North Oak, Book 1 - BORN TO RUN

Chapter 3: Lost and Found

"It's that girl, isn't it?" his wife pressed. 

Steven inched the bottoms of the fork and knife forward until they were perfectly even. He folded his linen napkin on his lap and glanced up. "She looks an awful lot like...."

"Like your sister's husband, you said."

Steven looked at his sixteen-year-old son, Johnathan, sitting across from him, and the nearly six-year-old girl next to Johnathan. 

Amber pulled a petite bite of beef and pastry from her silver fork with her teeth. The muscle beneath Steven's eye twitched. He hated when her lips didn't touch the silver, but he never said anything.

"She's not Angelina," she said between bites. "You can't bring her back."

Steven noticed that the tines of his fork did not meet with the top of his knife and tried to fix it. However, the bottoms no longer lined up. The corner of his mouth jerked. He remained silent until his Smartphone suddenly went off.

Amber gave him a look that begged him not to answer. 

He rose, rumpled his napkin beside his plate, kissed his wife on the cheek, and left the room to take the call.

Flashlight beams bounced off of giant trees and brown fence boards. 

"Who exactly are we looking for?" Brooke asked Laura breathlessly. Laura looked at Brooke from the corner of her eyes as if Brooke had already forgotten. "The girl we found, silly."

"I know that." Brooke tucked a strand of hair behind her ear that had fallen from her pony tail. "What does she look like?"

"Oh!" Laura stuffed her hands in her coat pockets. Her breath floated on the air in a thin white puff. "Black hair, younger than us, about twelve or thirteen. She's sick, but I wouldn't call her frail. She's thin, but she's solid."

Brooke grimaced. "Right. Totally helpful." 

"What? I didn't see much of her today," Laura said plaintively.

"So basically look for some kid that doesn't belong here."

"Yeah! Let's do that."

"Great. Got it. She got a name?"

Laura shook her head. "Sorry, didn't catch it."

Brooke and Laura came to a halt between a couple of empty paddocks. Brooke looked around. "Where would we hide if we were thirteen again?"

Laura looked in the direction of the barns. Brooke followed her gaze. "Naturally. Let's go!"

The two girls jogged off. Almost everyone was looking for this new stranger, but nobody had hit the barns yet. Brooke and Laura headed for the barn that the weanlings and yearlings shared. They pushed open the heavy doors and flicked on the lights. 

Many of the young horses instantly pressed their nose to the bars of their stalls, wondering what was going on. Others startled and rustled their bedding. A few of them bumped noisily against the stall walls and squealed. 

Brooke spoke softly, "Easy, babies. It's just us." 

Laura was across the way petting the nose of one of the yearlings. 

"I'll take this side." Brooke motioned to her right. "You take that one." 

Laura nodded and continued down the same side she had been on, peeking carefully into each stall so as not to upset the horses further. 

Brooke was a bit quicker. She knew each horse so well that she didn't spend long looking for anything out of the ordinary. Eventually she got into a rhythm and just as she finished glancing into Promenade's stall, she backed up to him again. "Wait a minute," she said to herself. 

Promenade got to his feet quickly and seemed to be blocking something. Brooke slid open the stall door. "What's that behind you?" She tried to peek around him, but the colt pivoted so she couldn't see. She reached out only to get her fingers nipped at. "Hey!" she warned. 

Promenade flattened his ears and swished his white tail. He held his head high as if to say, "Back off!"

Brooke rolled her eyes and pushed his hindquarters. "Move your butt, punk."

Promenade tried to push against her, but Brooke was stronger. Promenade stamped his white foot and sulked in the corner. 

Brooke stared at a girl curled up in the hay. Black hair covered her face. Her pajama bottoms were tattered and she wore a dirty John Deere t-shirt. Brooke had been told to look for someone who didn't belong here, but somehow the girl did. "Over here!"