Tails Carried High

Carmel Rowley they began to share their dreams and memories, her mother’s health worsened. More than once Samantha ordered Jessikah, ‘Tell the story of the horses, darling, write the story for me’. What story? Jessikah thought. How can I tell a story with only a hazy outline? The whole idea was ridiculous. She had no idea about the horses. But the words lingered in her head.

Her mother was buried on an overcast and miserable day.

The heavens were lamenting the loss of Samantha as much as Jessikah and her friends and family. It was Samantha who bound Jessikah to her strange and reserved group of English relations. Rain fell, soaking the mourners, but as the gathering shivered, the bouquets of flowers revived, glowing with fresh colour. Jessikah stood at the graveside admiring their beauty, and said a silent goodbye.

In the days following her mother’s funeral, Jessikah stayed in the house, surrounded by the things she loved.

Her friend Nyla brought meals in the evening, worried at Jessikah’s need to clean the place from top to bottom. When it was the attic’s turn to be tackled, what Jessikah found there astounded them both. An old cedar chest, covered in years of dust, had been hidden away in the corner. Jessikah had to find the courage to lift the lid. Inside she found it was full of her mother’s treasures. There were teddy bears and two beautiful Art Deco lamps wrapped in colourful Indian scarves, but she exclaimed with delight at a small, finely worked painting of a white horse. She hung the painting in her room and, before she fell asleep, willed this Pegasus creature to take her to realms unknown in her dreams.

Jessikah had hit the attic with good intentions but, once she found the chest, she became fascinated by its contents and the cleaning was forgotten. The biggest surprise was a faded postcard from Australia, showing a large bluestone 3