago. I already knew a lot of English, but I was still teased a lot because of my Spanish accent. My grades started falling, and after a month, someone broke into the house, and put Mamá in their car. I ran away when the authorities came to take Joaquin and me to a temporary home.”

“Maine? That’s like, what, 800 miles from here?” Jesse said.

“Yeah. That’s why it took so long to get here.”

“But, of all the horses, why did you go into Invador’s stall?” Justin asked.

“He was the first one that didn’t pin his ears back at me.”

“Really?” Justin asked, bewildered.

“Yeah. That one almost bit me,” the boy said, pointing to Blake.

“Oh, sorry about that, he gets a little… temperamental at times,” Justin said.

“Justin, I’m getting a little warm in this sweatshirt,” Jesse said, knowing that he’d know that she wanted to show the boy that she was a girl.

“OK, fine.” He replied. Jesse took off the sweatshirt and her hat, and the boy gasped.

“I thought you were a guy!” he exclaimed.

“That was the point. I don’t want to get caught alone with a guy in a dark stable at night and let him know I’m a girl,” she said. “Anyway, what’s your name?”

“Ricardo.”
 
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Btw, I posted more of my story, and I can't wait to hear more of yours. You should find some pics of horses to go along with the descriptions. That'd be cool.
 
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