NOT a Horse (of course)

With a gentle caress, she took his hand. She squeezed it reassuringly. Their eyes locked, and through the tension of both wanting to look away… they saw each other for the first time in months. It would be a hard road, but they could be a couple again. Paul and Sue Fengold. Maybe they could stay married.

“Ok…” she said. “We’ll make this work.” He sighed and looked down. He brought her hand up to his face and kissed it.

Their troubles started with an unusual chain of events. On the night of April 20th, a national radio broadcast was aired that sounded like a news bulletin. As the presenter tried to warn the audience in the beginning, however, it was really an adaptation of a novel: The Land of Dinos.

Unfortunately, most people tuned in after the introduction, and a wide-scale panic ensued. A large contingent of the population believed that there actually was a mass laboratory breakout of “reptilian beasts of unknown origin,” and there was a stampede.

In their small town of Swimport, Paul’s neighbor, Gary Grummund, convinced him and four other men to hunt down the giant creatures. When they didn’t find any in town, they took off in a man named Barbell’s car to patrol all night.

Sue woke up the next morning to banging on the door. When she got downstairs and opened it, Deb Grummund, Gary’s wife, was on the stoop with a wild look in her eyes. She held up the newspaper that had arrived minutes before, which detailed the real story of the broadcast. Sue will never forget that moment as long as she lived.

When the men finally returned, around noon, Deb had debriefed a dozen residents on their street. Gary addressed them, genuinely confused about why they hadn’t found a dinosaur.

One of the guys, Benny, was missing from the group. When Miss Azalea —his 18 year old sister — asked where he was, Gary answered sadly that they didn’t know. Sue will also never forget that moment, when a young woman’s heart was broken in public, and she fell to the ground.

Sue saw Deb slap her husband across the face, and honestly wanted to do the same to Paul. She went into Deb’s house with her instead. They locked everyone else out while they calmed down.

Now it was late July. Unlike Gary and Deb, she and Paul were reconciling. It was still so hard to forgive him when she saw the continuing pain in Miss Azalea’s eyes every day. But he asked for forgiveness and explained how he had been pulled along for the ride.

They decided to go on a trip together. Deb showed him a brochure she had found. It was for a vacation ranch, something she didn’t know existed before.

“See?” she said, pointing at the pictures. “We can learn how they live there. Ride the horses, milk cows, tie up bails of hay.”

“So… we’d be working on vacation?” Paul asked. She rolled her eyes.

“Come on,” she said with a chuckle. “It’s not work. It’s an experience.” He groaned and looked away. “Well… after your unscheduled trip, I think I can choose what we do.”

“Ok,” he said with a grin. “Guess you got me there.”

***

So, a week later, that’s exactly where they were. The Walden Ranch was a 16-acre property just outside of the state lines. Who was surprised by how many trees were around the corner areas. How many trees were there were in the whole place.

When she thought of a ranch, a lovely as the animals were… she thought of barren ground. Not here, however. Here, there were trees. There were trails though those trees. A river, and even a lake! At least, she knew there was a lake somewhere off in that direction. It was incredible!

They met the owner, whose name was Ray. He was a kind man standing about 6 foot. He wore wrangler jeans and a flannel shirt. But one of the nice and clean ones, that fit the upper body like a glove. She even wondered if it was pressed with an iron. She would guess he was in his mid-40s, given the slightly salt-and-pepper hair.

She tried to listen as he explained the logistics, and what they’d be doing there that weekend. But she couldn’t quite manage it, especially not when horse galloped by. She had only seen horses in the movies. In person, she was mesmerized.

It might mirror what she saw on the silver screen… so much so that she almost felt strange for thinking it was so different in real life. But it was. Something about the galloping majesty couldn’t be captured the same way through a projector.

“Incredible!” she exclaimed at one point. Ray looked at her confused. She could also feel Paul’s eyes on her too. She had to shake herself to come back to reality.

“The accommodations?” Ray asked. “I suppose one could say they’re incredible. But I’ve never heard that before. Especially not after just describing them!” She smiled politely and nodded at Paul, hoping that would be the end of it. She was beet red now. Thankfully, Ray continued on.

They followed him up toward the cabins. She couldn’t keep her eyes off the brown horse that was galloping, circling. There was a spotted white one further off that was a beauty too.

She eventually turned her eyes away as they rounded a bend. They were still within sight of the two creatures, but she would have had to look clear over her shoulder. She didn’t want to be caught doing that.

After the tour of the cabins, which were quaint and rustic, he also showed them there was a short-cut through the woods to an archery range. He called it an “off-the-brochure bonus.”

As the got to the top of the hill, a strange and small house-like structure came into view to the right of the path. It was painted purple on the side facing them, with what looked like a shingled roof.

