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This is the page of many important things. Now go off and enjoy the adventures contained within. Liza and Libby hope you have a wonderful time reading.
To the one true horse who continues to teach me love, compassion, resilience and tenderness. Forever.
“A heart is where love lives,” Libby said tenderly to Lila one day.
“Love?” asked Lila
“Love,” said Libby to her little foal, “is a phenomenally beautiful connection between your entire body and mind, and the body and mind of another. It is something that makes you feel both happy and joyful in one moment, and sometimes sad and full of tears in another moment. All of the feelings of love are a good thing.”
THE FILLY
It was mid-morning on a sunny day. The little filly with the long fawn-like legs was walking aimlessly through the fields.
Most of the pastures were lush and tall, waiting to be cut, yet in places you could see where the lushness of the grass had been slowly nibbled down by the other horses of the herd. They were all eating with their heads down. There was a gentle breeze and some of the wildflowers and the pasture grasses swayed gently back and forth. Queen Anne’s
lace, wild daisies and clover made a carpet of white in some places as they danced in the sunlight.
Though focused on eating, several of the mares kept an eye turned occasionally on the little filly, which had moved further away from the herd while they ate.
Every now and then, one would lift her head to look around then return to eating. After a moment, another would lift her head to do the same and then also calmly return to eating. But even with their heads down, they were aware of the filly and watching the world around them as well.
The filly in the meantime had become focused on something absolutely fascinating and she was now completely entranced. As she wandered closer to the object of her fascination, she stopped, spread her front legs just a little bit apart to steady herself and then dropped her nose closer to the ground.
Her stubby little tail, typical for her age, flopped vigorously up and down and left and right and then up and down and left and right again. Then she did something that looked positively absurd. First, she steadied herself on three legs then awkwardly lifted one hind leg. Leaning her neck and head backwards in a little twist, she scratched her ear. Placing her leg back onto the ground, she shook her head and body in satisfaction.
Then she stood still and looked all around her.
For a moment, her entire body quivered a few times. She was independent, but occasionally, still slightly uncertain about things.
There, delicately resting on a pasture flower was a butterfly. Its legs moved in an agitated motion, it seemed, as it positioned and repositioned itself on the flower. It fluttered its wings a bit to help maneuver itself around the flower as it ate nectar.
The filly resumed her nose to the ground posture with front legs spread apart, and she carefully inched her nose closer, stretching her neck out just as far as she could. She
wobbled ever so slightly. Even though she was laser-focused and quietly inching forward, her tail continued to give away her excitement. She probably didn’t even realize that she was still thwacking it up and down and back and forth. The short hairs of her tail fluttered in the breeze and from her subconscious thwacking.
Suddenly and yet quite delicately, the butterfly took to the air and flitted left and right in a zig and zag motion and then boom, it landed on the filly’s nose!
And in that instant, there was an explosion of legs flying everywhere and the little body of the filly shot to the left and then to the right and she vigorously shook her head and neck once again. She jumped up and down and then ran forward at full speed. Suddenly, she quickly changed direction and galloped full speed yet again across the pasture in another burst of youthful energy. In her shock and in her silliness, she was a filly after all, she kept making differently sized circles all while running at full speed.
Gaining confidence and yet embarrassed at being scared of a silly butterfly, she held herself a little higher as she maintained the zoomies throughout the pasture. “They need to see that I’m not scared,” she proudly said to herself and then bam! It was hysterically funny to watch and nearly impossible to explain how it all looked, but she fell splat onto her side, her long legs skittering out from underneath herself in a tangle of hooves and legs and meadow grass. Dirt flew into the air and her little body made a thump on the ground. Immediately after hitting the ground, she shook her head and looked around and pushed her front legs forward and used them and her wobbly hind legs to push herself up into a standing position.
The other horses had all lifted their heads back up at the first sounds of the galloping noises. Some watched the antics, as though they knew how it would all end, and some had already gone back to eating.
While they ate, they had listened to the little thump thumping and tippity tap noises of the filly’s tiny hooves as she ran.
“Oh boy,” said one mare, a sorrel who shook her head.
“I saw that,” said a second mare, a paint, also shaking her head after the splat.
The sorrel said, “This is my first foal, and although I’ve watched other colts and fillies all fall down splat over the years, knowing she’s mine, I can’t help but just hope that she didn’t hurt herself.”
The second mare grabbed some grass, chewed it thoughtfully and then said, “She will be fine. Mine always have been!”
“Mama,” the filly cried, trotting and prancing over to the sorrel, her mother. “Did you see that? Did you see me running?” the filly asked proudly.
“Yes I did, Lila, I sure did. I even heard the thump you know,” the mare said.
“Oh, uh, you heard it and saw it too I suppose, right?” Lila asked her mother.
“It was hard to miss,” the mare said shaking her head a bit and then reaching out to nuzzle her youngster, the filly walked along her mother’s side and stuck her nose underneath to reach for a teat. All of that running around had made her hungry and she bumped her mother’s belly area a few times, latched on to a teat and began to nurse. Her mother nuzzled her again and then used her mouth and tongue to gently groom her foal.
The mare was a stunning looking, twelve-year-old quarter horse named Libby. Libby was 14.3 hands high and was a powerfully built sorrel with white markings on her face just like a paint horse. Lila, her foal, was under one year of age and was best described as precocious in her mannerisms and approach to life. Based on some actions of this sweet little filly, Libby was quite certain, well, at least hopeful, that Lila would grow up to be as wise as she was,
but right now, there was nothing more important than for a foal to just be a foal. For this little dun-colored filly, romping, exploring, sleeping, and eating were all that a foal needed right now and Libby knew that about her foal.
On the other hand, a foal actually needed more in her little life than doing as she pleased. Living within a herd meant learning life-long skills regarding understanding danger and also understanding a foal’s place within the herd. Many a foal tried to act up too many times and the other adult horses quickly put it in its place.
First the horse would ask the foal to stop doing this or that, such as annoying another horse. The horse might pretend to kick at it for example. Or it might whip its head around and give a tiny mouthing nip at the foal. That was usually enough to teach the foal proper behavior within the herd.
The next step is that the adult horse would remind the foal to stop doing that thing it was doing. This was accomplished with a movement or an action that was a little bit harsher such as actually taking a small bite out of the youngster or even making a noise, such as a squeal, at the annoying little foal.
The last step in the teaching process was more severe. Lila knew never ever to let things go this far. This last step wasn’t fun. At this point, the adult horse would now tell the foal what’s up. This might mean kicking at it or even biting it hard. Ask, remind, tell. Most foals knew to stop their antics at the ask stage or at the remind stage.
But the other most important step of learning, by all good foals, was undertaken by their human. The foal had to learn manners and respect with people and begin to learn skills to prepare for being ridden. Lila was very proud of the fact that her human was a cowgirl who would come out and spend time with her, often putting a halter on her and leading her around the ranch. Lila was learning what ‘whoa’ meant, what ‘back up’ and ‘stand’ meant, and was beginning
to learn to walk exactly in line with her cowgirl. This meant that as she was being led, walking with her nose behind the imaginary line of the cowgirl’s shoulder, rather than prancing out in front or pulling back and yanking on the lead rope.
She was also learning to respect a person’s ‘space’ and not to crowd or push up against her cowgirl in a rude way.
Lila’s human was a fourteen-year-old cowgirl named Liza. This teen was confident, strong and smart with long flowing hair pulled back in a colorful barrette, usually hidden under her cowgirl hat. Most days, during her free time, she was outside riding or visiting with her beloved friend Libby.
Liza and Libby had a very special bond between them that was forged from being together nearly every day of their lives. Similar in age, they had first been introduced to one another when Liza was a tiny young girl of just over twenty-four months.
From the moment Libby had been born, young Liza could not be kept apart from Libby, and her mother had to keep a close eye on Liza when she was doing her chores in the stable with Liza at her side. When her mother turned her head to get chores done, toddling down the aisle, Liza would go up on her tippy toes to try to open the latch to the stall where the mare was with newborn Libby. Peaking her head back at her lively daughter, Liza’s mother would have to move quickly back through the aisle to Liza and then lift her up to peer at the little foal in the birthing stall.
Originally born one night in the pasture, Libby and her mother had been moved inside to ensure that the foal was latching on and receiving the important first bit of mare’s milk, called colostrum, which was so vital to a foal’s future survival and overall health.
Libby’s mother was an experienced mare and while protective, seemed to know instinctively that Liza would not hurt her little foal. So while Liza’s mother watched closely, in fact both mothers watched their little ones with
eagle eye precision. Perhaps Libby’s mother knew that the gentle movements of Liza were not a threat because the mare would drop her nose to give a little caress to Libby and then give an exquisitely gentle nudge to Liza, breathing gently on her with audible yet calm sounds. The calmness of both mothers added to the gentle experiences of Liza and Libby during their first and later encounters. Could it have been that both mothers knew the bond they had fostered?
Libby was energetic as all foals are shortly after birth, yet she was rather calm and steady when Liza was around. Liza would squeal with delight when Libby would try to stand on her wobbly newborn legs but somehow knew to quiet herself afterwards.
If the energy of their encounters increased too much, from time to time, Liza’s mother would say, “Whoa now little one,” not knowing if she was speaking to little Liza or to little Libby.
Over the months and early years of Libby’s young life, Liza grew right along with her. The stronger and more confident Liza became, the more Liza’s mother would permit her to walk Libby in her halter and lead her towards the arena, right by her side of course. Her mother knew that being such large creatures, horses could accidentally harm people if spooked for example, yet she knew that this one seemed different. There was a calmness that seemed to overcome Libby when this filly was around Liza.
Liza’s mother gave Libby her early formal training, with Liza nearby, learning and watching every calm movement her mother made. Liza never tired of being with Libby and loved being with her mother as she trained.
Throughout the years, the bond between the two youngsters continued to increase. Liza’s mother came down to the arena one day only to find six-year-old Liza walking four-year-old Libby up from the pasture over to the arena, looking all ready to give riding lessons to her. Liza’s mother could not help but notice that Liza never stopped talking
and talking and talking to her four-legged companion and one day she thought to herself, “I swear that Libby looks as though she understands everything Liza is saying!” Today after Lila went splat, Liza’s mother was in the house and watched through the large picture window as her daughter headed out to train horses.
From a distance, anyone could see that Lila would most likely grow up to have similar strength and speed like Libby but Liza’s mother could already tell that Lila was going to have her own very unique and special personality. And as she looked out the window towards the pasture full of horses, she saw Liza, Libby and Lila and she just shook her head in amazement, happy to know that she had imparted vital training skills to her daughter. She knew that Liza would train Lila with great success.
While Liza’s mother reflected back on her daughter, little Lila had plans of her own forming in her young equine mind. Today, Lila was hoping to learn more skills with Liza. Whenever she saw Liza coming out from the house, Lila would silently say to herself, “Oh please come over and say hello. Please come over and say hello, oh please, oh please, oh please!” Then Lila would remember that she could quickly run up to the fence and say, “Hello Liza,” just as well! She didn’t have to wait for Liza to come into the pasture itself.
Lila had hoped that Liza did not see her big flopping ridiculous fall out in the pasture. There was nothing more embarrassing for a horse than to have their owner witness something positively silly like tripping or outright falling splat on the ground.
“Lila, dear, are you finished?” Libby asked her little foal.
“Yes, Mama, I’m done eating,” said Lila taking a few steps back, and feeling a little shy, wove in and out against Libby’s body and wandered over next to the other mares. Being a foal was like that – one minute confident and
curious, and the next, slightly nervous about the world and needing the comfort and security of the herd.
Libby noticed her young filly was actually quite confident by nature and certainly well-mannered. Lila got along well with all the other foals and rarely disrespected the other members of the herd, and that made Libby proud.
There was a thunderous tippity tap of little tiny hooves and Libby saw that Lila was off again. “There she goes, running like a beautiful little eventing horse,” thought Libby. Lila was long, lean and powerful already but her body was looking to be ready for something different than ranch work and Libby knew that. Her little filly, a with the beginnings of proper dun coloring in her dark mane and tail, was bred to run and jump and it was already glorious for Libby to see her go.
In fact, this little filly had quite the eventing bloodlines in her, with the perfect potential for the very demanding combination of dressage, jumping and cross-country, so everyone was curious as to what kind of a future was in store for Lila.
“Oh my,” Libby cried and made a sigh. Lila had taken off running like mad, chasing more butterflies, and then had landed splat, once again on the ground. This time there was a little crunch and the sounds of “ooooof” and “oooooh” because it turned out that two little foals had collided. The two were on the ground looking dazed and there was a flurry of little legs flopping here and there as the two young fillies managed to stand up finally. They clearly looked embarrassed and didn’t even bother to look and see if any of the other horses had seen them and their silliness.
Just the same, little Beata, the other foal who had gone splat, cried out breathlessly, “I’m fine, I’m fine. Hello everyone over there, I’m just fine. Don’t worry about me everyone, I’m not even hurt,” she exclaimed loudly, shaking herself thoroughly from head to tail.
Looking over at her mother she cried out, “Mama, did you see me, did you see us?” she cried. “I’m FINE,” she bellowed across the meadow. “Lila and I ran into one another after we slipped in the daisies,” Beata cried. Then she got up and walked around a little bit, almost in a circle, and after trotting a few steps and giving a little hippity hop and a little kick, she and Lila went off to nibble some grass.
Up near the rest of the herd, Libby had been walking and eating grass beside a beautiful paint horse named Belle. Now, just like fourteen-year-old cowgirl Liza was Libby and Lila’s human, Belle and Beata also had a cowgirl mistress, and that was Liza’s mother.
“Oh my, OH MY,” Belle said, clearly startled. “I always ask myself if they will ever learn and I always wonder will they ever grow out of this stage,” exclaimed Belle.
“This young filly stuff, all these antics, well this is all new to me,” said Libby. “I have been watching all of you mares for years but never really took everything in. Now that I have my own foal, I can see what fun it is to watch them grow up,” Libby said to Belle.
“This stage always surprises me too, that’s for sure,” said Belle, sighing. “I always think I know when they will outgrow this zany time in their lives,” she sighed again.
“Let’s just stay over here. They will figure it out,” Belle added.
Hearing a noise, the mares looked over to the wide metal gate that was the entrance to the pasture. There stood Liza, holding four halters and lead ropes in her hand, and when she gave a whistle, the mares watched as their two fillies ran over to greet Liza.
They didn’t know it but today was a special day for the little fillies.
THE RANCH
Libby and Belle and the rest of the horses lived with Liza’s family on the East Coast of the United States on a large ranch in Virginia that was comprised of rolling hills, forests and pastures. There were streams, waterfalls and small ponds on the property as well.
Each of the family members were Western-themed equestrians and they often traveled with their big horse trailer to competitions with some of their horses.
Liza’s mother’s early riding foundation was English, in jumping, so she felt comfortable in practically any saddle. The story her mother frequently told everyone is that one
day, just for fun, she had attended a rodeo with her girlfriends and that’s when she had met Liza’s father. That was during his roping days. Liza had noticed that to this day, he still had quite a competitive side to him.
As a family, they often spent several months at a time camping and competing out West as well as trail riding with their horses in the woods of the Northeast.
Here on their ranch, while some of the land was fenced in, most of it was not. At the end of the pastures, beyond the fencing, that land was full of trails where Liza and Libby would go trail riding, usually for hours at a time. Lila could not wait until she was large enough to be taken out to be ridden on trail rides with Liza.
Today, it wasn’t a day for trail riding and Lila knew this. The other day, during halter training, Liza had explained that a special visitor would be coming to the ranch to help keep the horses healthy.
“The veterinarian will be here in a few days, Lila,” Liza had said. Lila sort of knew what that meant and had a hazy memory of meeting the doctor once before. Lila knew that the doctor needed to take tests sometimes and draw up vials of blood and had to use needles to stick things into horses. She knew the doctor used a stethoscope and listened to something called a ‘heart’.
Lila was glad to learn the names of body parts but one day, when she was very young, her mama had told her something extra special about hearts.
“A heart is where love lives,” Libby had said tenderly to Lila one day.
“Love?” asked Lila.
“Love,” said Libby to her little foal, “is a phenomenally beautiful connection between your entire body and mind, and the body and mind of another. It is something that makes you feel both happy and joyful in one moment, and sometimes sad and full of tears in another moment. All of the feelings of love are a good thing.”
Libby often told Lila that she loved her. As Lila was thinking about the upcoming visit of the veterinarian, and thinking about love and hearts, she remembered the moment her mama first told her she loved her.
Lila wasn’t that old, so she could remember nearly everything in her young life so far like the day she took her first breath of fresh air, when she first stood up (and fell down and then stood up again), and when she first drank milk from her mother.
Lila remembered that first day of her life, and she had a distinct memory of how warm and tender her mother had been towards her. It was chilly in the pasture that morning, but Lila felt all warm and cozy next to her mama. Some foals surprised everyone and were born during the night in the pasture and Lila’s arrival had been just like that.
During the night, after Lila was born, Libby had licked her foal clean and encouraged life to flow through her with those movements against her little body and Lila remembered that. Later in the morning, she also recalled the tenderness of her human touching her and petting her and saying soothing words to her and to Libby.
It didn’t take long for Libby to know exactly how she would name her little foal. “Lila, your name is Lila,” said her mama. “Lila, please meet Liza,” Libby said one day.
Lila had looked up at the person standing next to her and was a little skittish for a moment but then nuzzled her nose up against the hand of the cowgirl who was patiently standing there looking at her. Lila saw that the eyes of the cowgirl were full of water or something and saw that her face was wet.
“I might have to clean her just like Mama cleaned me,” thought Lila, and she walked over to the girl who had knelt down and Lila promptly began to lick the wetness off her face.
“Oh my goodness Lila, I’m Liza and I love you to pieces already and will take care of you forever,” she had
said, squeezing Lila and petting her. Then Liza had stood up to pet Lila’s mama.
“Libby, she is beautiful. And I can see you are a good mama already,” said Liza. Liza threw her arms around Libby’s neck and took an intake of breath, as her face pressed against Libby’s. Libby turned her body to curl up against Liza.
“Thank you,” said Libby. “I’m a little tired after all of these months of carrying her around and I get the feeling already that motherhood itself will also be exhausting sometimes,” she said.
Later that day was the first time that Lila had met the doctor who had come to check on the newborn foals at the ranch. And that was the day Lila met little Beata too. They were born a few days apart and Lila was younger than Beata, which meant that over time, Beata was like a big sister to Lila.
As Liza stood at the pasture gate with the halters, Lila realized she knew the doctor already and was looking forward to seeing her again today. The veterinarian was a very nice hardworking lady and each time she came to the ranch, she drove up the lane, said hello to people and horses and started right in on her work. Liza had spent a lot of time explaining to Lila that today’s visit might be a little different. Today she would be getting special vaccinations to keep her safe from diseases that can hurt or kill horses, especially diseases that occur from a mosquito bite. Liza also taught Lila not all people know that some horses can talk, so that no matter what, Lila could only make horsey noises today during the visit.
The veterinarian arrived right on time today and got out her needles and supplies and walked over to the area at the ranch reserved for visits from the doctor. At this ranch, they had a special area dedicated for visits from the veterinarian and from the farrier. It was in a separate part of the stable that was out of the way, with plenty of room to maneuver the horses. Liza and her family kept that area
wide open without anything hanging on the walls or stacked in the aisleway. Horses could sometimes get spooked for all kinds of reasons, and it was important to keep objects out of the way so they didn’t hurt themselves.
In this part of the stables, there were even dedicated electrical connections and a supply of water for these important professional visitors to the ranch. The veterinarian needed electricity to plug in equipment such as the ultrasound, X-ray equipment, clippers and even for a special stall-side centrifuge to separate blood that was drawn for various reasons. The farrier needed electricity to plug in pieces of equipment for preparing and shaping shoes for the horses. Both the veterinarian and the farrier needed water to wash up after visits to maintain biosecurity as they traveled from farm to farm for their work.
This area also had easy access for them to park their vehicles so they could get in and out of the ranch without being blocked by horse trailers or supply trucks.
On this day, Liza had already walked into the pasture and brought up the horses that needed their shots. Some needed shots because they traveled, some needed shots because this was their first time ever for them, but today, all of these horses were getting shots and a onceover by the veterinarian to make sure they were healthy. Especially the foals.
“The metal thing around her neck always tickles my belly,” Lila whispered noisily to Libby.
Liza smiled as she listened to the noisy whispers. “That’s called a stethoscope,” whispered Liza. Then she leaned over to Lila. “Do you want me to ask the doctor to go extra slow with you today?” asked Liza. “Yes please. And thank you,” said Lila. “Stay close to me little one,” whispered Libby. Whenever Liza needed to take Libby out of the pasture, Liza led Libby in her halter and Lila would follow right along on her own. Foals could usually be trusted to
stay right by their mamas so Liza only put a halter on the mares. The foals would follow right along.
But today, Liza had put a small halter on Lila and clipped the lead rope to it. “I’m in training so I get to wear a halter today,” said Lila proudly. “Isn’t that right, Liza?” she added.
“Shhhhh, silly,” said Liza. “But yes, that’s correct,” she whispered.
The veterinarian ran her hands over the bodies of the foals and took a look at how they stood to check their conformation. She opened their mouths and looked at teeth and then took a look at their ears, necks, bellies, legs and hooves. This was the first time Lila was getting her temperature taken, but she was a good little foal about it because Liza had already trained her on this part of a doctor’s visit.
The next part was totally new for Lila. Shots!
Young foals got their shots several months after they were born. She stood nicely next to her mama and watched as her mama got her shot and then stood as the kind veterinarian told her what she was about to do. Lila noticed the veterinarian was gentle when she stuck her with each needle, and felt the doctor’s warm hand as she rubbed her and gave a little pat each time.
“There we go, all set,” the doctor said, as she rubbed Lila and patted her again. Libby nuzzled the doctor who gave Libby a kiss on the nose. “You’re my favorite,” the veterinarian whispered to Libby. Libby closed her eyes, with her beautiful long eyelashes, and the doctor knew that all was well with these two.
After completing her work with each of the other horses, including Lila’s friend Beata and her mother Belle, the veterinarian stood, hands over her head and gave herself a little stretch, then did a few easy yoga movements to keep herself limber.
“I started pretty early today,” she explained, “and it’s going to be a long one with lots of driving. It never hurts to stay limber,” she said with a smile.
Liza nodded and gave the doctor the check that her mother had given her that morning. Her parents taught her to stay on top of all expenses. Budgeting on a ranch was very important. Liza knew to plan for upcoming expenses and to make sure to pay people on time.
“Thank you,” said the veterinarian. “But I think we still aren’t done yet. I’m just thinking, I know we still have two more to vaccinate. Would you like to draw up the vaccines and give them their shots?” she asked Liza.
“You bet,” Liza said with enthusiasm.
For the past year, Liza had been a part-time intern for the veterinarian and had often traveled on farm calls with her to take care of other animals. Liza had learned how to prepare needles and medicine for the doctor during visits, and to assist with certain procedures like ultrasounds and Xrays. But here on the ranch, for her own horses, under the doctor’s strict and watchful eye, Liza had occasionally administered shots by herself. Liza’s hand was steady and her demeanor was calm. She especially enjoyed learning about all equine health issues and was a fast learner. Veterinary medicine was very interesting to Liza so this internship was invaluable.
Today, she drew up two vaccines and walked over to the first horse. Liza ran her hand down the neck of the horse to the muscular triangular area that was best for intramuscular injections. She patted the horse and after an affirmative nod from the doctor, pushed the needle in with a jab. She retracted the plunger a bit looking for blood in it, and not seeing any, pushed the plunger in until all the liquid was injected. Finally, she pulled the needle out carefully. “There we go,” she said with a pat on the horse. “One down, and one more to go,” she said.
“Thank you,” she said to the doctor, as she injected the second horse. “It’s good for me to learn these skills.”
“You bet,” the veterinarian replied as she secured the used needles, then washed up, loaded her gear into her truck and headed out.
But before she left, she whispered to Liza, “The fillies were perfect today. You and the mares are training them well. No one said a thing,” and she winked.
Liza smiled at their little secret.
Two by two, Liza walked all the horses back to their pastures. Today however, she separated Libby from Lila and separated Belle from Beata, walking the two mares into their pasture while leaving the fillies carefully tied up at the stables. Instinctively, Libby gave a little prance in her step when she was led away from her filly. Lila made a little squeal as she stood tied up in the stable and started to prance and dance a little, nervously stepping from side to side as she tried to keep an eye on her mother.
Libby walked forward, but Liza could feel the slight hesitation in her. “Come on girl, walk with me please,” Liza said, giving a gentle but firm tug on the lead rope as she walked Libby back to the pasture. “They are just fine,” Liza said as Libby straightened out and stopped trying to look back at her foal. Belle on the other hand, heard the little squeal of Beata and kept her head looking straight ahead as she walked on the other side of Liza, her head low and relaxed. “Libby, the fillies are just fine, you know,” Belle said to her friend. “Walk on,” she added. “They’ll be okay.”
Liza, Libby and Belle walked to the pasture, with Libby becoming calmer the more she walked due to Liza’s steady pace and demeanor. “You did very well for this first real separation from Lila,” Liza said to Libby. “This went nicely,” she added. “Other times I’ve brought Lila into the arena with me and you could still see her. This is the first time you really haven’t been able to keep your eye on Lila and I think you handled this beautifully,” Liza reasoned.
“Although I can still hear Lila making little noises calling for you.” They all heard yet another noise from the stables. “Well, I can certainly hear Beata calling for you Belle!” Liza said to Belle. “Let’s keep walking and the calmer we are, the calmer the fillies will be. They will figure it out.”
Back in the stable, Lila and Beata weren’t really sure what was going on so the dancing and stepping from side to side continued for a little bit.
“Maybe she forgot us,” Lila said, standing sideways to look back at her friend. Beata had been tied across the aisleway from Lila so she had to swing her little body to the side in order to get a look at Lila. Then she turned to face the wall again. “You are supposed to stand straight on, you know,” said Beata. “Not to the side. That’s not how we were taught,” Beata reminded Lila.
Lila moved her body back into position and faced the wall. “Like this?” she asked her friend. “I’m not going to turn around to look,” Beata retorted. “You know how to stand. You know she is only taking our mamas back to the pasture. Liza will come back for us,” she added.
Still, they each made a few additional little squeals and other noises, calling out to their mamas, and after a while they both decided that this was silly to act scared and anxious and they finally stood quietly, exactly as they had been taught.
After a few minutes, one of them spoke. “I think we have done a good job, all things considered,” said Lila to her older friend.
“So do I,” said Beata.
“Let’s continue to stand quietly and face forward like we’ve been taught,” said Lila. “I have a feeling, we will get an extra rub and pat from Liza if we do that,” she added.
About thirty minutes later, Liza walked back into the stable and undid first Lila then Beata’s lead ropes. She gave them each a good rub on their necks then rubbed their
withers and then gave each of them another scratch or two up and down their necks.
“Good girls,” Liza said. “You did very well.”
As they walked to the pasture beside their young cowgirl mistress, they each did a little dance for just a moment. It wasn’t out of nervousness or anything like that, but out of pride at a job well done.
THEY USE WORDS?
After Liza brought the horses back into the pasture, she watched the foals run and play, then flop down exhausted in the grass. The way they laid down, their little bodies were nearly invisible in the grass. From a distance, they could barely be seen. Occasionally, an ear or two stuck out as it moved and turned, listening it seemed even as the young foals dozed.
Then Liza went and sat down on a nearby boulder. During her homeschooling, she learned that the Ice Age had moved lots of rocks and boulders of all sizes in different directions, and based on what she could see of this boulder, it seemed like an Ice Age type of boulder that probably came from miles away. Every time she got near it, she would look at it this way and that way and try to see if she could determine if it actually looked like something.
One time she thought it was the head of a falcon. Looking at it from a different direction, she thought she saw a tiger! She never seemed to come to any conclusions on what the boulder looked like but she always enjoyed sitting on it every now and then while watching the horses.
Today she sat on the boulder and found her thoughts looking back at some important moments in her own young life.
Two years ago, everything was different for Liza and her good friend and companion, her sorrel horse Libby. “Back then, lots of things were different,” thought Liza, as she rearranged herself on the hard boulder. Liza laughed at this thought of using the phrase ‘back then’ to describe her life, given how young she still was. She chuckled a little bit at the thought.
“But that’s still a good phrase,” she thought again. “Because I’m so different now!”
Two years ago, Liza was just a typical young cowgirl, who also had a very interesting life with her parents. They traveled a lot, and they competed with their horses, so that aspect of her life was not exactly typical, truth be told.
That winter two years ago, when Liza was twelve and Libby was ten, her family had traveled to Arizona to stay over for four months with some of their horses. Her mother had her paint horse Belle and her father had his dun horse Dude. One day, the family went out for a trail ride in the hills of Arizona, having chosen some trails close to where they were living and camping.
Liza and Libby went galloping on the trails and played a game where Liza pretended she and Libby were on the trail of some bad cowboys. As they pretended and ran up into the hills ahead of her parents, they went through a mysterious and unusual fog bank.
After they went through the fog bank, they soon learned something magical had happened. It turned out that they had traveled back in time to the 1880’s and had found themselves in another world deep in the mountains of the Swiss Alps.
They sure did have some extraordinary adventures. While there, Liza realized that her horse could actually talk. Libby could speak! And she realized that they both could completely understand one another using words.
They were in that world for many weeks taking part in all kinds of adventures. When Liza and Libby came back through the fog bank, to their own world in the present day, they realized that although they had been gone for a very long time, it seemed that her parents had only lost them for a few minutes.
At first, although Liza was incredibly happy to see her parents, she was very sad at the thought that coming back through the fog bank from that world would mean that she
and Libby could never speak to one another again. She was horribly sad and worried about that and almost didn’t return.
But had the magic followed them back into her own world?
After they had returned, and after Liza had said hello to her parents and had hugged them very tightly, she had sadly walked Libby down the trail back to their campground. They had walked slowly towards the family’s large horse trailer with the big living quarters and then Liza had brought Libby to the horse paddocks to dismount and untack her.
As she was taking off all of Libby’s tack and storing it in the tack storage area of the horse trailer, Liza stood for a moment with her hands on her hips and there were tears in her eyes.
Liza had dropped her head so that she was looking straight at the ground, and then the tears began to flow like a river of sadness.
Liza sobbed, “I sure am going to miss speaking with you, Libby-girl. I sure am going to miss saying things and having you talk to me. All those weeks that we were together in the other world as Travelers, when we went through the fog back, do you remember all those good times that we had? Remember how scared I was and how you comforted me? Remember how your hoof got injured and I took care of you?”
Then she thought about how beautiful everything was and all the people she had met. “Do you remember all the pine trees and the beautiful mountains and how we would gallop on the trails together? Do you remember meeting all of those wonderful people – Anna and her horse Abby, Meia, Balthis, their parents as well as the Watchmaker? I can’t believe it, Libby. This is the worst thing ever. It’s all over. I’ll still have good times with you but it won’t be the same. I’m just worried that we won’t have those amazingly good times anymore and that makes me very sad, sadder than you can ever imagine,” Liza said.
Her face was wet with tears. Libby stood there very quietly.
Liza’s mother and father had already unsaddled and curried Belle and Dude. They were in their paddocks eating some hay. Liza knew she was going to burst into tears again and again and might not ever stop. When her mother had called out to ask about coming in for lunch, Liza had quickly replied that she would be inside in a bit and then she felt the sadness begin to overwhelm her again.
What she didn’t notice is that while Belle and Dude had begun to eat some of their fresh hay, she didn’t realize that Belle was both eating and watching her interact with Libby.
As Libby stood quietly, Liza saw that her ears were moving so Liza knew that Libby was responding to her voice and to her sadness.
After all of these years together, Libby always knew when to stand especially quietly and patiently. But this time, Liza had wanted more from her friend. She had wanted more than just being close to her. She wanted to talk to her and to tell her everything that was in her heart and she wanted Libby to say something to her in return.
But she wasn’t saying anything.
So, the magic of the other world hadn’t followed them after all.
This horrified Liza because Liza’s worst fears were being realized. She had made the decision there in the mountains of the other world, in that field with the gorgeous rays of the sun shining all around them, that she would return to her own world, even though she was frightened that she would never be able to communicate with her beloved friend.
And so, here she was, back with her family, but she had lost her special enchanting connection with Libby. It was over. And she was very sad about it.
“Why isn’t she saying anything?” Liza cried to herself.
And then, “Libby, why won’t you say anything? Can’t you speak any more?” Liza had cried out loud. She began to sob even more profoundly and even more deeply. “This is just awful. This is the end of the world. Just like I predicted. I can’t believe it. I miss you so much. I can’t go the rest of my life never speaking to you, I just can’t.”
When she was finished storing Libby’s tack, she walked back to Libby, and placed her hands and arms across Libby’s warm back. Liza leaned forward and then she began to sob deep tears of grief. Her head was leaning into Libby’s back and while she sobbed, her head bounced a little against her mare.
When Libby felt the gentle weight of Liza leaning into her, Libby in turn leaned right back against Liza. They stood there for a while, and Liza could feel Libby’s warmth and she began to relax her breathing into the same rhythm of Libby’s breathing. It was soothing to her and she knew she was slowly acknowledging the fact that she was still a very lucky cowgirl with a very wonderful horse. Then she knew she should be grateful that she and Libby were back safely and soundly.
After a few moments, Liza straightened herself up, and with her hands by her sides, walked up towards the front of Libby and began to pet her nose. She stroked Libby’s nose, she scratched that flat patch of white hair between her eyes, she rubbed on her cheeks, and she straightened the forelock of hair between Libby’s ears. While Liza did this, Libby closed her eyes. Liza continued to cry but cried more softly now.
“Liza,” her mother called out. She had been inside the trailer and poked her head out the door. “Liza, when you’re all done, come on into the trailer and let’s have some lunch and you can tell us all about your adventures,” she
said. “Pumpkin, we want to hear all about your adventures with Libby, so go on now and finish up.”
“I will, Mama,” Liza said. “Be inside in a moment.” Liza’s tears started up again and became more pronounced as she picked up Libby’s brush and began to curry her mare.
She had a special rhythmic movement of stroking the curry brush with one hand in a sweeping motion, and then following along with her other hand on top in a swish and swoosh motion across her body. Liza would run the brush and then her hand all over Libby’s body. It was habit now.
Currying was good for a horse’s circulation and to remove dirt and grime, but Liza would also use that time to check for bumps, bruises or skin conditions while she worked. She did this both before and after riding each and every time.
After a while, the motions and the touch of Libby’s skin was so soothing to Liza that her crying completely stopped. As she continued to brush Libby’s body, Liza made the decision to become resolute in her determination to bear this new reality.
They had experienced something very special in that other world, and back here in their own world, things would have to go back to the way they had always been. As she realized this, Liza gave a little nod to herself and murmured, “I love you Libby-girl,” to her beloved friend.
The ensuing silence was deafening. All the while, however, Belle watched closely and waited.
Finally, the silence was too awful. “Oh for goodness sakes, Libby, just tell her that once you come back through, it’s all okay and that you two will still be able to speak with one another!” said Belle.
Liza dropped her curry brush and ran over to Belle. “I knew it! I just knew it!” cried Liza.
Belle shook her head and made a snort through her nose the way horses do sometimes. It made the same kind of noise as when people put their lips together and blow out, rumbling their lips.
“I thought I heard you saying something to Libby as we returned, and we were up there on the trails after we came back through the fog bank and saw Mama and Papa. I knew it! I knew it! Oh my goodness,” Liza cried again. She threw her hands around Belle’s neck. “Oh Belle, you too? You too?” she exclaimed.
Liza paused and got a thoughtful look on her face as she scrunched her eyebrows together.
Then Liza opened her eyes big and wide. “Then that means that Mama, I mean, well, that means that you and Mama, well, you and Mama … are you both Travelers too?” Liza’s voice trailed off as she looked at Belle, then back at the trailer where her mother had been leaning out the door.
“It most certainly does,” said Belle in a very happy voice. Belle paused as Liza looked at her inquisitively. Liza opened her mouth as if to begin to ask a question then she stopped. But she paused for only a moment.
“So, Mama was a Traveler too!” she exclaimed.
Belle politely cut her off by interjecting, “Yes Liza but that’s a story your mother will need to tell you,” Belle said, looking intensely into Liza’s eyes. “That’s not my story to share,” Belle added. “Let your mother find the right time to tell you everything she wants to tell you, Liza,” Belle said.
Then Belle looked over at Libby. “Seriously, you silly mare, you need to let her know it’s not over even when you come back!” Belle admonished.
Liza gave the paint another hug and a scratch on her cheek then kissed Belle’s nose. Then Liza ran back over to Libby, took off her halter and wrapped her arms around Libby’s neck and head and she leaned into her and began to laugh and cry, all the while with a huge smile on her face.
