"Take the bull by the horns." What does this mean in your character's situation?
"He's going to die," my little sister Mina said through tears. "Isn't he, Richie? Isn't he?"
"No, no, of course he isn't," I said through gritted teeth, trying once again to get the almost-newly born calf to stand on his own two feet. He refused to cooperate, but I knew he'd die if he didn't get to his mother's teats soon.
Whilst she wept beside me, I tried to help the baby for an hour or two, before finally snapping. "For goodness sake's, Mina, can't you go and do something useful? Go and feed some of the other animals, or at least help me!" Sniffling, she glared at me, in a mixture of both astonishment and rage, before running back off to the farm house. "And get some other, useful help!" I yelled after her, hoping she didn't ask our youngest sibling, Henry, who was only 5 years old to come out onto the hill.
I sat with the calf for as long as I could before I knew it was futile. I could take him in, but what would father say? If I left him here... he'd surely die. I didn't understand why he wouldn't stand up. Physically, he was fine. His mother was standing nearby, quietly grazing. What was wrong?
I was pondering when I heard a frightened, girlish yell from behind me. Whirling around, I saw my little sister, her basket of animal food discarded and her dress swirling around her legs, running right towards me. "Richie! Richie! Run!" I glanced behind her to see her fear, and my heart seemed to skip a beat: a raging bull.
"Mina! Mina, come on! Towards the gates!" She turned and ran with me, so we were running to a point together, until we'd be on the other side of the fence and safe.
"What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything Richie! I looked at him!" I mentally rolled my eyes. Of course she did.
I vaulted the gate and helped her down from the safe side, just as the bull reached us. The enormous creature slammed on its brakes and skidded to a halt, creating deep, muddied grooves in the ground. "Richie! Mina!" Our mother, probably having heard Mina's screaming and my angry yelling, had also run over. Her cheeks were bright red and her hair was falling out from its plait. "Oh, thank the heavens you're okay!"
"We're fine, Ma," I said, whilst Mina was being comforted. I looked back out to the field, expecting to see the calf lying flat out, or cowering in fear, or even dead. But the annoying bugger was suckling from its mother, fairly happily by the look of it. The bull was still pawing on the other side of the fence, but it couldn't hurt us from here and I knew I'd help father to round him up later. I shoved my hands in my pockets and, both amused and annoyed, followed my family back to the household.
YOU ARE READING
To Warm Frozen Fingers // A Short Story Collection
Short StoryI like to write. As you may be able to tell. I haven't been very good at writing lately. As you may also have been able to tell. That's why I've decided to write a short story collection. The stories won't interlink, some may vary wildly and you mig...
