Ghetto Cowboy by G. Neri Page A

“Look, they on the move,” he says, pointing at a few guys taking the horses into the stone building on the far side of the corral.
    I see one of ’em leading Boo inside. “Dag, now what we gonna do? We got to break in there too!”
    Smush tells me to be quiet. “We’ll figure it out,” he says, like he has no idea. “Just sit tight.”
    When the sun goes down, the park feels different. It’s dark an’ empty, the trees is kinda spooky. I ain’t never been in a forest at night, but with us being quiet, all kind of animals and who knows what seem to come alive around us. It’s like the forest is a living, breathing thing. All them pretty trees from before look kinda crazy now, like monsters.
    We watch them guys who was working with the horses drive off one by one. After they gone, it feels pretty quiet. Just a light on in one of the upstairs windows in the stone building.
    “Should we go in now?” Snapper asks.
    Smush is listening. “We should wait a little longer to make sure.”
    But I can’t wait. I keep thinking about Boo becoming dog food. “Nah, they all left.” I start climbing the fence. “We got to go in now.”
    Smush and Snapper look at each other and shrug. They follow.
    We get into the main corral and then run to the shadows of the stone building. The whole place seem empty.
    “We better make sure that main gate opens.Otherwise we’ll just be trapped in this yard once we get the horses out the building,” Smush says.
    Snapper takes out a pair of bolt cutters. “I’m on it.” He sees me staring. “What? You never know when you’ll need these bad boys.” He runs over and starts fiddling with the gate.
    We sneak to the edge of the building and try a old wood door. It opens. Inside, there’s a long line of stalls on both sides, and I can hear horses moving about. I don’t see no guards or no cameras looking over the room. So we sneak in like a coupla ninjas, peekin’ in each stall for any of Harper’s horses. The horses watch us closely, but they don’t do nothing. Some is even sleeping standing up.
    I go down the whole row and don’t see nobody I know, ’specially not Boo. “Maybe they already took ’em away when we wasn’t looking!” I say, starting to panic.
    Then I hear Boo give a little horse neigh. I’m no expert, but I come to know Boo’s sounds. I run over to another wood door on the far end of the room and slide it open. It’s dark inside, but there, behind a chain-link fence, is Boo, his eyes all big and watery. It ain’t nice at all, not like the other horses have. Boo’s standing there, his face pressed against the fence, looking all sad. The other eight horses is in there too.
    “We gonna get you guys outta here, Boo,” I whisper to him.
    There’s a big ol’ padlock on the fence, but when Snapper takes a look, he has that thing off in two seconds flat. I’m about to open it when Smush stops me.
    “Now, you sure about this? So far, we ain’t done nothing illegal, but you take them horses, and that’s stealing.”
    I already thought this through. “It ain’t stealing if it’s yours. They stole ’em first. I’m just taking ’em back. It’s called cowboy justice.”
    Smush shakes his head. “Okay, then, cowboy. Lead the way.”

I push open the gate and walk up to Boo. I remember the first time I saw him and how big he seemed and how scared I was that he’d step on me. Now it feels okay, like we watching out for each other. I pet his neck, and he brushes his head against my shoulder.
    “My man, Boo . . .”
    Suddenly, we hear a noise coming from upstairs. Definitely the sound of footsteps.
    Smush peeks in the door. “Cuz, we ain’t got time for no reunions. We got to get ’em outta here.”
    The horses don’t got no saddles, but we don’t got the time to saddle ’em up, anyway. “Help me up on Boo,” I say.
    Smush looks doubtful. “You ever rode bareback before?”
    I think of the last time Boo dumped me without a saddle. “We don’t