“Tell me it’s true, Libby-girl, tell me it’s true! Tell me that what Belle just said is all true!” Liza cried in an excited voice.
“Weeeeeellll,” said Libby in a lazy sort of tone, “I just needed to know that you would still take care of me and speak to me even if I didn’t speak back with words. I needed to know that you were going to be okay whether or not we could actually use words with one another. I’m sorry for making you wait so long,” Libby said a little bit sadly. She wasn’t exactly sad, but she realized that she had made Liza suffer needlessly and she had a little bit of remorse about it all right now.
“But yes, the enchantment follows all Travelers,” Libby added.
“Oh Libby,” Liza cried. “I love you so much. I love everything about you, even when you’re trying to teach me important lessons,” Liza cried out, squeezing Libby even more tightly.
Liza walked over to the paddocks and Libby followed her. Opening the gate, Liza gave a playful little swat on Libby’s rump as she dutifully walked into the paddock. “You silly mare,” Liza said, closing the gate and securing Libby’s halter to it. Libby immediately walked over to grab a big drink of water from her bucket hanging from its leather strap.
Liza made her way over to the hay storage area her parents had set up, and grabbing a flake, tossed it over into the paddock where it landed with a thump in front of Libby. “Good girl,” Liza said.
“Thank you, Liza,” Libby said.
Liza walked to the picnic table there at the campsite and climbed up on top of it. She sat there leaning forward casually with her elbows on her knees and her cheeks in her wrists as she absentmindedly tapped her fingers against her face.
Liza watched the three horses eating their hay and every now and then she saw Libby lift her head to look at her, as if she was checking to make sure Liza wasn’t sad any more. And Liza smiled.
So at this very moment, here in the present time, with Liza sitting on the big boulder, thinking back on those moments with Libby and Belle just after she had come back through the fog bank with Libby two years ago, she smiled, just as she had smiled two years ago in Arizona.
She thought about the past two years and the moment her mother had finally told her about her own story as a Traveler many many years earlier when she traveled with Belle to another world. Liza remembered listening intently as her mother shared every aspect of her story, or at least she thought her mother had told her everything, and then she remembered running out and hugging Belle, thanking her for taking such good care of her mother all those years ago.
And so here they all were today, two years older and wiser, with Libby as a first-time mother to little Lila.
“My mother is a Traveler with Belle. I am a Traveler with Libby,” Liza said. “But I surely didn’t realize that Lila was going to be able to speak either. How is it possible that both Lila and Beata can speak whereas Libby and Belle had to travel first to be able to speak, I wonder?” Liza said.
Libby lifted her head and sniffed the air, turned and glanced at Liza, then glanced at Lila who was by her side, and then dropped her head and kept on eating.
“The interesting thing is that Lila has never known life with her human in any other way. She thinks that everything is about an actual conversation where everyone understands words,” Liza mused.
And that’s why Liza spent so much time with Lila on non-verbal training and cues. Lila would begin to ask questions about their training sessions, and Liza would ignore her and focus on normal horse training skills with
her. Once she quieted down, Liza was always so pleased with how quickly Lila would focus and respond while staying quiet about it. “She may be a silly little foal, but she’s actually quite smart, just like her mother,” Liza often thought.
Liza continued to practice her horsemanship skills as she worked with and trained all the other non-speaking horses at the ranch. Oh, she still spoke to them, but she spoke to them in the way that all equestrians speak with their horses. She knew that horses understand the rhythm and the calmness of human words, and that they understand a tone of voice and can also feel heartbeats.
And there was something else Liza had realized over the past few years, which was that she was becoming a better trainer with all of the horses. She was listening to them, and reading their body language better, and she was watching their ears and head movements, and how they carried their body and positioned their hips. Liza wanted to keep her equestrian non-verbal skills as honed as possible.
And sometimes, when she was trail riding with Libby, they wouldn’t speak at all. It seemed that both she and Libby wanted to practice their skills of being together and understanding one another without words. It’s as though they both knew they wanted to keep their skills intact.
Even when they were getting ready to go into an arena to compete, they kind of made a decision that they would never use words. They decided that they were just going to continue to be a cowgirl with her horse, and to read each other’s body language and to feel the movement of one another.
This helped make Liza’s skills even better and it helped Libby to understand her young cowgirl even more completely.
But deep down, Liza was grateful that they were Travelers.
Because now, she could really tell her horse all of her secret dreams and thoughts and hopes and wishes. She could tell her horse everything and she loved that. And she now knew that Libby understood everything.
Liza and Libby. These two truly were the perfect pair.
CHAPTER FOUR
MAMA’S STORY
For a long time now, Liza had wanted to ask her mother a very important question. She was outside with her mother and the sun was shining and there was a gentle breeze. Liza heard the shrill shriek of a hawk or perhaps it was an eagle. She knew that meant a field mouse was about to be gobbled up.
"Mama?" Liza asked, hesitating ever so slightly in order to give her mother time to answer.
"Yes, Pumpkin," her mother replied.
"When I first came back through, you know what I mean, through the fog bank that is, I overheard you say, 'So for you, then, it was the Alps,' and ever since I heard you say that, I never knew precisely what you meant. Do you think this is a good time for you to explain a few things to me about you and Belle and your time as Travelers?"
Her mother looked up with a beautiful wide smile and said simply, "Well certainly!" Then she paused and added, "But the stories are sometimes better told when you're standing next to your horse. Belle and I have a special connection in a similar way that you and Libby are connected. And sometimes telling the story of your time as a Traveler is better when you're together with your horse."
Liza's eyes opened up wide when she heard her mother use the word ‘Traveler’.
"So, let's go over to the pasture, okay?" her mother asked.
It was about two years after that winter trip to Arizona. Liza had been meaning to ask her mother some detailed questions about her time as a Traveler, but was waiting for the right time. Other than the initial stories they had shared after Liza first returned from the other world, her mother had never really brought anything up about Liza's disappearance. Truth be told, Liza felt terribly uncomfortable about it all and needed to share and learn and discover the secret she knew her mother had been holding close to her heart. She wanted to learn her mother’s story as a Traveler.
She and her mother were so close, yet why was her mother so secretive about her own time as a Traveler? Where had she gone? For that matter, for how long had she been gone? Who had she met? What had her mother experienced when she went back in time to another world?
It was a summer day and Liza and her mother had been outside in the arena picking out errant stones that were in the arena dirt and later, they had worked together in their large garden picking some vegetables. They had just finished canning some of them, and after they had cleaned up in the kitchen they had walked back out to the garden for a quick look to see what would be ready next for canning. Liza thought this was just the right time to ask her mother some questions.
“Let’s go over to the pasture,” her mother repeated and they walked over to the horses. Their boots made a crunch crunch crunch noise in the pebbles of the drive as they walked side-by-side. Her mother opened the gate to the pasture and they walked in, closed the gate (because everyone knows that what you open on a ranch, you make sure to close), and they both walked over to Libby and Belle. Liza could feel the swish swish swish of the pasture grasses against her boots as she walked and she heard another shriek of yet another raptor. “Maybe they found a nest of mice!” Liza thought.
Looking into the pasture, Liza saw Libby and Belle off to the side of the other horses. Ever since Liza had come back through the fog bank with Libby, she noticed that Belle and her mare always stuck close together in the pasture. They seemed calmer and quieter and more peaceful in the
other's presence. Liza presumed they were connected now somehow even more so than ever.
Liza and her mother walked up to their mares. There was a pause in their conversation.
"I was already pregnant with you, Liza," her mother began.
Liza gasped.
Liza had been looking at Libby and was scratching her back. She kept her eyes straight ahead and though she paused in her scratching motions for only a moment, she promptly resumed. She almost cried out and wanted to ask questions, but something inside of her told her to wait and stay quiet and to let her mother's story unfold.
Even as Liza scratched Libby, Liza noticed that both mares had stopped moving about and looking for grass and were standing quietly. Their heads were up, eyes wide open yet relaxed and their ears were moving back and forth listening to every sound in the pasture and to the sound of their mistresses’ voices.
Belle took a step forward towards Liza's mother. Her mother had been looking out into the hills of their ranch. She had a faraway look in her eyes as if she was in a dream or as if she was mesmerized. She turned and looked at Belle and smiled when she heard Belle's footsteps. Belle closed her eyes and leaned in to nuzzle both Liza and her mother.
“That's a good girl," her mother said. "I know," said Belle.
Liza laughed. Her mother rolled her eyes in mock boredom and with a tinge a delightful sarcasm, then smiled and laid her hand on Belle's neck.
"The reason why I said, ‘I see it was the Alps for you’, is because some Travelers can cross oceans and some stay right here. For me, when I became a Traveler, it was back to the Rocky Mountains somewhere in Colorado. I think I went back in time to about the same time frame as you did when you went back deep into the Alps, but when I was a Traveler
with Belle, I stayed right here in the U.S. It was the 1870’s or 1880’s, I guess, I can’t recall. But I don't think I was gone as long as you were, but I sure did have some wonderful adventures. There was a gold rush going on, and a lot of people were moving across the country. It was an exhilarating time but it was also a very dangerous time," her mother explained.
Liza was wide-eyed. She had read many books about the Old West, and she had learned lots of things about what life in America was like back then, so if her mother said it was a dangerous time, then for sure, she had been in danger.
Liza knew about danger. One time on a trail ride, her family had encountered a mountain lion. Another time, it was a grizzly bear. She remembered that the horses, while well-trained and purposely exposed to lots of situations to keep them conditioned to be calm under pressure, she remembered being scared of being thrown off had Libby panicked and reared or bucked. Her mother and father had stayed calm, their horses Belle and Dude had stayed calm, and so Liza and Libby didn’t panic either.
Liza also knew that the problem of life in the Old West in the 1870’s wasn't just the concern of wild animals. Back then anything bizarre could happen and often did happen to people unfortunately. For example, a rider’s horse might break a leg, stranding the rider in a desert or deep in the woods miles and miles from other humans. The rider could fall and break his leg and if the horse ran off, that was that. Even more horrifying, Belle could have been hurt and died and Liza thought to herself, "Oh wow. What if Belle had died while Mama and Belle were Travelers? Would Mama have been trapped back in time?”
Liza understood some of the rules of being a Traveler. One rule was that horse and rider were connected as one pair. If one passed through the other had to pass through as well and at the same time. Liza shuddered at the
thought. For just a moment she thought what might have happened if her mother was trapped back then, pregnant with Liza. Would her mother have survived the pregnancy? Would Liza? People died so young in the late 1800’s. What if she or her mother had gotten sick with something that would kill at that time but was totally curable today? Liza shuddered at the thought.
Her mother began to speak again and Liza stopped daydreaming about what could have been. "Stay positive, cowgirl, stay positive. Focus," Liza said to herself.
Her mother continued, "Of course, it was absolutely fantastic to be able to use words with my horse, as you know firsthand.” Her mother began to stroke Belle's neck and her hand moved down to Belle's withers. Belle made an "mmmmm" noise, like a grunting kind of noise that always made her mother smile. Libby made funny noises when Liza petted her and Liza knew Libby liked being touched as well. Horses made lots of funny noises, she noticed.
"Oh yes, Belle and I had long conversations. And it was wonderful and incredible during those first few moments. You can understand those feelings, too, Liza, right? Can't you?" her mother asked.
"Yes ma'am. I do. Ohhhhh yes," said Liza, stretching out the words and laughing a little. She recalled how shocked she was when Libby first began to speak to her. And when she realized that they completely understood one another that was another shock. It was truly wonderful. Liza could not stop smiling at that memory!
"And so, here I was back in the Rockies in either the 1870’s or the 1880's I guessed and it was fascinating," her mother continued. "The way I found out where I was and what time period I was in, well, it was just incredible luck," she said, in a manner that seemed like she was both exasperated and exhilarated with this part of her story.
"What do you mean, Mama?" Liza asked. Liza was excited her mother was finally telling her the entire story of her time as a Traveler.
"When I passed through, I came across a stagecoach line and one of its stations. Can you imagine? Anyway, it was kind of an outpost. I met really incredible hardworking people who were working to build something for themselves. There were people from all over heading further west while others stayed on. In fact, there were people from all over the world who were coming by the outpost from all directions on their way to gold claims, land claims or to reconnect with family that had come west at some time or another. You know how your father and I have studied that time period in the history of the U.S. so you can imagine how surprised I was to find myself there and yet awfully intrigued to be in a place and in a time that I knew so well,” she said.
“Yes, Mama. I know that you and Papa are always reading everything you can about Colorado’s history,” Liza said.
“I saw my first sign of the Traveler at that outpost and learned what I was. I learned that I was called a ‘Traveler’," her mother said.
Liza said, "Oooooh," in a short breath almost like a sigh. She felt for the necklace that she always wore and her fingers quickly moved to caress the intricately carved
wooden disc that was hanging from the necklace. “The sign,” Liza murmured. “The sign of the Traveler.”
She always wore hers and she knew that her mother usually kept hers attached to Belle’s saddle on the saddle horn.
When Liza was given her own sign, she had kept it hanging securely from a leather strap attached to her saddle horn too but now, she preferred to wear it. She never knew if she would meet another Traveler and she always wanted to have it with her. Now she was thinking that if her mother had traveled back in time and had stayed right here in the U.S. perhaps someone might travel forward? The more she pondered this, the more Liza knew that she wanted to be ready.
"I met one particularly interesting Traveler while I was there," her mother continued, drawing out the sentence as though she was in a dream.
“Her face, what is she thinking?” Liza wondered. Then, in her youthful enthusiasm, she blurted out, "Me too, Mama. I met some wonderful people! While I was there, I was given a leather portfolio and some paper and pencils and I did all kinds of sketches of everything I saw and all the special people I met. Mama, I've been dying to show you this portfolio and all of my sketches. I’m gonna go get it!” Liza cried.
"Sure, Pumpkin, but first I want to tell you something else. I want you to know that it was all so fascinating and interesting and I think I would have stayed because I have
that kind of adventuresome spirit. I'm fearless you know," and when her mother paused, Liza found herself nodding in agreement.
"I'm fearless now too Mama," Liza burst out.
But her mother had more to say and Liza knew to quiet down for a moment. "I'm fourteen-years-old now, I’m not eight, and I'm better at being polite," Liza told herself, "even when I have my own stories to share!"
"Yes, in fact honestly, I might have stayed under different circumstances," her mother said. She had a wistful look in her eyes, as though when she was there, that she had encountered some kind of sadness or something painful. Liza looked on with compassion.
But then, Liza got frightened for a moment. This was almost too much to imagine as she listened carefully to her mother’s words and took time to analyze the expression on her mother’s face.
Was she saying she had considered leaving her father? This was almost too much to bear for Liza.
Then her mother perked up and announced, "Boy but Belle sure was a troublemaker. I know she wanted to stay and just go exploring and run all over, that's for sure," she said, scruffing up Belle's mane.
"Hey!" Belle exclaimed.
"Now shush," her mother said jokingly. Then she turned to look at Liza.
"But I had to come back. I was married, pregnant and already had a ranch here. I had every reason in the world to come back." And she smiled and put her arm around Liza and pulled her in close to her.
Liza loved hugs. Even as a fourteen-year-old, she loved hugs as much as when she was eight. Perhaps even more so now, and that was because she understood how much hugs really mean and how deeply they can be appreciated both to give and to receive.
"I wasn't sure about the timing of all the weeks that I was there but I did learn that the timeline of the life of a horse and her rider aligns together because they have become Travelers. Each horse connected to a Traveler ages more slowly. Which is wonderful, but I could not imagine staying there, even while having extraordinary experiences, then having a baby and then coming back to your father with Belle, a baby and all kinds of stories. Seriously!" her mother said laughing. “It was difficult because I wanted to enjoy the adventure, but I had the responsibility of being pregnant with you.”
She turned to look at her daughter. "I'm very glad you had the experience of going through, Liza, and I'm glad your experience as a Traveler was completely different from mine. I'm glad we can talk about these things and that we can talk about them with our horses by our side too."
By this time, little Lila had quietly wandered over and Liza noticed she had been standing there patiently and quietly, for once, listening carefully to the story unfold.
Suddenly, Lila felt like a mature little foal, and even though she knew she was rather young, she felt wise, as though she could feel things and connect with something that was very special. As she stood there politely, well, mostly politely because she nursed for a moment AND grazed for a moment too, suddenly she felt something pull at her.
"What was that feeling?" Lila asked herself. Then suddenly, "Ouch," she said aloud. "That's pain, I feel pain," Lila cried quietly as she stood next to Libby pressing into her. “Mama, something hurts!”
Libby's nose turned back to Lila in an arch and she said, "I felt it too, Lila. But it's okay.”
“Okay? Ouch!” said Lila again. “Ouch, Mama!” she cried. “This can’t be ‘okay’, Mama. What’s going on?”
Libby and Belle looked at one another and Liza put her hand on Libby then began to step forward to ask Lila
what she was feeling. “It’s a tingle, a pull and a stab all in one,” Lila explained.
“Something’s wrong,” Liza said, frowning. She looked at her mother who was also frowning.
Libby nuzzled Lila’s side and Lila relaxed a bit. “Lila, you are fine. Something is going to happen, that’s what it means, I’m quite sure of it. Let's be patient. If something is meant to happen, it will," Libby said.
Liza's mother cringed when suddenly she felt a sharp pain stabbing inside of her as well. But this felt like a stab into her heart.
“Belle do you feel it?” she asked then frowned when Belle nodded.
She looked over at Liza. Just a moment ago, they were both exhilarated at sharing these special stories but now she was alarmed upon learning that all of them were feeling these sharp pains.
Liza’s mother became even more alarmed when she saw Liza frown and grab her side. “Ouch,” said Liza. It was Belle who finally spoke up. "This is a very powerful experience that’s happening. We all feel something I believe, is that right?" Belle asked.
Beata had quietly come up and joined the group as well and had been listening patiently, until everyone began to feel the pain.
"It hurts," said Lila. “The pain, it’s almost pulsating now. It's coming and going," she added.
“Mama, we feel something painful and the mares and Lila feel it too. What is it? Is there something wrong with the horses? What’s wrong, Mama?” Liza asked.
Liza’s mother walked around Belle assessing her, then quickly assessed Libby and Lila.
Then, just like that, the pain completely stopped and everyone looked very relaxed and relieved.
Liza’s mother became thoughtful.
"Liza, I think you need to get ready. I feel that something has happened in the other world and you need to be ready," her mother said urgently. "I don’t know what it is, I don’t know what has happened and I’m not sure what any of this means. But I think you need to be ready. I think the Traveler network is calling to us,” her mother said.
“Get your things," she added.
Liza looked surprised.
"You knew?" Liza said.
"Of course, I knew," her mother said. These last few years, she had noticed that Liza kept a special pack ready that looked like a small ‘go bag’ to mount on the back of a saddle. Liza was always fussing over it and adding different things to it depending on the time of year.
"Will you ever tell me about the Travelers you met, Mama?" Liza asked.
As soon as she asked, Liza knew how her mother would respond. They had an excellent mother-daughter relationship and it seemed they could usually speak freely to one another, but her mother’s time as a Traveler always seemed off-limits.
“Why did this pain stuff have to happen now?” Liza thought. “Why now? Just when Mama and I were really talking about this, why the secrets?” As Liza thought about all of this, she instinctively knew what her mother was going to say.
"Let's save that for another time, Pumpkin.” Then turning to look into Liza’s eyes, she said, “Let me emphasize again that I'm very glad I came back. And I'm very happy you've had your experiences and that you came back. It’s very tempting to want to stay somewhere new and exciting. But I can tell you that it won't do any good to look for ways to be a Traveler. After you were born, I used to try to recreate the moment I was having when I went through. Belle and I took many trail rides trying to find a way to go
back. I felt like I had to know some things.” Her mother almost stuttered from excitement as she spoke. “I wanted to know some things and to finish some things. But... but ... there was no way to know how it ended, unless I could know in person. So you see..." she trailed off.
Liza touched her mother's hand. "It's not wrong to want to know they are safe too, Mama, whoever you met," Liza said. "I know how you feel Mama," and she held her mother's hand. Her mother looked at her, and her eyes looked full of tears.
Suddenly Liza felt like a mature young teenager. She knew that she was young in spirit, yet also very wise in her heart.
“I hope sometime you can tell me everything, Mama,” Liza said tenderly.
Her mother hugged her like she had never hugged her before. It was a tight squeeze and Liza almost couldn’t breathe.
“Great, a stabbing pain in all of our sides now I can’t breathe,” Liza teased. Then she smiled and laughed a bit at the irony as her mother chuckled and pulled away.
"Okay, so I need to break some of the tension here," said Belle. "Doesn't matter what we are feeling now or what we felt a few moments earlier, all we know for a fact is that the pains have subsided for each of us, and that we don’t know specifically what any of it means.”
It took the foals to truly break the tension of the past few minutes.
Easily distracted, Beata began to hop about and flick and flop her tail. Lila joined her and began to hop about and jerk her head and wiggle her ears. Then they both did little
starts and stops at running and skidding around in the grass amongst the flowers.
Belle had followed her foal a few steps deeper into the pasture and then dropped her head and began to graze. Libby had stayed and stood by Liza with her head held high. Her ears moved forward, then backward and occasionally, one ear was forward and one ear was to the side.
As she watched the foals, Liza's mother smiled and squeezed her daughter's hand then began to head back to the garden.
But she paused.
Liza’s mother turned and walked back to Liza almost immediately after releasing her from the hug. She held her daughter by her arms and looked at her. She shook Liza very gently for emphasis.
“Stay ready, Liza. It could happen at any moment. I never found a way back, but I believe something important is happening because we all felt it. The Traveler network across all worlds is very strong, Liza. Stay ready. You are old enough that I won’t worry too much. But be ready and make smart choices when it does happen,” her mother said.
Then her mother did a quick but loving shake of Liza’s arms a second time, like a final decision had been made in her mind and she turned and walked away.
As her mother walked back to the house, Liza stood there, incredulous. This was a lot of information to process. She reached her hand out and sure enough, she felt Libby’s body and she wrapped her arm up and under Libby’s neck to hold her close.
After a few minutes, Libby said, "I would like to go back. And I'm ready when you are, Liza."
"Always up for an adventure, aren't you girl!" Liza exclaimed.
"You have people to see and I have horses to see," Libby cried out and made a whinny of excitement that you could hear several valleys away.
CHAPTER FIVE
HURRY, MARCEL! HURRY!
The large mountain horse was moving quickly, steadily climbing the hills and mountains of the valley where the young girl lived in a chalet with her brother, mother and father.
Theirs was a modest chalet, and they had sheep and cows and lived nestled in a pretty mountain hamlet. Their animals grazed in steep pastures up in the hills of their little valley and the girl's older brother tended to them.
Marcel was a small but powerful mountain horse, a working horse actually, strong in stature and kind and wise in nature, with a light-colored coat of dense hair. He was a
Swiss Freiberger and these horses have always had an illustrious history including use in both war and peace.
Right now, this one wasn’t hard at work on the family farm. Today, he was being used for a very urgent mission.
He was moving as quickly as he could, carrying the young girl directly on his back. She had left the chalet without taking a moment to grab any supplies and she had left without even putting a saddle on Marcel.
Fortunately, she wore a heavy dark green woolen cloak to brace herself against the cold mountain air of the Alps.
Marcel had tried to plead with her about the benefits of taking a moment to gather some supplies for her journey, but the girl, Meia, did not reply. He knew that some horses could speak with their riders, because he had heard it for himself, but his connection with the girl Meia wasn't in that way and so no matter what he tried to tell her, she did not understand.
He knew what had happened. He always knew what was going on. Meia spoke to herself sometimes and finally, one day, he had heard Meia urgently calling out to her mother that she had to go and that she to go immediately.
Marcel had been relaxing in their small pasture after a day of hard work. Meia's mother was nearby working in their large garden when she heard Meia cry that she had to go NOW.
Mountain life was a beautiful life, scenery wise, but it was a hard life. There was always lots of manual work to do and horses like Marcel helped and worked nearly every day. His was a good life, however, and he knew that. Some working horses had cruel owners, but his family was kind to him. They understood that he wanted to work hard for them and so when he did, they took even more special care of him. Each rewarded the other with kindness and hard work and devotion.
He could not speak to them in words that they could understand, but he knew they took good care of him and that was enough. So, he took good care of them too.
"Hurry, Marcel, hurry!" pleaded Meia. "We have to find the opening, we just have to. We have to get there in time. The situation is desperate!" Meia cried. “Please Marcel. Hurry!” Hours earlier, Meia had simply called out to her mother that she was leaving and before her mother could reply, Meia had jumped on Marcel and urged him on as fast as she could.
They climbed higher and higher up the little trail, at first barely wide enough for a cart, and here, it was only wide enough for one horse. Up where they were, up much higher, everything was quieter. Though the pine boughs rustled in the trees, thanks to occasional gentle breezes, there were few sounds in the woods today.
And that was why Marcel could hear that tears were forming in the words of his young rider, as she pleaded with him to hurry. He really was moving as quickly as he could. He had no other burden on his back except for his small rider, this young girl of about fourteen. But the going was
uphill, up and up and further and further into the mountains and the going was tiresome.
Meia was somewhat petite but she was no longer a little girl. Her brown hair was loosely braided into one very long braid down the center of her back. Today she wore a blue kerchief tied over her head and she was grateful for the warmth it provided.
She was both lithe and muscular, which came from being a hard worker at her small family farm. In addition, she often helped her mother prepare many of the goods that the family sold down in the villages. Her father had a vibrant woodcarving business and when she wasn’t taking care of the animals or working in the garden, she helped with the initial rough carving of some of her father’s more intricate wooden creations which he then completed.
She also helped her mother make the large wheels of cheese and many different kinds of dried and cured foods, much of which the family sold to people in the lower villages.
"I must move more quickly," Marcel said to himself, breathing heavily and so he urged his legs and body onwards, climbing ever higher as he followed the trail into the mountains.
Pine trees were everywhere and he could smell their exhilarating scent. He was in good shape from all of his hard work at the farm and from climbing mountain trails to transport goods and supplies for the family. But this was much harder for him. His nostrils flared from the exertion.
"Big thick horses like me don't climb mountains," he said almost grumbling. Then suddenly realizing that he was complaining, he thought about the reason for Meia’s pleas, and he was embarrassed.
"Alright, stop it Marcel!" he said to himself finally. "We have an urgent situation and I need to help in every way that I can.” And so, as Meia pleaded for speed, Marcel gave her every effort he could possibly give.
His powerful legs climbed as he put one hoof in front of the other. He plodded and sometimes leapt, dolphin-like, as he climbed the ever-steepening trails. Meia was crying out in her passion to get up the mountain before it was too late.
“Hurry, Marcel, please hurry!” she cried once again.
Meia leaned forward and hugged Marcel’s neck, hoping that the shift in her body would give him the suppleness to move even faster.
"She doesn't know I'm doing this, she doesn't know," Meia cried. She wrapped her cloak around her more tightly. The mountain air was crisp on this day and turning colder.
She often ran around and worked at their small little farm in the valley in bare feet, but today, she was glad for shoes. "My toes would be frozen with this cold air," she thought.
Marcel could still feel the passion in her voice and the tension in her body. She clung to him and urged him on with the movement of her body and with her legs pressed against him.
She leaned forward even more to help him balance himself better and she clung to his mane as he moved. Meia was an excellent rider. Some would call her a natural. This was a race against time and she knew it. They both knew it.
"There, in the pine trees, up ahead!" Meia cried. "I see light! Marcel, can you see it?"
She paused.
“This must be the place!” Her voice cracked from the urgent passion in her cry.
"Yes, I can my dear one. I can see the light between the pine trees. Yes, I can," Marcel said, even though he knew she did not understand him.
Nostrils flaring, sweat pouring from his neck and body, his legs aching, he cried to himself, "For Abby, I must get up the mountain for Abby!"
CHAPTER SIX
BETWEEN THE PINE TREES
After that poignant moment with her mother, Liza found herself somewhat confused with all of the new information she had just learned. She remained mildly dejected that although her mother had just shared a lot, Liza was quite certain that her mother had decided not to share her entire story as a Traveler.
How long had her mother been gone was the big question on Liza’s mind. “When I went through, I was gone for many weeks but here in this world, it was only fifteen minutes or perhaps an hour,” Liza thought. “From what Mama was describing, she actually spent a lot of time there after she went through to the other world because it sounds like she got to know many other people during her time in Colorado,” Liza thought, as she scrunched her eyebrows together and pursed her lips.
“Was Mama gone for months when she went through? And where did she pass through? Did she pass through here in Virginia? Who did she meet there?”
She pursed her lips again. “I guess Mama is allowed to have some secrets,” Liza said to Libby, who was still standing beside her.
Belle and Beata had stepped away looking for grass and after nibbles at some pasture grasses and then filling her belly with mother’s milk, little Beata flopped down to the ground and basked in the sunshine.
Liza said, “I think a few of you lazybones need some tuning up and lots of saddle time so I’d best get to it.” She walked back to the stables, pulled out some halters, and came back and caught a few of the horses in one of the pastures and brought them up to the arena.
Their arena was beautifully groomed. Her father insisted on that. Every single day, without fail, no matter how busy he was, he made sure the arena was properly groomed. He knew, as every good equestrian did, that the only way to get good solid safe training from horses was in an arena that had good ground and that was groomed properly.
Good ground was a complete waste if you didn’t groom it correctly her father always said. “If you let the ground get hard, Liza,” he explained, “those horses of ours will be smacking their legs into rock-hard ground which isn’t natural for them considering the work we ask them to do. So remember that. Always keep the ground worked up properly. No matter how tired you are, no matter how busy you are, if you want to train your horses in the arena, make sure the ground is prepared correctly.”
Liza silently thanked her father for grooming the arena for her work today.
For today’s sessions, she decided to put a few horses on the lunge line to get some energy worked out of them. She unhooked the lead rope and attached the thirty foot lunge line to the halter of a big roan that was putting on too much weight, and signaled for him to start to walk in a circle around her. She held the line and stood calmly in the
middle of his circle. She lifted her left hand up and away from her, and holding the rest of the line in a wrapped hanging circle from that same hand, she took about five feet of it in her right hand and began to spin the end of the line by her side.
It made a kind of delicate ‘whoosh’ sound as it twirled.
This encouraged the roan to start to walk. After about four circles of calm walking, she changed her body position and this caused the roan to change the direction of his circle around Liza. So, at first the roan walked counterclockwise, and then after Liza switched hands with the line and gave him the signal, he paused, turned and walked clockwise.
“That’s it, nice and easy boy, nice and easy,” she said. The roan tossed his head slightly, displaying his feistiness, and Liza said, “Easy.” Picking up on Liza’s calm energy, he straightened up, relaxed and continued walking.
Making a little clicking noise with her mouth, this encouraged the roan to go up into a gentle trot. She kept him at the trot for about ten circles in one direction and then changing her body position and switching hands with the line, she asked him to change his direction.
She repeated these motions a few more times until she felt the gelding was all warmed up. “Okay boy, let’s have you move a little faster.” With a kissing ‘smooch’ noise of her mouth, this encouraged the roan up into a lope.
He tossed his head again and began to pull on the lunge line as he tried to step away from Liza. But with gentle tugs on the line, Liza eased him towards her and redirected his energy so he stayed loping fluidly in his circle around her.
“Easy there. Not too fast. Easy,” Liza said, with a calm tone. The roan responded by moderating his pace and remaining at a nice easy lope.
“You look good,” Liza said, “but you have a bit of a belly still and we need to work on that this month!”
Liza asked the gelding to change directions a few more times and she also gave him the command of, “whoa!” to get him to come to a complete stop. She continued to ask him to change directions and a few times she had him stop and then walk directly towards her to stand in front of her. She would turn and walk away, and he calmly followed. She would step forward and a bit sideways, into his shoulder, and he would turn on his hind end as he moved stepping sideways from her yet remaining in a circle as he moved.
“That was very nice,” she said to him, rubbing and scratching his cheek. Moving her hand down to his nose where she gave him a little rub on the soft part, next she slid her hand to scratch underneath in the area where the halter was connected to the lead rope. Then she petted him along his cheek once again and ended with a nice stroke along his neck and then down along his body.
She brought her hand gently to his nose once more and felt the whiskers there as he gently flared his nostrils, breathing in her scent. She listened to his breathing for a moment. She was calm. And he was calm which was nice. The breath on her hand felt warm and comforting.
“You really worked up a bit of a sweat today, boy, so let’s rub you down and get you rinsed off before I put you back into the pasture,” she said to him.
Liza brought out three more horses and she worked with each one a little differently. One was also feeling a
little frisky so she had him work a bit harder before she saddled him up and got on his back. This one needed some work on how to properly back up and come to a complete stop. She spent extra time with him and maintained her patience even when he began to frustrate her.
As for the two other horses, she was able to saddle up and get right on and warm them up while she was in the saddle with them. Each time she warmed up a horse, she had it do exercises with her in one direction and then in the other, and when she was done with everything, she cooled each horse off by walking it for a while.
Another feisty one also needed to be rinsed off after his workout because he had gotten himself so worked up with quite the lather of sweat on him. Before the rinse, Liza knew she needed to keep him going for a while until he relaxed even more. Then she rewarded him by giving him some different tasks then slowed him down. She gave him a nice pat on his rump and then a rub on his withers and told him he had been a good boy.
The mares with foals had already been restarted on their exercises a few weeks ago. Working with a mare and her foal was fun. Each foal would naturally follow behind its mama when the mare was brought out of the pasture.
From a distance, it was kind of funny to watch. Liza would calmly lead a mare by its lead rope and ambling along behind – sometimes hopping or trotting or walking, getting distracted then trotting quickly to catch up – her foal would follow along.
Younger foals were surprisingly both shy and adventuresome. Some needed to stay practically glued to their mother’s side while others would straggle behind and suddenly pick up speed when they got too far away and felt they were being left alone.
“I’m coming, Mama!” Beata cried out one time to Belle when she had lagged behind but then hastened to catch up while Liza led her mother.
Another time, when Liza had Libby and Lila in the arena, Lila was so eager to grow up she was asking all kinds of questions and was curious to learn just when Liza would begin to ride her.
“Oooooh, when will I get my own saddle?” Lila had asked her mother. “I’d like one with pink suede on it,” she gushed.
“That’s up to Liza but it won’t be for a few more years, that’s for sure,” Libby told her. “Just go off into that other part of the arena while Liza and I get some training done here, would you please Lila?” Libby asked her little foal.
Liza wasn’t always training horses in the arena. Their lush Virginia ranch had several hundred acres with miles of trails throughout the property and some horses just needed time on the trails as part of their exercises. She took horses out onto different parts of the ranch based on what they needed.
Some needed to stretch out and trot for a while so she took easier trails along the fence lines. Some needed work on coordination and climbing, so Liza would take those horses on a trail that wound up and over some hilly parts of their land.
But her favorite thing was to pick any direction, any direction at all, and just get on Libby and ride. Now that they could speak to one another, sometimes they talked a lot when they were off on trail rides.
Shortly before Libby foaled, Liza stopped riding her. She had gotten so big and wide that the saddle did not fit properly. Libby got plenty of exercise just being a horse in the pastures so near the end, and shortly after Lila was foaled, Liza didn’t ride Libby.
But now it was time for trail rides and to practice separating the mares from their foals. Liza would take Belle out for short rides, leaving Beata behind. The filly didn’t like that at first, that was for sure.
A few times, Liza went on rides with her mother, so Lila and Beata would both be left behind on their own.
Her mother would smile a little smirk as if to say, “Are the foals trying to guilt us into returning?”
One time, her mother turned her head and hollered back to the foals, “Begging won’t work you know. We will be back, you silly foals!” Then Liza and her mother would take their trail ride and return to two completely relieved little foals, waiting patiently at the gate to the pasture.
“Mama is back! MAMA!” Lila would cry out.
“It really is too much,” Libby said one time to Liza. “She is independent but still seems a little needy.” Liza had just gotten off Libby and was beginning to untack her.
“Are you saying you want me to take you out more frequently and for even longer periods of time?” Liza asked her friend.
“She’s ready,” Libby replied simply and stood patiently while Liza curried her.
It was about a week after that trail ride, when Libby had told Liza that Lila was ready to be left alone, that Liza decided to take action on this idea.
It was near the end of her day, and she was puzzled because that sharp pain that they had all felt had returned. Liza was feeling the pain again, and this time it was more intense.
She knew what she needed to do. The pain inside of her was like a throb most of the time, but it was still a sharp pain.
"Libby-girl, I'm going to grab my big packs and tie them on to you," Liza said.
"I'm ready," Libby said.
As Liza ran into the house, Libby called to Lila and waited until the little filly ran and hopped and skidded around in the grasses before she came to a halt in front of her mother. Libby kind of shook her head at all of this and sighed. "Foals," she said.
