Pony Dreams by K. C. Sprayberry

lips into a snarl. “Leave
me alone.”
    “I figure it's time to take you to our
place,” Mr. Johnson said. “You'll do our chores and cook our food
and marry my boy, Gabriel.”
    Fear dried my throat so much I couldn't have
whispered let alone hollered. I shook my head.
    This can't be happening. What can I do?
    I already knew what I couldn't do, but I did
have one option. Ma might not like having less eggs than she had
counted on, and I sure didn't want to bother the hens again, but I
sure didn't have too many choices.
    “Git along to our wagon,” Gabriel ordered.
“No woman tells us no.”
    Albert and Daniel took a step in my
direction. The noises I heard from the barn told me Adam and Bart
were busy with the cows and pig. Ma was close, but I wasn't sure
she could move fast enough. I threw an egg and hit Gabriel right
between the eyes.
    He snorted and snuffled. Gabriel reached up
with his hands and tried to wipe egg off his face. His pa and
brothers gathered around to help him. I grinned at their futile
actions. Holding the basket tightly, I ran around those pesky men
and into the kitchen.
    “Goodness!” Ma gasped. “There's no need to
rush around so much. Set the basket in the pantry and then put
bowls and spoons on the table.”
    My brothers showed up as I finished laying
out the dishes. Neither Adam nor Bart said a word about the
Johnsons, but I noticed how they shot me the most unusual stares,
as if they knew what I had done to Gabriel. I kept quiet out of
fear of causing trouble. An hour later, with Blaze watching me, I
climbed onto one of the bit-trained mustangs and concentrated on
controlling him, but my thoughts kept drifting. The way the
Johnsons had snuck up on me, and how I hadn't said a word about it,
bothered my conscience.
    “Pay attention, Abby,” Adam called.
    I waved in reply, but the feeling I should
confess what the Johnsons had done distracted me.
    They wouldn't really make me go to their
place. Pa and Adam would know right off where they'd taken me. Even
Gabriel isn't stupid enough to try something like that.
    “Abby!”
    Adam's sharp tone jerked me back to my
job.
    “That horse will buck you off if he thinks
you aren't in control,” he said. “Keep the reins tight. Make your
horse realize you're controlling him, not the other way
around.”
    “Sorry,” I called.
    As I forced myself to concentrate, I saw
movement near the barn. None of my family was anywhere near it, and
I looked hard to figure out who it was. A head came into
view—Gabriel's head. He swung his arm back and flung something in
my direction.
    The horse tossed his head. A crawly feeling
wiggled across my skin, and then a whistle whizzed past me. Two wet
sounding thwacks smacked the horse, and he bucked.
    “Get off!” Adam jumped off his horse.
    “Do it now!” Bart shouted.
    My hat flew off as the mustang dashed for the
open gate. Bart closed it before the animal escaped into the
desert. The horse reared. My feet kicking in all directions, I
sawed the reins as hard as my sore muscles allowed. Using words Ma
would wash out of my mouth with lye soap, I thought I had the
situation under control when the horse settled.
    Thank goodness.
    In a second, the horse went from settled to
bunched muscles beneath my legs. He slammed me against the corral
rails, and I flew off. My brothers’ horrified faces flashed past,
and then Gabriel's victorious grin. I spun end over end. When I
landed, the air whooshed out of my body. I lay there, trying with
all my might to take a breath, but everything felt like it was on
fire.
    “Get Ma!” Adam leaned over me, gently moving
my arms and legs. “Abby, talk to me.”
    “Ugh, urg, oooooo.”
    The sounds coming out of my mouth didn't
sound at all normal. I would have laughed, if it hadn't hurt so
much.
    “I can't pick you up unless you tell me where
it hurts, or if it doesn't,” he begged. “Please, honey, say
something.”
    I wanted to let the blackness at the edges of
my vision take me