Meadow

I DON'T WORRY, WORRYING DON'T AGREE
THINGS THAT BOTHER YOU, NEVER BOTHER ME!

It had been so long since Talya had spoken to anyone that wasn’t Mamapapa. When he heard horses nearby, he’d lower his head and nip at her heels, driving her in the oppositie direction. No one was to be trusted anymore except for Mamapapa. Talya had gotten herself into too much trouble when he’d given her the freedom to talk to whoever she wanted to before, and she’d made him do very bad things to fix the mistakes she made. If she didn’t want him to do those bad things she needed to behave and do exactly as Mamapapa told her to do.

But… again… it had been so long…

And the mare was nice. She smiled, and that made Talya want to smile. She said a funny thing and Talya wanted to laugh about it. She wanted to laugh and remember kicking her heels through large icy snowdrifts that nearly made her invisible, like Mamapapa’s friend he always talked to.

What would it hurt to just pretend Mamapapa had never said those things? What would it hurt to pretend his warnings didn’t come with painful nips and kicks to further exclaim the importance of the lessons he was teaching her?

She knew… but as always there was that thing inside her, that comforting blanket inside her mind that wanted to wrap around her and shut-out all the bad until Talya could pretend like it never happened and didn’t exist.

“Mamapapa said I can’t talk to anyone,” she said in a very small voice and jerked her blue eyes around them again, almost wildly, as if he’d set this up as a trick. Maybe he’d talked to the strange dark mare and told her to test Talya’s loyalty and understanding. Maybe he was hiding just out of her line of sight, waiting for her to misbehave so he could come and do something awful and remind her that it was all her fault. A tremble rushed through her as she thought of those snapping jaws and strong kicks that’d littered her body with plenty of bruises and gashes over the years.

“I’m supposed to be hiding, but I’m so hungry…” Again, her sweet voice was tiny and fretful. Her head dropped and her eyes glanced worriedly at the mare. “Please don’t tell Mamapapa you saw me… please?”