The Stars I Stole for You {Jaime Preciado}

1 - This Is the Best Day Ever

My dearest Jaime,
 

   I don’t know how much longer I have in this world, how much more time I have left to spend with you.  There are some things I wanted you to know about me and things I thought about during special moments of our time together that I thought you might want to read.  This way if I do pass soon, you will always have me with you.  I’m not afraid of dying my love, but I am afraid of where I will go because it will take me away from you.  Perhaps this snippet of our life together can keep me from fading away and will hold me to you for that much longer.  I hope you enjoy this collaboration of instants and special occasions because they mean everything to me.  They’re us.

I love you with all my heart,
Ember Amelia Deveroux


    The sun was shining high above today, the barn starting to steam from the inside out.  Horse smells and sound radiated from every stall and hay stuck to my shirt in various places.  I was cleaning out my horse’s pen at the moment, a muck rake in hand while I shoveled piles of horse shit out and into a wheelbarrow.  He was following me, black satiny nose touching the small of my back while his lips tried to grasp the edges of my shirt.

    I turned back to him, noting the way he backed away.  He knew he was doing wrong, but I couldn’t help the smile that crossed my face.  The tall steed was all black though his legs held some white markings towards his feet.  There was also a white star beneath his forelock which is fancy talk for a white splotch in the middle of his forehead.  A stripe of ivory also graced his nose, but his eyes were what I loved.  There was kindness hidden in the mischief of his deep browns.  Horses were always kind, but he had the mixture of ornery and caring that I loved.

    “Ay Badger,” I sighed, wiping my face with the edge of my shirt sleeve, “You rotten little shit.”  I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around his neck.  This was home to me.

    When I had finished cleaning his stall, I stepped out and took the wheelbarrow to the muck pile outside of the barn.  It wasn’t a fancy barn like some of the big Thoroughbred racing barns down the street, but I loved this place.  I grew up in this place because my mom gave lessons to the kids that boarded their horses here.  It was a little slice of heaven in the middle of California tree land just outside of San Diego. 

    I stepped into the bathroom for a moment to clean off my face, noting the pale complexion I held despite my frequency in the sun.  I was practically albino, but the bright orange of my pin curls was a nice contrast to my translucent skin.  Freckles dotted my nose where my mom said the sun had kissed me and the rosy color of my cheeks let me know I was still alive.  They were always a little red and even more so when I was working.  At the moment, they were ruddy from my cleaning.  The lips beneath my nose were small and shapely, the lower lip just a bit fuller than the top.  Eyes the color of amber were pleasantly warm, but I knew I was just your average looking girl.  There was nothing special about me other than that I was what Starburst would call a juicy contradiction.  I liked to ride horses but didn’t listen to much country.  I was mostly into a majority rule of rock music.

    I sighed and walked out of the bathroom, strolling down the aisle of stall doors where various colored horses stuck their noses out for a pat.  I made way back to Badger who was eagerly awaiting my return.  He stuck his nose against my chest and I wrapped my arms around him. 

    He’s the only boy I will ever love, I thought to myself.

    Boys had never held an interest for me and I couldn’t see a time when that would change.  I was awkward and more of ‘one of the guys’ than a girl they would want to date.  Plus I usually smelled like horse even though I dressed like a rocker chick when I was outside of the barn.  But really to me, it didn’t matter.  There was plenty of time for that.