WATTYS 2019
Emily Martin, your typical seventeen-year-old girl. well, kind of. For the past fourteen years, she's been living with her aunt, Hannah, who just happens to breed and train some of Florida's finest horses. Emily's life had always been lo...
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* nine years later (Em, Leo, and Molly are now 27) *
"You're sure you can handle this place for the next couple of weeks?" I asked Molly who was sitting at my desk.
"Take as much time as you need," she assured me. "I've got this."
"Alright," I said nervously. "Don't forget Duke needs to get desensitized more before he can be used in lessons. And Ruby has been cleared by the vet to do one lesson a week. She can take one of Titan's, but don't forget we need Sassy to start taking on some work too. Red needs so-."
"Em, girl, I got it! Please, don't stress. It's not good for you in your condition," she said as she gestured to my swollen belly. "My little nephew doesn't need all that added stress."
"Oh please, baby's fine," I said. She shot me a look. "Fine, I'll stop stressing."
"Thank you," she said. "Now go home, you look like you're going to pop any second."
"Alright," I agreed. "I'll see you soon, okay? You'll be the first one we call when the little one's out."
"That's right," Molly nodded. "Bye!"
I finally turned and headed out of my office and into the barn aisle. I saw Leo and his guide dog talking to one of our students, Jeff, who was sitting in his wheelchair grooming one of our horses, Frosty.
Yes, I had achieved my life goal of running a para barn. It wasn't easy, but Molly and Leo were with me every step of the way. We ended up building another barn on Hannah's farm and using it for our business. Hannah was more than happy to allow it, as she had so much land, and we made a nice name for ourselves. Don was working for us now, as well as one of his friends, Jo Carlston. She was another para instructor who loved her job.
We saw just about everything walk through those barn doors. We didn't teach riders younger than fifteen, as those riders were typically still in therapeutic riding, but we had a teenager who was missing an arm, an older gentleman with a muscle disorder, and pretty much everything in between. Amputations, blindness, cognitive deficiencies, et cetera.
Did I love it? More than anything except for Leo and my baby.
That's another thing. Any day now Leo and I were expecting our first child. I was nervous but ready.
-
Mere hours after I went home that day, I went into labor. Hannah brought Leo and me to the hospital where Molly and Kendall met us.
At 8:15 pm on July twenty-ninth, I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. We named him Carter, after Leo and Molly's late dad. Ironic enough, he was born on the anniversary of Leo's accident.
Leo and I were overjoyed with our little miracle family. Who would've thought that all of this could be created through the power of horses?