"Mama," said Lila. "I'm here. I've been exploring," she cried out with glee. “First I went down to the little stream and watched the tadpoles swimming down deep in the water. Then I followed some butterflies up to the top of the far hill. But then I got scared and I ran back here as fast as I could,” Lila said breathlessly.
"Well that independence is a good thing, because I’m going to ask you to do it again,” Libby said, looking down at her foal. Lila’s happy and proud expression suddenly morphed into one of puzzlement.
Libby continued, “Right now I want you to listen to me carefully, Lila. Liza and I are going on a little trail ride in a moment. Actually, it won’t be a little trail ride. It might take a while longer than usual. I know that sometimes you come along with us because as a young foal, you had to."
Lila nodded.
"But today, I need you to stay behind. Stay with Beata and Belle, please," Libby said.
Lila was confused. Neither she nor Liza had ever made a big deal about separations before. Liza always just got on Libby and left for a little while. “What’s going on?” Lila thought.
She didn’t ask her mother anything, however. Instead, she said simply, "I will, Mama. I will stay right here."
She turned to walk around behind her mother and as she did, Lila muttered to herself, "I sure won't," she said. “I am so NOT going to stay here,” she muttered mischievously.
And then Lila sighed. "I'd better listen. Mama always tells me important things and teaches me important lessons so I'd better listen, I suppose," sulking as she said this.
It took Liza a little while to get Libby tacked up. She attached the special pack that she had kept at the ready and she packed food and snacks for herself as well as bottles of water. From a distance, Lila could see all of this and as she looked between the rails at her mother tied up near the
tack area, she realized that something different was happening today.
“This is not a simple trail ride,” Lila huffed.
Lila watched everything but concluded, “I have to listen to Mama.”
Liza and Libby began their trail ride, each in thoughtful contemplation. Libby hadn’t said anything but that sharp pain had also returned for her and after watching Liza carefully, she knew Liza was experiencing the pain too.
Someone else had felt the pain. Liza’s mother watched from the window as her daughter headed off with Libby.
“She has her heavy pack strapped to the saddle,” her mother thought. “She’s leaving!”
Her mother ran to the door and put her hand on the doorknob in a panic.
Then she stopped.
“No. Liza has to do this. She has to go through and find the answers to some of her questions,” her mother thought, anguish showing on her face. “I have to let go. Libby will take care of her.”
As they walked away, both horse and rider were lost in thought. They usually chatted when they were on trail rides, but lately, their rides into the woods had often included longer moments of quiet time.
“Is Liza getting too old to be playful and have fun with me?” Libby thought. “I mean, she is only fourteen, so she’s young, but she is getting older. Can we still have fun together the way we always used to?”
But today, it wasn’t playfulness that was on her mind. Libby knew today’s ride was different and not just because of the pack Liza had strapped to her saddle.
That day, after a little while, the more Libby thought about her mistress, the more she realized that even at fourteen, she was still playful and creative and liked to pretend a little every now and then. But the deeper they
went into the forests of the trails on this far side of the property, Libby realized that she missed the Liza who was young and always pretending to see mysterious things in the trees or to claim she saw elves and fairies dancing and scampering along the trail.
Sometimes when Liza used to describe what she would see, Libby would look off to the side and squint her eyes and try to see what Liza saw. Occasionally she almost thought she saw what Liza was describing, and she would play along. “Is that an elf, hiding over there Libby?” Liza once asked. Libby didn’t know what an elf looked like, but she played along and said, “It could be.”
During that family trip to Arizona, after they became Travelers in the other world by passing through and beyond the mysterious fog bank, Liza’s playful imagination increased even more as she recounted the real stories of their adventures in that other world.
Libby knew that what they had experienced was real. So that was true.
But what started it all was that they had been riding hard and fast along on the trails in Arizona pretending to chase cowboy outlaw bank robbers and that brought them into the other world.
After they returned, Liza had become more mature even as she retained her playfulness.
But one time – and Libby could not explain why she had ever done this - Libby admonished Liza and said she was being silly.
However Libby had only done that once. Because she liked knowing the Liza who had a rich imagination. And she was watching her little cowgirl grow up so fast that Libby decided that whenever Liza wanted to be playful, that she would be playful too.
Before they left today, Liza had fixed her hat on her head, triple-checked her tack and the packs, checked Libby’s cinch and bridle, and gathering the reins, had mounted up.
She sat tall in the saddle, pressed her heels down into the stirrups and swished left and right in the saddle to check the feel of the cinch and saddle pad and the feel of the saddle. Was it centered? Was is snugged up correctly?
Libby did a little stomp with her front left leg. Not in irritation or impatience to get going, but it was as though she wanted to be sure she was ready as well. Her tail swished and her ears moved when she heard Liza pull her jacket down into place and then felt her settle down into the saddle.
Liza gave a gentle squeeze through her legs along Libby’s body, lifted her hand forward with the reins in her hand, and Libby began to walk on.
Liza had secured the special bag with the extra supplies to Libby’s saddle and then rolled and also tied a second jacket and a bedroll to the saddle. It wasn't too heavy for Libby as they plodded along on the trails.
Liza seemed to be wandering aimlessly today, Libby realized.
Libby could feel that Liza had a mission, but was still unsure of which direction to take, so Libby just kept her movements steady and kept moving along. Liza's reins were relaxed and light on Libby's face but her body felt a little extra tense, Libby noticed.
"Liza, you feel all tense and I can feel it through the saddle. Go ahead and sit better. Sit more calmly, and relax a bit," she said kindly.
Libby took a few more steps while Liza thought about what Libby had just said.
"Ah yes, right you are. Done," Liza said and then laughed.
Their quest had truly begun.
They had headed out on a trail that headed deeper into the forest on their property. It was dense and thick there, with trees close to the edges of the trail. Liza always
kept her eyes peeled and knew that if there was any danger, Libby would alert her as well.
As Liza and Libby moved along, in fact there were other creatures in the woods moving along beside them. Unfortunately, Liza and Libby hadn't noticed. They were both lost in thought and these creatures could sense that and decided to take advantage of this situation.
So, they stalked Liza and Libby, with extreme stealth, just like panthers stalk their prey.
On this part of the ranch, there were four legged creatures that could be troublesome for sure.
Liza and Libby weren't paying attention however and under normal situations on trail rides, even here on the ranch itself, that could be dangerous if they were being stalked by something wild.
Mountain lions could be particularly dangerous and they both knew to keep watch and to listen carefully. So it was unusual that neither of them heard the noises of the creatures that had been stalking them.
That is because those creatures in the woods were being very quiet as they carefully made their way and kept Liza and Libby in their sights. They knew to remain quiet as they stalked the pair, evidently lost in thought and not paying attention whatsoever.
And then one tripped.
And with the jumble of legs, the other one tripped.
And in the woods, you could hear giggling and “shhhhhs” and more giggling and even more “shhhhhs” that were even louder than ever.
"Be quiet," whispered Beata in a very loud whisper.
"You be quiet," whispered Lila. "I invited you along to help me spy on them so don't ruin it by being noisy," Lila whispered loudly.
"You're the noisy one," Beata said, trying to outdo her friend. Then they both giggled.
"Oh fine," Lila said, “let's both be quiet.” And they spent a few confusing moments trying to untangle themselves, then got up and moved among the branches of low hanging pine trees and carefully picked their way along the wet mossy area as they stepped over rocks and stones.
"Ouch," said Lila, and she came to a halt. Looking ahead, in a clearing she could see Liza and Libby in the distance.
She saw them pause, turn to the right and then walk forward in that new direction. Lila could see that Liza and Libby had moved off the trail into the woods and were headed toward a stand of pine trees. Then Lila saw the light.
Liza and her mama were walking directly towards that light. Lila took a cautious step forward. And then a realization, more like a moment of clarity, instantly struck Lila.
Lila knew something was wrong. She was going to be left behind and she was not going to stand for it.
"No, Mama, NOOOO," Lila cried, and she let out a shrill and very pitiful whinny that was made as loudly as she could make it. "No, Mama, WAIT FOR ME! Mama!!! Wait!" screeched Lila, and she exploded out of the large stand of pine trees that had hidden the two little foals all this while.
"Wait!" she cried, running as fast as her little legs could carry her.
Beata was both startled and frozen in fear at Lila's explosive movements. What was happening? Why did Lila burst out of the underbrush and race towards her mama?
But Beata hesitated too long. Waiting during those split seconds, she watched in horror as Lila sped up her gait and began to catch up to them.
Beata was horribly frightened. Everything seemed to unfold in slow motion.
She stood paralyzed and watched, as all three had finally reached the thicker stand of pine trees just off the trail.
The light got brighter. There was a glow, then a halo encircled first Liza and Libby and then Lila. There was a flash of warm light.
Then suddenly, everyone was gone, and Beata realized that she was all alone.
“What had just happened?” Beata thought and stood trembling in shock. She shook her head and looked this way and that. “Lila?” she cried pitifully. “Lila!” she cried more forcefully.
Then she knew. She knew it for a fact. She was very alone and they weren’t coming back.
Beata was all alone.
"Nooooooooo!" Beata cried. "No!!!!"
Beata began to act on impulse and to act upon everything that motivates a young foal to protect itself.
Coming out of her hiding place, she ran as fast as she could to try to catch the faded images of Liza, Libby and Lila. But she was too late.
As she skidded to a halt, she looked down and clearly saw hoofprints leading in one direction, and then there were no more hoofprints after that. Cold shivers ran down her spine.
“Oh no!” she wailed.
Beata was alone, and deep in the woods. They had all disappeared and now she realized that she was horribly frightened.
She sniffed the ground where she saw the last of the hoofprints of her friend Lila and she looked at the last of the larger, shod hoofprints of Lila’s mama.
It was so obvious and the evidence was right there in the ground. The hoofprints simply disappeared. There was clearly a trail of the two horses and then the trail was no more.
After sniffing the hoofprints and looking this way and that way, Beata lifted her head
She looked and looked all around her.
There it was. It was right there between two pine trees that were slightly separated but arched towards one another.
For a moment Beata saw a bright light and then she saw it no longer.
Her heart raced. She was trembling. She was frozen in place once again. “I’m alone!” she cried.
She was frightened.
In fact, she was almost insane with fright. Nothing had prepared her for this kind of fear, for this kind of situation.
She dropped to the ground and curled herself into a tiny ball. She had seen fawns at the edge of the pasture along the edge of the woods do that to hide themselves.
But it was futile, this desire to hide herself. Lying down, she realized she was even more vulnerable.
But she was not a fawn, she was a foal!
A bird flew by and alighted on a branch near her. Sunshine shone through the trees onto the dirt where the hoofprints had ended and where Beata lay on the ground in her tight circle.
And that warmth on her back made her stand up and stand confidently as the sunshine warmed up her little body.
"Courage, Beata, courage. Run home. You are safe," Beata heard in the gentle breeze.
Beata lifted her nose into the air. Her nostrils flared, as though they were working hard to notice something.
“What?” she asked. Her eyes closed for a moment and she felt the beat of her heart calm down.
"Courage," she heard the voice say more clearly. "You know what to do. Your body knows what to do," she heard.
Beata let the sunshine continue to warm her body and that warmth helped to clear her thoughts.
As her mind cleared, she straightened up and as she did, she knew what had happened. Her friends were gone, through the trees, but it was very clear to her why they had disappeared.
She had heard the stories.
She was very young, but she knew exactly what had just happened to her friend Lila and to Liza and Libby.
The three of them had become Travelers.
"You are safe," she heard the voice in the breeze say for the second time.
"Come home," it said. “You are not a fawn, you are a foal. What do foals do so well? They run. So run, Beata, just run. Come home to me.”
Little Beata stood tall and proud and said, "I hear you Mama. I'm coming! I'm coming home!"
Beata picked up a run like never before.
All these months of goofing around in the pastures with Lila and the other foals was paying off.
Beata ran.
Beata ran and she ran and she ran.
Beata ran like a racehorse, the bloodlines of many strong mares in her lineage revealing themselves in this
glorious burst of speed and energy, legs galloping surely and swiftly over the trail, back to the ranch, and back to safety.
And all that energy and passion flowed deeply into the muscles this young little filly as Beata ran like the wind all the way back home.
CHAPTER SEVEN
WAIT FOR ME!
As soon as Lila exploded out of her hiding place and started running, she knew she was in for an adventure and she also knew that she was going to be in big trouble.
Less than one hour earlier, Lila’s mother had told her to stay back at the ranch. But her sense of mischievousness
and her sense of adventure was just too intense for this little foal.
"Beata, I have a secret," Lila had said to her friend.
"What secret?" said Beata, stepping closer to Lila and leaning in to listen more intently.
"I think my mama is going somewhere with Liza and it's a secret because she told me to stay back. She never goes anywhere without me," Lila said confidentially.
Lila interrupted her before Beata could finish. "So I think we should follow them. Look, Liza pulled out that special pack of hers that she always fusses with but never uses. Look over there. See? Something is going on, I know it! I just know it. Come on!" Lila urged.
Then Lila started to question herself and had that look on her face that was one of confusion. Beata saw that look and thought for a moment about all of this.
"Weeeelllll, actually, I'm not sure it's a secret. It is that time in our lives when mares start to spend less time with their foals because it's a good thing for us to learn to be even more independent you know. That's what I heard my mama telling Libby a few days ago," said Beata.
"I don't believe it," Lila replied haughtily, but was instantly regretful that she had not believed her friend. Beata was only a few days older than Lila but already seemed much wiser.
"No, it's true. Mama and Libby were discussing first time mother-mare stuff. Libby was asking my mama about things that start to happen at our ages. Things like the visit from the veterinarian especially to see us, the foals. She asked about that. Mama was also saying that this is about the age when Liza and her parents will start to separate us a little bit for longer periods of time so we can learn to be more independent," Beata said, in a kind voice.
She was starting to feel like a big sister to Lila even though they both knew she was only few days older. In the horse world, a few days was a lot of time however. So Beata was happy to be like a bigger sister to Lila from time to time.
"Weeeelll," sighed Lila, mimicking her friend. "I can see that, but still," she continued, "something is up. Liza has pulled out that special pack of hers, a jacket and that thing they call a bedroll and it’s all attached to Mama's saddle. Can’t you see it? Look there.”
The two little foals walked closer to the outbuilding nearest to the pasture, the place where Liza and her parents kept all their tack.
Sure enough, Liza and Libby had started to head out and the two little foals were shocked to see that indeed, Libby had that special pack of hers on the back of her saddle, attached to the cantle with leather straps.
And Liza had a jacket attached too even though she was already wearing one. It was summertime. They were going for a trail ride. Why the big pack and why the jacket - why did she need two jackets? And why was Liza in a longsleeved shirt?
"You're right! I agree. Let's follow them!" cried Beata.
And this is the conversation that had transpired between two naughty little foals back at the ranch, and who had found themselves hidden there in the woods within a big area of pine trees just off the main trail.
But that moment, Lila wasn't thinking back to the conversation at the ranch with little Beata. She just knew that it appeared her mother was leaving her, and she was having none of that.
So, she ran as fast as she could. She saw the light coming through the two pine trees that were bent together. Even as she ran as fast as her legs would go, Lila’s eyes focused on something else. It wasn’t just the light coming through the trees, she thought she
could see another figure on horseback through the light, beyond everything.
“What is that? Who is that? What is going on?” cried Lila, breathlessly.
For a second, Lila was distracted but then she focused and ran even faster. Her hooves started to slip on the moss but she caught herself and kept running as fast as possible. Then she slipped again and her hind legs started to splay out. Was she going to fall? “No, keep running,” she said. “Stay strong, stay focused and keep running!” she coached herself.
Ahead of her, she heard her mother and Liza having a conversation and she saw them start to walk forward. Horrified, she had seen Liza give a gentle squeeze with her long legs into her mother's sides and she saw her mother pick up a little trot and head towards the light.
It suddenly became confusing all at once. Through the light, Lila saw the figure on horseback smiling, and she saw the pine trees part, all by themselves, ever so slightly. She saw her mother's tail swish and she saw Liza sit up straight, with a confident type of posture there in the saddle. And she saw the light. It was bright and glowing and somehow, the light had a friendly look to it.
Even from behind her mama, Lila saw Liza’s relaxed posture with Liza's heels down in the stirrups, and she saw that Liza’s hands were light on the reins on her mama’s bridle. She saw the special pack and the jacket neatly tied to her mama’s saddle and even as she walked away, she saw how magnificent her mother looked.
"Mama is almost glowing," Lila realized.
But her mother and Liza were starting to fade as they passed through the trees.
Lila was horrified. This. was. not. going. to. happen!
"Wait for me. Wait! Mama!!! Wait!!!!!"
Libby paused, Liza started to turn around in her saddle, and Libby started to turn her head as well. Then there was an audible, “Ooooomfph!” Lila slammed into her mother's tail and butt and Libby took two steps forward and suddenly, boom. They had left this world. All three of them were gone.
THEY’RE COMING!
The beautiful buckskin mare was fading fast. Her heart rate had accelerated and yet it was weak. It was unbelievable but Abby was dying. She knew it and her cowgirl mistress, Anna, knew it too.
"I have to stay as strong as I can. It's never over while there is still a fight left and I still have strength in me," Abby said to herself.
Abby was lying on her side, legs straight out, then she curled one front leg a bit to make herself more comfortable.
She was gravely ill.
Anna lay down on the straw with her beloved mare and stroked her mare’s cheek. "Hold on Abby, hold on," she said quietly. Anna was usually fairly stoical but today, she felt a tear fall down her cheek.
One tear fell and then another.
She lifted Abby's head and placed it into her lap.
Abby was very weak and yet Anna could feel her beloved horse start to nestle herself more comfortably into Anna's warm lap. Abby exhaled and relaxed into Anna and her warmth.
This was all wrong and Anna knew it. Abby was a gorgeous buckskin from a strong line of mares who were proven winners in and out of the arena. A winning barrel horse, Abby and her rider, Anna, had competed all over the Southwestern U.S. and beyond and had amassed such a winning streak that the pair seemed unstoppable.
What was happening now was incomprehensible. “Abby is too young,” Anna thought. But then she sighed.
"So, this is the end, and this is real," she said to herself. Yet Anna could not believe it. Abby was still a young mare and she herself, was young. And they were Travelers. How was it possible that this was happening?
As a Traveler, horse and rider were connected to one another even more powerfully than they had been before they
passed through to another world. Once they entered the other world, they were connected so completely that their aging process slowed to be more aligned with one another.
"I'm still young and healthy," Anna said to herself once again. “What is wrong with Abby? This is impossible,” her head practically screamed.
Then she admonished herself, facing the reality that Abby had become sick and infected and here in this world, Anna - even with all her medical skills and knowledge - could not help her beloved mare.
"I'm sorry," she heard Abby say.
Anna looked at the face of her mare and the tears flowed even more strongly now.
“Abby, you crazy mare, why are you apologizing? I can’t be certain but it looks like tetanus and I can’t help you. I should be apologizing because I am powerless. I just can’t help you.”
Anna was outdoorsy, athletic, feminine, lean and tall. Anna was very tall, actually. She was almost six feet tall and people noticed her height.
But mostly everyone noticed that this woman was hardworking and was a dedicated member of their village. Whether working in her garden or taking care of patients up and down the valley, her dirty blond hair was either carelessly tied up or tucked under her cowgirl hat.
Today, she didn’t care how she looked as her hair fell all around her tear-stained face. In this state of things, Anna looked very small. She had exhausted herself trying to care for her beloved mare and that exhaustion was taking its toll on her.
"I have been a doctor for so long and even though I work with human patients, I also know basic veterinary medicine but even still I can't save you. I've tried everything I could think of, I really did. What did I miss? What haven't I tried? I don't know what more to do Abby. I simply don't know what to do. In this world, at this time, if it’s tetanus,
there is no cure. I have failed you,” Anna said, struggling to maintain her composure.
Abby closed her eyes as Anna's hand stroked her cheek and along her neck. Anna could feel Abby's heartbeat change and slow even more.
"Anna, I think this is it. Not much longer," the buckskin said. “I want to fight but this sickness is overwhelming me.”
"Shhhhh, save your energy, Abby," Anna said tenderly and gently and then Anna slumped over her horse in horrible spasms of grief. Her hands stroked her mare, as if touch could magically save her beloved friend.
"I made that choice," Anna said to herself. "I made that choice to stay here a long, long time ago," she cried, reprimanding herself for that decision. It had been sixteen years since they had come here, and although they had made a life here and were happy, at this moment, Anna hated herself for staying here.
"But I forgot that could have consequences for Abby. I can't help her here. There is absolutely no medicine available for me to help her, at this time and place in this world. My decision to stay here has hurt Abby and I will lose her," she cried to herself again and again. "I was a fool," she said.
"Anna," Abby replied weakly. "We made the decision to stay here together as a pair, as a team, and you know what," Abby said, her spunk trying to show through at her deepest moment of weakness. Abby was usually full of energy. But this precise moment was heartbreaking for Anna and Abby could feel Anna’s pain.
"I know that. I really do know that," said Anna. In her entire professional life, she had never cried this hard, and she was weeping from the bottom of her soul.
She was grateful for the love she had received from Abby all of these years, and she was grateful for all of their experiences together, in both worlds – in the one she had left and in this one.
But that could not provide any comfort.
So very calmly and very slowly, she draped herself over her beloved horse. If Abby was going to die, it would be in Anna's own arms and she would die with love, with Anna comforting and enveloping her.
There was a knock.
It was a faint knock at first, almost too faint. As though the person at the door knew what was happening inside the stable and was timidly asking to interrupt.
Anna almost didn't hear it. Then the knock was more urgent and Anna heard footsteps as the visitor made the decision to go ahead and walk into the stable. "Madam?" said a voice. "Madam?" said the voice again more urgently. "They're here."
CHAPTER NINE
IT’S VERY CHILLY HERE, BUT I CAN SEE THEM
Marcel and Meia stood there on the mountainside exhausted but elated. They had raced against time and had made the climb up and into the mountains faster than Meia had expected.
To get here, she had taken every shortcut she could have ever imagined. Where was the place in the mountains where Travelers passed through? Would it be up this trail? Up that one? Would she find it during the morning light of
day or more at dusk? Had she taken the correct trail? Would Marcel carry her up without faltering? Was she pushing him too hard?
They were unbelievably exhausted but knew that they had nearly completed their task. Yet they both knew that their task was still far from over.
"Well, I'm a little chilly standing here," said Meia, "and I know you are too Marcel." Meia stroked her hand along Marcel's wet neck and rubbed on him. She twisted around and patted his rump first on the left then she twisted and patted him on the right. Her pat morphed from a pat to a rub and then it turned into a scratch.
"She gives good scratches," sighed Marcel as he shifted his weight and moved up and into the scratches of Meia's hand. He shook himself a little bit and he felt Meia cling to him to stay on through the shake. "She is such a good rider," Marcel said to himself. "I kind of feel like I've taught her so well," and he chuckled to himself at this thought. He stood tall and confident as he waited for any more cues from his young rider.
They stood there gazing through the pine trees at the soft light that was coming through them. "I guess this is really happening," Meia said. “It's happening!" she said excitedly. “Look Marcel, look!”
It had been many years since she, as a little girl, had met her own first Traveler. Her memory was hazy but she was about nine-years-old or so when a Traveler had visited the little hamlet where her family had a small farm.
She remembered taking the hand of another young girl, older than herself, and going to milk the cows and to toss hay to the animals. She even remembered the name of the Traveler’s horse that she cared for.
Libby. The horse was named Libby. The Traveler had even allowed her to take a ride on her during those few days of her visit at their little farm.
When Meia met Libby, she had fallen in love with her, as many people did she was told. Riding Libby was the beginning of Meia’s love for horses. The family had two horses at the time, and one was ridden frequently by her father when he went to other villages and small towns to sell his woodcarvings. Marcel sometimes carried her father on these journeys but he was usually at the farm to work. Meia loved Marcel and taught him to allow her to ride him. She also trained him to do special things to help with the work at the farm.
“Come over here, Marcel,” she would call to him, and Marcel would dutifully plod over to her as he carried or pulled his burden. He never seemed to mind the hard work when he was with Meia.
“I wish she could understand me,” Marcel would say. “I understand her,” he would sigh, “but I wish we could communicate in the way that Travelers communicate. The ability to use words seems useful sometimes.”
Now as Meia sat on Marcel, waiting in the chilly air, she thought back six years ago when she had first met the Traveler.
The Traveler at that time was twelve, she recalled, and now she, Meia, was nearly fifteen. "It’s been six years since I saw Liza. I don't really know who will come through, but I know that Dr. Anna and Abby have been calling for help even if they didn't really know they were calling," Meia said.
Meia knew all about Travelers. Her parents had met several over the years and told her about them too. The first rule of being a Traveler was that they always traveled through with their horse. Meia knew this. There was Anna and her horse Abby. And there was Liza and her horse Libby. In addition to these two pair, her parents had told her that there were more Travelers but to always stay secretive about all of this.
Meia knew that some Travelers stayed in her world and she knew that some returned to their own. She also
knew that people like Anna who came and stayed, did so voluntarily.
Meia was told that well before she had been born, Anna and Abby had come through and stayed, with Anna becoming a very respected doctor who tended to patients throughout the valleys here in the Alps. Anna had made many friends, personal and professional, from both near and from very far away as well. Her parents had told her that Anna had saved her older brother, Balthis when her mother was having a very difficult birth.
As Meia stood there in the cold, she thought about how hardworking Anna was and how many people she had helped over the years.
"I just knew I had to help Anna and Abby," Meia said again. Marcel's ears were flickering back and forth as he listened. Suddenly, there was movement. “So I am in the right place!” Meia cried. “I shouldn’t have doubted myself. I found the right spot! I can see them through the pine trees. I can see right into their world!”
Meia turned to look beside her and could see, up a little higher above her head, a carving on one of the pine trees just off the trail. It was well above the reach of a rider on horseback yet there it was. Had someone placed it there only a few feet off the ground a long time ago? Now that the tree had grown, it was way up high, well above her head, barely seen even while on horseback. Yet there it was, clear as day. An intricate woodcarving had been securely yet discretely attached to the tree.
There it was. It was the sign of the Traveler. Now she knew she was in the correct place.
She looked carefully through the pine trees.
Then she saw them. A horse and rider! She squinted her eyes, "Yes! It is! Wow, it really is! It's Libby! I can see Libby! It's Liza and Libby!"
Boom. Three figures emerged through the pine trees. It wasn’t just a horse and rider. Practically glued up against Libby’s rump was something else…what was that?
As Libby walked forward, finally, it was very clear for Meia to see what was going on.
There was Liza, Libby and a very startled and suddenly humiliated little foal. After ungluing herself from Libby’s rump, this little foal shook her head and straightened herself, stepped forward and announced, "Hello. I'm Lila."
Libby whipped her head around and snorted. It was not a friendly snort.
"Oh boy, Mama is not happy," Lila said to herself. "Meia?" Liza said in shock. Meia nodded.
Liza was surprised. She recognized Meia’s face and even though she was taller and wearing her hair as one braid now and not two, it was definitely the same face as the little girl she had met two years ago. It was Meia but this was not the nine-year-old she remembered.
Could it be?
"Why, it looks like we are the same age now!" Liza said joyfully.
“Is she my age? It’s been two years for me, was it six years for Meia?” Liza thought. “What’s going on with time in this world?”
“You don’t have to use Hochdeutsch with me anymore, Liza,” Meia blurted out. “I am rather fluent in English now,” Meia said proudly.
Liza was astonished and pleased because this was a big surprise. From her studies, Liza was able to speak several languages and German had been helpful here. The last time she had visited, Meia did not know a word of
English. Had she been studying? Had she met another Traveler? How had Meia learned English?
But the whole language thing was confusing. Liza scrunched her forehead for a moment, wondering which language they should use with one another or if they should just mix it up, whichever was easier depending on the moment and the topic of conversation.
Liza pushed those thoughts aside.
She could see that Meia had tons of questions but Liza noticed that Meia’s delight in seeing her had turned dark, and terribly worrisome looking. In fact, Meia's face had taken on a sense of urgency.
"What's wrong?" Liza said calmly. Her veterinary internship skills were paying off. Inside, she was reminding herself, “Just stay calm and find out what’s wrong. You are a professional. Take your time.”
Marcel stomped his hoof.
"It's Abby. We have to hurry and there's not a moment to lose," Meia urged.
Lila took a tentative step towards her mother's side and nuzzled her to catch her mama’s attention. Upon seeing her mama’s face however, Lila saw that Libby's scowl said it all. But then her look softened.
"Lila, I have no words for you right now except to say that you will need to keep up, and not one word of complaint," said Libby. "If you want to do grown horse things, you will need to act like a grown horse. We are in for a long and fast ride, so keep up and no negativity whatsoever," Libby said, trying to be encouraging but worried all the same. She saw that Lila wanted to ask a question and Libby scowled again. She pinned her ears, then leaned forward and took a nip at Lila’s neck.
“Not one single complaint,” she repeated, “and no questions either,” she added.
“Ouch,” said Lila.
There was a moment of silence. Lila dropped her nose to the ground, clearly humbled.
“Yes, Mama,” she said quietly.
Libby looked back through the pine trees and got a surprised look on her face. Then she scowled again when she realized that as she looked back through the two curved pine trees, before the light faded, she had seen a fast-moving little foal running back on the trail in the direction of the ranch.
"Beata was with you?" Libby scowled for the third time.
"Yes, Mama. It's my fault. But she can run. She will make it back to Belle lickety-split," Lila said.
"Come on," Meia said. "We have to ride and we all have to ride fast."
"Let's go then," said Liza. "Tell me everything as we ride."
CHAPTER TEN
THE RACE TO SAVE ABBY
Marcel was tired, but he knew his mission was an important one. He had heard about Travelers and he had met Libby a long time ago, but this was his first time seeing any of them up close like this for an extended period of time.
The night Libby had spent in the stable near him six years ago was a blur, he recalled. He had been exhausted from work and had eaten then fallen asleep standing up in his stall. He was fascinated now however. "A mare AND her foal came through," he said to himself. "I think this is a first," he continued.
Libby nickered a greeting of hello to Marcel and he nickered back. They touched noses and Marcel arched his neck as Libby arched hers and dropped her head a little bit. She remembered being stabled beside him several years
ago. Then in a flash, they whirled to face down the mountain without needing to be asked by their riders.
The girls and their horses dashed down the mountain trail as quickly as they could. Liza could have just as easily ridden Libby bareback, as Meia rode on Marcel, but on these steep trails, she was grateful for the comfort of her saddle.
“Make each step count, Libby-girl,” she whispered when she leaned forward towards her mare’s ear. “You can do this. You are strong and agile. It’s why we work so hard at home in the arena and on the trails, for moments like these. Step carefully, girl,” Liza whispered.
Libby blew a snort through her nose and said, “You can count on me, Liza.”
It was several hours later when Meia really had a moment to speak.
"I know all the short-cuts and we can make it to Anna's much faster than when you were first here," Meia had said on the first day.
Meia and Liza were careful in how they rode with the horses. They made sure to stop for water and to let them briefly eat grasses to maintain their strength and for Lila to eat and nurse.
Frankly, they were worried if Lila could keep up. There had even been a discussion about stretching Lila across the withers of Marcel to carry her so she would not hold them back.
But both Liza and Libby were very surprised to see that not only did Lila keep up, but that she did not lollygag and she did not complain one bit. Lila certainly knew that they were on an important mission and she was not only doing more than her best, she was excelling.
“Was this world giving Lila extra energy?” Liza wondered. “She’s strong and fast here. This world must be giving her the energy she needs to keep up.”
"My little foal is doing well," Libby said to Liza, a note of pride in her voice.
Lila's muscles seemed to improve with every kilometer they traveled it seemed. She was lean and strong and carrying herself professionally. She felt it, but kept her thoughts to herself. "I’m part of something very important, I just know it," Lila said to herself. “I can’t let anyone down.”
"Mama, I'm sorry I did not listen to you," Lila had admitted to her mother on their second day of hard travel.
Libby was silent, but at one moment, when the girls stopped to permit their horses a few minutes of grazing, and to eat some food themselves, Libby turned her head back to Lila and then nuzzled her. It was the first motherly attention Libby had given to her filly since they had come through.
Liza had plenty of food and supplies in her special pack, which meant that the girls had sufficient nourishment during their journey. They were moving quickly and urgently, but everyone knew that rest and nourishment - evening sparingly - was very important to their success. But their moments of rest were brief and they pressed on.
As they descended, the trail widened and evidence of tiny villages appeared. There were a few more people out on the trails or herding sheep or working in their small mountain gardens.
They passed by a few chalets and workshops which had the sign of the Traveler hanging from their walls, and
though Meia gave a nod of acknowledgement to the people they met, they did not stop.
"There is the sign of the Traveler that Liza wears," Lila said when they passed a chalet with the sign engraved on a wall under the eaves.
“That means they are friends,” said Libby.
And as the hours passed, the little filly felt very proud that she was keeping up and didn’t have the urge to complain. In fact, she was exhilarated by their quest and was glad to be a part of it all.
She liked Marcel. He could not use words with humans but he communicated a lot with Libby while they walked, trotted and galloped along the trails. He had been on these trails a fair amount over the years and he could tell Libby and Lila in advance when to conserve energy in order to endure longer descents along certain parts of the trail.
"We are close now, you know," Marcel told them on their third day of travel.
Libby could feel in her heart that while they were close, the situation was also horribly dire.
"Liza, let go of the reins,' Libby said suddenly. "Let me run. Even if Lila falls behind, even if Marcel can't keep up, it will be fine. Let me run. I want to run," Libby urged. “I can feel it. Liza, you have to let me run,” Libby pleaded. “Drop the reins, Liza.”
What Libby meant was for Liza to remove all control of the reins, and not to guide her. Libby just wanted Liza to let her run wild and free. Without any tension on the reins, there was no pressure on the bit in her mouth, and Libby could run like the wind.
Liza looked down at Lila who had been trotting beside her mother. What a champion she had been these past three days. She kept up, she stayed positive and she never once sassed her mama. Then she looked over at Meia
and said, "We are going to run, Meia. Lila is all yours," Liza said simply.
Meia nodded in acknowledgement, her face nearly betraying what she had been holding in these last three days. Abby was dying and might even already be dead.
With Meia’s nod, Liza completely loosened the reins and leaned forward to hold on to Libby’s mane with her right hand. The reins were crossed securely over her neck and would not fall down and trip her because they were still held loosely in Liza’s left hand. Now Libby could run unencumbered.
“Run, my friend, run,” Liza whispered into Libby’s ear. Libby had laid her ears flat back against her head, in the way that horses do when they are listening intently to their rider.
“Run. Run for Abby,” Liza urged. “We can save her. Run Libby, run!”
A moment later, Liza yelled, “My hat! Meia, grab it for me please?”
“I’ll get it, Liza, just go!” cried Meia. Lila watched as her mother took off. The intensity of the speed with which Libby charged forward was incredible. In fact, it was breathtaking to watch the power within her drive forward and surge into what seemed to look like a streak of lightening.
"Wow!!!!" Lila cried, watching her mama take off. “Wow! Look at Mama run!”
Libby was flat out galloping and she was moving fast. This was a flatter stretch down here in the valley closer to Anna's home. It wasn’t the mud season either, so the dirt roads were packed flat and hard and Libby could dig in and run without fear of slipping or tripping.
Lila watched Libby's tail fly out long and flat as Libby stretched her neck out and ran hard and fast. She galloped like the wind was surging her forward as though she had the wings of Pegasus, and she ran and ran and ran. Liza positioned herself loosely in the saddle and put her hands forward to grasp Libby’s mane and neck.
Further along, it seemed that others on the trails must have known what was happening, because incredibly, anyone on the trail moved to the side. Lila could see that carts drawn by horses like Marcel moved off the trail and waited and watched as the sorrel mare raced forward. Meia could see that small groups of children headed into the village - on errands for their parents perhaps - stepped aside and magically, there was no confusion and there was no chaos. They just watched as Libby sped by them. Marcel swore he could see that the wind behind Libby swooshed the skirts of a little girl with such force that the little girl seemingly cried out a mesmerized, “Aaaahhh,” as Libby sped by.
Marcel watched as a pair of sturdy oxen-like-bovine hauling a cheese cart on the trails down below seemed to quietly step aside as Liza and Libby raced to Anna's chalet.
"We can do this, Libby, we can do this!" Liza cried to Libby as they galloped.
They came around a corner and there, not a few hundred meters away, Liza saw Anna's chalet. She saw the flowers in the window boxes and her heart skipped a beat. "We're coming!" she cried out. "Don't give up! We're coming!"
Anna’s home was a tall chalet with three floors. There was a neat large garden on the side of it, with a large horse pasture of several hectares in the back. Connected to the pasture was a small stable, with hay stacked around it and a pile of wood stacked under the eaves of a long wooden roof supported by sturdy beam-like pillars.
They skidded to a stop just at the stable.
“Don’t wait, just go inside,” a voice whispered to Liza. She heard the voice. “Who said that?” Liza said as she looked around.
