Chapter 10-3
469 Words
“Slit the t-shirts like this,” Akbar demonstrated. He pulled out his big knife and untucked the shirt from Mickey’s bridle. He slit it vertically from mid-chest down to a few inches above the hem, right through both the front and the back. Then he returned to the horse and Mickey shied away.
He tucked his knife away, cooed at the horse, and tried again with little better luck. If Mister Ed had turned the whole troop against him, this was going to get difficult.
“Try facing him upslope,” Tim suggested as he sliced Mister Ed’s t-shirt to match the one Akbar had cut.
Once facing upslope, away from the fire, Mickey became more manageable. Akbar tucked the sides and top of t-shirt back into place, dragging the vertical slit wide open in front of the horse’s face. Mickey could see forward through the gap in the material, but it acted like a blinder to either side.
He and Tim worked down the line until all seven horses were unmasked, but wore their t-shirt blinders.
“Okay,” Akbar went up to Mister Ed. “This is about to get ugly, horse. But you and I are going to have to put aside for the moment that there’s a woman out there who loves both of us, and we gotta cooperate if we’re going to make this work.”
“She loves you?” Tim practically shouted at him.
“That’s what she said anyway.”
“And you aren’t runnin’ for the high hills?”
“Hello,” Akbar waved a hand. “Fire on every side. Nowhere to run.”
“She actually said it out loud?”
“Yeah, more of a whisper actually. This ear,” he tapped it and then felt really stupid. “About ten seconds before we launched her into the sky.”
“s**t! And I thought we were just being nice and saving some horses. Love! Awesome!” Tim’s slap on his back made a thunderclap sound against his Nomex gear, startling the horses.
“Well done, Two-Tall.”
“She loves you. You sure she’s right in the head?” Tim was shaking his head and speaking mostly to himself. “Don’t that beat all. She got any crazy sisters?”
“Only child.”
“s**t!”
“You about ready to ride? They should be ready for us in about five minutes.” Akbar needed a subject change badly, but they weren’t going anywhere just yet. Imagining Tim in love was a little too strange. Almost as bad as, well…yeah…almost as bad as imagining himself in love.
“Small problem with your plan, Great One.”
“What’s that?”
Tim actually looked a little helpless. “I’ve never ridden a horse.”
Akbar rolled his eyes and led him back to Mickey. If there was ever a horse that would make sure his rider stayed aboard it was Mickey. They lengthened the stirrups down to the last notch, it was a close thing, but it would be good enough for Tim to ride without looking too much like an oversized jockey perched atop the horse.
Of course, he’d planned to bring up the rear on Mickey. This meant that…crap! He was going to be riding Mister Ed.
He moved back to the head of the line to negotiate a truce with a horse that hated him.
- Writer
