Once Upon A Rodeo

Three - [Rose.]

Placing the cleaning supplies on the ground, I climbed onto of one of the horse stall doors. Supporting myself on one of the wooden beams, I reached up and tugged on the rope. It didn't give way.

Bracing myself a little bit better, I tugged harder. Still, it didn't budge.

"Really?" I muttered to myself, shaking my head.

Balancing myself as best I could, I put both hands on the rope and pulled harder than ever. I stumbled off of the stall door, still gripping the rope. I was there, dangling from the rope and still the door didn't open.

Dropping gently, I shrugged.

"Oh well."

I could get it open at a different time. I assumed, like the rest of the property, that it was empty. I just wanted to go up there for shits and giggles. Grabbing the cleaning supplies and turning off the lights, I retreated back into the house.

Still not tired in the least, I made a cup of coffee and parked myself in front of the T.V. I switched it to the local news, which appears to be a rerun from earlier this evening. I appeared to be catching the tail end of one news report

"And to conclude, Twenty three year old local, Brantley Nash, has moved onto the Semi-Finals of the Tennessee State Bull Riding Competition."

I rolled my eyes.

Of course he would be the first thing I would see on the news. This was a very small town, it made sense that one of their own would be the topic of discussion for making it to the finals.

The screen moved from one newscaster to the next, who was standing outside the fountain near the middle of town.

"Thanks, Karen. Now we take it to this afternoons news. It's sunny and about eighty degrees right now, but tomorrow we should expect some cloudiness and about a sixty percent chance of rain."

In the early hours of the morning, when the sun was just coming up, I pulled on a sweater and went outside with a fresh cup of coffee. I sat on the porch swing, watching the sun rise.

This place was beautiful.

I slept for a few hours after that, but was out of bed before ten o' clock. True to what the news said, the sky was cloudy but there was no rain coming yet. I got dressed in jeans and a sweater and went into town.

There a farmer's market going on, with downtown being shut off and different people selling fruits, vegetables and other farm grown things. There were some people selling non food items, such as saddles and other riding supplies, hand made wooden rocking horses, clocks, etc and some even had clothes.

I stopped by the one selling the saddles, and found myself eyeing them, my finger tracing the fine lines of the stitch work.

"Those are half price," The man selling them said, nodding towards the wall of saddles I was currently standing in front of.

"Oh, I don't even have a horse," I muttered, frowning.

I used to go riding with one of my friends, a girl in my school that was rather rich with out being a snob about it. She was in love with the sport, and in the time I was friends with her (freshman year of high school) she taught me how to ride.

I was timid at first, which was natural being on such a large creature. But after a while, I found myself pretty good at it. My friend, Rose, and I were even thinking about me doing some shows.

But when we were fourteen, she moved away. I didn't have a phone at the time, or any social media, so I lost contact with her.

I missed her. She was one of the few people knowing how crappy my home life was, and she provided not one - but two - outlets for me. The first was the riding. It was so easy to get away when we were horseback riding. All of my problems seemed to just go away.