Not too far away from Anna’s plot of land was the edge of another garden where a pleasant-looking older woman was working, bent over and hard at work. “That wasn’t her voice,” Liza reasoned. “But who whispered to me, ‘Don’t wait, just go inside’?” she wondered.
Seeing Libby galloping and skidding to a halt, the woman called out in a German dialect, "Come this way!"
The woman dropped her hoe and ran in the direction of the stable, pointing to the stable door on the side. Liza was steadying herself as Libby skidded to a halt, and the older woman was already at her side.
She reached her hand out to Liza's hand and said, "Come this way!!! They are in here. You might be too late but come this way!"
Liza had thrown a leg over the saddle horn and dropped to the ground. Years of competing in rodeos in various events trained her in the quick dismount but this dismount was more instinctive. She just threw her leg over differently and fell, cat-like, onto the ground with graceful
ease. She quickly and nimbly unlaced the special smaller pack on the back of Libby's saddle, grabbed it and raced to the door of the stable.
She heard the woman say, "Madam, they are here." Liza raced into the stable and dropped to the ground. She was on her knees looking all around her, assessing the situation. She was winded and full of emotion but she acted like a professional. She had been well-trained during her time as a veterinary intern and she knew to stay calm.
She unzipped her pack, opened it wide as she laid it flat on the ground and taking deep a breath, looked into the eyes of her deepest dearest friend in the world and said, "We heard you. We are here Anna. What do you need?"
Anna looked at Liza and let out a sob. “You’re only a little bit older,” she sobbed. “But it’s you, it’s really you, isn’t it?” she cried through tear filled eyes.
Liza had never seen Anna like this. When she had been here in this world two years ago, or wait, it was six, that’s right … in this world, time had advanced six years it seemed … when she was here, she had been with Anna on numerous medical cases with her patients and she had never once seen Anna lose her calm and collected demeanor like she was witnessing now.
It was clear that Anna looked like she would lose her mind. Her love for Abby was so intense, and she was possibly going to lose her, and Liza could see that Anna was thinking that she would go mad to lose her friend, her Abby.
“Breathe, Anna. Breathe my friend,” said Liza reaching her hand out to touch her friend on her shoulder, while using her other hand to stroke Abby’s face.
Libby had walked around to the side and had lifted the latch of the gate, as she and Abby had mischievously done several times before years ago and had walked into the stable to join Liza. She inched her way closer to her
dying friend lying in the soft bed of straw. Libby dropped her head and touched her nose to Abby's nose.
Abby opened her eyes, and let out the tiniest of small nickers, her nostrils moving as she did, in the small tiny little rumble of a nicker that horses make when they are making the most loving noises of hello.
Every equestrian knows that sound.
It’s a combination of, “Hello, I love you, please feed me, please touch me, please love me, hello again,” noises that anyone who has ever loved a horse and has been loved by a horse recognizes. Even so, this was the nicker of a very weak and dying horse.
"We are here Abby, we are here. We can help. Hold on, girl, hold on," Libby whispered.
Anna gently lifted Abby's head from her lap and carefully placed it into the soft straw there on the ground.
After first touching her shoulder, Liza then shook Anna gently but firmly.
“Anna, my friend, what do you need?” "Antibiotics and tetanus," Anna said flatly. "Got it," Liza said professionally, pulling two bottles out of a cushioned pouch. Then she pulled out two packages, first peeling away their wrappers and freed needles and syringes from each of those packets. Finally, Liza twisted each needle securely into its syringe.
Anna got to her knees and watched as Liza prepared the doses. "This many milliliters, yes?" Liza said expertly both as a statement and as a question. Anna nodded.
Anna watched as Liza drew up the two doses and handed them to Anna. Anna smiled in admiration. "She has grown since I last saw her. There's a story here," Anna said to herself. “Liza has really matured.”
With her sadness replaced by a renewed sense of calm positivity, Anna administered the medicines to Abby. Anna gave the two syringes back to Liza who had pursed
her lips into a professional and relieved smile, and then Anna turned back and stroked Abby's cheek.
As she looked lovingly at her mare, Anna spoke to Liza.
"How did you know?" she asked.
There was a noise as Meia came through the door, also breathless, and ran into the stable next to everyone and dropped to the ground. Marcel slowly walked in right behind her.
"Ah," Anna said.
“Calm yourself,” Meia cooed in the soft German accent of her native language when she saw Abby try to lift her head. “Steady girl, you are safe now,” Meia said, in a poetic soothing tone of love, while tenderly petting Abby’s check and stroking her long nose.
Abby calmed and closed her eyes in a moment of exhausted relief and happiness.
"We all felt something you know," Liza said to Anna. "But how did you know to have the medicine?" Anna asked, turning to Liza.
“I didn't," Liza said. Then she paused. "Anna,” she said gently, “let's focus on Abby, and I will tell you everything once we can all catch our breath."
Anna nodded. Then the movement of a small creature caught her eye, even as the small creature was framed beneath the powerful body of the mountain horse Marcel. Anna recognized Marcel but dropped her gaze to look into the sweetest and prettiest face of a lovely foal, who peered out from underneath Marcel’s belly.
The foal backed away, and walked around Marcel, shyly walking all the way into the stable. Then the pretty little dun-colored foal made her way closer to Abby. The foal crept slowly, bobbing her head and flicking her ears all about and swishing her tail in curious excitement.
Libby moved away from Abby to give Lila a little bit of room.
Lila dropped her neck and cautiously inched her head closer and closer to Abby's face. At the delicate touch of Lila's little whiskers, and feeling soft breath breathing onto her, Abby opened her eyes again.
Lila rubbed on Abby very gently, with an instinctive and exquisite gentleness that caused Anna to silently mouth, “Oh my.”
"I'm Lila," she said quietly.
"I'm Abby," replied the mare.
"Pleased to meet you ma'am."
Abby closed her eyes.
"I ran all the way," Lila said.
Abby nodded and went to sleep, already feeling the healing powers working within her.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
LIFE IN THE VALLEY
"Wait, so Marcel ran up into the mountains?" Anna asked incredulously. “Marcel, this Marcel, the mountain horse… he ran? He really ran?”
"Yes, he did, Miss Anna," Meia said. "Oh yes he did." Everyone looked out the window into the pasture. It was a beautiful sight to see Marcel, Abby, Libby and little Lila outside grazing. The valley air was fresh and clean with a slight summer coolness coming off the mountainsides. The sun was bright.
Anna, Liza and Meia had been stacking wood, putting up hay and working in the garden for the past few days. Meia knew that she and Marcel would have to leave soon, but she wanted to stay and listen and learn, and to visit with Anna and Liza.
It had been a refreshing afternoon. They had finished all the chores pretty early and were eating a late mid-day meal together. Anna had laid out a carved wooden platter of fresh bread, cheeses, jams and an assortment of cured thinly sliced meats, all of which had mysteriously appeared at her doorstep that morning. She had smiled when she thought of how wonderful her neighbors were to her at a time like this.
"And Meia came to find you?" Anna asked Liza.
"Yes, Miss Anna," Meia said. "But I think Liza already knew," she added.
"Mama and I felt it, back home," Liza explained. "And Libby and Belle felt it too."
"Belle?" Anna asked.
"That's my mother's horse. Belle. She’s a beautiful paint. Belle and Mama are Travelers too," Liza added.
"Here?" Anna asked.
"Colorado," Liza replied. "When she was pregnant with me. She traveled through with her horse Belle, and although they came back to about this same time period, she went through to Colorado. She is certain of that. She met another Traveler there,” Liza added. "She won't tell me more though.”
"I see," said Anna. “But you mentioned that you had felt something. What do you mean?”
"All of us felt a stabbing pain in our in our sides and in our hearts. It was bearable but it was odd. We knew it couldn’t have been medical because all five of us felt the same way and all five of us felt it at the same time,” Liza continued.
“But it wasn’t all six of us,” Liza told herself. Belle’s filly little Beata did not feel anything and Liza did not understand why.
Anna nodded. “Five?”
“Even Lila felt it," added Liza. "I would imagine that is unusual," Liza said, guessing. “Lila has never been a Traveler so I don’t understand how she felt connected to you and to Abby the way we did,” Liza continued.
Anna sighed. "I don't know how it all works, but I'm glad that Lila is part of this," Anna added. “There is one thing that I have learned from my own experiences and from word of mouth. The Traveler network isn’t just about crossing time. It crosses emotions and the network feels and shares both pain and joy. It calls to all of us in different
ways. Different groups of Travelers can feel what the others are experiencing. It’s why the five of you knew though I can’t understand why Lila felt the network and Beata didn’t,” Anna said clearly flummoxed.
Liza was fascinated and she saw that Meia was entranced.
"How did you know, Meia?" Liza asked turning to her friend. Was Meia part of this network too, Liza wondered?
"Word traveled up the valleys very quickly," Meia said. "Everyone knows you, Miss Anna, so of course news of Abby’s illness spread very quickly. But before I had heard anything definite, something about the situation had already called out to me. It was something in the wind; I don’t know how to explain it, but I knew something was wrong and that I had to try to find a solution.” Meia paused.
“I hope you aren’t upset with me because I also knew it might be wrong to intervene,” Meia said shyly. “I knew that Travelers aren’t supposed to intervene in major events, or to purposely try to change a situation, but I had to try," Meia continued. “I didn’t think it would hurt too much if I tried to intervene,” Meia added timidly.
Anna nodded. Then she shook her head and chuckled almost in embarrassment.
“It seems all I have done since I arrived here was make changes,” Anna said. “As a doctor, I have intervened. I have saved people throughout my sixteen years here. Was that wrong? How much have I changed, Meia? A little? A lot? How much have I changed the future? I think about that every day. But with people it just seemed wrong all these years to stay silent and do nothing when I knew I could help. I’ve broken just about every Traveler rule since I’ve been here, but it felt right to do so.”
Anna paused.
“But with Abby, since this would impact a pair of Travelers, that felt different. Something was tearing at me
not to intervene too much. But even so, I did not know what I could have done. There is no vaccine for tetanus here, not yet. It’s only the early 1890’s after all. I don’t know, maybe someone is working on it somewhere. A vaccine that is. But I didn’t have word of it.”
Anna paused, clearly relieved that Abby was no longer in danger. “Tetanus is evil,” she practically hissed. Meia looked at Liza and raised her eyebrows. Anna never let her guard down like this.
“I actually knew right away that Abby had developed tetanus. She has been here long enough that any protection she had from earlier vaccines when we lived in Arizona had worn off. I guess I thought she and I were kind of invincible here, but I see now that she can die before her time no matter what,” Anna continued. “Even though as a Traveler’s horse, her life is paired with my life and she ages more slowly. But I’m shocked to learn that here, Abby really can die independently from me.”
Liza was confused. She knew Meia was too but she just listened intently as Anna continued her story about Abby’s illness.
"I did not try to change the present regarding my beloved Abby. I wanted to, desperately. I was dying inside at that decision." Anna paused. "I thought about getting up into the mountains and trying to pass through back to your world by myself somehow to find the medicines I would need for her. But I don’t know if a Traveler can ever go back to her time without her horse. I worried I would get up into the mountains and never find a way back and Abby would die anyway and die all alone. I felt powerless. So, I just stayed by her side and did what I could for her.”
She paused and gazed out the window. Liza looked and saw that Abby had lifted her head from grazing and was looking back at the chalet.
“Did Abby hear the entire conversation we just had?” Liza wondered. This had happened the last time she
was here. The horses – Libby and Abby – had been out of earshot, yet lifted their heads and looked at the chalet as she and Anna had been having a conversation and talking very specifically about the horses. “How do they know?” Liza mused.
Anna looked deep in thought as she looked out at the horses. Liza and Meia remained quiet.
Anna had been through a lot and though they could see she was relieved that Abby was getting better, she remained visibly distressed that Abby had almost died.
“I'm not sorry we all did intervene to help her," Anna continued. "But you know, I can't help but think that there is another reason behind all of this," Anna added. Then she turned to Meia and had a puzzled look on her face. “And I simply can’t understand how you knew what was happening Meia, or how you felt what was happening in your world either, Liza.”
Liza looked out the window again and wondered about that comment. "Another reason?" she asked herself. "Hmmmmm," she thought.
"But how did you know what medicines to bring in that pack of yours?" asked Anna, clearly curious. She had asked that question of Liza several times and had decided to wait for Liza's explanation.
Liza realized it was time to share her story.
"When I returned, two years ago, well six years for you, whatever, when I returned home I was so inspired. I missed you and everyone I had met here, but I was full of even more energy and ideas and desires. I saw how much of a difference you make with people, and I decided I could do that with animals, being a ranch girl myself," Liza said, all adult-like.
Anna smiled.
"I had a wonderful opportunity to become an intern with our veterinarian. I'm just an intern, however, I help
with lots of things. I'm already planning on going to school to become a veterinarian, you know," Liza said with pride.
Anna smiled again.
Meia was enthralled.
"Ever since I went back, I knew that I wanted to be ready in case I had the chance to come through to you again. I knew that if I did come through, it was important to be prepared. I wanted to have special things in my pack. I did the math, you know. For all the years that Abby has been here with you, I knew that she might be deficient in some kinds of medical protection for her, things you might not have here. My veterinarian understood too and told me what I needed to know.” Liza paused.
“You’ve told people in your world about Travelers?” Anna asked.
Liza bit her lip. “I finally told my veterinarian everything. I told her all about Travelers," Liza said.
Anna said, "Everything?"
"Yep. And she even has the sign of the Traveler in the form of a sticker, stuck to the side of her truck. She asked me about it and I drew out the design and made the artwork and had a sticker made for her. Modern times, after all. Not everyone has a wooden sign in front of their shop!" Liza said laughing.
"But she gave you medicine?" Anna asked.
"No. She gave you medicine. I was only carrying it. She knew that if it was ever to be used, I promised to only use it with you," Liza added carefully.
"That makes sense," Anna said. "Doctor to doctor. I see," Anna said, nodding once again. “This is all just so astounding.”
Then Liza told her about the request that Libby had made as they approached Anna’s chalet. She told Anna how Libby had insisted that she let go of the reins so that she could run as fast as she could. Liza had questions about that moment. “Anna, do you think that Libby might have been
worried that Abby was already at the very end? Why did she tell me to drop the reins to let her run like lightening? Do you think she was so worried about losing Abby that she finally just wanted to get here as fast as possible?” Liza asked of Anna.
“I can answer that,” Libby said, standing there with her head practically inside Anna’s open window. “Liza, all I could think was that we were so close and I wanted it all to have been worth it. Meia left her family to come up into the
mountains to look for us. Marcel pushed himself almost past the endurance level that was possible for him yet he made it. Lila was a trooper; she kept up with all of us. Something near the end just told me, ‘Run, Libby, run’ and so I did. I just had to get here without a moment to lose,” Libby explained.
“That’s my girl,” Liza said, getting up and handing Libby a piece of her apple.
Libby took the apple delicately with outstretched lips then crunched on it, catching the juices in her mouth. She made a little nicker of thanks and wandered back into the pasture, got down to her knees and leaning to one side, flopped to the ground and did a half-hearted little roll.
“That’s right,” Meia said. “Marcel really pushed past his limits to get up the mountain,” she exclaimed.
Meia looked out at Marcel and marveled at how wonderfully he had performed. “Marcel really was absolutely incredible,” she thought.
Marcel lifted his head.
He was on the far side of the pasture. He turned and faced the kitchen window of Anna’s chalet. Meia raised her eyebrows and opened her mouth, but covered it with her fingertips.
Marcel was staring right at her.
He never stopped staring. He was facing her, straight on, in that funny profile posture of a horse where you only see the ears, head, chest and just their front legs with the occasional flick of the tail.
“This is a perfect day,” thought Meia, as she looked back at him.
“Yes, my mistress, it truly is a perfect day,” thought Marcel.
CHAPTER TWELVE WE MISSED YOU, YOU KNOW
They were out on a trail ride. It was just the three of them, out for a ride with their horses. Meia was riding bareback on Marcel, while Anna and Abby and Liza and Libby were all tacked up in their western gear. Lila followed along listening carefully, even though some of the wildflowers distracted her from time to time.
Earlier that week, Meia and Liza had accompanied Anna on a trip down the valley to take care of a patient who needed her help. Meia was fascinated by Liza’s level of expertise as Anna’s assistant. “A kind steady hand is needed with patients, four-legged or two-legged,” Anna had joked that day.
Liza had smiled at that comment. “A steady hand, a steady mind, and a steady attitude,” she had added.
But on this day, they were carefree, just taking a nice trail ride with their horses. Anna had brought them up the other side of the valley through the meadows along an easy path that wound up into the hillsides. Beyond the meadows, sharp peaks of vast ranges of mountains rose, the pinks, creams and grays of their rocks and boulders practically
glowing in in the sunshine. Snow was visible on the very highest elevations.
As they rode, the three of them frequently went back and forth between conversing in both English and Hochdeutch, depending on the topic of conversation or the difficulty of certain words. Meia was determined to continue to improve her English and this was the perfect opportunity. Sometimes, they didn’t just settle into one language: Liza would speak German with Meia and Meia would speak English with Liza.
Then Anna would jump in with all kinds of difficult vocabulary in both languages that forced each girl to really think. “You two are missing a lot of school right now, so the least I can do is make you work a bit,” she gently chided.
Earlier the girls had packed a lunch for the three of them, while Anna finished up some important paperwork and sketches for a new idea she had for a medical device. She was keeping a journal of her own medical work and had been urged by colleagues to make a presentation of it all. Anna’s office in her home was covered in a number of stacks of papers some with broad slashes through various paragraphs and some with large check marks at the top of the pages with the scrawl, ‘Done’, in the upper corner.
Out in the fields, the three adult horses were all lying down, sphinx-like, with their legs curled under them, heads up and mildly alert, yet with a lazy look to them at the same time. Lila had been prancing around and running back and forth throughout the pasture. When she had gotten the zoomies out of her system, she flopped down exhausted. From a distance, the other horses saw the side view of the
chubby belly of the growing foal, sides heaving, as Lila fell asleep in the pasture. Occasionally her tail would flop high enough to peek through the tops of the grass.
“I think they are up to something,” said Abby looking back at the chalet.
Marcel nodded.
Libby added, “Do you think we get to go? I mean, it seems like they are getting ready to go somewhere; aren’t they pulling out their packs? Abby, you are the tallest, can you see what they are up to, there, through the windows?”
Abby stood up and did a little prancing movement and tossed her head in a twisting motion then did a little buck. Then she stood nice and tall and looked over to the open windows of Anna’s large chalet. She made a turn, grabbed a mouthful of grass and laid down and nodded.
“They are up to something,” she admitted.
“Then let’s enjoy the rest while we can,” Marcel said jokingly.
Abby rolled into her back, with four legs up in the air, slightly curled and tucked as she rolled back and forth to scratch her back. Then she flopped onto her side and stretched out, exhaling loudly.
A few moments later, the girls pulled their horses and Lila out of the pasture and began to tack them up, each one going through her own motions and routines to get their horse ready to ride. The horses were curried and hooves were all picked out and shoes examined. Hands were run all over the bodies of each horse, always checking for signs of any swelling or any cuts or bruises. Horses always had a way of getting injured in the pastures it seemed.
Liza checked Lila’s hooves and brushed her body as well. Lila stood nice and still as Liza did this. As Liza finished brushing her, she went down to one knee and looked closely at Lila. Liza looked at Lila’s face and caught her eye. There was a wizened look in Lila’s eyes as she
looked back at Liza. Liza had seen her own reflection in Lila’s eyes and she smiled. “She’s changed since we’ve been here,” Liza thought.
Lila held Liza’s gaze for a little while longer.
“You are so good to me,” Lila said in a squeaky voice and then nuzzled Liza’s neck. Liza didn’t correct her for entering her personal space. Lila was sharing true affection with her so Liza petted Lila in return.
Meia was ready first, opting to ride bareback, gently refusing Anna’s offer to use her spare saddle. Then Anna was ready next and the last one ready, was Liza. “I think I talk to Libby too much,” she said. “It’s why I always take so long to get ready.”
“I love to listen to you and your stories, Liza,” Libby said.
Abby rolled her eyes in mock sarcasm as she tried to tease Libby for being overly loving to her mistress. “Come on, let’s go already,” Abby cried with a firm yet teasing tone in her voice.
They had set out on a simple and easy-going trail ride up into the lower hills of the other side of the valley. After a long while, they stopped and untacked their horses and let them walk in the hilly pastures, slowly eating the lush grass found there this time of year. Lila was chasing butterflies, then she ate some grass and fell asleep.
Liza pulled out her leather portfolio that contained her sketch pad.
“Ah, the leather portfolio that I gave you,” Anna said. Liza smiled as she sketched Lila, who had fallen asleep sitting up. Her pretty little face looked so peaceful and Liza decided to sketch her capturing every detail of her face and body as she slept. The beautiful Swiss alps were in the
background and wildflowers bloomed everywhere. It was a gorgeous sketch.
After a bit, Meia pulled out their picnic lunch as Anna spread out a hand-woven blanket for them to sit upon.
Anna flung the blanket up into the air, holding it with two hands, and the blanket fluttered in the wind, as though it had wings, then it gently fell to earth. It was full of a variety of designs and colors, many of which were of animals and flowers.
After she had guided the blanket to the ground, Anna stood straight and tall and looking in Liza’s direction, she said, “We missed you, you know.”
It was a simple but earnest statement.
Liza was on her knees removing some food from the pack on her saddle. After she had removed Libby’s tack, she had laid the saddle, horn facing down, with the back tipped up. Temporarily storing a saddle like this preserved the integrity of the wooden tree of the saddle.
So there she was, on her knees in the grass and as she removed the lunch items, she stiffened when she heard Anna’s words.
“I mean it. We really missed you. I think we all did,” she added.
Meia was watching Liza and then she looked over at Anna. Anna’s eyes were tender and compassionate and she thought she saw Anna’s eyes begin to water.
Abby had raised her head and was looking their way when she heard Anna speak. Libby kept eating, her mouth moving hungrily yet her ears flicked back and forth while she listened intently as well.
“I almost didn’t leave,” Liza said, still facing her saddle. She wasn’t sure she could turn back to look at Anna. Instead, Liza looked out into the meadow and when she did, Libby raised her head. Libby’s soft eyes were kind, and her long eyelashes looked dignified somehow, even as Libby looked positively ridiculous with strands of meadow
grasses hanging from the sides of her mouth. Liza smiled at her silly mare. Then Libby began to chew. Liza looked back at Anna.
“I was worried I would lose my magical connection with Libby. I was scared I would never see you again. I was frightened, but I knew I had to leave. You knew I had to return to my world, even as I toyed with the idea of staying,” Liza added.
Listening to this, Meia was thoughtful. It had been six years since she had seen her friend, and she was confused why she had aged six years, yet Liza had returned only two years older. What if Liza returned again in two of Liza’s years, would she be another six years older? When they first met, Liza was twelve and Meia was about nine. Now Liza was fourteen and Meia was about fifteen. She had missed her friend too, but if Liza ever came back yet again, how much older would Meia be? Would she age much faster over time? Meia shuddered at the thought.
“I missed all of you too, Anna,” Liza said turning around. “I was so happy to see my parents, and of course, Libby and I could still use words with one another, even though she made me go through agony at first thinking that it wasn’t possible. But I didn’t know that going through, you know, going back to my world. I thought my special enchanting experience with Libby was ending. How could I return to my world, knowing what an amazing experience I was having right here?”
Anna nodded in agreement. “Except that you will always communicate with your horse Liza. Using words is just a bonus to your experience with her. The real true method of honest communication between a rider and her horse comes with the love, the touch, the heartbeat, and all of the experiences that you have with her. I wanted to remind you of all of that before you left, but you were so focused on the ability to use words with Libby, I’m not sure you would have
wanted to hear the wisdom I wanted to impart to you about communicating with your horse.”
Liza looked over at her mare again and smiled. “I understand that now, of course.”
“By the way, did your mother ever really explain everything to you? Absolutely everything?” Anna asked.
Liza got a chill. She stared at Anna. She held her breath. Then she exhaled.
Meia opened her mouth as if to cry, “Oh!” but she remained silent. This was a bit of a surprise to her too.
Without saying a word, Meia looked left and then right. First she looked at Anna then she looked at Liza. Her gaze traveled slowly left and right then left and right again several times. “Liza’s mother had a secret? This must be agonizing for Liza,” Meia thought.
Liza took another breath and exhaled calmly. Very slowly, Liza said, “Mama has told me things, yes. But what do you mean, Anna? What do you mean by the word, ‘everything’?” Liza asked.
Anna pursed her lips. She grabbed a piece of cheese.
“When you return, you need to hear the full story, Liza,” Anna said, cryptically.
This was truly annoying for Liza and Meia could see it on Liza’s face. “What was Anna holding back?” Meia thought.
Liza was flustered. “Why do adults sometimes feel that we can’t handle the truth about something?” Liza thought. “Don’t adults understand, especially our parents, don’t they understand that we want to know everything?” Then she relaxed. “Patience, Liza, patience,” she urged herself. “If Mama is hiding something, she has her reasons,” Liza thought.
“Well I know what I know and if you think I need to know more, I am sure that Mama will tell me all in good time,” Liza said. Liza said all of this with the wisdom and intonation of a young girl who was truly growing up.
Anna was relieved. She knew that her probing nature as a doctor sometimes meant she asked difficult questions and delved into realities that were uncomfortable for people.
Anna looked over at the horses and paused when she saw Lila. “Liza is going to have an even far more difficult decision to make this time,” Anna thought quietly.
After her snooze in the sunshine, Lila raised her head and looked out over the view. Behind her, far away, there were steep snow-capped mountains. Down below, a gorgeous valley with chalets, farms, gardens and the hustle and bustle of an industrious village. To her left, three amazing horses grazed in the mountain pasture beside her. To her right, three wonderful humans sat casually in the grass.
A butterfly alighted on her side with a gentle flourish. Lila looked at it, and then she fell fast asleep once again.
“I
THE BIG CITY AWAITS
almost forgot, Liza. I need to give you their address!” For a moment, Liza thought Anna seemed flustered. She was excited and happy and moving quickly as she bustled about her chalet walking into one room and then into the next.
Liza guessed that having guests at her chalet had thrown off her schedule somewhat.
Anna lived alone and had lived alone for sixteen years and she seemed to like it that way, Liza had noticed. So having two teenage girls in her chalet at one time must have been somewhat overwhelming a bit. But Liza could tell Anna enjoyed their company.
While the girls were there, Anna’s chalet was filled with noise, and movement, and plenty of conversations and not only that, the girls were filled with tons of questions about everything and peppered Anna with every question they could imagine.
For the two of them, it was like having the coolest big sister ever and they both teamed up it seemed to ask Anna questions non-stop about everything they felt their parents might not want to answer. Every now and then, Anna had to take a deep breath and carefully decide how she was going to answer some of their questions. Most times, all three of them howled with laughter.
There was lots of other chaos at Anna’s chalet too. Try as they might, both of the girls never really put things back exactly as Anna had them so everything never truly looked neat as a pin while they were there.
Anna was a little set in her ways, and as Liza thought about it, she realized that there was absolutely nothing
wrong with that. But she also realized that sometimes she and Meia were a little bit messy even when they didn’t mean to be. And that might be blowing Anna’s mind, having two teens taking over her chalet.
It did not matter what time period they were in. Young teen girls were kind of the same, no matter the nationality and no matter the point in time and Liza laughed at the truth of her thoughts.
“I need to tell you something!” Meia had called out to Liza one day. “Come quickly!”
The girls left a lunchtime mess on the kitchen table as they jumped up and ran out of the chalet, grabbed their bridles, hopped on their horses and headed up into the lower mountain meadows.
Both Liza and Meia were enjoying one another’s company, that was for sure.
Meia rarely had access to so much time with a young girlfriend, living on a tiny farm in a mountain hamlet the way she did. Liza had a similar situation; their ranch was somewhat secluded and unless she was at a competition, or at church, she had limited contact as well. Here at Anna’s they took full advantage of their time together.
Up in the hills one day, after they had dashed away just the two of them, while Marcel and Libby grazed, Meia had asked Liza what boys were like where she lived. After much laughter, whispers and howling, they both concluded that teen boys were exactly the same, regardless of place or time, and that truth be told, they both preferred spending time with their horses more than anything.
“No time for boys!” they both had said and Liza taught Meia what a ‘pinky swear’ was.
When they returned to the chalet, giggling and slightly sunburned on their noses, that’s when Anna had told Liza about her friends in the city. She hurried back into her office and brought out a small piece of paper with some handwriting on it.
“Here it is,” she said. This is the name and address of my friends in the city. They aren’t Travelers, but they are wonderful with their hospitality,” Anna said.
Anna looked over as Meia came into the room, pulled out a chair and sat down. After what had surely been a rambunctious time out riding with Liza, she noticed Meia had become a little quiet and Anna thought that this was unusual.
“Miss Anna?” Meia asked finally.
“Yes, Meia,” Anna said. She wondered what kind of teen question Meia was going to ask her now, but by the look on her face, realized that this was going to be a serious question and Anna tried to prepare herself for what might be a difficult answer.
“Miss Anna,” Meia continued, “neither you nor Liza ever discuss the future.” Liza stopped moving. She was trying to tidy up before her departure. As she listened, it occurred to her that Meia always referred to Anna in the more formal ‘Miss Anna’ form of address and wondered if she should have done so too.
“Miss Anna, you would tell me if I needed to know something, wouldn’t you?” Meia asked, quite earnestly.
Anna turned towards Liza, then turned and looked at Meia and after a pause, gave her a solemn reply. The girls were teenagers now, keenly aware and sensible. It was about time for Meia to have asked such a question.
“Of course I would, and I will,” Anna said. “I promise.”
Meia looked clearly relieved, then changed the topic of conversation to something that had become dear to her.
“Miss Anna, I want to make a difference in this world. I do. I never hear my friends talk the way you and Liza talk about things. You have goals. You make plans to experience things. You are always learning and growing. My parents are wonderful about all of that, so I consider myself very fortunate. But I really want to go out into the world and make a difference,” Meia added.
Liza was impressed. She adored her friend. And she loved Anna. She could not believe the people she was meeting here in this world and she was grateful she had become a Traveler.
“Miss Anna,” Meia said once again. “Miss Anna, when I’m ready to make a difference, will you help me? I mean, if I need help.”
Anna looked at Meia with tenderness. She thought back to her own moment of heartbreak, many many years ago, when she had her future taken away from her. She wanted to make a full life with her husband and they had made plans to have children. Then suddenly it was all gone.
Now here she was, living in this world with her beloved horse Abby and right here in front of her were two incredible teenage girls. At that moment, she realized there could not be a luckier woman in this or any other world.
She might not have experienced the love of her own children, but she had the joy of mentoring the children of others and she took that responsibility very seriously.
“These young women will come in and out of my life but as long as they want my help or advice, I will be there for them,” Anna nodded to herself.
She looked towards the window.
“How does Abby do it? How does she know?” Anna thought. Right there, peaking her nose through the open window, stood Abby, her forever friend. She walked over and stroked Abby’s nose and scratched her forehead.
Turning to the girls, she thought about Meia’s question, “Will you help me? If I need help?”
The answer was so simple.
“Absolutely,” Anna said.
TOO MUCH RAIN
The rain just wasn’t fun any longer. “I’m trying to stay positive,” Liza thought, “but this cold rain is making the day kind of miserable,” she complained. She sat in the saddle with her shoulders hunched a bit, trying to stave off the chill that she was starting to feel. “I’m not sure this was such a good idea,” she pondered. “Perhaps we should have stopped to make camp and started a fire or something,” she thought again. Then she laughed to herself. “That’s funny. A campfire in the rain.”
Her rain slicker was keeping the majority of the wetness off of her. But one time when she lifted her arm to adjust her cowgirl hat, nestling it more firmly onto her head and lower on her brow, a large trickle of rain had gotten into the wrist of her slicker and had run right down her arm. The rain chilled her to the bone for a moment. Liza scowled at that chilly feeling.
“I wish Libby would cheer me up,” Liza thought. “Horses don’t much care about the rain, I know that, but I’m miserable and I could use some cheering up.” Liza scowled again as they ambled along on the trail.
The rain wasn’t actually coming down hard at all. In fact, had the day been a little warmer, it might have felt refreshing after hours of heavy trail riding. It was more like a drizzle, but it was the kind of annoying drizzle that anyone out riding wishes would either turn itself into a hard rain and be done with it, or just stop all together. It was the kind of rain that riders might cry, “Just make up your mind already. Rain or stop!”
Liza looked all around her. The drizzle had picked up a little bit and she could hear the rain drops splatting
against the larger leaves of some of the underbrush. She heard Libby’s footsteps on the trail, the splat of the rain on rocks and in puddles, and she could both feel and hear the rain against her slicker and hat.
The rain had cleared the air and it had a beautiful scent to it. Up with the pine trees, Liza could smell the pine so clearly in the rain. It was that delicious scent of crushed pine needles and it was all around her.
Everything had a dark but crisp look to it, almost ominous and yet inviting. The shadows looked even darker on this rainy day. Liza knew that there really weren’t too many wild animals up here that could hurt them but she still felt responsible for Lila. Liza looked down beside her and saw Lila trotting along, hair sticking up with raindrops clinging to her little ears and dripping off her face as she jogged along on the trail. She looked completely water logged and it was a funny sight. Sometimes it seemed her ears were weighted down from the rain then she would shake her head, flinging raindrops everywhere, and her ears would perk right up again.
Lila was being such a good little foal. She didn’t seem to mind the rain at all!
After their long visit with Anna, the three of them left her valley and decided to take scenic trails instead of heading directly towards other villages. One of Liza’s wishes had she ever returned to this world was to visit a larger city and Anna told Liza about a city where she had friends with whom Liza could stay. When they left Anna’s village, they had made their way down the valley a bit and then turned to take some trails that led back up into the mountains. Anna had explained that there was a very scenic trail that was a kind of short cut to the next valley.
But she had cautioned that it was rarely taken because the trail was steep and in some places, fairly dangerous.
“This trail is something you can manage. It’s what we always called a ‘single track’ back home. It’s pretty narrow and not well-used but it’s passable,” Anna had
explained. “In some places, if you come across someone, it might be hard to pass them, coming or going so watch your step up there,” Anna had told Liza.
“And you need to watch out for some of the switchbacks,” she warned.
“Libby is surefooted,” Liza had explained, “but I will be careful, Anna. I promise.”
Shortly after the trail ride into the mountains and the picnic in the pasture, everyone knew that it was time for Meia and Marcel to return to her family, and Liza knew that it was time for her to continue her journey with Libby and Lila. Their parting was bittersweet. Would they ever see one another again?
Anna had filled Liza’s packs with all kinds of good foods for the journey and she had prepared a smaller pack for Meia’s shorter journey back home to her own family.
Anna had packed a variety of dried and cured meats, as well as aged cheeses, jars of preserved foods, bread, fruit and plenty of nuts and raisins. “Where had Anna gotten the raisins?” Liza had wondered.
She knew that access to foods was all so different here in this world and during this time period. “How did Anna come across some of these incredible delicacies?” she wondered.
Liza knew that textiles, especially silk, made up a vibrant industry in early 1890’s Switzerland but how was specialty food from all over the world traded in this landlocked country? She knew she had to learn about this.
Then there were the different chocolates that Anna had packed for her. These were still considered a delicacy but Anna had managed to get ahold of some exotic kinds of chocolates, some from very far away, not just from Switzerland. They had a gritty almost bitter taste to them and were definitely less sweet than the chocolates that Liza knew, she had noticed.
Liza watched Anna as she had fussed and packed everything for her, occasionally repacking some items that did not fit in quite right.
“I can do this myself,” Liza had thought, as she watched Anna, but she said nothing. Secretly, she was enjoying the fact that someone was worrying over her.
Lately, in her own world, Liza had been feeling a befuddling mixture of wanting to be fiercely independent, while also wanting to be taken care of. Those had been odd feelings and Liza knew she had been giving her mother lots of confused signals back at their ranch. Sometimes she was her usual self, and other times she was irritated that her mother was occasionally hovering over her and nitpicking about some things.
“I’m a teenager now,” Liza thought. Then she got a brief moment of guilt, knowing that from time to time she gave her mother a hard time with this mother-daughter struggle.
“I think I need to be more understanding of my mother. Mama just wants me to be safe,” Liza thought.
As Liza looked on, she realized that Anna was like that a bit; she valued Liza’s independence, but she felt an urge to take care of her too. Like a big sister or like an aunt.
But as she packed, she knew that Anna wasn’t going to hold her back, and Liza appreciated that.
However just now, riding in the cold rain, Liza was still irritated at the rain as she thought back to her departure from the valley. “Seems kind of odd for us to be heading back up into the mountains after we just rushed down them to get to Anna’s, I guess,” Liza mumbled.
