Autumn Trail by Bonnie Bryant

his head. “The answer to both questions is ‘I don’t know.’ I just got here myself.”
    By this time they had reached Pepper’s stall, so they didn’t waste any more time talking. Stevie and Carole looked in over the half door of the stall and saw Lisa sitting in the straw with Pepper’s head in her lap. She was talking to him softly, and he seemed to be listening. His big brown eyes were trained on Lisa’s face.
    “Lisa, we’re here,” Stevie said.
    Lisa looked up. “Hi. Thanks for coming,” she said. “Pepper was sleeping for a while, but he just woke up a few minutes ago.”
    Carole turned to Red, who had joined them at the door. “He doesn’t look too good, does he?” she said quietly.
    The stable hand shook his head. “Lisa did the right thing by calling Judy,” he said sadly. “Poor old Pepper.”
    Carole nodded. So did Stevie. They both would have sworn that they heard Veronica, who was hanging back from the door, stifle a sniffle.
    Just then they all heard the sound of Judy’s truck coming to a stop in front of the stable. A moment later she joined them, holding the black bag containing her medical supplies. She greeted them briefly, asked Stevie to hold the bag, and then entered the stall.
    Lisa stood up and stepped back to allow Judy enough space to examine Pepper. But the vet hardly seemed to need it; the examination was brief. Judy gave the horse a pat and then stood up. She faced Lisa, put one hand on her shoulder, and looked at her solemnly.
    “Lisa, thank you for having the courage to make the very difficult decision to call me,” the vet said quietly. “I want you to know that it was the right decision, even if it doesn’t feel that way to you right now. Pepper is very sick, and he’s not going to get better. There’s no need for him to suffer any longer. Now he won’t have to.”
    Lisa just nodded. She didn’t trust herself to speak.Despite the vet’s words, Lisa kept wondering if this was really the only way. But deep inside of herself, she knew that it was.
    “You all might prefer not to be here for this,” Judy was saying as she reached over the stall door to take her bag from Stevie.
    Lisa took a deep breath. “I want to be here,” she said. “After all, I’ve come this far with him.”
    Stevie nodded quickly. “We all want to stay.”
    “That’s right,” Carole said quietly. Lisa wondered briefly if Carole was thinking about her mother’s death. If it was this hard for her to lose a horse she loved, she couldn’t even imagine what her friend had gone through in losing a parent. She promised herself to think more about that later and then turned her attention back to Pepper.
    Lisa knelt down in the hay beside Pepper again. Carole and Stevie joined her. “I guess it’s really time to say good-bye to him,” Lisa said, looking at her friends.
    Carole just nodded. But Stevie grabbed Pepper’s big head in her hands and carefully turned it a little so he was looking straight into her face. He blinked at her, seeming surprised to see her.
    “Don’t give me that look, Pepper,” Stevie said, trying her best to sound stern, and failing miserably. “You don’t think I’d let you go without a proper good-bye, do you?” And to the amazement of all watching, Stevie planted a big kiss right on the end of Pepper’s velvety gray nose.Then she leaned over and hugged him. “We’ll never forget you, Pepper.”
    Next it was Carole’s turn. She stroked Pepper’s cheek and spoke to him seriously. “Pepper, you’ve been a good friend to us all. Before I say good-bye, I want to sing you a special song that my mother used to sing to me at night when I was afraid of the dark and couldn’t go to sleep. I hope it’ll keep you from being afraid now, too.”
    Stevie and Lisa glanced at each other. Neither of them had known that Carole had ever been afraid of anything.
    But Carole didn’t look up. As she continued to stroke Pepper’s smooth cheek, she sang a short lullaby