Colt by Nancy Springer Page B

far from the ground as when you walk. If you fall, you will hurt yourself twice as badly. And you have seen what happened when you didn’t even fall! No more horseback riding.”
    It was no use talking to Dr. DeMieux.
    The car was very silent on the way home. Colt sat scared silent. Never ride horseback again? It was unthinkable. Horseback riding was the one thing that made him feel complete, whole, really alive. He had to do something, say something to keep his horseback riding, and he knew his life—the life he wanted to live—depended on it.
    â€œMom,” he begged, “don’t pay attention to Dr. DeMieux. Please. She doesn’t understand.”
    His mother sighed, stared straight ahead over the steering wheel, and said nothing. She was driving slowly. Colt knew she had to be feeling almost as bad as he did, to be so silent, to be driving so slowly.
    â€œMom,” he tried again, “of course she said not to ride. She’s a doctor. She’d like me to never do anything.”
    All his mother said was, “Let me sleep on it, Colt.”
    He slept before she did. The medication made him groggy. He went to bed right after lunch and lay there, too doped to feel awake, too heartsick to really sleep. He heard his mother on the phone with somebody who must have been Mrs. Reynolds: “Please don’t feel bad. You know what they say: hindsight’s twenty-twenty … I guess horses are like kids, full of surprises. Colt wants to come back and try it again, but I’m not so sure … Uh-huh … Might the horse trot with him again when he’s not expecting it? Yes … So there’s no way of being certain the horse won’t trot with him … I see … well, thank you for everything. I’ll let you know what we decide.”
    Mom, please …
    Later he heard her talking with Brad. “He’s been so—so grown-up about this horseback-riding thing, that’s what breaks my heart. That’s the main reason I let him do it in the first place, because of the way he asked. For once he didn’t whine.”
    Brad’s deep voice: “And he hasn’t whined or asked for much since.”
    â€œAnd all the exercising he’s done, the way he’s gotten so much more strength and endurance … I could just cry.”
    Don’t cry, Colt thought blurrily. Just say I can ride .
    â€œBut it’s just not safe,” said his mother as if she had heard him. “I mean, I know nothing’s ever truly safe. But horseback riding—it’s like you said, it’s really risky. He could fall, or get thrown—”
    â€œNot so likely with a calm horse,” said Brad.
    Colt decided that he loved Brad.
    â€œBut what I can’t see worth a darn,” Brad said slowly, “is how he’s supposed to learn to trot without getting joggled. It doesn’t seem possible.”
    Colt changed his mind—he hated Brad.
    â€œDammit,” Brad said. “I wish I could give him my back and legs.”
    Because he couldn’t hate Brad anymore, Colt began silently to cry.
    He went all the way to sleep sometime soon after, and slept through supper. His mother woke him to give him medication, and after that he slept through the night. He woke up late the next morning and realized he was not going to school. And his mother must have taken off work to stay home with him, because in a minute she came into his bedroom and looked at him, and he lay in his bed looking back at her.
    â€œHow’s the back? Does it still hurt?”
    â€œMom, it’s fine.”
    â€œRight. Sure. You told me that yesterday.”
    He couldn’t stand it any longer. “Mom, please …”
    She came over to him at once, crouched down and held his face between her hands. “Colt,” she said, “no. I’m sorry, but no. No more riding. You’re my only kid. I can’t risk losing you.”

Chapter