Libby plodded onward, with Lila keeping pace beside her. Every now and then, Libby could feel gentle bumps and nudges from Lila, as she pressed her body closer to her as they walked. In this weather, Libby was radiating heat from her body and Lila could feel it.
After a while, Libby spoke.
“I know you aren’t enjoying this, Liza,” Libby had finally said. Her movements were methodical and careful as she trod on the path. There were more stones on the trail and occasionally you could hear the noise of metal against stone as Libby picked her way and as her shoes scuffed over them.
Liza felt awful just then.
Libby was doing all of the hard work, while Liza rode on her back.
And yet Libby wasn’t complaining even while Liza was full of misery.
“Liza, you need to look all around you and enjoy yourself,” Libby continued. “In fact, I’m going to stop and make you get off so you can look all around you.”
Libby stopped and felt a bump into her back end. Lila had begun to look around her as well and had run smack into her mother.
“Oops. Sorry Mama,” Lila explained. She walked to Libby’s side and with her nose, did a few hard bump bumps underneath her, and began to nurse. Lila wasn’t needing her mother that much lately, but occasionally, she still wanted to nurse. Instinctively, as she swished her tail in an agitated fashion, Libby lifted one hind leg, in a movement that was meant to signal her young foal. That movement meant, “This is probably the last time of nursing for you,” and Lila understood, quickly nursing then stepping away.
While Liza was pondering her need for independence, Lila had been noticing that her own independent streak had grown since they had come into this world. “I need Mama. There are so many more lessons to learn,” Lila had been thinking, “but I’m growing up too.”
Libby turned to face out into the gorgeous vista. In front of them, was an entire line of sight that was full of one mountain peak after another and the view was beyond description in its stunning beauty. Snow-capped mountains lay in the distance, and peaks and valleys of another set of
mountains were nearer to them. The rain and the whiteness of the background brought out the lushness of the colors of everything. Pine trees, large boulders, scrub brush, lichens, moss, flowers – everything was so beautiful. The silence amidst the noises of the rain made it all so breathtaking.
“Liza, you need to be present in the moment,” Libby said. “You aren’t here with us. I could feel that while you were riding because you were tensing up in the saddle and weren’t riding relaxed at all.”
Libby was quiet after that, while Lila stood listening. Liza said nothing.
“This is the perfect day, you know,” Libby continued.
“Aw Libby,” Liza said, slightly exasperated and a little defeated. “I know. It really is the perfect day.” Liza exhaled a deep sigh and decided to dismount.
She crossed the reins over Libby’s neck and loosened the cinch one hole. She ran her hands over Libby’s wet rump. Liza always thought it was interesting how the hair on Libby’s body seemed to deflect the rain somewhat. She gave her mare a rub and a pat and then she said, “Thank you Libby.”
Liza kept her eyes on the vista and walked forward.
“You know, this is all so…” and then she fell.
It was sudden. Her boots slipped and in the soft earth of that part of the trail, Liza fell and kept on falling. Her hands reached out for Libby but the movement of the earth as it gave way was too sudden.
“Liza!” Libby cried. Liza’s movements startled Libby who instinctively lifted her head upwards and away from the noise of Liza’s scrambles and Libby began to move back a step or two. This was the natural instinct of a horse; flight. Years of training had taught Libby to ‘spook in place’ but still her natural instinct was to move away from any kind of danger.
Yet it was Lila who tried to help.
“Liza!” cried Lila who surged forward and dashed underneath her mother’s belly, legs flailing as she came out from under her. Lila raced to the edge of the cliff, her neck forward. Lila wasn’t sure what she could do to help but she instinctively thought to put her head forward and try to grab onto Liza’s jacket with her mouth.
What had made her do that? Lila should have had the instinct to run away from noise and danger, even more so than Libby. The ability to swerve and bolt can be a lifesaving skill for a foal who perceives danger, and yet Lila had moved toward danger and not away from it.
“Liza!” Lila called out again. Realizing what was going on, Libby stepped forward, cautious yet aware that the ground was giving way under her hooves too.
“Oh no,” cried Libby. “Liza!”
With her legs spread apart to balance herself, nose down, Lila carefully looked over the edge. Down below, about eight feet from them, Lila could see that Liza was hanging onto the edge of the rocky cliff, looking up at her horses. Her hat had fallen off her head, and was hanging from her neck by its stampede string. Her eyes looked scared. She was struggling to hang onto the wet rocks of the mountainside. There was a ravine below her. She was going to fall.
“Liza, I see you,” said Lila. “I see you,” she cried.
There was silence. A screech of a falcon pierced the air, and then everything was silent. The stones and dirt and small rocks that had given way were done falling and that ominous noise of the ledge giving way was now gone. Everything was still.
Liza had a sick feeling in her stomach. She was afraid of heights and she always had to push herself to deal with it. Not only that, but even something simple like riding in a vehicle or in an ATV along the edge of a steep incline made her nauseous. One time, driving along one of the backcountry dirt access roads with her mother, she became nervous as
the vehicle tilted while her mother drove across that steep incline. Liza was on the downward side of the vehicle and was extremely uncomfortable.
“We are going to tumble over!” Liza had cried. Even though her mother assured her that they were not going to roll, Liza was still scared. Then, she felt her mother’s arm reach out and wrap around her shoulder.
“I’ve got you Liza,” she had said. “I’ll protect you. Don’t be scared.”
This memory flew through her mind, as Liza clung to the edge of the cliff.
“I’ve got you,” she recalled.
The moments passed. Liza tried to steady her breathing.
“The halter,” Liza called out in a small voice. “Get the halter.”
Lila stood up and lithely spun around and dashed back to her mother’s side.
Libby stood still but turned her neck to look back at Lila. Her heart swelled with pride at what she saw.
Lila had stood up on her hind legs and with front legs splayed left and right against Libby’s sides to support herself, her little teeth were working on the leather straps that Liza had used to tie simple knots to hold the halter onto the back of the saddle.
Nibbling fervently but carefully, Lila worked the leather straps, pulling one strap out and away from the other. Then she moved quickly to undo the way the strap had been wrapped around the halter.
It fell to the ground.
Lila grabbed the bulk of it with her teeth and ran to her mother.
“Mama,” she said. “Take this,” she said solemnly.
Libby dropped her head and bit into the headstall portion of the halter. She mouthed it in deeper and behind her teeth so it settled there securely, like a bit.
“Liza, here!” cried Lila. She picked up the rope end of the halter and moved carefully to the edge of the cliff. Dropping it, she kicked it over the edge with her front hoof.
“Mama, careful now,” Lila said. With her size and nimbleness, Lila seemed the best of them to direct the rescue. “One step forward Mama. There you go,” Lila said as she dropped her nose to the ground, sniffing it, as though she could sense if the ground was going to give way again.
“One more step Mama and you are there. There you go. Good. Now stand still, Mama.”
With Libby’s head stretched out and down, the halter’s lead rope fell close enough to Liza for her to grab a secure hold.
“Pull, Mama, pull!” Lila urged.
As Libby carefully and slowly backed up, Liza got her boots under herself and using her knees to brace carefully against the rocks, she got one then two hands firmly onto the rope. Stepping carefully, she managed to walk her way up the side of the cliff as Libby gripped the halter and carefully stepped backwards.
Lila watched everything.
Gasping, Liza scrambled up over the edge and out of danger then collapsed at the top of her climb. She dropped her right hand from the lead rope but still kept her left hand on it as she lay face down on the earth. Getting to her hands and knees, she carefully edged herself away from the cliff and only then, Libby backed up even more.
Then Liza collapsed once again. Lila was instantly by her side nuzzling her. Liza felt the whiskers, felt the softness of her nose and felt her eyelashes.
Libby, who was mildly ashamed at having instinctively jerked away from danger, timidly made her way forward and dropped her nose to Liza’s face as well. Soon, Liza’s face was
covered with tender but impatient noses, and she burst into tears.
“What am I doing here?” she cried.
Liza rolled over onto her back, bent her knees and lifted her hands and arms to her face, covering herself. The rain had stopped, but the arm of her slicker against her face was like a jolt as the cold wetness touched her.
“I should be home, safe and sound, training horses, studying, and making dinner with Mama and Papa. What am I doing here?” she cried again.
Lila was confused. She lifted her head and looked at her mama, who continued to nuzzle Liza, gently inhaling and exhaling as she nuzzled first Liza’s cheek, then her forehead and then the other cheek.
“I don’t understand,” said Lila after a moment.
She listened to Liza’s crying.
“Mama, isn’t she happy to be rescued?” Lila asked.
Her innocent and young little brain only knew one thing. There had been danger, and now Liza was safe. So what was wrong?
Liza sat up, and hugged her knees.
“I should have gone home after the rescue,” she said, with a dead look in her eyes. “After we saved Abby, I should have gone home. We all should have gone home,” she said, with a quiet and resolute edge to her voice.
Wiping the tears from her face, she sat there looking out over the steep cliff and surveyed the entire vista.
Libby did not reply, so Lila remained silent. She had a quizzical look on her face. Then she stepped close to Liza and got down onto her knees then flopped down into a curled little ball and laid quietly right there next to Liza. Liza instinctively reached out to Lila and rubbed, patted and gave her little scratches. Though wet, she felt the warmth of Lila next to her, stretched out against her thigh. She also felt the heat radiating from Libby, who stood quietly behind her.
“Lila saved me,” Liza thought quietly. She looked up at Libby. “Lila saved me,” she said, her face relaxed yet her eyes looked contemplative and alert.
“There’s my young cowgirl,” Libby thought. Liza looked out into the distance, then looked down at Lila whose little body was pressed up against her.
Libby dropped her head again and nuzzled Liza and then as she stretched her head across Liza, Libby was able to nudge Lila.
It seemed Lila had fallen fast asleep.
There was something very special about Lila, and both Libby and Liza knew it now.
BEATA RUNS HOME
Out of breath, Beata had cried, “I hear you Mama!” and then began running. She had not stopped running since she left the clearing and had witnessed her friends disappear. Beata ran to the pasture and shimmied under the fence rail at that favorite secret get away spot she and Lila had once discovered. Safely back in the pasture, she ran over to Belle.
Belle had a worried look on her face. “One foal. Where is the other?” she thought, deeply concerned. “I’m not worried about Liza and Libby. Where is Lila?”
To Beata, she cried, “What happened? Where have you been?” Belle was not pleased.
Beata dropped her head in a shameful little bow.
Meanwhile, looking at the pasture from inside the house, for the last twenty minutes Liza’s mother had finally concluded that Belle’s repeated pacing and pacing of the fence line wasn’t going to stop.
Snorting and making loud whinnies, once Belle realized the fillies were gone, she had become distraught. Liza’s mother had been busy and occasionally looked out the window. Her father had finally noticed all of the commotion but hadn’t realized there was a problem.
“Honey, look. What’s up with Belle? Something isn’t right,” Liza’s father said to his wife. Looking into the pasture, he did a quick count. “Libby is gone, Lila too. And Liza is gone.” Looking back at his wife, he relaxed a bit and added, “I suppose you know all about that.”
She nodded.
But looking back at the pasture, his face took on a more serious look and he said once again, “Something isn’t right.” Grabbing his Henry, he headed out to the pasture and gave a whistle for Dude. His wife grabbed her jacket and hat and followed him.
These last few minutes in particular, Belle had been lifting her body up onto her hind legs and had been spinning to the left and then to the right as she paced the fence line, looking into the woods. Was she going to jump the fence?
It was when she would not stop pawing at the ground and rearing, that Liza’s parents had really taken notice.
Sometimes the horses had made a show of strength when they felt a predator was watching them. But this body language was different. Belle was definitely upset.
“I’m coming,” his wife cried.
Liza’s parents headed to the pasture. Dude had come up to the main gate of the pasture, standing at the ready, but Belle had remained at the fence line opposite the woods.
“Come on Dude. Let’s get you tacked up,” he said.
“Wait!” cried his wife.
Then her parents saw what Belle had seen.
They saw a terrified filly come flying out of the woods, nearly falling as she skidded around a corner of the path as she raced through the moss of that last part of the wooded trail.
Then they watched as she dashed along the fence line. Beata wiggled her way under the lowest board of the fence and raced into the pasture, right up to her mother.
“Right so that’s how she did it!” he said to his wife.
Shaking her head, “That’s only one. Where is Lila?” she replied.
“I can head out on Dude or take the four-wheeler,” he said flatly.
His wife replied. “Honey, just wait a moment longer.”
Belle had lifted her head and looked back in the direction of the gate to the pasture. She shook her head, “No,” then looked back down at her filly. Belle’s posture was relaxed and she had stopped pacing.
“What’s up with that?” Liza’s father asked. Then he chuckled as he shook his head. “Looks like someone is in trouble,” he added. “Do you want to handle this?” he asked, turning back to his wife.
“Belle doesn’t seem as worried as before. Let’s give it a minute,” she said to her husband.
Dude had stretched his head and neck over the gate, clearly eager for a scratch. “That’s a good boy,” he said to Dude. Rubbing him on his nose then running his hand down Dude’s neck, he said, “You were ready to head out with me to find them, weren’t you, Dude?” he asked.
Dude leaned harder into the pressure and into the scratches he was getting, clearly enjoying the attention. “Nothing ever phases Dude,” Liza’s father noticed as he rubbed and patted his horse again.
He looked out at his wife, who had opened the gate and walked into the pasture over to Belle and Beata. Admonished, Beata stood quietly beside her mother and looked ashamed under the mare’s reproachful gaze.
As Liza’s mother walked back to the gate, she called out to her husband, “Lila is safe with Liza and Libby.”
Her husband nodded.
“One more thing, they all passed through. All three have gone back. They are Travelers now.”
REMARKABLE SHOES
On the horizon, the trio could easily see they were nearing ‘the big city’. The architecture of all the homes here on the outskirts had changed dramatically since they started their travels. Land plots were smaller and it appeared that people living here relied less on their own land for food. As they were close to the city, Liza surmised that people here worked more for others, or in their own shops, and as a result, had less time for gardens, and no room for a small farm. They probably traded time in a garden or on a farm for time working, and as a result, probably bought their fruits, vegetables, meats, breads and cheeses from others.
They had meandered their way through the mountains and then down into the valleys and across flat areas over the last few weeks, covering many many miles. They all missed the beauty of the mountains, but part of their reason for staying in this world, was a burning desire for Liza to visit and experience city life.
What would the people be like? What did they wear? What were they thinking? How did they live their lives? What were their businesses like? Liza wanted to experience and absorb as much as she could.
Liza sat down deep into her saddle in a relaxed pose and very gently guided the reins on Libby. She did not say a word to Libby or Lila so she was glad when Libby slowed her pace and as she looked down to her left, Liza saw that Lila was right there by her mother’s side.
Lila occasionally trotted along one side of her mama then would drop back a bit and trot along on her other side. She was enjoying looking at everything around her as well.
Liza was very pleased to see that Lila had learned some important skills during these weeks that they had been traveling together. Lila instinctively knew to slow down to match her mother’s gait and even knew when to stop. And she stopped on a dime to boot. “Maybe she has some reining horse potential in her?” Liza thought one day when she had seen Lila drop her butt and skid to a halt one time.
Lila had even learned to remain absolutely quiet and only to make noises typical of a foal, clearly resisting the urge to ask questions. They were now in territory possibly unfriendly to Travelers and most definitely unfriendly to talking horses. To remain safe and relatively anonymous here in the big city, both Liza and Libby had stressed to Lila that it was extremely important not to use words. This lesson had really hit close to home during their journey, when they passed through an area that did not exactly seem idyllic. The workmen working alongside of the road had looked at Lila and Libby in an unfriendly way and Libby could feel Liza tense up for a moment in the saddle.
“Mama, they don’t seem friendly at all,” Lila whispered. One of the men had been digging a ditch and they passed close by him. By now, close to the city, the pretty trails were long gone, replaced by deeply rutted roads which were sometimes difficult to manage, especially after heavy rains. A group of men were hard at work digging, and at the sound of Lila’s voice, one had looked up and issued a nasty growl and had then looked wickedly at Lila. Lila instinctively pressed her little body closer to Libby and her gait seemed reluctant even as she stayed close to her mama and tried to keep pace. Libby, Liza noticed, had kind of turned her body at a bit of an angle, even while walking forward, in an obvious attempt to protect Lila. Libby’s head was elevated a little bit
and she had begun to prance ever so slightly. Her breathing was elevated.
“Someone is about to get a very nasty kick from this mare if they don’t watch it,” Liza observed.
Libby clearly had the air of a very protective mare who would strike out at any attempt to harm her foal.
Liza decided not to correct her or to ask for any other type of gait. She could sense that Libby had gone into protection mode and Liza did not want to confuse Libby with counterintuitive cues.
“What did it say?” the nasty man said, looking dead on at Lila.
Liza debated several responses and yet remained silent. She and Libby continued to walk on.
“Miss, I said, what did it say?” and he began to lay down his shovel. One of his fellow diggers had also stopped and was holding his own shovel in a menacing way, as if to back up whatever trouble his colleague was going to start. It looked like both men were going to come clear out of the ditch.
Looking beside the men, Liza spotted what clearly looked like bottles of alcohol. “These men look drunk as well as menacing,” she deduced instantly. “That can help my situation. I’m going to try something I once read in a book.”
Remaining calm, she nudged Libby forward knowing that Libby was ready to either rear or strike out at anyone with a bad attitude who came near her Lila.
Grabbing some coins from her pocket, Liza adeptly flicked several into the air in the direction of the angry men.
“For your dinner libations, gentlemen,” and she laughed a hearty laugh, pressing her legs more firmly against Libby, urging her mare to continue to walk on.
One man hustled right out of the ditch, tripping over himself. The second man leapt and stumbled out of the ditch as well, and tripped over the first man, as both angrily shoved the other out of the way to reach the coins on the
ground. Liza exhaled a sigh of relief when she saw that these men were now focused on the coins and on one another and not on them.
Remaining calm, Liza nudged Libby up into a very brisk trot, while calling out quietly to Lila, “Pick it up and run with us Lila. Pick up your pace!” and watched as Lila instantly matched Libby’s pace step for step. Quickening their pace even more, Libby and Lila moved their gait up into a faster trot then into a slow lope as they hurried away from the men in the ditches.
Further along the road, at a quiet spot, Libby announced, “Liza, please stop and dismount and step to the side.” Liza pursed her lips into an “Oooooh,” and did as she was asked. “Libby never bosses me around so this is interesting,” she thought.
Liza got down off of Libby and crossed Libby’s reins over her neck. She walked away a little bit and waited. She heard voices and she watched as Lila dropped her head in deep shame and embarrassment. Liza was surprised at how calmly Libby handled the life-threatening situation that Lila had put them in. “Oh boy, Libby sure is scolding her foal,” Liza thought, smiling to herself.
Liza took a much-needed stretch and ambled her way back over to Libby. She checked the saddle, then walked over to Lila. Lila lifted her head to look up into Liza’s face. Liza scratched her under her chin and ran her hands over Lila’s cheeks and then up to her ears. Lila leaned into Liza and practically begged for scratches on her ears. Lila looked at Liza quite earnestly.
Liza wasn’t certain, but if ever she thought she saw tears in the eyes of a horse, it was at that moment, that day, along a road heading into a big city, and from the eyes of Lila.
“I’m sorry,” said Lila.
“That’s a girl,” said Liza.
Looking ahead, Liza could see that the road into the city was changing even more. The road was laid with
cobblestones further on, which Liza knew would present a challenge for Libby.
“Right, I think it’s time for new shoes, Libby,” Liza said. “Let’s see if we can find a farrier to give us some help.” They had come to a small town on the outskirts of the big city and across the square, Liza saw exactly what she needed. Hanging above a doorway, she took a look at the farrier’s sign and she nearly burst out laughing.
“Can you see that Lila?” she said.
“It’s the sign of a Traveler!” Lila cried.
“Yep,” Liza said, “so it will be much easier for us to get service from this farrier to help with Libby’s special shoes that I’ve been carrying in this pack all this while.”
Taking Libby’s reins in her hand, Liza walked a bit down the road, across the square and over to the front of the farrier’s shop.
“Good day,” Liza said, holding her Traveler’s sign in her left hand. They must have looked a fine sight, Liza, Libby and little Lila all in a row.
“Well good day,” replied the man who stood up and patted the side of a large chestnut horse. He put his tools down across his anvil. “A fine day for Travelers, I see,” he said, walking a few steps to pat Lila on the head and to give Libby a quick pat as well.
“What do we have here?” he said to Liza, who by now had rummaged around in her bag and had brought out an odd-looking horseshoe. She handed the shoe to the farrier, who smiled as he looked it over, then instantly looked down at Libby’s front hooves and began to examine her shoes.
“I see,” he said. “This looks like something you have had specially made to adapt these shoes she already has on, haven’t you now? So she’ll be able to navigate cobblestone streets is my guess, would that be right?” he asked Liza, giving Libby another pat and running his hand down one of her front legs as he leaned over.
Libby instantly lifted up her front leg and carefully allowed the man to gently examine her hoof and the existing shoe. Taking the other special shoe that Liza had handed to him, he bent over again and took a closer look at Libby’s shoes.
“Ah, this is excellent. Fine craftsmanship too, I see,” he said, admiring both the shoes that Libby had on and the metalwork in his hand. He ran his thumb over an etching in the shoe as he held it and lifted one eyebrow a tiny bit.
“Thank you, sir,” said Liza.
Laying one shoe onto Libby’s existing shoe, he said. “Let’s see, so, these will cover the shoes already on her in a clever fashion, like this, right? Without having to remove them. Looks like they’ll prevent your fine mare from slipping and falling all over the place when she’s in the city on the cobblestones am I correct?” he asked.
“Yes, you are, sir,” Liza said again with a smile.
The farrier released Libby’s leg gently to the ground, gave her a pat, and turned back around to face Lila.
“And who might you be?” he asked.
Lila said nothing. Instead, she lightly pranced her way closer and nearer to Libby’s side, made a little squeaky nicker then nervously looked up at Libby, trying to look and act and sound exactly the way a little horse should.
Libby nodded and nuzzled her filly and whispered, “He’s one of us, Lila.”
Lila’s eyes widened, she looked at the man, and standing tall she said, “I’m Lila, sir.” Looking up at the farrier, she paused as she examined his face, noticing a twinkle in his eyes.
He patted her on the head once again, giving her a playful rub.
“I’ve never seen such a young one before, a young Traveler that is,” he said, looking down at Lila.
“This is too funny,” Liza thought. “I’m the youngest Traveler, I was told. Now Lila is!”
“I am young, sir, that’s true,” Lila replied.
“Let’s have a look at your hooves then. Ah, I can see that you have some wear and tear on you, even though you seem to be holding up well enough,” he added. Turning to Liza he said, “I’d still give her a bit of a rest when you reach your destination if you can, to give those young hooves of hers a chance to catch up to the wear they’ve had so far.”
“Thank you, sir,” Lila said and then moved close to Libby and pressed into her side once again.
“It’s okay, Lila, you are doing just fine,” Libby said, looking down at her little foal with pride. Nervously, Lila made a few bumps with her nose, under her mother, and nursed for just a moment or two.
“Right, let’s get you set up then,” the farrier said. “Step over here to untack your mare and wait, let them both have some hay and I’ll be right with you,” he said with a wink at Lila.
Looking up at Libby, Lila said, “Did I do okay, Mama?” she asked.
“Yes, you did, my dear,” said Libby, and they walked over and began to eat from the manger while the farrier finished up working on the large chestnut horse.
IAFTER THEY JUMPED
t had been a gorgeous morning of stunning weather.
The course had been perfectly groomed and she could still see the gardener riding on his quiet lawnmower as he finished up the green area beyond the last jumps of the course.
Her name was Laura, and she was immaculately dressed in fine breeches, expensive leather riding boots and today, she wore one of her prettiest jackets for her ride. She was preparing for an eventing challenge that was coming up for the entire East Coast. On training days like these, she often felt that wearing her best non-competition attire made her feel like she was more in tune with the intensity of her training. She knew it was a little vain to think like that however. Deep down she knew that if you rode correctly, it really didn’t matter what you wore. Still today, she was dressed in her finest.
But at this moment, after a few seconds of horror, all she knew was that her horse had died in her arms. She was on the ground, next to her limp horse, with its head and upper body nestled close, and she knew her mare was dead. After one of the last jumps, her horse Layla had landed incorrectly and had stepped clumsily. The irony was that Layla hadn’t really done anything wrong. During the jump, Laura had shifted her weight too forcefully and in spite of years of training and exercises, she had not caught herself properly and had not fixed her incorrect posture and poor setup. So the clumsy takeoff positioning of her own body yielded the misstep of her horse. Laura’s body weight caused Layla to struggle and with that much energy,
power and force of her own large body, as Layla had surged through the jump, the landing was horrific and she fell.
As everything was unfolding, Laura knew it was all going to end horribly. Each movement happened in slow motion and she cursed herself slowly but silently even as her mind raced to correct things. But that shift in her weight had made all the difference and her horse could not catch herself and correct the inevitable horror of a bad landing.
Layla landed with over one thousand pounds of her weight on her head and neck and there was a horrible crunch and snap. Laura knew what all of this meant as the crash and tumble of the body and legs of her horse melded with the entanglement of her own body now caught in the stirrups. Her hands still held the reins. As Laura herself flew and tumbled, in her mind she began to cry. She knew it, she knew everything … that is, she knew what was unfolding and she was profoundly sad as she tumbled. She rolled as she had been trained to protect her own head and neck and upper spine. But as she tumbled, she felt herself crying such torrents of tears that she wasn’t sure if she was dreaming the tears or if it was all real.
Laura’s mind spun. She flashed back to the beginning of her morning with Layla. Tucked in her stall for the night, Layla had nickered warmly that morning when she heard Laura approach and call to her.
Laura had greeted her friend with a pat on the neck after she had unlatched and slid open the heavy door and then walked into the stall to place the halter on Layla.
“Good morning!” Laura had murmured. Other riders were greeting their own horses. That time of the morning at the stables was already getting busy as grooms, assistants and riders gathered horses, grooming supplies and tack and readied their mounts for their own day of training.
“Let’s get you over here to these cross ties,” Laura said and guided Layla out into the aisle of the stable, gently spinning her horse to face the front. Laura clicked the snaps of the cross ties into place on Layla’s halter and said, “I wish I didn’t have to use these on you,” she said. “You always stand so nicely. I almost feel like you don’t ever need cross ties or even a halter.” Layla nickered as she looked at her mistress.
“I think people would think I was crazy if I didn’t have you tied up though,” Laura sighed as she groomed and tacked up her horse. Nestling the saddle pad and saddle into place, Layla looked back slightly at her mistress and blew a contented little snort through her nostrils. Yes, it was looking to be a wonderful day.
After meticulously wrapping Layla’s lower legs and adding protective boots, Laura grabbed her riding helmet, adjusted her own boots and jacket, fussed with the stirrups which she had pulled down from under the saddle and double-checked the two straps of the cinch. Then she led Layla out into the sunshine.
Layla was a big but slim, black thoroughbred horse and stood at just a hair over 17 hands high. She was an eventing horse and bred from fine champion bloodlines. She and Laura had been winning nearly each time they competed and this coming weekend, they were expected to win once again. While they excelled in the dressage and show jumping portions of eventing competitions, they especially loved the cross-country portion of eventing.
With the wind in her face and feeling the power of Layla’s body beneath her, Laura knew there was no better feeling in the world than racing across grassy fields and soaring over even the highest obstacles on the course.
Competing in both one and three-day events, they traveled all over to compete against the best in the world.
This morning, Laura could feel the eyes of her colleagues on her. Sometimes she felt as though a few of
them were burning holes into her jacket when they looked at her. Laura could never understand that kind of competitor. “Aren’t we all just supposed to focus on our own situation and compete the best we can?” she had always thought.
Laura had no time for the pettiness in the stables this morning. She focused her attention on Layla and gave her another stroke along her shiny neckline. “Okay girl. Let’s have a beautiful run this morning.”
As they were heading out, for a split second, Laura became slightly distracted thinking about this weekend’s important competition but she pushed it out of her head. She had done a few light dressage maneuvers with Layla as a little warm up and had then headed towards the start of the cross-country course.
Today was going to be a graceful easy day of light work. At some jumps she had already decided she would take the moderate version instead of the higher, more challenging one right beside it.
Well maybe not.
After all, they had to perfect the last jump closer to the stables since they knew they would encounter a jump just like that one at the upcoming competition in Virginia. Mostly, she knew she needed to work on her timing and to get the last steps of the course just right.
As she walked Layla and warmed her up, Laura looked all around her. If it wasn’t for the small horse trailers that drove back and forth on the narrow road leading to this facility in the suburbs here in Massachusetts, no one would really have known that this facility even existed. With lush trees and bushes and landscaping, its multi-hundred acres had withstood the pressure from land developers as well as zoning and regional planning demands for over a century. The grounds were immaculate. Painted fencing, flowers, carefully groomed areas and neatly parked
cars and larger vehicles dotted Laura’s vista as she looked back towards the stables.
With Layla ready to go, Laura politely nodded to her colleagues as they warmed up their own horses. There was a quiet acceptance of who would head out next on the practice course so when Laura nodded to the man beside her, he tipped his helmet to her with a touch of his hand to the brim, and with a polite smile, Laura took off.
A few other riders had gone out before her already this morning. Many were warming up after her and Laura heard the spinning of tires on the parking lot pebbles as someone arrived late for their session. “Why do people have to drive quickly into a parking lot?” Laura thought and chuckled. “If you’re late, you’re late. You don’t have to advertise it with poor driving,” she thought.
But for this moment, the course was all hers and Layla almost reared slightly in the excitement and anticipation of a glorious day of running and jumping as she felt Laura holding her back.
It was a perfect day.
As they ran across the grassy fields of the course, Laura leaned forward and spontaneously called out to Laya, “This feels glorious! It feels wonderful, Layla! It feels lovely. You feel so good underneath me. This is our smoothest day ever!” Laura cried into the ear of her wonderful horse.
As if she understood, Layla stretched out even more and ran like the wind.
And then everything changed. The wrong body position, the clumsiness, the misstep, the shift of her body as she failed to compensate, the crunch and the snap...it had all gone horribly wrong.
Laura’s head smacked violently into the ground and she felt her shoulder nearly give in when her own body hit the ground. She was grateful for her helmet but her head still hurt horribly. She untangled herself, fearful that she might be caught and injured in the struggles of her horse
trying to stand up as so often happened during falls like this.
One time, Laura had witnessed a dazed horse as it struggled to get up after fall and had begun to run off with her rider still caught in the stirrups. That wasn’t supposed to happen, but crazy accidents still occurred to even the best horse and rider team.
But Layla wasn’t struggling. She wasn’t moving.
And Laura’s blood ran cold as the reality of what had happened was settling in.
“Layla!” she screamed.
It was a blood-curdling scream. “Layla!” Laura screamed again.
She was on her hands and knees scrambling over to her horse, crawling just like as toddler crawls before it learns to walk. She began to hyperventilate as she looked at her horse, lying still there on the ground.
“Layla!” Laura cried more softly as she reached her horse and cradled Layla’s head in her lap, caressing her cheeks and looking into the eyes of her dying mare.
The moment was pure and silent and still and beautiful even in the midst of such awfulness. Laura stroked her mare’s cheek and she cried.
There was the screech of a hawk as it flew overhead. Laura was surprised at that noise and the sound snapped her out of her misery.
And then … just then … Laura heard a voice. “I think I stepped wrong,” it said. Laura stopped moving. Her hand lay motionless on her mare’s cheek.
“Today did feel glorious, Laura, it really did. It was truly a lovely and wonderful day. I want you to know that,” the voice said.
And then Laura’s world completely fell apart.
HEADING INTO THE CITY
The farrier attached the special shoes onto Libby’s existing ones, and with his nippers and farrier’s rasp, he made some small repairs and corrections to Lila’s hooves. He seemed to be a man of few words, and while he and Liza did speak to one another a little, he kept his side of the conversation brief whenever he spoke with her
While not very talkative with people Liza noticed, he had taken a moment to explain that he had first met Anna and Abby when they rode by his shop a few years ago, and he had attended to Abby’s shoeing needs. Anna had noticed the sign of the Traveler attached to his own farrier sign and while she felt safe there, noticed that he neither referenced the sign nor asked her anything about herself.
He really seemed to enjoy his conversations with her horses, Liza observed. He asked them lots of questions and took great interest in their answers, giving thoughtful replies after they spoke to him.
She also noticed that when he talked about his very first meeting with Anna and Abby many years ago, it seemed that he referenced his conversations with Abby more than he shared what he had experienced in his conversations with Anna. Was there something secretive about his meeting with Anna? After a while, Liza concluded that this man simply enjoyed the company of horses. She was certain now that he enjoyed speaking with a horse that could actually converse with him even more than he enjoyed speaking with people.
Although he barely spoke with Liza, he sure did with Libby. He asked her all kinds of questions about how her hoof felt wearing this or that kind of shoe, and how she felt
when she competed and needed to dig into arena dirt to move quickly or to make agile turns. He asked her about the wear and tear on her hooves when she was on flat ground, going up hills, and even trotting along on the trails in the mountains.
It seemed that he really wanted to know how her hoof and frog felt under a shoe and he especially wanted to know what the nails felt like as he pounded them into place. He even asked Libby if the rasp tickled or hurt her and if she had any ideas on how he could improve his set of tools.
Liza was surprised at all of the man’s knowledge about arenas and competitions, but even though he chatted with the horses, she decided not to press him on what he knew about Travelers and why he knew all about arenas. “There is a secret here,” she decided and like many secrets, concluded that if there was ever the chance, she was sure the farrier would tell his secrets to someone someday. “I’m so inquisitive,” she realized. “Sometimes I have to give people a little space,” she thought as she chuckled to herself.
With Libby properly shod, and with buffed up little hooves for Lila, Libby gave the farrier a gentle nuzzle of thanks and Lila made some little prancing motions of being a very happy little horse. After paying the farrier with some coins Anna had given her, Liza got back onto Libby and thanked him and asked Libby to walk on.
“Enjoy your time in the city. You will have friends there. Dr. Anna has paved the way for all Travelers, you should know. She has an abundance of friends everywhere, it seems,” and he tipped his hat to Liza and said good-bye.
Liza felt much better now that Libby had her specially designed shoes on her. Over the past few years, this was something that had concerned her, if she and Libby were ever to return to this world. She knew that no matter what, if she ever came back to this world, she wanted to spend time in a big city. But she also felt protective of Libby and knew that it would be nearly impossible for Libby to
successfully and safely navigate the cobblestone streets of a city with her normal shoes, while being free to comfortably walk on other types of roads as well.
Liza took a moment to reflect back on how she had solved that problem.
It was one pretty day at her parents’ ranch, that she decided to press their own farrier about an idea she had had. Liza wanted to be ready at a moment’s notice to return through the fog bank or by whatever means she might be drawn back into this world. She had wanted to return some day and she wanted to be prepared.
She asked so many questions of her farrier back home that she was certain he was going to ask her to skedaddle. Liza had been excited as she talked and went on and on for thirty minutes and then she got rather quiet.
Finally, in between horses, her farrier noticed her silence, stood up, stretched, and in his quiet calm voice he said, “This sounds like an important project you have in mind, Liza.”
“Yes, it is. Do you think my idea will work?” she asked him.
“Not only will it work, but it’s ingenious. I enjoy projects like this. Can you wait until I am back in six weeks?” he asked.
Liza paused. “Be patient,” she said to herself. And then to the farrier, she said, “Six weeks will be fine.”
“I’m resetting Libby’s shoes this time, but in six weeks she will be due for an entire new set of shoes. I will work on something that I will embed into Libby’s next set of shoes, and in addition I will make something for her that you can bring along with you. What I create for you, well any skilled farrier can attach them onto the shoes I’ll put on when I’m back. How does that sound?” he asked.
“That would be wonderful,” Liza said.
And six weeks later, Liza brought her mother down to the stables and she and the farrier showed her the invention.
“This will work perfectly,” Liza’s mother said. “I see what you’ve done here,” she added as she picked up Libby’s hoof and looked at one of the new shoes that their farrier had invented for Libby. Then she looked at the invention of the special attachment and she held it this way and that way in her hands. She got a little tingle of excitement as she imagined what good use Liza might put these to.
She wasn’t thrilled at the thought of Liza on another adventure as a Traveler, but she knew Liza was dead set on going back if the opportunity ever presented itself.
“I can only imagine what you two ladies have in store for Libby,” their farrier said.
“Thank you, sir,” Liza said.
After paying the farrier and helping him pack up a bit, she watched him pull out down their long drive and waved.
She picked up the hoof trimmings and other debris and put the large broom and dustpan back hanging neatly on their hooks on the wall of the stable.
