Rain Dance by Terri Farley

nervous.”
    â€œReally? I didn’t even have to hold her for you this time.”
    â€œI know, but look over there,” the vet said, pointing at a place where the wooden stall had been chewed white. “She’s been cribbing. It’s no big deal, but she hasn’t done it before, has she?”
    Sam shook her head. She shouldn’t have let other people cluster around the stall—not Jake, not Mrs. Coley, nobody.
    â€œWill it make her sick?”
    â€œUnlikely,” he said. “It’s like biting fingernails is for a person, but it’s not a sign we want to ignore.
    â€œMost of the chemical cures that you spread on the wood to make it taste bad aren’t things I want her eating while she’s nursing. They’ll go into her milk and end up in the foal. Just not a good idea.
    â€œBut that’s the only bad news,” Dr. Scott said. “The foal looks great and Sunny will be fine. Let’s do something fun to distract the mare from her worries.”
    â€œOkay,” Sam agreed.
    â€œSo far, the only world this little one knows is her stall. Let’s turn them out into the pasture.”
    â€œTell me what to do,” Sam said. She slipped into the stall with Dr. Scott and the horses.
    â€œWhoa!” the vet said. Even though she was a small horse, Sunny knocked him from her path as she bolted forward.
    Halfway through the stall door, Sam stopped. “What happened?”
    Dr. Scott ignored her for a full minute. First he waved his arms, backing the mare away from the door, showing her she was not allowed to knock him around.
    Then he soothed the mare with kind words and explanations. Finally he looked up and nodded in Sam’s direction.
    â€œShe never noticed that before, I’ll wager.”
    â€œNoticed what? The stall door?” Sam asked. “I’ve taken her in and out this way. And through from the pasture, too.”
    Closing and bolting it behind her, Sam stood insidethe stall and stared at the door. Nothing had changed. There were no splinters, no horse hair snagged on a board, nothing that should have startled Sunny.
    â€œI don’t see anything, either,” the vet assured her. “But she’s looking at it differently. Must be because of the foal.” He shook his head. “You came into the stall that way last night when you dried off Tempest, right?”
    â€œYeah,” Sam admitted. “But nothing bad happened when I did, so I don’t think she’s remembering that.”
    Dr. Scott scratched his head. “So maybe it’s not that she realized something could get in.” He looked up at Sam, frowning. “Maybe she just discovered she could get out.”
    The suggestion gave Sam chills.
    â€œI’ll keep it bolted,” she promised.
    Together they haltered Dark Sunshine, then Sam took the lead rope.
    â€œI’ll hold Tempest while you go on ahead,” the vet said.
    Tempest was so small that, even though the filly was standing, Dr. Scott’s arms could encircle her from chest to hind legs.
    â€œWhy are you holding her back?” Sam asked as she started toward the pasture.
    â€œIt’s not likely, but just in case Sunny gets out there and starts kicking up her heels, glad to be outta this stall…”
    â€œGot it,” Sam said.
    One kick like that could kill Tempest. Sam bit her lip. She had a lot to learn. She just hoped none of her mistakes cost the horses pain or suffering.
    Once the two were freed in the grassy pasture, they didn’t run. Tempest stuck to her mother’s side as if she were attached with Velcro. Her head just reached Sunny’s ribs and it stayed there as the buckskin explored the enclosure, grazing with half-closed eyes.
    â€œShall I leave them out here?” Sam asked.
    â€œI think so,” Dr. Scott said. “They’ve got shade. Tempest can look across at the other horses, the chickens, and Blaze, learn a little bit