The Mare Read Online Free PDF Page A

then we came to the building with the giant door.
    “Here’s the stable,” said Ginger.
    It looked scary from the distance, but inside it was not. It was dark and warm. It was all wooden. The smell of it was deep. You could feel it, like it was breathing all around you, but it wasn’t scary, it was the opposite. And there was a horse, looking at me from an opening in his cage. A sign over him said “Graylie,” and there were pictures and a dirty red teddy bear next to his face. And then there was another one and another one: “Diamond Chip Jim” (he had a purple fish toy and a bunch of fake flowers); “Blue Boy” (he had a bunch of plastic bottles); “Baby” (she had a doll); “Officer Murphy” (he had a bunch of stuff written on some papers and a blue ribbon); “Little Tina” (she didn’t have nothin’). There were some people too, walking around, but I didn’t notice them. The horses were all looking at me and Ginger, and some of them were saying things:
Who are you? Come over here! Have you got something for me? I’m lonely. Don’t bother me!
    “Do you like them?” asked Ginger.
    I said, “Yes,” and then, “Can I touch them?”
    “Yes, but be careful. Some of them can bite.”
    I went up to one named Rocki. He was cream-colored with a short mane and a black stripe down the center of it. He was beautiful but with sad, hurt eyes. He didn’t have any pictures or toys. I put my hand out to him. He let me touch his nose and his strong neck.
    Ginger said, “Hi, Pat.” I turned and saw a round woman with a red face and blond-gray hair sticking out everywhere. She was wearing old beat-up clothes and she was pushing a big wooden wheelbarrow like I’d seen in books about farm life; it was full of wet dirt and bits of straw. “I just brought the young lady over to see the horses.”
    “Hello, young lady,” said the woman. It was funny, the way she looked at me; she looked past me, but still it felt like she was looking right at me. It was like her eyes were on the sides of her head. Like the horses. “What’s your name?”
    Her face was nice but her voice was strong, like she might beat your ass, so my answer came out like a whisper.
    “Nice to meet you,” said Pat. “I see you met Rocki. He’s a good guy.”
    I wanted to ask her why he was so sad, but I just looked down instead.
    “Look around all you want, just pay attention to the signs.” She picked up the handles of the wheelbarrow again and began walking the other way.
    “Is she the one that gives the lessons?” I whispered to Ginger.
    “Yeah.” Ginger smiled down at me, and that crying thing moved through her face really fast. “Interested?”
    I was confused by Ginger’s face, by everything that was happening. But Pat was moving away and I suddenly felt like I had to talk or my chance would be gone. “Yes,” I whispered.
    And so we went down to the other end of the stable so that Pat could check her appointment book. I walked slowly after them so I could look at the horses. I looked at the stable too; there was cool stuff in it: leather straps hanging everywhere, metal boxes, chains, helmets, saddles—everything was old and beat-up, but somehow that was what made it cool. It all looked like it had a
reason,
even the dirt and balls of hair and straw on the floor of the stable—even that somehow was right, and didn’t seem like dirt.
    Ginger and Pat were in an office somewhere off to the side when I saw a girl in one of the horse-cages by herself. It was open and the horse was gone and it looked like she was cleaning the cage with a fork. She was a white girl, thin but strong-looking, with long shiny brown hair and a chin that reminded me of a pit bull. When she looked up and saw me, she didn’t say anything and neither did I. She just looked, then went back to what she was doing.
    And then two other white girls came in from a hallway I didn’t notice. One of them had a boy-face and hair that was half blue, half purple; the