Liza decided to take a moment to speak with her mother who had had a slightly worried look on her face during their discussion about the special horseshoes. Walking back to the house, Liza saw her mother looking out over the valley, then turn to walk into the house. She knew her mother had business paperwork to catch up on, and while she didn’t want to bother her, Liza knew she had some questions to ask of her mother.
Liza did a little skip, walk and a run up the sidewalk, caught up to her mother and entered the house. Her mother turned to look at Liza and suddenly gave Liza a big hug. “You’re my young daughter Liza, and you certainly aren’t little any more. You are practically a young lady and I’m so proud of you, you know,” she said, squeezing Liza more tightly.
“Thank you, Mama,” Liza said.
Releasing Liza and gently pushing Liza back a step, she took a long, loving look at Liza. “I’ve seen how you fuss over that pack of supplies you keep at the ready, so I know you are planning to go,” her mother said.
“Yes Mama,” Liza said.
“Promise me not to search for ways to go back, but instead, wait to be asked to go,” her mother added. Liza frowned then relaxed her face.
“Yes, Mama, I promise,” Liza said moving back into her mother’s arms and hugging her tightly. “I promise,” she said again, even more earnestly.
Liza pulled back and looked at her mother.
“Wait! Mama, I wasn’t being completely truthful. I made a promise to you just now that didn’t make sense to me. What do you mean I have to ‘wait to be asked to go’?” Liza asked her mother, looking at her with a look of both determination and curiosity. Her mother took Liza’s hands in hers.
Liza stood there looking up at her mother.
“I’m almost as tall as she is,” Liza thought. “I don’t have to look up so high any more when I look into her eyes. I’m still her little girl, but I’m taller now,” she realized.
“What did you mean just now, Mama?” Liza asked, gently pressing her mother for answers once again. This felt like an important moment and Liza didn’t want to let it slip away. For an instant, she felt her mother’s hands relax as though she was going to pull away, but Liza held them ever so slightly with a firm but gentle extra bit of pressure.
As she watched her mother’s face, she noticed that her mother was trying to think how to answer her.
“Secrets. Mama has secrets,” Liza thought. “Will she ever tell me everything?” Liza wondered.
Her mother was quiet for a moment. Liza stayed quiet too. She felt the sun on her back and the warmth of her mother’s hands in hers and realized that perhaps that warmth might all be connected somehow.
“There is a Traveler’s code that we all learn each time we travel,” her mother began.
“Each time?” Liza’s head screamed with excitement but held her breath instead of blurting out more questions.
“You travel when you are called, or you travel when you experience something extraordinarily special with your horse as you are riding together. I think you and Libby first traveled when you were having fun together on the trails in Arizona when we spent the winter there. You were running up the hills and having a glorious time, right?” her mother asked, with a curious look on her face.
“That’s right Mama. And then we ran into and through the fog bank and we found ourselves in another world. We had gone back to the 1880’s and were in the mountains of Switzerland somewhere. Deep within the Alps,” she said.
There was a pause. Liza did not let go of her mother’s hands. She felt something there in her touch. The sun, the warmth, the love, her eyes … what was happening to her? What was Liza experiencing just then?
“What is this moment…?” Liza thought, she paused and still held onto her mother and did not let go. Her
mother relaxed her fingers again and Liza could feel her turn ever so slightly, like she was going to walk away.
“I will not let this moment go,” Liza thought. “Talk to me, Mama. Tell me. What do I need to know?” Liza’s mother looked at Liza just then. Precisely when she asked that question in her mind, Liza noticed that her mother had looked right at her.
She both saw and felt her mother relax.
“When you go back, it’s impossible to ever recreate the moment of joy – or sorrow – that you are feeling at that very second the first time you go through as a Traveler. That’s a moment in time that is perfect - that connection with your horse, those feelings you are experiencing, the moment is so perfect and you will waste your life trying to recreate that experience all over again,” her mother urged. “Do you understand, Liza?” she asked.
Liza nodded.
Liza understood her mother because she had experienced very special moments with Libby many times yet each one was unique.
It was like trying to recreate the exact feeling of exhilaration coming out of the arena after a perfect run with Libby. Sometimes after that perfect run, Liza would tremble with unexplained excitement from the joy of competing in such exquisite harmony with her horse. She would tremble for a few awesome moments until both her breathing and Libby’s breathing had calmed.
No matter what, that point in time was its own special event, never to be recreated and experienced again. Oh there would be similar moments of joy and awesomeness, but that moment was its own.
“Yes Mama. Tell me more please,” Liza urged. “Once you find yourself in that perfect moment and you travel, more often than not, the next time you go back you need to be ‘called’.” Liza opened her eyes in surprise. Her mother made a little crooked smirk of a smile with her
mouth as if to say, “Yep, that’s right.” Then her mother nodded.
“’Called’?” Liza asked.
Her mother nodded again.
“That is correct. When you go back with your horse, the connection has been made with that world. And you will always have a connection with other Travelers, whether you know it or not. In your case, you met Anna and Abby, so you were lucky. Your connection to the world of the Travelers was intensified not only because you went back with Libby, but because you met others.”
She paused. Then she let go of Liza’s hands and walked a few paces to the window and looked out at the mountains. These beautiful East Coast mountains were steep yet rounded mountains, not like the expansive steep, tall and sharp mountains out West or in the Alps.
Liza was puzzled but patient.
“Liza, when you go back, this time they will have called to you to ask you to come back,” her mother said.
And then the intimate moment of intensity passed and Liza’s mother became her mother again.
She was no longer the mysterious Traveler, but had become the wife and mother and equestrian businesswoman that Liza knew and loved. And she was grateful for the experience she was having with her mother just now.
Liza thought back on all of this as she stood looking at the farrier’s shop, here on the outskirts of the city.
She took another minute to pet Libby’s nose and stroke her neck. She looked over at Lila and ran her hand under Lila’s head and scratched her and then rubbed her ears and scratched her neck. She ran her hands over Lila’s back and down to her cute little foal’s rump and gave her a pat.
“Your tail is really growing here,” Liza said to Lila.
Looking back up at Liza, the filly made a squeaky little whinny, as they all walked onward, continuing their adventure to visit the big city.
CHAPTER NINTEEN
MEIA’S RETURN
Balthis had just finished packing the last of the many crates containing his father’s woodcarvings. He secured the lid of this last crate after first checking the packing material into which the many wooden figurines were safely nestled. “Good,” he thought to himself. “This is perfect. It’s the last of nearly two hundred items!” he said as he hoisted the crate into the back of their large cart.
This was their livelihood, or at least part of it. Tucked into a beautiful hamlet, deep in the Alps, Balthis and his family made a living for themselves with their cows, sheep and large garden. In addition, they canned and preserved many food items both for themselves and for sale to others in the larger villages below their hamlet.
But it was the woodcarvings that brought in the most money for the family.
His father was a deeply skilled woodcarver whose carvings were highly sought after. All through the winter months, his father worked to create the intricate items
which people from all over the continent cherished. Balthis and his sister, Meia, helped their father with the fundamental rough carving of each item, but it was their father who had initially designed and then curated the work of the final product, doing all the final and important detailed carving himself.
Their father was fortunate to remain as an independent carver and was therefore able to sell his items directly to interested clients or through trusted brokers. But this past winter, the family had developed the idea for Balthis to open a shop for their work, and that meant packing up that winter’s hard work and taking it to the city below.
Balthis was now an eighteen-year-old, intelligent and multi-lingual young man. Throughout his younger years, Balthis was responsible for tending their herd of sheep up in the steep and high meadow pastures. During that time, he always had books with him to read. His father nurtured that passion for reading in both his son and his daughter. Every time he had made his way to the many villages and towns where he sold his woodcarvings, he never failed to return to his little mountain chalet without a small treasure trove of books for his children.
But hard work and studies paid off.
In the mountains, the family spoke a German dialect typical for the region. However, Balthis had taught himself French, Italian, and English. He knew these were the important languages, even as his mother had also taught her children proper German. Books and learning were the future and his family knew this, which is why they encouraged reading and vibrant learning, even as they lived and worked in this remote mountain hamlet.
Balthis was interested in engineering. He wanted to build things. Helping his father with woodcarving was one thing, but he wanted to learn how to build railroads, ships and tall buildings. He wasn’t sure of his specific future exactly, but he knew he wanted to go to school to learn
about it all. The world was changing rapidly and he wanted to be a part of it.
He knew that the transatlantic world was an important future for hardworking young men like himself. Transcontinental trade was flourishing, but it was trade with America that was the future. He had read all about it. Railroads, lumber, shipping … it was all at his fingertips, he just had to study very hard and find the right mentor perhaps.
The first step in his future right now was to help the family establish their store in the city. He would study during his free time, and the family even worked out a budget for private tutors while he was in the city. They had a plan to expand their business from one city to several more. Their father had already hired an apprentice to help keep a steady supply of woodcarvings for their store. From now on, the apprentice would take care of the sheep and also help with the carving.
As he stood there with the crates secured to the cart, Balthis knew he had an important job to do. He had been entrusted with many valuable crates of his father’s hard work and he was ready to leave for the city first thing in the morning.
But he needed a horse.
The family had two horses.
Their second horse, mostly used for traveling between the villages with smaller packs on its back was not really suited for hauling a cart like this.
He needed Marcel, the family’s smaller but sturdy mountain horse used for hard work and for hauling the heavy cart.
Where was Marcel?
And where was his sister Meia?
After their disappearance, the family had been worried and had sent word throughout these lower mountain areas.
Weeks ago, his mother had seen Meia race off with Marcel, bareback and without any provisions, as she jumped on his back and raced up into the mountains. But they had not heard word of her since except for a casual word or two about the rescue of the horse belonging to the tall woman doctor down in the valley.
Balthis knew that during the winter, if someone became lost in these mountains, they had likely come to harm. But in this case, in the summer, no news was somewhat good news. Marcel was reliable and Meia was an intelligent and resourceful mountain girl. Meia and Marcel were together and they were safe, he just knew it.
He wished he had proof though because he knew how worried his parents were.
As Balthis secured the last crate, he gave the rope a little tug and he subconsciously gave the last crate a pat. Then he heard a noise.
He heard the clip clop of a horse coming up the trail. It was a slow and steady and methodical sound. He looked down past the garden. He heard the sound again. He knew that sound! He recognized that cadence. It was Marcel. Only Marcel made a sound like that on the stones of the trail coming up to their chalet. It had to be Marcel.
In the darkness, he squinted to try to make out the figures that were approaching him.
“Meia!” he cried out.
“Balthis!” cried the rider.
Meia jumped off Marcel and tossing the reins back over his neck, she ran to her brother and embraced him.
Marcel knew the drill: he walked slowly to the stable and patiently stood there, looking back at his mistress, proud of the work he had done. He was tired, but exhilarated all the same. Weeks ago, his mistress had begged him to run fast and hard, and he had done just that. He had run up high, deep into the mountains to look for help at the mysterious location
where Travelers passed through, and then he had raced down to Anna’s home.
He had helped to save Abby.
Now he was tired and wanted some hay.
After their embrace, and before her brother could chide her for disappearing, Meia raced to the stable.
“You were such a good boy, Marcel. Thank you.” Meia spoke calmly as she curried him. She walked him into his stall, secured the wooden rail behind him, then cleaned and filled his water bucket and tossed him a good amount of hay.
“Such a good boy,” she said again and ran her hand over his neck, ending in a pat. She felt the thick muscles in his neck, and let her hand linger under the warmth of his mane as she rubbed him there.
Marcel nickered, even as he sucked down water. Lifting his head after his drink, he nuzzled her.
“I wish she knew that I understand her,” Marcel said as Meia left the stable.
Through the window of his stall, he watched his mistress as she went into the chalet, arm in arm with her brother.
LAURA’S WORLD
WIth the loss of Layla, Laura’s heart had broken irrevocably. But she barely had time to mourn, because while her world had shattered, her world had also changed forever.
She was in her mid-20’s now and it was roughly two years earlier that Layla had died. The road she was on was bumpy and dusty and as she looked over at her traveling companions, she noticed that while a few didn’t seem to mind their journey, several others looked phenomenally uncomfortable.
She looked out the window at the landscape and her mind wandered back to that awful day.
They had fallen on the last jump, the one closest to the stables. She thought about the irony of how the last jump can be a moment of victory or one of bitterness or even sorrow. So many people who finished their practice run with their horse either felt contentment or resentment.
Laura had prided herself on not ever having regrets when she rode.
But it really all depended on the equestrian.
Laura was the kind of person who was comfortable with herself and while she was very competitive, she set her goals for each time she was on the practice course and made adjustments in her expectations as the morning proceeded. All she wanted was the best experience she could have with Layla each time she went out onto the course, on any course for that matter. She loved Layla, and she knew that Layla loved her.
They had competed on the eventing circuit all over the U.S. and had even flown to Europe to compete. Laura
had insisted on traveling with the grooms and other professionals who flew with the horses in the special safety containers built especially for ‘Equine Air’. That’s what Laura called it. She always felt the airline should be called that because that’s all they hauled were top level horses, mostly on international flight routes. Unlike many owners, Laura flew with her horse and stayed with Layla for the entire trip. She enjoyed it actually.
Although Layla was high-spirited on the course, she was calm during flights. Other horses picked up on that calm demeanor and it fascinated Laura to witness horses all around Layla calming themselves on the plane.
Laura always enjoyed the eventing competition circuit when they had the chance to compete overseas. She loved the different languages, noticed the nuances in tack and clothing for the riders, and keenly observed the different training methods present in riders who came from all over the world to some of these larger European events. And while Laura was having a good time overseas, her competitors sure did notice her. Because Laura and Layla dominated the circuit.
There were some who were jealous of her success. Then there were others who politely nodded and tipped their helmets to her in confident admiration, as if to say, “Well done my friend. See you at the next competition!”
Laura had developed many friends overseas and stayed in touch with them over the years. She cultivated relationships with these professionals due to a deep and keen interest to learn more about this complicated world in which she lived. “Why not make friends with as many people as possible?” she always told herself. “Live and learn and make friends,” was her motto.
But here she was, clearly in a different place in time, and this was not the way she wanted to meet new people. It was a horrible reality for her at first to learn that she had leapt into another world with Layla during that last jump. It
was simply impossible to ‘live, learn and make new friends’ when your heart had broken.
Laura made the best of her new life, as difficult as it all was. And now, as Laura bumped along on the dusty and heavily rutted road, she continued to reflect on that awful day when her life changed irrevocably.
After the fall, many people had run up to her to help, console, and offer first aid, but while Laura was in horrific shock at what had happened and at losing Layla, Laura remembered being stunned at what she had seen.
A man in a bowler hat had run out to her. “Who is that?” Laura thought. “Why is he wearing an old-fashioned jacket and what’s with the hat?”
Laura was in a daze. She felt light-headed. In fact, Laura was experiencing a concussion. Helmets help; she knew that. But even a violent crash and smack in just the wrong way can lead to a concussion sometimes, especially with certain twists of the upper spine near the neck. This was a dangerous sport she was in and sometimes everything went wrong. Her head was in pain and her body was badly bruised. She had looked around. A woman in very fancy, elegant, clothing was running over to her. The woman was wearing a narrow ornate hat on her head, and wore a slimfitting ruffled shirt with a tight-fitting jacket over the bodice. And her long skirts, well they flew out behind her as she ran to Laura. “Who wore such an outfit to the stables today?” Laura remembered thinking.
Laura had looked back down at Layla. Then she watched the woman in the long skirt running toward her and Laura almost giggled. She was in shock and she was becoming hysterical. “What’s wrong with me?” Laura remembered thinking.
“This man … His boots … His hat … What is with that hat? Where am I?” Then she looked at the feet of the woman running to her side. Now, as Laura bumped along on the dusty ride, she thought back on the image of that
woman and then her mind reeled once again because she clearly remembered the sound of the crunch of Layla’s neck snapping. She recalled the feel of Layla’s smooth and soft cheek, her own wooziness, a voice, and then remembered feeling the comforting hands of a man who had gently lifted her up.
But before he did, while she was seated on the ground, Laura had noticed the footwear of the woman who had run over to her.
Laura remembered thinking, “They have tiny heels and are all laced up with small buttons or something, like they did in the Victorian era. What the…?”
Laura was clearly in shock.
She remembered reaching out trying to get up a bit but then she remembered she had reached her hand over to Layla instead, wanting to hold her again. She winced as she recalled how she nearly threw up when she saw that her mare’s eyes looked still and dull and that her mare’s tongue was hanging out. Laura had stroked her mare, sobbing uncontrollably as she had felt the warmth leave the body of her beloved friend.
Laura recalled looking around as people continued to move towards her. She saw more men in funny hats, and more women in long skirts and dresses and those dainty boots. The gardener with the riding mower was gone. The buildings and stables looked different, and there were no cars and no larger vehicles in the parking lot. Instead, there were horse-drawn carriages.
As steady hands guided her away from Layla, Laura looked back, and her head became clear for a moment.
“Layla spoke to me.” Laura knew it. “She spoke to me before she died,” she thought, her mind reeling.
Laura looked all around her.
And she knew.
She was in another world.
And she knew she was trapped, forever and she knew that she was all alone.
As they approached the stables, Laura was lucid but she kept turning back to look at Layla. A professional groomsman was attending to Layla with such intimate tenderness, she stopped feeling guilty that she could no longer stay beside her mare. She saw that the groomsman had delicately placed a blanket over Layla, covering her head and body.
“So this is really happening,” Laura had remembered thinking.
Laura saw women astride their horses riding in sidesaddles who were staring at her. She looked over once again at the horses and carriages in the parking area and tears formed in her eyes.
She looked back at Layla one last time just to be certain. Layla hadn’t moved.
“This is the end,” Laura remembered thinking.
She had heard about situations like this. She had heard the rumors.
She had heard about Travelers.
Laura had heard that they always traveled in pairs, a horse and rider, and that once they went back in time, once they had traveled, that their experiences together were permanently different. That the horse and her rider could speak to one another and understand one another with words.
Laura was certain that Layla had spoken to her.
As they rode that day, racing through the fields and jumping various obstacles Laura had been calling out to her mare about the glorious day and the wonderful run they were having. And she had clearly heard her mare repeat those words to her when Laura had bent over Layla as her beloved mare had died in her arms.
“So it was all true,” Laura thought through her foggy brain.
After a glorious morning of riding the course, they had flown together over that hateful last jump, and then her mare had spoken to her as she died, and now Laura was all alone and trapped here in this other world.
No one had ever spoken of any rumors of what happened when a Traveler passes through to another world and loses her horse. The secret stories she had heard about Travelers never revealed a situation like this. No one ever whispered about a Traveler who was trapped back in time.
Now that this had happened to her, Laura realized the cruel truth.
“I am trapped here,” she told herself in horror. “I am trapped here for an eternity.” And thinking back on Layla’s death and where she was, and feeling the nausea and her terrible headache, Laura fainted.
The man in the bowler hat had taken over the situation. He gently chided the busybodies who had curiously looked at Laura, gossiping and prodding and reaching out and impersonally taking liberties to feel the unusual material of the clothing that Laura had been wearing.
“Stand back,” the man had cried, ordering the crowd back and away from Laura and her mare. Taking his own jacket off and covering Laura gently while pushing some of the crowd back, he had looked down at her.
“She’s beautiful,” he thought. And he removed her helmet and fixed her hair and tried to soothe her.
“What’s your name?” he had asked calmly but urgently. “If she passes out completely, I won’t know who she is,” he had told himself.
He stroked her once again, in a calming way, without a single movement that was intrusive. Then he gently shook her shoulder.
“Madam, what is your name?” he asked again. “And your mare. Her name, Madam? What is the name of your mare?”
Laura gently rolled her head from side to side, tears staining her face.
“Layla, my beloved Layla. Layla …” Laura said, in a voice that was wracked with grief.
“Layla. Okay. Your mare was named Layla. And now, Madam, your name? What is your name?” the calm male voice said.
In an exhalation of breath, she said faintly, “Laura.”
The man’s face was strained but resolute. He looked around him, and directed his gaze at a young groomsman who had come up and stood silently beside him.
“Ride to my physician and instruct him to come to my home at once,” he said.
“Sir,” was the reply, as the boy ran to a horse and rider, tacked up and ready to ride. The boy commandeered the horse and whirling it around both expertly and quickly, urged it forward down the gravel road.
After learning her name, the man had picked Laura up in his arms and carried her to his carriage and urged his driver onward.
But first, before he had left, he had turned to one other young man, still a boy actually, who had followed him to his carriage. With him was a small group of earnest but nervous looking groomsmen who had crowded around the man’s carriage, asking how to help.
After he had placed Laura in his carriage, he turned and put his hand kindly on the boy’s shoulder.
“You are old enough now, you know.”
“Sir,” said the youngster.
“My boy, bury the mare with extreme honors and dignity,” he commanded kindly yet firmly. “See that it’s done.”
“Yes sir,” came the earnest reply.
The boy turned to the lead groomsman who nodded to the boy, removed his own hat and held it in his hands out of respect. Horses didn’t die here and he knew that. The
owner of the stables had issued a command to his son and now he awaited instructions from the boy.
The young boy looked at the kindly face of the lead groomsman, and nervously, but directly said, “Davis, please put together a group to tend to the mare.”
Putting his hat back on, the groomsman gave a slight smile and nodded to the boy once again, then turned to the others and said, “Right. You heard the boss. Let’s get on with it.”
It didn’t take any kind of a special education or business degree to know that when you wanted to earn respect, you acknowledged existing leadership. That’s what the boy had done. He had learned from his father how to manage people and this was his first important assignment. Not only that, but the boy had already decided that he would help make certain it was done correctly with his own hard labor working alongside Davis.
But as he headed into the stables with the grooms to gather what was needed to attend to Layla, a memory flashed into his mind. Vanilla. That was it. Vanilla. It was the scent of vanilla in the woman’s hair that triggered an important memory for the boy.
As the boy watched the carriage pull away, he wondered about the woman’s strange clothing and the unusual tack on her horse. He was glad the horse was covered with a blanket away from prying eyes, and he had an odd feeling he should take personal responsibility for the strange tack.
Many days later, and as time passed, Laura realized that unlike so many others, she had not traveled elsewhere when she and Layla had passed through.
Instead she and Layla had merely traveled back in time right here in the U.S., back in time to a large New England city. She was pretty certain she was in Massachusetts, probably in the Boston area. Her concussion symptoms healed over time and as she healed, taking walks
every day, she realized that so much of this city was actually fairly familiar to her.
Many of the buildings were the same, but the businesses surely weren’t. There was a mixture of gas and electric power in the city and while nearly everything was horse-drawn, occasionally she saw odd and funny-looking experimental mechanized vehicles.
She wasn’t sure how it had happened, but the man who had tended to her the day Layla had died didn’t seem to mind her eccentricities and over time they had become more than rescuer and rescued.
Oh he noticed that she was different. But he never said a word about those differences to her.
“Did he know?” Laura often wondered.
She never ever told him everything about herself because she never felt she needed to explain anything to him. In time, they fell in love.
After their wedding, she joined him in his successful lumber business and took part in social events as best she could. She didn’t need for him to defend her, but she liked that her past did not cause concern for him. On the contrary. He liked her independence and from time to time, would send her on scouting trips in order for him to expand the growing business interests.
For the time period, this was highly unusual. Women didn’t often travel alone, but then Laura was different and he liked that. He enjoyed this new partnership with Laura. She used her own business experience to be his sounding board and to encourage his business to expand. And on weekends, they would head out to the stables – his stables, for he owned it all – and they would ride.
Riding was never the same for her unfortunately. She liked the horses she rode, but she never jumped again. She just couldn’t.
She did however frequently work with some horses in dressage techniques. Other equestrians were fascinated with
her kinder, more gentle techniques that yielded beautiful piaffes for example. Her colleagues too often employed cruel techniques typical for the era but quickly adopted hers when they saw the results.
Instead of competing she threw herself into the lumber business as it grew and expanded. And so here she was, one day nearly two years after the accident, covered in dust as the carriage came to a halt. It wasn’t a carriage however. She had traveled these last many miles in a stagecoach.
Descending from this stagecoach, at a station along the line somewhere in Colorado, she stretched modestly, and with her gloved hands, brushed the dust from her own heavy ornate traveling skirt and jacket.
She reached up to accept her bag from the driver. It was made of a sturdy kind of carpet and canvas-like fabric with leather handles and straps to secure it closed.
As other passengers got out, some rubbing their necks, painful from the bumpy ride, the rest of the bags were handed down. Then both the driver and his number two, who had a Henry across his lap during the ride at all times, jumped down and also landed in a cloud of dust.
“This clothing I have to wear!” she muttered in frustration, smiling as she said it. “I miss jeans and riding slacks,” she sighed. One of the men raised his eyebrows at the comment.
In order to fit in to her time period, she accepted the frills and jackets and skirts but she absolutely refused to wear a corset or anything flouncy underneath her skirts.
She took a deep breath, unencumbered by a corset and looked out over the countryside.
She had traveled West first by train to meet her husband’s business partners. But then, a rumor had reached her ears and she caught a stagecoach deep into the heart of Colorado along one of the well-used routes.
This was America in the early 1870’s and it was spectacular. She had read about it and so much was relatively familiar but living through it all and being a part of history was very different than reading about it. In fact, it was all spectacular. It was terribly wild and untamed. And she loved it.
And as she stretched, she dropped her arms back down to her sides and then she felt something. “What was that?” she thought.
“Ouch,” she said when it happened again.
Grabbing her side, she looked confused, trying to understand the jolt of electricity she had felt surging through her. It wasn’t painful, but it felt like a tingling sensation and it was both haunting and exhilarating.
Then Laura turned her head and saw a woman seated astride a beautiful paint horse. Both of them were looking at her.
Laura’s gaze dropped to the western saddle on the horse and her eyes widened in disbelief. She looked back up
at the woman who had a small smile on her face. The cowgirl’s gaze never left Laura’s. She looked to be in her early or even mid-twenties. With the hat and the dust it was hard to say. But one thing was certain. This woman astride the paint was pregnant, that much Laura could tell.
Laura’s eyes dropped to the face of the horse, which was also looking at Laura and watched Laura with a look of knowing, kind intensity.
Then she looked back up at the rider. She felt that jolt again tingling all throughout her body.
Laura crossed the dusty carriage road and walked over to the cowgirl and asked if she could pet the horse.
Nodding, the cowgirl gave a squeeze of her legs on the sides of the paint, and as her horse walked closer to Laura, she said a gentle and easy, “Whoa.”
As Laura stroked the nose and neck of the horse, she felt a very unusual warmth emanating from the horse. The warmth turned into a slight jolt and Laura reacted to the jolt and stepped backward, yet her hand never left the neck of the paint.
And Laura knew. She just knew it. Tears formed in her eyes.
The paint leaned over to Laura and nuzzled her and Laura struggled to hold back the tears.
Laura looked up at the woman who had a tender and kind look on her face.
Laura paused.
She woman began to speak, hesitated and then exhaled and said, “This is Belle. You need to pet her some more. It’s okay. Stay here with us a while and be comforted.”
Laura nodded.
Then Laura stiffened.
“I’m sorry you lost her,” the paint said to her. “I’m so very sorry your lost your Layla.”
PIANO MUSIC IN THE OPERA HOUSE
They had navigated the busy streets of the big city and found the home of Anna’s friends. At the back of their townhouse in the stable, Liza groomed both horses and got them settled with fresh hay and water. The stable was a large one and housed a number of fine horses in addition to several carriages. Many homes kept their carriages and horses at a shared stable but this family had their own right on their property. Above it was a modest set of rooms for the groomsmen
“It’s been quite a time so far, hasn’t it?” Liza asked her mare.
Libby was munching on hay and Lila had already flopped down in the straw, clearly exhausted.
“This is what you wanted, isn’t it?” asked Libby. “You wanted to see what city life was like back in time, didn’t you Liza? Is this what you wanted?” Libby asked thoughtfully.
“Well I didn’t want to fall off a cliff. And I didn’t want you or Lila attacked by mean men by the side of the road. But yes, I wanted to experience the city back in time and I think we are safe here with Anna’s friends,” Liza said.
Libby picked up another mouthful of hay and chewed thoughtfully.
“There is a reason for everything, you know,” Libby said.
“Oh, I know,” said Liza. She was kind of haughty in the way she answered Libby.
Libby looked at her and stopped chewing. Liza looked back at her mare and looked deeply into her soft brown eyes. Liza could still never get over how long Libby’s eyelashes were and she was surprised at how incredibly long Lila’s were already as well.
“I’m sorry Libby. That sounded mean,” Liza said. Libby resumed chewing her hay and then grabbed another mouthful, standing and chewing and watching Liza.
After a quiet moment, Liza replied.
“Oh, alright I guess I don’t know,” said Liza. “Is there something I should know?” Liza asked, inching closer to Libby.
Libby chewed a bit then stood silently for a long minute or two.
“The last time we were here, I urged you to make sure to enjoy the experiences that you would have,” said Libby. “That was very clear to me when I first told you my thoughts,” Libby said.
“But this time, my young cowgirl, everything isn’t so clear to me. I only know that there is a purpose for everything. There is a reason for each of the experiences
that we are having here in this world during our second visit. The Traveler network has been calling to us, and I think it is still calling to us. I just don’t understand what it is trying to say,” Libby added, somewhat puzzled.
“It’s okay Libby. We have each other. That’s the most important thing. The other important thing is that Lila is safe. She’s growing up fast here, but she is safe with us,” Liza said.
Libby nodded and looked down at her sleeping foal.
“Go have a good evening, Liza. We are very content here,” Libby said to her young mistress.
With Libby and Lila safely tucked away for the rest of the evening, Liza realized that she was actually very excited for what was to come. She was going to a concert of piano music.
Liza absolutely loved piano music. She simply loved it. She marveled at the long and slim fingers of pianists and how they moved over each key and she loved watching how their hands glided over the keyboard. She admired the posture of the great professionals; good ones sat with a relaxed but proper posture, almost like they were riding a horse, she noticed one time. With their dedication and determination, their gaze focused on the piano in front of them, Liza was astounded at how such beautiful music could come out of such a large black object!
Her taste in music was varied.
Her parents had exposed her to all kinds: jazz, country, classical and the blues. She was a normal teen, and also enjoyed more contemporary music of course. Yet the music that was made by a pianist drew her interest the most. “I’d love to learn to play,” she often thought, “but horses keep me so busy.” And so she realized that it was just fine to listen to music at home, on the road in the horse trailer or in person. “I don’t have to learn to play,” she concluded. “It’s just fine to appreciate the musical talents of others!”
She took a deep breath at the opportunity in front of her tonight. Here she was, back in time, wearing an elegant long dress, short white gloves, and attending a formal evening of music with a lovely family, friends of Anna no less.
“Liza, we are ready to go, child,” said the elegant lady, dressed in a formal looking, full-length gown. She wore long black gloves that came over her elbows, and a jeweled shawl was wrapped around her shoulders. Her hair was pulled up into a twisted chignon with a small hat like covering pinned to her hair, and the elegant hairstyle revealed a happy, beautiful, kind face. “Mama would look wonderful dressed in something like this,” Liza realized.
Beside her, stood her husband in formal, long back jacket and trousers, crisp white shirt and tie, with a dark overcoat and white gloves draped over one arm. After helping his wife with her evening shawl, and shrugging into his overcoat and donning his gloves, the man picked up his cane and top hat which he then popped onto his head, giving it a little playful tap and a pop with his fingertips on the top of the hat.
“The carriage has arrived,” he said. “Don your outerwear please everyone,” he added and sweeping his right arm out to the side, motioned for his wife, his two young children and Liza to head out the front door.
Liza almost giggled at the rustling noises of their skirts and noticed that the skirt of her elegant hostess was even noisier than hers as they made their way to the front door. The two young children were in evening wear as well but what they wore didn’t seem to rustle at all she observed.
The girl was wearing a lovely dress with ribbons and bows, the fabric of which had a traditional Swiss theme woven into it. Her outfit was covered by a light woolen coat with bone buttons.
The boy wore knickers, and he had neatly polished shoes, Liza noticed. He had a cap on his head and also wore a light woolen coat, with carved bone buttons as well. Liza decided she didn’t even want to know their ages. She had stopped trying to guess when she realized that if she ever came back to this world again, they would be much older anyway at the rate her current traveling timeline was moving.
She sighed at the thought.
Outside, a matched team of true black horses – Liza guessed they might have been foreign thoroughbreds or even warmbloods perhaps – pranced ever so slightly even as they settled down when the groom made calming noises to them and gently rattled the long reins. These reins ran from their bit and bridle along their sides and then into and through the tack on their backs. The groom sat in his black hat and light overcoat and held the reins as he waited for the family to get into their carriage.
Liza tried to keep her heart calm through the excitement that was growing in her mind.
“I am going to a European opera house in the 1890’s and we are all dressed in formal wear!” she thought.
Treading lightly and carefully heading down the stone steps of the city home, with her cloak flowing down her back, she carefully lifted her skirt and leaning forward, climbed up and into the family carriage. The father helped her by extending his hand out for her hand. She almost said, “I’ve got this, I’m fine,” but realized that this was the traditional and very polite way to help anyone into a carriage. So, she gave the father her hand, and climbed in.
The horses started up a moment after everyone was settled and the door to the carriage was secured, and Liza felt the jolt of movement forward. Clop, clop, clop, CLOP went the horses. “I’m so glad I have the special shoes for Libby. These streets really would have made her slip,” Liza mused.
Liza stretched her head and neck a bit to look out the window at all the sites. “I’m not sure how polite I’m supposed to be,” she laughed, “but I want to see everything!” She almost giggled at the jostling of everyone as they sat inside the elegant carriage. “This thing needs springs or some kind of shock absorbers,” she laughed to herself.
“This street has a wonderful assortment of small businesses the entire length of it,” the mother exclaimed. “In a moment, you will see one of ours,” the father added.
About halfway down a city block, the mother extended her gloved hand towards one of the shop windows.
“A gentleman’s clothing shop,” Liza exclaimed. “And beside it is one for women too,” the mother said. “In this part of the city, we have two stores,” one of the children said proudly.
The lamps on the lampposts were either gas or a type of arc lamp and offered a sufficient glow as evening approached.
After a ride of about fifteen minutes, they came to a line of carriages all waiting to discharge their passengers. There was a special step for everyone to step out and onto as they exited their carriages and Liza was urged to pull up her skirt to avoid any horse manure. “Manure never hurt anyone,” she chuckled quietly, “but these aren’t my clothes so I will oblige,” she laughed under her breath.
There was a boy nearby with a shovel and a bucket who scooped up the manure she noticed, in an attempt to keep the city streets clean here in front of the opera house.
Their carriage pulled away and the family began to climb the carpeted steps that curved up on both sides of the building Liza noticed. Carpets were laid out on each set of staircases as a kind of runway on the evenings of special events like this one, she was told, and it certainly made it easier to climb. Liza was wearing delicate slippers that would be ruined in wet conditions and they sure were
slippery she had already realized even just in dry conditions.
At the top of the stairs, framed by a number of tall columns, Liza stopped and turned around. Lamplights cast a nice glow over the street and more and more carriages arrived. The noises of the horses were all welcoming to Liza’s ears – whinnies, nickers, clopping of hooves and the cries of groomsmen and other officials trying to maintain order all above the din of the squeaking carriage noises – she liked it all. And the people! Top hats for the men, feathers in the hair of the women, and children dressed in formal Continental or Swiss clothing – everyone alighted and made their way up the staircases.
Once inside, Liza looked all around. Gold and gilt decorated much of the woodwork inside. The floor was covered in thick woolen carpets over marbled flooring, and Swiss heraldry, finely painted in bold colors, decorated the walls.
Liza’s hosts were greeted by practically everyone and for a moment, she was worried they would not make it to their seats on time. After many greetings and introductions, the family was guided up a staircase or two to their correct seating area by ushers dressed in black. Box seats, Liza noticed. “We have box seats so I will be able to see everything,” she cried.
As the house lights dimmed there was a formal announcement and then the curtain was drawn back.
After a moment, a young, very tall, slim woman walked onto the stage and the audience burst into applause. She was dressed in a long, tapered gown of white, ornately decorated with white and silver beading. Liza noticed that the pianist’s hair was swept up into a simple twist with a jeweled pin holding her hair into place with a tiny curled tendril of hair which flowed down her neck. This all gave her a mature and professional look, but Liza could see she was still rather young, perhaps only eighteen? She wasn’t certain.
The pianist sat down, positioned herself on the piano bench, and began to play.
One thing that Liza enjoyed was looking at all of the people. Back home, she didn’t really get the chance to go to events like this one too often, so she decided to try to turn her head this way and that to carefully check out the entire audience.
As she listened to the music, she looked at the people seated in the area immediately behind the orchestra. She got a kick out of looking at all the hairstyles of the ladies.