“And, as we go by,” Ray said, turning around to face them. “You can say hello to our little friend, Rex.” Upon approach, Sue could see that there was in fact an animal’s hindquarters protruding from the little house.

As her eyes adjusted, she could see it was completely gray. Yet certain spots seemed to be of a lighter hue. The tail was quite unkempt. The front side of the structure, which it was standing in, through a curved doorway, was painted forest green.

It stomped its hooves once they were within ten feet. Ray called out a greeting, and the creature came slumping out backwards. Paul and Sue glanced at each other blankly as the rest of the body emerged.

The neck seemed unusually long as it lowered its head to clear the doorway. When it finally stopped moving and turned to them, Sue let out a shriek. She covered her mouth with both hands.

Ray and Paul both turned to her, as if startled and annoyed. Ray continued to stare at her, but Paul turned his eyes back to the creature… and they went wide.

It had the oblong head they were expecting, but smack dab in the middle of the forehead was a gnarly — almost antler-like — horn. It curved inward with a small protrusion splitting off at the end. The couple stared at it for a moment, which felt like several minutes.

“Yeah, this is Rex,” Ray finally said. “I made this little place for him when I found the poor guy loose in the woods.” Sue dropped her hands.

“What…” she managed to say. “Is… that?!” Ray glanced at Paul quizzically before looking back to her.

“I just told you,” he said. “This is Rex. Since I don’t know where he came from, I can’t tell you the breed of horse, but—“

“That is not a horse!” she cut in.

“Now, come on,” he replied. “He might not be much to look at, but he was never made for racing. Or showing.”

“What?” she demanded. “No! It’s… it’s…”

“Now, ma’am,” he said somewhat sternly. “I’m sorry to say it, but you seem quite excitable.”

“Uh,” Paul jumped in. “I think what my wife is trying to say is this… uh, horse… seems very… unusual.”

“Oh yeah,” Ray said, relaxing his stance. “Most wild ones are.” Sue’s mouth was agape. “Shall we go on now?”

“Uh, sure,” Paul said, nudging Sue. “Let’s go.”

***

After they saw the archery range and the stables, Paul introduced them to the office manager, Angie. She was about 5 foot 2, heavy set, with reddish-blonde hair. She wore a similarly-patterned shirt with a shiny bolo tie.

She signed them in with a warm greeting and escorted them back to the cabins. On the way, Sue couldn’t stop herself from asking the burning question on her mind.

“So what’s with that animal, Rex?” As soon as she uttered it, Paul shot her a warning look.

“Rex?” Angie asked, turning her head back to them. “What do you mean? He’s been with us for almost five years. Most of us think he escaped from some sort of captivity, but I couldn’t say where.”

“No,” Sue said. “What is he?” Paul nudged her again, and she brushed it off.

“Didn’t Ray tell you?” Angie asked. “We can’t determine what breed he is. Unless we took him to an expert, and that’s just not worth the expense.”

“Not… worth… urrrg,” Sue stammered. The veins were pushing up in her neck.

“Well, thank you,” Paul jumped in. “He probably mentioned it, but there’s just so much here we’re not used to as small town folks.”

“Oh,” Angie said. “Yeah, we get that a lot. It’s a whole different world here in the country.”

“I’ll say,” Sue mumbled. Paul glared at her, begging with his eyes for her to drop it. She nodded with a sigh.

“Here you are!” Angie said about a minute later as the came to one of the cabins. “Number 13. All ready for you.”

***

Sue woke up with the sunrise and found Paul was still out cold across the bed. Before she knew it, she had her shoes and cardigan on and headed out the door. She went up the hill to Rex. Once again, when she got ten feet away, he stomped his back hoof.

She didn’t have to yell the greeting. She stood in front of the doorway and he came out in the same manner as before. He met her eyes without surprise or expectation. The moment hung still in the air as she looked him up and down.

“What are you?” she asked. He just whinnied softly. She sat on the ground and gazed up at him for a countless amount of time. Eventually, he looked away and knelt down to eat the moss and leaves around him.

As the sunlight poured in through the trees, she heard footsteps coming up the hill. She turned as an unfamiliar man came into view.

She jumped to her feet and he caught sight of her. He stopped in his tracks.

“Oh, sorry,” she said. “My name is Sue. My husband and I are staying in the cabins.”

“Ah, hello,” he said. “Yes, I’m going to train you on riding later on. I’m Titus.” He extended his hand and she shook it.

“Nice to meet you,” she said.

“So, what brings you all the way up here this early?” he asked.

“Well,” she said uncertainly. “I… just had to see him.”

“Well,” he said. “I guess I’ve heard stranger reasons.” She looked at the creature again, then back at Titus.

“What is he?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” he asked. “He’s just Rex.” She sighed and looked again into the large brown eyes that seemed to know her better than anyone now.

“Yeah,” she said with a chuckle. “I suppose he is.”