“Who is ‘that asshole’?”I asked.“Should I send Piñata over there to terrorize them on purpose?Eat their radishes?”
Both Cameron and Danica snorted.
“It’s the principal at the kids’ school,” Cameron said.“He’s a horrible administrator.Should have retired ages ago.Very old school ideologies.Doesn’t believe in mental health.Thinks kids with anxiety are troublemakers and disruptors.”
Color filled Danica’s cheeks, and she sucked in a sharp breath through her nose.“We’ve hadwords.”
“I think he’s had words with most parents on the island who give two shits about their kids,” Cameron added.“When I told him that Francesca was having a hard time leaving me, because she thought something bad might happen to me while we were apart, he said kids today were too soft and that was due to soft parents with soft heads.”
My jaw dropped.
“I’m sorry, but my daughter’s mother died in a fucking building collapse the day after we adopted her from China when she was a baby.And she’s been on me—for years—to tell her what happened to her mother, so when I finally—delicately—told her, she started to think that something bad might happen to me next.We’re working on those fears with her counselor.But Otto standing at the front door, tapping his foot and glaring at his watch as I walk my daughter to class rather than boot her out at the drop-off spot, or make her take the bus, is not compassionate.Then he tells us that we’re late, and maybe if we got our acts together earlier in the morning, we wouldn’t disrupt everyone else with our tardiness.”
“Should I release all the donkeys?”I asked, my blood on the verge of boiling.“I can find some goats to ruin their garden.”
“I’m sorry Cesca is struggling so much, Cameron,” Danica said.“That’s so tough.”
Cameron’s head bobbed.“It’s getting better.She realizes that I’m not going to die while she’s at school, and that it’s okay for us to be apart.But I tell you, there were some really tough mornings for a while.Like, I couldn’t take a shit with the door closed because she was worried I’d die on the toilet.”
I raked my fingers through my hair and shook my head.A while back, Cameron had confided in me about his wife’s death and how tough it’d been on him to have this infant daughter he’d just met.He was grieving and hadn’t bonded with Francesca yet, and he worried that all of that had contributed to her anxiety now.
“God, just talking about that man has left a horrible taste in my mouth.”She stroked her finger over Midnight’s star, but he opened his eyes and quickly stood up, going to Raven for milk.The mare stood there patiently, allowing him to eat.
I offered Danica my hand to help her stand up.She took it and thanked me.
I hated having to let her go again.
“Cesca?”Cameron called into the barn as the three of us wandered out of Raven and Midnight’s stall.I closed the door.
“Yeah, Dad?”Francesca poked her little head with a straight black bob, over the door of Galahad’s stall.
“Time to go, sweetie.”
Francesca’s eyes turned sad.“Do we have to?”
“You have reading, and I have dinner to make.Sorry, honey.”
Her pout deepened.“Five more minutes?”
“Five,” Cameron agreed.
The three of us made our way further down through the barn, but when Mouse, the timid gray mare with the black mane, hung her head over the side of her stall, Danica stopped and slowly approached her.“Hi, sweet girl.”
She eyed her warily but didn’t step back, so she continued to step forward, her hand outstretched.Cameron was busy petting Conrad, the champagne-colored horse whose stall was beside Galahad’s, but I stopped and watched Danica with Mouse.
Danica didn’t hesitate.She made contact with Mouse’s head, between her eyes, with calm confidence, and Mouse let her.
“There’s a sweet girl,” Danica whispered.“Look at how gentle your eyes are.I bet you’re the sweetest one in here, aren’t you?Just shy.”She lowered her voice even more.“I’m shy too.I get it.”
I didn’t dare move, because I didn’t want to spook Mouse, but the skittish gray dun had never let me touch her for that long.Which was part of the reason why she looked as rough as she did.She’d never been brushed.
“Such a sweetie,” Danica continued to say to Mouse.“You’re a good girl, aren’t you?”Then she did something I never thought anybody would be able to do with Mouse; she leaned forward and pressed her forehead to the horse’s and closed her eyes.And if I wasn’t standing there seeing it with my own eyes, I never would have believed it, but Mouse stayed right there and let her.
“Is that Mouse?”Cameron asked, shock in his voice.
I nodded, too stunned to speak.Too afraid to speak and spook Mouse.
Moving her hand from Mouse’s forehead, Danica began to stroke the horse’s cheek.“What’s your story, baby girl?”