She had to stifle a giggle when she saw a man try unsuccessfully to brush away the long feather protruding from the hat of a woman seated in front of him. No matter what he did, every time she turned, the offending feather was brushing him in the face. Liza was certain he was going to yank it out but instead, he grabbed it and snapped it in half. Liza stifled a laugh at the audacity of both the woman’s intrusive feather and the nerve of the man to have broken it. All in all, breaking the feather was probably the best solution.
She looked across from their box and finally scanned her eyes over to what she presumed were the box seats for important visitors.
In one of them, she saw a couple who were clearly in awe of the performance. In fact, Liza noticed that they never took their eyes off of the pianist. The man was seated on the right side of the lady so she could see his profile the best. At one point, the man leaned back and the woman leaned forward and Liza gasped. “I’ve seen her before,” she thought. Urgently scanning her memory, she scrunched her eyebrows and thought and thought and then suddenly it dawned on her.
“That’s the lady in the portrait,” she nearly cried out loud. Almost as if he had heard her thoughts, the man turned and looked directly at Liza. He smiled and nodded. It was a large opera house but not so large that she could not see facial features of people across from her.
“That’s the Watchmaker!” Liza cried.
She lifted her hand and waved. The Watchmaker discretely turned to the lady on his left and Liza saw that he whispered something to her. When she turned and looked at Liza and smiled, Liza was certain of it now. That was the woman in the portrait that she had seen in the home of the Watchmaker, the man she had visited with Anna the first time she was here in this world.
She suppressed the urge to holler and wave but instead, carefully lifted her own gloved hand and waved back, lady-like, beaming a smile that left no doubt that they knew she knew who they were. The Watchmaker smiled and pointed to the pianist then looked back at Liza as he pointed to his own heart.
“Their daughter! That’s the daughter who studied in Paris all those years ago!” she thought. “Why, it’s their daughter who is tonight’s concert pianist!”
Liza thought back to the moment in the piano room at the home of the Watchmaker. She remembered the elegant lady wearing the beautiful dress in the large portrait oil painting hanging on the wall. Liza remembered the story the Watchmaker told her about meeting Anna, and the great influence Anna had made on him and his family. And she especially remembered the important words the Watchmaker had told her.
“Go do great things,” he had said to Liza.
Liza was ecstatic. This concert was going to be even more special now. She had only seen photos of the Watchmaker’s daughter; in this world, that was already six years ago. What was she now, seventeen or eighteen? The Watchmaker’s daughter was already such a well-traveled young lady and a talented pianist. The opera house was full. What an accomplishment!
Liza could not wait to meet her.
PIANO STUDIES IN PARIS
Liza struggled to compose herself for the rest of the concert though she still managed to crane her neck to look at the Watchmaker and his wife. They managed a few more smiles and polite nods and Liza eventually realized on her own that even though she was tremendously excited, she needed to show her manners and focus on the performance by their daughter, instead of wiggling in her seat and looking all over the place.
Every now and then, Liza’s mind wandered to imagine what it must have been like to experience living in Paris. The Watchmaker’s wife and daughter had left their Swiss home to travel to Paris so the daughter could study piano with the great teachers of her time.
Liza knew that this time period in France was literally bursting with creativity in the world of art, music, writing and culture. At that time, especially in Paris, Impressionist art was everywhere, for example. Liza had seen original art by Renoir and Monet in museums when her family traveled but she could not imagine what it might have been like to have seen it all first hand, right there in Paris as it was originally created. The city was also one of the centers of fashion and as Liza looked around, she could see some of the many Parisian influences adorning both women and men right here in the audience of this beautiful Swiss opera house.
At the Intermission, she had to calm herself from racing out of the booth to go and find the Watchmaker. Dressed in her pretty gown and wearing those dainty slippers, seated inside on her chair in the box seats overlooking the
stage, she tried to think what her parents had taught her. “I want to jump up and run over to see my friend,” Liza thought then made a funny face to herself and decided to continue to be a proper young lady for the evening.
After the applause, and as members of the audience began to get up from their seats, she leaned over and explained to her host and hostess what all of her squiggles had meant.
“Ah, I did notice that you seemed excited about something,” her hostess mentioned, hiding the hint of a smile as she ever so slightly scolded Liza a tiny bit. However, it was hard to ever be upset with someone like Liza. Her enthusiasm was contagious as she was so curious and fascinated by everything.
“I would like to apologize about that, ma’am,” Liza exclaimed, “I do have manners and my mother wouldn’t be pleased, that’s for sure,” Liza said, suddenly feeling guilty that her seat wiggling had been noticed by her host family.
“Now, now, Liza was just fine,” her host said smiling broadly. “This was Liza’s first time in an opera house and she saw an old friend in another box.” Turning to his wife, and placing his hand on hers, he added, “Come now my dear, you remember your first visit to a performance like this, don’t you?” he said as he winked at his wife for a moment.
“I’d like to go find my friend, the Watchmaker if I may,” Liza asked. “Would that be alright?”
“Certainly. The Intermission will only be fifteen minutes long, but they will ring a gong to indicate that it’s time to return to your seat. Don’t be late,” said her hostess. Liza dashed out of their box seats there on the second level as quickly as politeness would allow. She squeezed in and out of the other people in the halls and on the stairs and meandered her way down the main stairwell and to the area where they were serving refreshments. She did a funny walk-run combination to maneuver as she
squeezed in and out of the large crowd, lifting her skirts as she meandered her way searching for the Watchmaker and his wife.
She impatiently made her way past a multitude of women in wide ruffled skirts which rustled when they turned and as she brushed past them. Each woman was more elegant and more beautiful than the next, all with long gloves, exquisite jewelry and elegant hairstyles. The men were quite handsome and rather elegant, and stood absentmindedly leaning on stylish canes, with watches hanging from their jackets on gold fobs, all politely attending to their wives.
But no matter how she craned her neck and stood on tiptoes, she could not find them. “They might be back stage,” she surmised after not finding them at all. She had hoped that they would be treated as honored guests and would be out front during the Intermission visiting with admirers of their daughter, but they were nowhere to be found.
Suddenly, she felt someone touch her elbow and cry out, “My dear Liza!” Turning, Liza saw the Watchmaker, and by his side, his wife. “My dear, it’s so wonderful to see you! This is my wife,” he said, giving Liza a warm embrace then turned to gesture to his wife.
“I saw you are visiting with Miss Anna’s friends,” his wife said, holding Liza’s hands in hers. “It is so lovely to finally meet you.” Her warmth simply glowed. This was indeed the beautiful and very happy woman from the painting Liza had seen in the Watchmaker’s chalet.
The Watchmaker smiled and shook his head in agreement. “My dear, let’s have Liza join all of us for lunch,” he said, first looking at his wife and then back at Liza. “Liza, there is no time right now to visit, and my daughter Greta will have obligations after the concert. She’s just back from Paris you know and has people to meet this evening after the concert. But are you available to meet with us later this week? Greta, would love to meet you and now that you are
here, we have something very important to ask of you,” he said.
“Certainly!” said Liza. She was caught up in the moment of all the excitement. It was wonderful to be here, listening to the music, looking at the beautiful interior of the opera house, watching all of these interesting people mingling everywhere, and meeting her friend once again.
“Something important?” she thought. “I wonder…?” But before she could ask any questions, the Watchmaker continued.
“Ask your host family about the café on the corner near one of their clothing shops. The café I’m thinking of is the one with all the pastries in the big window with the blue silk curtains that they open and close each day. Let’s meet there in three days at noon, shall we?”
Liza nodded and the Watchmaker said, “Hurry on back to your friends. The curtain will go up shortly.”
Liza could barely contain herself for the rest of the concert and took part in the enthusiastic clapping ovations for Greta. She was a bundle of energy in the carriage ride home as she explained the story of how she had originally met the Watchmaker during her travels with Libby, Anna and Abby.
After they returned to the townhouse, Liza changed out of everything and carefully laid it all on a fancy chair in the corner of her bedroom. The chair was made of dark wood, with a very pretty silk fabric covering the seat and the stuffed back of the chair. Liza looked around her room at the old furniture. She smiled at that notion, ‘old’. The furniture was new, but the style looked very old to her. Everything in here would be considered antiques if she had them in her own bedroom back in her world.
The home itself, built in the style of what she called a townhouse, was a mix of old and new even for this time period. Electric lighting was relatively new for the city, and the opera house had recently converted to electric lighting
she had learned. But this home still used lamps. The glass bottom of the lamp on her side table had a kerosene type liquid in it and Liza was able to turn the circular metal knob on its side to turn the lighted wick up and down to make the room brighter or darker.
Liza wriggled into the long white linen nightgown that was lying folded neatly there on the bed and then as she began to flop down onto the bed, she instantly felt comfortable nestled against the oversized square pillows of the Swiss bedding. She could never get over how fluffy and wonderful the bedding was here.
Then her eyes shot open.
“Libby!” she cried. She instantly felt horribly guilty.
Jumping out of bed she quickly changed out of her nightgown and into her jeans and shirt. She hastened down the stairs and through the kitchen, out the back door and then ran to the stable. “I almost forgot about Libby and Lila!” Liza thought, feeling slightly guilty for having had a lot of fun this evening, but nearly forgetting all about the horses. “I’m going to turn into a city girl if I’m not careful,” she thought frowning a bit as she found her way out to the stable.
For a moment, Liza paused and was a little bit confused as she thought about city life versus country life.
She always knew she wanted to come back to this world again, and to make the time to visit a city. Liza lived on a ranch, a large one at that, and for her, everywhere she looked, it was open country for her day after day. Even when her family traveled and competed, they were generally on the outskirts of any metropolitan areas.
Although her parents brought her into cities for various experiences, like visiting museums or visiting family friends, Liza was always drawn to her country life, even as she found city life exciting.
“I got so excited I almost forgot about Libby and Lila,” she cried, admonishing herself while hastening her steps.
Opening the door to the stable, she heard the noises of multiple horses munching on hay but still she cried, “Libby, I’m here!” There was no reply. Then she nodded her head and thought, “A-ha!”
Stepping lightly, Liza poked her head further into the stable. She smiled. Lying on the ground making a gentle snoring sound was Libby, with Lila pressed into her. Lila was curled up next to Libby’s belly with her head up in the air, and she kept catching herself as her head would fall forward. She would subconsciously flick her ear, then catch herself, still sleeping, and move her head upright again with a funny shake. Then the movement would start all over again. Lila’s head would lean forward as she relaxed, she would startle herself yet again, and finally lift her sleepy head as she flicked her ears a bit.
Libby never stirred, and Liza watched as her ribcage lifted up and down with each breath. She saw that the horses still had plenty of hay and had just started on their second bucket of water. “They are fine,” Liza thought. “Sometimes I’m being overprotective, I guess,” she thought again. “But I don’t mind,” she said to herself. “I love them so much.”
She wanted to pet them, but they were sleeping so soundly that Liza decided not to step deeper into the stable.
As Liza turned to walk away, one of Lila’s nods caused her to wake up for just a moment. “Mama?” she asked, whispering as she leaned her nose down to Libby’s. “Liza loves us very much, doesn’t she?”
Libby stretched one of her legs out long and straight then curled it again. With her eyes still closed, she reached her head over to Lila’s cheek and nuzzled her.
“Yes, Lila, and we love her too,” said Libby as they both fell fast asleep again.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
PASTRIES AND A QUESTION
mmmm! This is all so delicious,” said Liza. “It’s so rich and sweet and yet not too sweet,” she said.
She knew about the differences between the way desserts in her world were made, versus the authentic way foods used to be made using rich ingredients yet using much less sugar.
The café had a number of small oval-shaped marble topped tables and the Watchmaker, his wife, Greta and Liza were all seated at a larger one on the far side of the main room. The wife sipped coffee from a bone china cup and Greta was adding honey to her tea. The Watchmaker sat
relaxed with his hands folded across his belly, as though he was completely content.
After the delicious lunch, Liza wasn’t sure whether to eat the sweets with a knife and fork or whether to eat it with her hands. She opted to cut a piece for now, as she looked around the room to see how everyone else was doing it. She took another bite of her pastry and said, “This is all so tasty!”
The shop was full of people of all ages, enjoying light foods, teas, coffees, chocolates, desserts and sweets. Even over the din of the conversations of the patrons, and the occasional clanking noise of forks hitting plates as people ate, Liza could hear the noises of the busy street outside as well as the clip clop of the working horses as they hauled carts of merchandise or carriages with patrons.
“You’ve grown,” exclaimed the Watchmaker, “and yet I know you’re dying to finish that pastry with your fingers versus using the fork and knife,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. Liza nodded, smiled and hesitated.
“Well I’m going to pick mine right up and eat it, and you should too,” he chuckled as he put his fork down and began to finish his pastry with his fingers. Liza joined in, smiling broadly.
Liza was glad for the lighter conversation finally. When they had first met up at the café, it seemed Abby’s illness was going to be the only topic of conversation. That and the age difference and time difference of everything, which the Watchmaker had calculated immediately.
Yet he was mostly fascinated by the story of how in her world, Liza and her mother and the horses had all known that something was wrong. “So, then, we are all connected to Miss Anna and it sounds like you did the right thing by helping Abby,” the Watchmaker said to Liza.
“I didn’t know I would be helping Abby, sir,” Liza said, “I just knew that something was wrong and Libby and I
headed out with a plan to go where we were needed,” she explained.
“So the famous Libby brought you through a second time!” he said. “And with a foal no less.”
“Yes, sir,” Liza replied.
“And yet, you’ve only aged two years, and we have aged six,” he said.
“That’s right, Papa,” Greta interjected, “I’m seventeen, nearly eighteen. When I was eleven and away with Mama for my studies, you wrote and told me that Liza was about twelve and that you had wanted us to meet one another someday,” Greta said. Turning to Liza, she smiled and said, “Now, I’m more like a big sister to you,” Greta said, “and I’m glad to meet you finally,” she added, beaming.
“Please tell us more about Libby,” Greta said. “You both came here together once again is that right?” Greta asked excitedly. “Travelers can only come through with the horse that they love and deeply care for, isn’t that how it works, Papa?” she said first looking at Liza and then at her father. “And some of them can go back and forth, isn’t that so Papa?” Her questions were tense and hurried.
Her mother placed a hand on her daughter’s. “Patience, Greta,” she said. “Allow her to respond.”
Liza felt a chill run up and down her spine. Something wasn’t right. Something was definitely wrong. She could feel it now. The sun was streaming in, everything was cheerful all around her, people were happy and enjoying their meals and the Watchmaker had a kind look in his eyes. But there was sorrow forming in his face. Liza saw it and she felt it quite clearly. Liza held her breath.
“Give it a moment, Liza,” she heard. “Be patient. They have something important to tell you and something vital to ask of you,” Liza heard a voice say to her. She felt this message resonate in her heart.
“Libby?” Liza whispered, almost imperceptibly.
“Patience, my dear cowgirl,” Liza heard again, as a calm, soothing breath of everlasting love flowed through her.
The door to the café opened and Liza saw heads turn to watch a tall woman walk across the large seating room and over to their table in the corner.
“Anna!” Liza cried.
Bounding into the café, came her mentor, her beloved friend, the tall cowgirl from Arizona. Liza never ceased to be amazed that Anna had made her home and a new life right here in this world, having chosen to stay here with her horse Abby.
Anna walked past the discrete stares of some of the patrons and taking a seat, joined Liza, the Watchmaker and his family.
“I got your message,” the Watchmaker said to Anna “and I’m glad you came down to meet with us too,” he added. A waiter in black with a long white apron came over and nodded as he took Anna’s order, gliding away as discretely as he had arrived.
“What’s going on?” Liza asked, with a quizzical look on her face. “Is Abby here too?” she asked.
“Abby is with Libby and little Lila,” Anna said.
Everyone was quiet and the conversation paused for a long moment. It was one of those quiet pauses where you aren’t really sure if five seconds have passed or if it’s been a full minute, but it was definitely a long pause.
Anna made a sigh and looked carefully at Liza. “Liza, I need to tell you something important. It’s why we are all here today,” she said. Liza waited until Anna continued. “Liza, as I’ve told you a few times, we never speak of the things we know. It’s part of the code of the Traveler.” She paused. “However,” and she paused again, “Liza, they know what will happen here in the not-to-distant future,” Anna said. Anna took a casual look at the Watchmaker and his family who were nodding solemnly. Liza realized that it
appeared they had all agreed that Anna would be the one to broach the topic of whatever it was that had brought them all here together. She was going to speak for all of them it seemed.
Liza frowned. She did the math in her head. “War,” she concluded as she whispered the word imperceptibly. “They are going to break the rules of the Traveler code, and they are going to talk about trying to influence history. I just know it. I didn’t think Travelers were allowed to influence history. I’m so confused,” Liza thought.
Anna lowered her voice. “Yes, my dear young cowgirl. They know that war is coming,” Anna said.
Liza’s head began to spin. “I just wanted to come back, see my friends, get to know about living history, have experiences and meet people,” Liza thought.
“I’m only fourteen. I don’t want to talk about war,” Liza blurted out then frowned.
“Liza, we aren’t going to discuss anything specific. Anna won’t share details, only enough to keep us safe,” the Watchmaker said. He held his wife’s hand, and his wife held Greta’s, Liza noticed.
Liza turned her head quickly to Anna and covered her ears. “I can’t hear any of this,” she cried. “I remember what you told me, Anna,” she cried, then lowered her voice as she removed her hands from her ears. “When I was here the first time, you told me you could not ever return to our world because you had changed too many things here. I’ve already changed Abby’s destiny when I came back this time.” Liza paused. “I’m scared if I change anything else, then I won’t be able to go back. I want to go back, Anna. I’m not like you. I don’t want to stay here,” Liza said hurriedly. Liza had just shocked herself with that realization. Indeed, she did not want to live here permanently.
“Liza, it’s not like that, my wonderful cowgirl. I would never do anything to harm you. I know the rules of the Traveler,” Anna said calmly.
There was another long silence.
“This conversation is about the horses,” the Watchmaker said. His words were blurted out hurriedly and yet passionately.
“It’s about my sister’s horses,” his wife added almost breathlessly.
Liza sat fairly stupefied as she listened to the story of the famous equine facility that the sister owned and Liza listened patiently as she heard about all of the horses that were there. She knew what was going to happen and Liza got sick to her stomach just thinking about it. When the time came, she knew from her history lessons that the facility, like so many, would have to give up their horses and they would all be sent to war. One hundred years of breeding at the sister’s heralded facility, owned by generations of the same family, would come to a standstill in an instant.
“That’s why we want to ask you something very important,” Greta interjected tenderly.
Liza was confused by all of this. What did any of this information have to do with her?
“What do you want to ask of me?” Liza asked. “I’m sorry about what might happen to your aunt’s horses,” Liza said, “but how does any of this pertain to me and to Libby? And why is Anna here too, with Abby?” Liza’s curiosity was mounting. She realized she wasn’t nervous any longer. Instead she was slightly irritated that they were treating her like a child, clearly trying to tread lightly as they spoke to her.
“It’s about one of my sister’s stallions,” said the Watchmaker’s wife. For some reason, she blushed.
Liza almost laughed. This was going to be one of those conversations some people find to be awkward, she surmised. “I think I get it now,” she thought, “I think I know what they are going to ask of me.”
“Oh Mama, I’ll say it then,” Greta said with a smile. “We will breed our stallion to Abby and we would like to
know if we may breed him to Libby too. We only want to work with very strong mares. We believe here that strong mares are just as important as the stallion, if not more so,” Greta said. “And to save the bloodlines, since war is coming, we want Abby to have her foal in the mountains, and for Libby to have her foal…” Greta whispered. “We want Libby to have the foal in your world,” she added in her lowered voice.
Back home, this conversation would not have been an unusual one. Liza was a ranch girl after all, and ranch life at most places often included having a breeding program. Most children by her age knew what that meant and no one was shy about it. Liza did, however, feel a little bit shy right now. She was speaking about this topic with strangers and she was speaking in a foreign language too! She certainly hoped she understood exactly what they were saying and that her replies, that each of her words, were accurate.
“We are part owners of one of the stallions,” the Watchmaker said. “My wife’s family has worked hard to build the bloodline but we’d like for it to jump forward into your world, in case anything ever happens here,” he explained.
“Well this all makes sense,” Liza thought, turning to look at Anna. “That’s why you came to the city with Abby,” Liza said to Anna.
Anna nodded.
“Well,” Liza said with a sigh. “Libby and I came through with her foal, a beautiful filly named Lila as you know. I’m doing the math and I’m just thinking that, well, Lila is old enough and Libby is healthy enough to proceed with this next step,” explained Liza. “But I would like to ask Libby first, if that’s okay,” she added. “Maybe that sounds weird, but I would like to ask her anyway,” she explained.
There were nods all around. Laying a hand on top of one of Liza’s, Greta turned to Liza and said, “We would be honored to send Libby back with our stallion’s foal,” Greta said. “Abby should be able to help save the bloodline, but Libby will guarantee that the bloodline will be saved.”
As everyone nodded, Liza was relieved that the conversation eventually turned to various other happier topics. “I wonder why people treat me as a child sometimes but then it’s ironic that I get all fussy when they tell me different kinds of adult things that I don’t want to hear,” Liza thought as everyone enjoyed the rest of their pastries and their coffees and teas. “I hope no one thinks I’m being difficult.”
She looked around the room at all the patrons and then she observed everyone right here at her own table. She watched and listened to the lively banter of business ideas between the Watchmaker and Anna, both of whom had pulled out pencils and a sheet of paper to make notes of new tool designs. Greta and her mother discussed the details of an upcoming piano concert and Liza tried to stay a part of it all. Liza listened earnestly knowing that these wonderful people were simply going on with their lives. They knew what was on the horizon, many years away, but they didn’t obsess over any of it. She liked that. There were things that you could control in your life and things you couldn’t. So instead of dwelling on what might happen, Liza enjoyed the conversations of her very lively friends.
First, she joined in on the repartee between the Watchmaker and Anna, asking to understand one of the drawings of a medical device they had made together. Then she turned to ask Greta more about life in Paris and if she had met any painters or other artists.
As the café itself filled with laughter and the voices of happy customers, Liza decided that indeed, life did go on. There was no sense to think about what might happen. It was okay to make plans of course, but today was about living in the moment. And she liked that.
GOOD-BYE AGAIN
Two weeks later, Anna and Liza were able to determine that both Abby and Libby had ‘taken’. That was the term used in the horse world when a mare was finally pregnant: the mare had ‘taken’. The bloodline would be saved no matter what happened in the future of this world of Anna and of the Watchmaker and his family.
During these last weeks, Liza had occasionally shuddered at the thought of the plight of horses during wartime. Every civilization in every country in the world throughout time used horses as tools.
In her world, that was something she would never have to worry about with Libby.
Yet here, horses were used, and used hard, more so than ever especially as the world was struggling with industrialization and modernization. This added even more pressures on the lives of horses as changing worlds collided.
Liza thought back to her schooling. She had studied how horses had been used during the Civil War in the U.S. and how so many had died from injuries and disease. She knew about how horses were used century after century in war after war everywhere, and this broke her heart. Her world was so different and she was grateful that Libby, Lila, and now Libby’s unborn foal would be able to live an easier, less complicated life.
That’s why here in the stable behind the townhouse, she stood so close to Libby this last night as Libby ate her hay. Liza was standing in front of Libby and leaned in until she was pressed against Libby’s neck, left arm up wrapped around her with her left hand caressing Libby’s cheek. Liza’s right arm was around Libby’s neck and she was
petting her and scratching her mane and neck. Against her shoulder, Liza could feel Libby chewing as she pressed even closer to Libby.
Libby finally stopped chewing. Lila was sleeping, curled up beside Libby squished down into the fresh straw, as her mama stood there eating while Liza hugged her.
“It’s okay, Liza,” Libby murmured. “Saving their bloodline was the right thing to do. When we go back, you will have your hands full training Lila and this one when it’s born in about eleven months. You are going to be sooooo busy with your training!” Libby said.
Liza enjoyed Libby’s light-hearted banter, even though in the back of her mind, Liza was slightly worried about Libby going through to their world while pregnant.
However, Libby had assured her it would be fine.
“How does Libby know what she knows?” Liza wondered.
Anna had come into the stable and as she began to curry Abby and tack her up, Lila woke up and flicked her tail left and right and up and down. “I just woke up!” Lila cried.
Abby reached her head over the wooden board of the stall, separating her stall from Libby’s, and looked down at Lila. “You’re silly,” Abby said.
“I know,” said Lila, making a silly little hop-bounce movement in the stall.
Anna curried Abby, using that soothing rhythmic motion of curry brush in one hand and her other hand wiping and gently flowing the hand across the body of her horse.
“Anna,” Liza said, “will I ever see you again? I mean, you are headed back before I do, and I will stop by your farm on my way into the mountains, but after that,” and she paused, “will I ever see you again?” she asked. In this poignant moment, Liza was determined not to cry, but she felt moisture forming in her eyes. She felt a lump in her throat.
Anna was quiet for a few more minutes, deep in thought.
“I don’t know,” she said finally. “I really don’t know.”
Liza had stepped to the side of Libby, no longer worried about stepping on Lila, and absentmindedly stroked her hand on Libby’s neck, back, rump and side.
“I suppose I’m confused a bit about all of this,” Anna said.
“You mean Travelers?” asked Liza. “Yes,” replied Anna.
“The horses seem to know things across the worlds and across time,” Liza said.
“That’s true,” said Anna.
“Time flows differently between the worlds,” said Liza.
“True again,” sighed Anna, this time, with a longer exhalation of breath in her sigh, as though she was disconcerted. “Which adds to my confusion.”
“So, when I come back again,” Liza started to say, “if I come back again, well if I’m asked to come back again,” Liza continued, as she corrected herself, “we don’t know how old you will be, do we?” asked Liza.
Anna stopped currying Abby, and Abby gently headbutted Anna’s arm after a moment’s pause.
“It doesn’t really matter, Liza,” said Abby. “We are all connected forever,” Abby added. “We are all connected through love and through our awareness of one another, isn’t that right, Anna?” Abby asked.
Libby made a gentle snort through her nostrils to clear out some of the dust, almost as if it was her way of agreeing with Abby.
But Anna slumped a bit and sighed and looked at the floor of the stable.
Seeing this, Liza darted between the wooden boards of the stall divider and stood up and gave Anna a huge hug, trying to fight the tears forming in her eyes.
“I’ll miss you, Anna,” Liza said, hugging her friend tightly. “I’ll remember you forever,” she added. “Even you, Abby,” Liza said, reaching one hand out to pet Abby as she squeezed her friend more tightly with the other.
Anna was in agony once again. Everyone always considered Anna to be the strong woman of the valley. They saw how independent she was, and that she was a caring and hardworking doctor, inventor and intelligent member of her community. But no one had ever asked her one very important question. No one asked her what her heart really wanted all of these years. Abby knew, of course, and it was why Abby was so protective of Anna every day of her life, watching over her, and caring for Anna with her love.
Liza stepped back and saw the look that Abby was giving to Anna. Abby had turned her head back to Anna, and they had both stared into one another’s eyes. Then Abby lowered her head a bit and nuzzled Anna who lifted a hand to pet Abby’s nose, cheeks and ears.
“No one knows my mistress’s heart the way I do,” Abby thought as she looked at Anna with love.
Later, with Abby all tacked up and with Anna up in the saddle with her gear packed behind her, Liza watched Anna and Abby walk slowly away. Watching them, Liza cried so hard, that even Lila’s urgent nuzzles into Liza’s hand and up against Liza’s body simply could not console her.
“M
THE PIANIST AND THE
ENGINEER
ama, I need a little break. My fingers are tired and I’d like to take a walk.” Greta had finished her morning of piano studies and had completed her drills and practice for an upcoming recital. The two of them had rented a furnished apartment, complete with a piano of all things, for their longer stay in the city. Greta had taken on some students and she was giving private recitals to her patrons.
Her father, the Watchmaker, had returned to their village and gotten back to work in his shop at their chalet. Her mother was packing her own luggage as it was time for her to leave and return home to her husband. She wasn’t entirely comfortable leaving her daughter alone in the city, but she had trust and faith in her almost eighteen-year-old
These last years traveling the continent had been a whirlwind of excitement for Greta and her mother. They had met famous people, interacted with both decent and unscrupulous promoters and concert house managers, and as they traveled together, Greta learned and studied as hard as she could.
Greta had given concerts in France, Germany, Russia, Spain and Italy and of course, in Switzerland. They had dined in fine restaurants and been fêted in some of the finest salons on the continent. Switzerland was their home, but for Greta, the world beckoned to her and she wanted to travel and see it all.
For her mother, it was lovely to watch her daughter grow up, but at the same time, it was difficult to let go. She
had traveled with her daughter for a number of years now, and it was time to let flourish on her own.
Perhaps it was unusual to allow a young woman like Greta go off on her own, but they had met many industrious young women in their travels, and Greta and her parents knew that independent women were not exactly completely unusual. There was a network of them and they knew one another and stayed in touch. The family had saved their money and after some difficulty securing one for their daughter, Greta also had a bank account of her own. Greta had learned the art of accounting and planning after years of monitoring their travel and lifestyle budget.
Sadly, through their travels, they had also been privy to witness the demise of many an artist who had not learned the discipline of personal financial planning. Some lived too flashy of a lifestyle. Some succumbed to the vices of drink and gambling, both men and women Greta had noticed. Some simply gave up their craft and felt that leisure was more fun, falling deeply in debt, failing to realize that work yielded the ability to finance any leisure.
Greta knew how to balance hard work with relaxation. “You had to work first before you relaxed,” Greta always told herself and she knew that hard work paid off.
But today she needed a little time for a stroll. “Taking a break for a walk? Of course,” her mother said.
She bit her tongue from giving any other advice, resisting the urge to continue to guide her daughter. That was part of letting go. Greta had been instilled with all the wisdom and love and life examples that her mother and father could give her, and it was time for her to make her own career now.
Greta loved her artistic work. She had written a few compositions and been able to earn some money not only from her performances, but also from lessons and selling her compositions. She had learned about business from her parents and she was careful and smart about managing her
own affairs. People sometimes mistook her youth for inexperience and she surprised them.
For her walk, she decided to put on a pair of sensible yet feminine walking boots. At first her mother had turned up her nose at the thought of a young lady being seen in public in anything but the latest fashionable clothing and shoes, but Greta was resolute. “You raised me in the heart of the mountains, Mama,” she once said. “Hiking in the mountains means sensible shoes. Hiking in the city is no different. I will wear sensible shoes for my walks and save the heels for performance nights,” she announced one time and that was that.
Greta fixed her hair and attached a fashionable hat with a few long pins. She grabbed her gloves and a pretty shawl and headed out into the street after saying goodbye to her mother. “Mama is letting go,” she mused.
After a while, lost in thought, Greta found herself on a street of new shops. She had been composing a little piece of music in her head as she walked, and occasionally, stopped to pull out some paper and a fountain pen from her purse to jot down the notes of the melody as they drifted through her head.
She loved the new fountain pen that was a gift from her father, something he had found when visiting other cities for his work. It was such a fantastic invention. No more spilled ink in her purse. This was a self-filling pen.
As Greta walked, she could see the music in her mind as it danced through her thoughts. The instant she saw it, she knew the rest would follow like the rush of water running in a stream down a mountain, so she always stopped and pulled out paper and her new pen to take notes.
After she made her notes, she looked around and observed her surroundings. It was a pleasant newer thoroughfare that she was on, and while the streets weren’t as crowded as they were in the inner parts of this city, the
people here were here for a purpose: these people were shopping not strolling for pleasure as she was.
For now, she felt the freedom of walking without having to bump into too many other people, knowing that soon, this part of the city would be bustling and thriving. The world was changing, growing, and modernizing. This city was no different, and this part of the city would grow as well.
Then she saw him, and her heart flipped.
The shopkeeper was sweeping the area in front of his store, and as he finished, he pulled out a piece of cloth and wiped the glass of the large window. She saw the fresh paint on the woodwork and noticed the modest-sized but neatly made sign for the business. Woodcarvings it said.
She loved woodcarvings and even from a distance, she could see that the shop window was full of a display of beautiful wooden objects in all shapes, sizes and themes.
She watched the boy, no, he was a man, for sure, and her heart flipped again. He was slim and trim, and had strong looking shoulders. His clothes were neat and new. Not entirely fashionable, but new and modern. He was dressed for purpose, not to impress, but she was impressed regardless.
She stopped walking, then, clearly flustered, she looked left and right and nearly spun on her heels to turn away. It was no use. She would have to walk past him.
“Good day,” she muttered and the young man turned around. He tipped his cap, and as he did, his heart skipped a beat when he looked into her eyes.
“My name is Balthis,” he said, as he extended his hand. “It’s Balthazar, actually, but my friends and family call me Balthis.” His smile made her face flush.
“My name is Greta,” she said as she lifted her hand out, slightly elevated and turned down as her mother had taught her. The young man lifted her hand to his lips and gently but just barely kissed it in the formal style of greeting.
“I’m studying to become an engineer,” he said proudly.
“I’m a pianist,” and Greta flushed once again.
THE LADY IN THE CARRIAGE
Liza finished tacking up Libby and secured her travel packs to the D-rings at the back of the saddle. Just as she had done hundreds of times before, she double-checked the way the saddle fit onto Libby’s back. She took another look at all four of her shoes and quickly scanned her body and then watched her legs to look for any signs of discomfort. She did the same with Lila as well.
“We are headed back to Anna’s, then we are on our way home you two,” Liza said. Lila was standing beside Libby and had a confident look to her. “She’s really grown and matured here,” Liza thought to herself. Then she said, “Lila, you are really growing up,” and as Liza scratched her, Lila gave a gentle nicker.
“I’m going to miss her little squeals and her zoomies in the field,” Liza thought, looking at Lila. “I wonder what she will be like when we return to our world? She’s so mature here; will Beata even recognize her?”
After thanking and saying good-bye to her host family, Liza got into the saddle. As usual she swished left and right, fixed her jacket and positioned her hat and then with a squeeze of her legs along Libby’s sides, Liza, Libby and Lila began their long journey home.
After a few minutes of walking, Liza heard a voice. They had agreed not to call attention to themselves so Liza was surprised to hear Libby’s voice.
“You saved Abby,” Libby said. “Liza, you really did a good thing here. Keeping Anna and Abby together as a team was not only good for them, but it keeps Anna focused on her calling as a doctor. They are the perfect team together,
you know, and it was right to intervene and save Abby,” Libby added wisely.
Liza nodded then realizing that Libby could not see her nod, she simply said, “Yep.” She wanted to stay quiet until they had left the city.
They had to pass through the center of the city to get to the road they needed to find to head in the direction of Anna’s village. Liza wasn’t exactly thrilled to have to go through the city. Initially, all she had wanted when she came back to this world this time was to see her friends, and to have the experience of a visit into a city. But now she had had her fill. She missed her parents, all the horses and she missed the ranch. She could not wait to get home with Libby and Lila. Lila needed more training and she also wanted to get out onto the familiar trails with Libby. They had competitions lined up for the summer and they needed to train for those too. She was also behind on her summer schoolwork.
But they needed alone time together, just the two of them that was for sure.
Passing through the city, they managed to navigate many of the crowded streets easily enough but sometimes it was difficult. Liza had wanted to take some kind of side streets, but she had been told that she really needed to go into part of the city itself, laid out like the spokes of a wheel, before she could find a road to take her around and back out to the outskirts and onward to Anna’s valley.
“Stick with us, Lila,” Liza urged, “We don’t want to lose you.”
After an hour or so, navigating the slippery and sometimes filthy cobblestone streets, and often having to dodge mechanized and horse drawn carriages and trollies, they found themselves on a more pleasant boulevard on the south side of the city, heading in the direction they wanted.
Liza could see the mountains much more clearly now. The air was cleaner on this side of the city and it felt
like the mountains were calling to her. She desperately wanted to get back into those mountains, back to the lush pastures and to the scent of the pine trees. She was glad for her experiences in the city and glad to have met new people but she needed to get back into the mountains.
She didn’t see it coming. But she felt it.
It was painful this time, urgent and painful.
Libby whinnied a loud, urgent scream. She reared and nearly threw Liza. She kept rearing, trying to get Liza to loosen the reins to allow her to run.
What was happening?
And then Liza watched in horror as Lila reared slightly, spun on her hind end, and then ran away from them, across the dangerous and chaotic boulevard, dodging vehicles, carriages, carts and other horses.
“No!” Liza cried.
“No!” yelled Libby, breaking their agreement to keep words at a minimum.
This was the second time that Lila had been completely and totally disobedient. The first was when she followed her mama and Liza into the woods and came through to this world uninvited. And now she had disobeyed for a second time. This was all quite intolerable and this time her disobedience was dangerous.
“You will stay with us,” Libby had said earlier, looking at her filly and speaking her words carefully and distinctly.
“Yes, Mama,” Lila had replied.
“You will stay by my side and not speak words until we are out of the city, correct?” Libby had said to her foal.
“Yes, Mama,” Lila had replied again.
But Lila had disobeyed and now she was in grave danger.
Libby had nearly thrown Liza. She hadn’t meant to, but Liza had to hold on for dear life as Libby reared. Liza’s own mother had taught her how to stay in the saddle of a
horse that reared, whether from fright or from malice, so Liza knew how to stay on a horse. But she never imagined she would have to deal with Libby rearing like this. Libby was acting insane as Liza held onto the saddle horn.
Lila ran like a little racehorse over to the other side of the boulevard and witnessing this, Libby became severely agitated and frantic. Liza could barely control her mare. They darted and swerved dangerously as they wove through the crowded boulevard.
“Steady girl, we will find her,” Liza had whispered into Libby’s ears. “Steady girl.”
Looking across the boulevard, suddenly Libby saw someone with her hands on her filly, on her Lila, guiding her away into a side street. Liza had seen this too and she could feel that Libby wasn’t having any of that!
“She. Will. Not. Be. Stolen!” Libby screamed. Then she made a piercing long whinny of horrific urgency.
Onlookers turned their heads, wondering who had screamed those words. Liza shrugged and simply rode the back of her wild creature that was heading to the side street, watching the theft unfold before their very eyes.
And then Libby skidded to a complete stop.
They had reached the side street.
Lila was there, but she wasn’t being stolen.
She was leaning into the skirts of a woman, almost jumping up into her arms, just like an excited puppy or kitten.
The woman was holding Lila tightly, and they were cheek to cheek. She was stroking Lila, petting her, scratching her, not minding for an instant that her elegant skirts were filthy now, dipped into the mud of the side street and gradually becoming covered with hair and more mud and more dirt.
Lila wasn’t being stolen; she was being loved.
Liza felt the pain from a moment ago turn to warmth. She felt the tingling sensation that felt like an odd
sort of goodness and joy all at once. She watched the woman loving on Lila, tears streaming down her face.
The elegant woman was crying. Liza saw that the woman was actually crying. What was going on?
Libby stopped and did not move. If ever a horse could take on a human emotion, Liza felt that Libby was both having a heart attack and realizing a moment of freedom in her heart all at once.
Lila never once looked back.
Even when Libby nickered to her and made her mare-to-foal loving sounds, Lila stayed in the arms of the woman and did not look back at her mama.
Liza could feel the heartbreak in her own mare. Libby’s frantic heartbeat seemed as though it was flowing through the air far away from her body even as she and Libby were witnessing a new heartwarming bond of love unfold before them.
Something was happening, Liza felt it. She knew it because she watched it happen. Liza was astounded. She had never witnessed anything like this before.
There was a carriage on the main street, a modern and dashing looking one, with a man in it beginning to step out. The groomsman held the door for him as the man stepped onto the cobblestones, looking for the woman, Liza guessed. The groomsman pointed to the side street and Liza watched the man turn and walk over to the woman.
As he approached, Liza watched as he gently laid one hand on the woman’s shoulder and then watched as he laid his other hand on Lila and stroked her. That must be his wife, Liza realized. Then the man stroked Lila with the expert movements of someone who had spent a lifetime around horses. This man knew horses and Liza could see that he had fallen in love with Lila, just as this woman had.
“What am I seeing here?” Liza cried. “What is going on?”
The man and the woman did not hear her, so focused on little Lila as they were. The woman was hugging the filly and Lila wasn’t wriggling at all. Lila had nestled herself into the arms of this woman and was calm and quiet, looking up into the eyes of the woman who was petting her. Lila nuzzled the woman’s wet eyes and then relaxed her little body into the arms of the woman once again.
Liza knew it even before she saw it. It was so clear to her what was happening. But then it was evident and so patently obvious. Liza saw it.
She saw the sign of the Traveler, dangling from a chain attached to the woman’s purse.
Libby had calmed down and Liza could feel her heartbeat steady itself. She felt Libby take a deep inhalation of breath and then exhale slowly.
What Liza and Libby were witnessing was the completion of a void. A loss was becoming whole. Liza didn’t even need to know the story because she knew instinctively in her heart that Lila would be staying with this woman.
She heard the man gently whisper, “Now that you’ve found her, please don’t leave me.”
“That was odd,” Liza thought. “What an odd thing to say.”
Liza watched as the woman looked up at him with a look of eternal and heartfelt love. She lifted a gloved hand and tenderly touched the side of the man’s face. It was clear she would never leave him.
But she watched as the woman looked up into his eyes, leaned up and kissed him and said, “No, I will never leave you. But I am complete now,” and the woman returned her glance to little Lila.
Then she knew. Liza knew what had happened even before she learned the entire story. She knew why Lila had felt the pain in her side in the fields that day back home. And now, she understood why two disobedient little fillies had followed them into the woods, weeks and weeks ago, and why only one had rushed through the pine trees to follow them into this world.
Lila’s existence was the reason for all of this. Oh, Liza and Libby had to come through to save Abby that was for sure. But Lila rushing through the opening in the pine trees was not an accident.
Lila was supposed to travel through as well. There was a reason to all of this. Liza felt it. In fact, she knew it; she understood everything now.
Lila had found Laura and now Laura was complete. But it was all so heartbreaking.
Liza felt that Libby was trembling and her trembles seemed violent and uncontrollable.
“Steady girl,” was all that Liza could say as Libby’s world was changing forever.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
WE CROSSED AN OCEAN
“W
e crossed an ocean for this moment,” Laura explained. It’s taken years, but I’ve found her. The steamer Servia brought us here so we could find you. I just knew we would find you,” Laura continued, her eyes focused completely and totally on little Lila.
Liza had delayed their return obviously, because she had to understand what she had just witnessed. She had tied Libby to a post there on the side street and after everyone had been properly introduced, watched Libby’s reaction as they both listened to Laura’s explanation of what was going on.
“What she just said, this doesn’t make sense,” Liza thought. “Lila is under one year old. What does she mean, ‘It’s taken years’?”
Laura took a moment to compose herself. She had already dusted off her skirt and tried to make her appearance more presentable. She really didn’t care at this point, but she realized that dragging mud back into their carriage probably wasn’t such a good thing to do either.
Liza and Libby listened as Laura explained her story. Starting with her eventing background and her life with her horse Layla more than twenty years ago, Laura spoke of the tragedy, being trapped back in time, finding love and then going all over to try to find Lila. Liza was surprised at this story but also horrified. She looked at Libby and it was as though they could both read one another’s thoughts.
“I don’t ever want to be trapped here,” Liza thought.
“I won’t ever leave you,” Libby said to her.
“Anna almost lost Abby,” Liza thought. “She was almost trapped like Laura was.”
“I won’t ever leave you,” Libby said more firmly.
“But what about Lila?” Liza thought. Nothing.
“What about Lila?” Liza thought, saying it more determinedly in her mind.
There was another pause.
“I will have to leave her,” Libby said and Liza felt her pain.
It was all so awkward. One woman’s joy while a mare and her rider were so painfully sad.
Finally, Lila waked over to her mama and looked up at her.
She turned back and looked at Liza and asked, “Please untie my mama, Liza.”
Then when her mama was freed, Lila spoke.
“It’s okay, Mama. I will love you forever. You are my mama, after all,” she said, looking up at her mother. “I will always be yours,” Lila added.
Liza looked at Libby’s face and turned to look at Laura’s face.
“We are connected now, for an eternity, but she will always be yours, Libby,” Laura said. “I promise to look out for her, for ever and ever. I will. I do, I promise. Forever,” Laura said.
Liza couldn’t stand it. This was such a good moment but it was also such an awful one. Liza knew that Laura was complete now, and she was glad to meet another Traveler, one who was U.S. based, but that wouldn’t matter at all.
Liza would be returning to her own world soon, leaving Lila behind. And she was leaving Lila forever. Liza was only here because the Traveler network had called to her, called her from her world to come save Abby. Her time here was over. She didn’t know if she would ever return.
Liza got a puzzled look on her face. She had been called here; she and Libby. But Lila had also been called to this world. Liza slowly began to understand why Lila had felt it all. Belle and her mother had felt the calling, because they were Travelers, but Beata had not felt it. She was the filly of a Traveler but she wasn’t part of any of this. She and Libby had felt the calling, to help Abby. But Laura, and her needs, explained why Lila, even as a filly, had felt everything through the Traveler network. Laura had been calling to her all these years. The timing was right. Lila was meant to find Laura just as Laura was meant to find Lila.
But Liza scrunched her face in confusion.
“Ma’am. Would you back up a moment in the telling of your story? I think wasn’t listening correctly. Did you say you were in Colorado and met a Traveler years ago?”
As Laura recounted her trip out West, first by railroad and then by stagecoach, Laura explained that she had met a pregnant Traveler who knew she would have a
daughter. Somehow the Traveler knew her daughter would help Laura someday.
Liza was in shock as she listened. Now it was time for Libby to steady her.
“Courage, Liza,” she felt Libby tell her. “You are about to learn more. Listen carefully. I can’t tell you everything. You have to learn some things on your own,” she felt Libby tell her.
“Who was the cowgirl from Colorado? Who did Laura meet out West? Who was the cowgirl with the paint horse? Who was that woman?” Liza’s head screamed all of these questions in a jumble of emotions and realizations.
Liza’s head was spinning. Libby shot Liza a look and said, “Shhhhh, my little cowgirl. Steady now.” Liza felt Libby’s calming words and yet nearly fainted.
“It. All. Makes. Sense. Now.” Liza stood still and reached out her arm to touch Libby. She felt her warmth, she felt her love and she felt the connection. “All these years,” and Liza’s voice trailed off.
Everything became still and calm and a long moment passed without any distractions. But then a small voice spoke clearly and distinctly.
“Liza, it’s time to say good-bye,” a little voice said.
Liza looked down at Lila’s beautiful face and wanted to die. She had moved close to Liza and had leaned against her.
Liza scratched Lila under her neck and rubbed her hand up her face to her ears and then stroked Lila down her neck again, her thumb running along Lila’s neckline, as she gently massaged the filly and stroked her again and again.
Liza tried desperately to memorize Lila’s face. She searched her mind frantically. Did she have any photos of Lila? Had she made any sketches of Lila? Had she? Liza couldn’t recall. “How will I ever remember her without a photo? Without a sketch? How will I ever remember that this filly even existed?” Liza thought with almost manic urgency.
Then she looked at sweet Lila. “How calm she is. Steady and calm. She’s older now. Not a filly in her spirit. Her body will catch up to her. I know this. Don’t cry, Liza. This is the end, but don’t cry,” she told herself.
Lila walked back over to her mama. She nuzzled Libby under her neck and ran her nose over her. Then she leaned into her mama and rubbed herself all over her mama’s body with her own body.
Libby’s eyes were not relaxed. She looked stiff and sad.
“Can horses cry?” Liza thought. “We can and we do,” Liza heard a voice say to her. It was painful for Liza to watch these last tender moments of her mare with Lila. Their necks were arched towards one another, even as Lila had to reach up to her mama who leaned her head and neck down to her foal. Their noses just barely touched, and Liza could hear Libby’s breathing, almost like snorts, as she inhaled the scent of her little filly for the last time. Lila’s tail did not move as she stayed nose to nose and breathed in her mama’s scent as well with exquisite tenderness.
“Don’t cry, Mama. I want to stay. You didn’t ask me, but I want to stay.” Liza watched her mare. She watched the filly. And she looked over at Laura and saw such love, and then Liza realized that they needed to leave.
She gathered Libby’s reins and checked her cinch. Then she carefully got back into the saddle and gently, ever so gently, asked her mare to turn and walk on. Liza felt the slight hesitation in Libby’s body and for the first time in a very long time, did not ask Libby to listen to her to turn and walk on. Instead, after the hesitation, she just relaxed herself into the saddle and waited and then, finally, she felt Libby turn and begin to walk slowly down the side street and turn onto the boulevard.
Libby did not look back. Liza felt her pain. This was heartbreaking.
“Mama,” Liza heard. She actually heard this, “Mama I love you,” said a little voice. The filly had run to the boulevard to watch her mama walk away.
Libby stopped and turned to look at her little one for the last time. Liza heard the gentle sorrow in Libby’s nicker as she looked back at her filly for the last time. Then Liza felt her mare turn herself, and she allowed Libby to guide them out of the city at her own pace.
Liza could barely see. Her eyes were so full of tears for a very long time as they passed by shops and homes and small businesses.
But she let Libby guide them out of the city and up into the hills, up into the mountains all at her own pace.
They walked just like that for the rest of the day, comforting one another in their quiet calmness.
YET ANOTHER GOOD-BYE
As they passed through Anna’s village on the narrow road heading to her chalet, Liza wasn’t sure what to do or how to react or what to say to her friend and cowgirl mentor. Anna would understand everything that they had experienced for sure, but Anna was a bit of an enigma and Liza did not know what kind of a reaction Anna would have
to everything that had happened at the end of their stay in the city.
Anna was both kind and tender but also slightly more hardened a bit, with that kind of ‘cowgirl up’ mentality of, “Well if you fell off the horse, get back on it and ride!” type of personality.
So Anna was a mixture of kind love and tough love all mixed into one persona and Liza wasn’t sure what she needed from her mentor right now.
“Welcome back!” cried Anna. She was working in her garden. Anna was always working. She never seemed to stop.
Abby screeched a whinny and raced like a mad thing from the far end of her pasture. She had been lying down on her back, legs in the air again, looking ridiculous but must have felt their arrival because she immediately flipped over, got up and ran to them without being called.
“Helllllllloooooo my wonderful sorrel mare friend. Helloooooooo!” Abby cried as she ran in from the pasture. She skidded to a stop where her pasture met up with the edge of the garden.
“So we are both having foals at the same time!” hollered Abby, clearly excited. “This will be my first one, you know. I sure wish you would be here to guide me though it all,” Abby said.
Anna looked at Liza and at Libby and turned to look behind them. She pursed her lips. Liza could see recognition come across her face.
Abby, ever the horse who just says what she feels called out, “Hey where’s Lila?” Looking at her friend, Abby suddenly corrected herself and said, “Well, let’s get her tack off and get her into the fields with me, okay you two?”
Sitting inside over a cup of tea with fresh honey, and nibbling on a freshly baked sweet, Liza told Anna the entire story of Laura and Lila. Liza blinked a moment realizing there was a lot she didn’t know about Laura and kicked
herself for not learning more. “Oh well,” she thought, and admonished herself a second time.
They both looked out into the pasture and saw that their horses weren’t eating like they always did. Instead of seeing two horses, side-by-side, heads down, grazing with one leg forward, they saw two horses, head to tail, with heads lying across the other’s butt. It was hard to explain, but it looked like they were comforting one another.
Anna said, “I don’t really think that Libby had a chance to spend time with her friend, what with the excitement of having Marcel here and Abby focusing on healing.”
Liza nodded.
“And from what you are telling me, it looks like Abby is taking time to help Libby understand that Lila staying here in this world is the best thing that could have ever happened,” Anna said.
Liza nodded again.
“You’re awfully quiet,” Anna added. Liza nodded yet again.
“You have a lot to process don’t you.”
Liza nodded for the fourth time.
“And I suppose you are wondering if this is your last time here too, so that’s hard. You don’t know what to say. You came here because you were called to help Abby and just found out that you also came here because Lila was called to help Laura. Now you are wondering what your role is in everything, aren’t you? I suppose you kind of feel slightly used, too, don’t you?”
That last sentence hit home.
Liza turned to her friend and said, “I see now that everything has a purpose, it all has a reason. I don’t feel used. We are all connected.”
Liza paused.
“She’s grown too,” Anna thought. Liza looked out at the pasture and smiled. “The last time I left this valley and this world, I was scared. Scared of
saying good-bye, scared of my relationship with Libby. I’m much wiser now. I’m not going to worry how old everyone might be if I ever return to this world. I’m not going to think about what might happen to you after I leave either, though I probably will worry about you, Anna, actually.” She paused to collect her thoughts. “I do know one thing, after this trip here as a Traveler for this second time, it’s that my bond with Libby is even deeper now more so than ever. My commitment to her life is truly forever and I understand what that really means now,” Liza said, passionately and emphatically.
Anna’s eyes were on her, a sense of pride and wonder coming over her face as she observed this incredibly astute young cowgirl.
“I always knew I would take care of Libby,” Liza added, “but my love for her has deepened even more these last weeks. I will always take care of her, forever and ever,” Liza said, emphasizing each word as she spoke.
Anna reached her hand out and covered Liza’s hand with her own and squeezed it gently.
And Anna nodded in agreement.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
LIBBY’S WORRIES
e’re back!” cried Liza. “I recognize the trail here that leads back to the ranch,” Liza said. Liza was clearly relieved and her demeanor was casual, relaxed and happy.
Libby, on the other hand, was quiet and while her ears moved around indicating that she was listening to what Liza was saying, she remained silent. Liza chattered
on a bit about what a pretty day it was and that indeed, it was nice to be home.
“Goodness but I sure do feel differently coming back this time,” she said to Libby. “The last time, well I was certainly glad to see Mama and Papa, but I was so sad to leave our friends. And I was scared and sad that you and I would never be able to speak to one another. But, now I know! Even when Travelers return, they can still speak to one another!” Liza exclaimed.
It was a beautiful day and it was good to be home. Even Libby knew that, or so Liza thought. However, Liza soon noticed something odd. Libby was anxious. She looked left and right on the trail, and flicked her tail in an agitated manner, and before Liza could correct her with her reins, Libby turned back around to face the two leaning pine trees. And she just stood there.
Liza looked where Libby was looking. Liza looked at the trees, and she looked at the space in between them. Unlike when they went through, there was no light in between the pines and all that she saw was the view of trees and more trees behind them. She saw nothing to indicate that anyone was there waiting. They were home, on her parents’ farm and anything that had been there in between the trees, probably months ago was gone now.
“Libby-girl, what are you doing?” Liza asked. She gently pulled on the rein with her right hand and tried to turn Libby to head down the trail back to the horse pastures, stable and her house.
Liza’s hands felt resistance. Next, Liza made a gentle but slightly firmer movement with her hand, asking Libby to turn. Resistance. Liza applied her left leg to Libby’s side to get her to turn. Nothing.
“Girl!” Liza cried.
Silence.
Libby refused to move. This was unlike her. Liza wasn’t sure what to think.
And then it hit her. It hit her like a ton of bricks and suddenly, Liza felt rude and foolish.
“Oh no,” Liza sighed. “Oh no.”
She leapt off of Libby’s back, leapt right out of the saddle, and landed with a thump on the soft ground. Then she briskly walked to the front of her horse and looked Libby in the eyes.
This was the second time in her young life that Liza had ever seen what she knew now were tears in the eyes of a horse … and these were tears of deep and profound emotion.
Watery eyes in a horse can happen due to allergies and due to illness, but these were tears of sadness, Liza was certain of that
“Oh no, girl, oh no,” Liza said.
Libby just stood there and kind of slumped, like a human does when it is sad or feels defeated.
Liza threw her arms around Libby’s neck and petted her, rubbed her and caressed her. Her touches on Libby’s neck were deliberately soothing and she caressed Libby for a few minutes.
It wasn’t necessary to ask Libby why she was crying or why she was standing there or why she refused to turn to leave this place.
Libby was in mourning.
Liza never knew this was possible with a horse. Not really. She had heard stories of horses who seemed to mourn the death of another horse. Their movements and actions indicative of loss as they nosed and touched the horse that had died or they stood, with their noses to the ground, near an area where another horse had experienced a horrible tragedy.
But Liza never knew that a horse could experience loss in other ways.
“You are thinking of Lila, aren’t you, Libby-girl?” Liza asked tenderly.
“Yes.”
“You are wondering if it was the right time and the right decision to leave her behind, aren’t you girl?” Liza prodded.
“Yes.”
“And you miss her too, don’t you girl?” Liza asked as more of a statement of fact rather than as a question.
Libby dropped her head lower to the ground and said simply and with unbearable sadness, “Yes.”
“And you are worried that we, rather that you, will never know if she is truly okay, and that you’ll never see her again, aren’t you girl,” Liza said with all of the tenderness that she could muster.
Libby remained silent. Liza stayed right there beside her. She was without words.
After all, what can you say to your friend who is sad, one who has suffered a loss? How can you console them? How can you tell them that everything is okay and that everything will be okay? What can you do?
Liza decided that all she could do was to stand there with Libby and just listen to the breezes and to feel the sunshine and to bask in their friendship and to just be with her horse. Just like Libby had stood by Liza so many times, Liza needed to be there for her horse and so she stayed right there beside her, with all the love in her heart flowing over and into her horse, into her friend, her dear horse Libby.
After a very long while, Libby lifted her head and looked between those two pine trees one last time. She stood there for longer than one might think. Her nostrils flared like she was breathing heavily after a run or breathing heavily as if in fear. Her ears moved forward and to the side and then her ears moved forward once again, alert and listening carefully.
Then, quite unexpectedly, she took one tiny step forward, towards the trees.
Liza almost panicked. “What is Libby doing?” she nearly cried out loud. “Will she go back and leave me HERE?” Liza thought. Liza was just about to step forward to grab Libby’s rein. “I can’t let her go back and leave me, I can’t,” Liza almost said out loud again.
“Stop it, Liza, let her have her moment. Just be here for HER,” Liza corrected herself silently.
Libby’s nostrils were still flaring. Her ears kept moving.
“Can she hear someone through the trees?” Liza asked herself. “Can she hear Lila? Oh no, can she hear her?”
Libby stood there quietly for a few moments. Liza felt the aching pain that her horse was feeling. She said nothing, and instead, stood very still.
“I miss you already,” Libby said tenderly.
Liza thought she would die from the pain she was hearing in the voice of her horse.
“I miss you, my little one,” Libby breathed into the pine trees. “I miss you, baby-girl. Please take care of yourself,” Libby said into the space between the trees. She was looking, searching with anguish, and Liza was dying with empathy for the pain her four-legged friend was experiencing.
Liza began to cry silent tears of grief in anguish for her friend. Yet she also gasped a bit in that hyperventilating kind of movement that one makes when they are crying so hard that they want to compose themselves but they simply can’t.
Liza had no words for her friend Libby.
“Can Lila hear her?” Liza asked herself. “Can she hear that her mama is scared and needs to say goodbye one last time?” she asked herself. “I’m actually dying inside for my friend, my Libby-girl. What can I do for her?” Liza cried to herself.
At that moment, Libby looked over at Liza, standing there with tears rolling down the face of her mistress.
“Don’t cry, Liza,” Libby said tenderly. “Don’t cry,” she said again, even more gently. Her soft brown eyes were so loving. Her long eyelashes were so beautiful.
Her nose nuzzled Liza, clearly concerned that she had caused Liza to cry. Libby nuzzled Liza’s face yet again, this time exactly where the tears were flowing. Liza heard the gentle snort of her breath and felt her soft nose. Libby nickered a quiet little noise of comfort.
Then, unexpectedly, Liza removed all of Libby’s tack. She simply decided to take it all off.
First, she took off Libby’s bridle.
Libby was surprised but she opened her mouth as Liza gently removed it. She watched Liza as she laid it carefully on the ground.
Next, Liza removed the bell boots and splint boots and secured them to the saddle. She unhooked the breast collar and flipped it over the saddle. Then Liza loosened the cinch and hooked it to the leather piece on the other side after securing the latigo.
In one motion, Liza lifted the pad and saddle and breast collar off of Libby’s back and she stored it, horn down, there on the path in the woods.
Liza stepped back for a moment and looked at her mare with compassion.
Libby looked puzzled.
Liza simply stood there on the path a few steps away from her mare. She stood looking at Libby in all of her natural beauty. Her legs were strong and her body was muscular. Her mane fell naturally to the left and her tail was long and full. The sunlight sparkled and danced as it fell through the swaying tree limbs there on Libby’s sorrel body and it shimmered and glowed on the patch of white on her forehead.
Libby didn’t move, but her ears were alert and they moved occasionally. Libby did, however, take one last look
back at the two leaning pine trees. She stood there for a while. To Liza, it seemed like an eternity.
“If Libby wants to go back, I won’t stop her,” Liza thought as she watched her mare. She was calm as she thought about this. Her own calmness surprised her.
There was a pause.
Then Liza felt the answer. She felt warmth in her heart and she felt a warm glow throughout her body.
Libby turned to look at Liza.
“I will never leave you,” came the reply. “Liza, my young cowgirl, I will never ever leave you.”
Liza felt the answer and did not need to hear it spoken.
Her mare had just told her everything she needed to know, as she shared her answer with Liza through her glance at her, revealing her undying and eternal love for her cowgirl.
Liza’s heart swelled with joy as her eyes began to water with the emotion of what she had just experienced. Libby loved her and would love her forever and ever and ever. And Liza felt the same way about her Libby-girl.
“Here, let’s walk back, side-by-side, shall we?” Liza asked. “I’ll come back with the four-wheeler to get the tack.
Liza wiped the tears off her face and sniffed.
“I miss her too, Libby,” Liza said.
Liza walked back to Libby’s tail, and removed an errant bit of grass that had become entangled in her tail and then walked to the other side and rubbed off a bit of dirt. Liza rubbed Libby’s back and sides then rubbed Libby’s neck. Then she patted her with a gentle rub and pat in one motion.
“There,” said Liza. Liza buffed her boots, one at a time, on the back of the opposite leg against her jeans and stood tall and proud. She pulled her jacket down and fixed her hair and straightened her cowgirl hat.
“Let’s go, girl,” Liza said.
There may have been creatures in those woods that day that silently watched Liza and Libby walking the long
trail back to the ranch. But they said nothing and they did nothing.
They just watched two friends walking beside one another, enjoying their friendship. It took a few miles of silent walking but anyone listening would have heard two sets of voices talking and talking and talking, deep in their friendship and in their love for one another.
CHAPTER THIRTY
THE WESTERN FARRIER
It was a few months after Liza and Libby had returned home when their farrier’s truck and trailer pulled into the ranch. Liza waved hello and saw that her mother was out greeting him. Liza had already brought several horses up to the stable and her mother was speaking with the farrier about their shoeing needs while Liza was in the arena working and training horses.
“I’ll stay with the horses until you can get over here, Liza,” her mother cried.
“Yes, Mama,” said Liza.
She had brought the horse she was training from a fast lope down to a walk and did a few laps around the arena at a slow pace to cool the horse off. Then, dismounting and leading him to a post, she swopped out his bridle for a halter and tied him to the rail. Then she carefully removed all the tack, stowed it and curried the horse, speaking in soothing tones and thanking him for a nice training session in the arena.
Returning the horse to its pasture, she hung up the halter in the tack room and then walked over to the farrier and relieved her mother. “I’ll be inside in the office,” her mother said.
“Okay Mama,” Liza replied.
Liza turned to watch the farrier as he cleaned out the hooves of one of the horses and moved his toolbox along side of him as he worked.
“How did those shoes ever work out for Libby?” the farrier asked.
“How did you … ah, Mama told you?” Liza asked.
“Yes, she did,” the farrier said, already at work removing a shoe. He carefully pulled each shoe and tossed spent nails against the magnet of his toolbox stand. His work was steady, precise and methodical.
“I found a farrier there to help me,” she said.
“I expected so,” he replied.
“The man was very interesting,” Liza added.
“Probably,” her farrier said.
“He spoke a lot about arenas and competing and shoes and things and I thought that was odd,” Liza explained.
“What do you mean?” the farrier asked, bent over while holding the hoof and leg of the horse between his knees as he worked.
Liza was very pleased to see that this horse was standing so nicely. Nothing worse than a horse that won’t stand respectfully for a farrier and her family always tried to train their horses to stand patiently for both the veterinarian and for the farrier during their visits.
Some people thought it was cute to have horses stomping and moving and weaving back and forth and even thought it was adorable when their horses nibbled or even bit at their farrier. Liza disapproved of all of that kind of behavior and really worked hard to ensure her horses stood respectfully.
“Wellll,” she drawled, “it all seemed a little odd. Here he was, back in time but he kept asking Libby about how her shoes felt in different arenas and during competitions when she really had to dig into the ground as she ran. That seemed an odd topic for someone back then.”
Her farrier was quiet, and kept on working. He continued working for a few more minutes but then he paused, stood up and as he stood there, contemplating something, he methodically removed nails from the shoe he had just pulled.
Then he spoke.
“You know,” said the farrier, “there was a farrier out West one time that I knew. He was a good man. He always used to say he wished he could talk to horses and ask them what they really thought about shoes and all. He would go on and on about how great it would be to get feedback from a horse. Folks used to laugh at him. But he was determined to find a horse he could talk to so that he could learn what they thought about shoes and all.”
The farrier paused.
Then he said, “You know, I think it would be a great idea too, to know what a horse thinks of all of this,” he said. The farrier waved his arm calmly and pointed at the side of his truck and then at his tools. His metal carry container with nippers, rasp, hoof knife and boxes of various nails was on the floor next to the horse. The side wall of his trailer had been lifted up and latched open, revealing a multitude of shoes and tools at the ready. His forge and anvil were already swung open to be used shortly.
“Yes indeed. I should probably ask your two horses what they think of my work!” He laughed as he turned back to the horse.
He saw the look on Liza’s face. She was white. She was thinking.
Liza was thinking back to the day she and Libby and Lila were Travelers and they were coming into the big city. She was thinking back to the farrier who had attached the special shoes to Libby’s shoes that her own farrier - the man working here right at this minute - had made for Libby. She remembered walking away for a moment and coming back and listening to him chatting away with Libby about her hooves.
As her farrier saw Liza trying to work something out in her mind, he exclaimed, “Awe, no way. No WAY! Nope. Nope,” the farrier exclaimed shaking his head. “Wait a minute,” he said as realization poured over his face. He was still thinking though. Then he exclaimed, “No no, no! Okay,
so this man I knew was from out West, New Mexico? Colorado maybe? Anyway, he disappeared one day and no one ever saw him again. His name was …”
And without missing a beat Liza burst out at the same time, “Was his name …?”
“Frank”, they both said in unison. The farrier lifted his eyebrow. Liza pursed her lips.
“He recognized your work, you know,” Liza said to the farrier, “while he was attaching your special shoes for walking on slippery cobblestones,” she said. “I saw his smile and now I understand what it meant. It was a smile of professional camaraderie.”
The farrier paused.
“I expect so,” he said, smiling.
And turning to the horse, the farrier got back to working on the hooves.
Then, after a few moments, he said quite earnestly, “Well I’ll be darned,” he muttered.
“What’s that?” Liza replied, with a smile on her face. She knew what the answer would be.
“I just realized. Old Frank got his wish.”
PAPA’S PHONE CALL
The family was in the kitchen one evening seated at a table playing a board game. The table was sturdy yet built with care and looked of fine craftsmanship. Many years ago, an old cherry tree on their ranch had fallen over in a big storm, the kind of storm that too often topples the greatest trees it seemed, but Liza’s father had taken the opportunity to make use of the old tree.
Lately, when Liza would sit at this table with her parents, she would think back to the woodcarvings of the carpenters from the other world. She recalled one spectacular piece of work of a finely carved bear in a bed of wooden flowers that she had admired one day. The carved wood had served as the decoration and stand into which a clock was nestled. She thought about the woodcarvings in the deserted mountain hut where she had spent several days with Libby, that time Libby had had the stone bruise in a hoof and they needed to rest. That was all over two years ago and those events had occurred during her first time as a Traveler.
So much effort and care had gone into all of that woodworking she encountered and thinking about it all gave her an even deeper appreciation for the work her father had undertaken when he had milled the wood from that old cherry tree to fashion this kitchen table.
Tonight, she was enjoying the board game after she had finished her homework. She always enjoyed the math and science portion of her studies and tonight there had been a section of work on stargazing. She had stood and looked outside up at the sky with a little sketch in her hand of where the planets were and while she looked for planets,
she also looked for Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. There was some moonlight but she could still see the stars. Their ranch was so large and covered so many acres, that looking out into the darkness, there were no lights on the immediate horizon to disturb her stargazing.
“Lila, I know you are out there,” Liza said, looking up at the sky. “Well, not up there specifically, not up,” she corrected herself, “but I know you are out there, way out there, somewhere,” Liza said. “I really miss you,” she added.
Later, after her planet and other celestial homework was finished, Liza found herself seated with her mother and father at this sturdy cherry table, when they heard the phone rang in the other room.
“I’ll get it,” her father said.
“Shall we look at his cards?” her mother asked as soon as her father left the room.
“Mama!” Liza cried, with her eyebrows raised and they both had a good laugh.
Her mother watched her daughter’s face carefully and mused, “That look Liza just gave me, why she looks just like me sometimes,” her mother thought. “My little girl is growing up. But is she still my little girl? What is fourteen anyway?” she thought, slightly puzzled. “She’s a teenager … she’s a young lady … she’s growing up so fast … this is crazy … where is my little girl anymore? And these adventures of hers … there will be more. I know it. I knew it when she came back through the first time, and now there has been a second adventure in the other world. I will have to let her go again sometime but she is so young. Can she face even longer travels to other worlds, alone, or will I worry myself to death?” she thought. During these few moments of quiet stillness, a cascade of emotions crossed her face.
After her shock at her mother’s suggestion to steal a look at her husband’s cards, Liza had observed the range of emotions that had just crossed her mother’s face. Liza
couldn’t be certain, but she felt she had an idea what was occurring in her mother’s mind.
She saw parts of her mother in her own face when she looked in the mirror sometimes. So when she saw her mother’s range of emotions end with a moderately scrunched up look on her face, Liza thought for a moment that she was looking into a mirror.
“Mama is so beautiful,” Liza thought. “I hope I grow up to be like her,” and as she smiled, she saw that her mother had looked at Liza and had focused on her. Liza’s eyebrows shot up and she started to say something then decided to wait. The two of them sat there for a lovely moment, quietly looking at one another with pensive yet relaxed looks on their faces.
After a few moments, her father returned to the kitchen. Liza’s mother turned to look at him. He was looking straight into his wife’s eyes and he was beaming from ear to ear.
“We got it,” he said simply.
Liza watched her mother’s face. She was elated. She was beaming. And her eyes glistened. She got up and ran into his arms. They hugged deeply and then her father picked her mother up as he hugged her and twirled her around and around and around.
“We got it!” they cried in unison. Liza was happy. She didn’t know exactly why, though. But her parents were happy so she knew she should be happy.
However, she really had no idea what was going on! Liza looked at her father then looked at her mother and then looked back and forth with an intensity that was both curious, concerned and yet excited.
“What just happened?” Liza asked her parents.
ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE
“Libby-girl, I have something to tell you,” Liza said to her friend.
Her parents had just explained the good news and after hugs and some jumping up and down, Liza had run out to the pasture to tell Libby.
“Belle, you will want to hear this news. Is Beata with you? Dude? Stand by me please. Everyone, gather round,” Liza said in a straightforward manner, calling out to the horses.
It was dark yet with the moonlight, Liza could see horses walking over towards her. She also heard the rustling of the grasses as the horses walked closer.
“I think everyone is here,” Libby said. “What is it?”
“I have news,” Liza said. “Papa has waited a long time for this news.” She paused as the horses moved closer.
“We will be packing everything up soon and loading all of you on the big trailer. The rest will come in the next loads,” Liza said. She heard murmurs from the horses.
“What?” said Belle. “What exactly do you mean?” she continued. Dude made a snort.
“It seems Papa and Mama bought the homestead in Colorado,” Liza said, trying to be very wise about this outstanding turn of events.
She waited to let the news sink in.
Belle was incredulous. Dude whinnied a scream that could be heard all over the world, Liza was quite certain of that. She now knew that he in particular had understood what she had said and what it all meant.
“We’re going home,” Belle exclaimed. Then she nuzzled her friend Dude. “You’re going home,” she added.
“That’s right Belle,” Liza said, “you’re both going home,” Liza said.
The story Liza had just been told was an incredible story of love and devotion. Finally, Liza knew the whole truth and there were no more secrets. It was hard to begrudge her parents’ predicament on whether to have withheld the truth from her because it was all so amazing. But now at least, Liza knew the entire story.
In the kitchen, after the phone call, her mother had said, “Liza, there was more to the story about my going back and being pregnant as a Traveler. I never, well, we never told you everything because it’s just so hard to believe. But you are ready now to hear about it all.”
Her father had put his arm around his wife as she spoke and he looked at her with pure adoration.
“So it’s time you hear everything about when I had stumbled back in time with Belle to what was 1870’s Colorado. We had found ourselves near the stagecoach line, and Belle and I met your father and Dude.” Her mother had explained this slowly, allowing Liza time to process what she was saying and what she was about to say.
“But you were already pregnant,” Liza said, clearly confused.
“No, Liza, I wasn’t. I’m sorry but I didn’t tell you everything in the correct order. I became pregnant with you when I was there.”
As Liza stood in the pasture with the horses, Liza thought back on all of this news she had just been told. She was still processing what this all meant.
Earlier, back in the kitchen, her mother had continued with the incredible story.
“It’s kind of hard to explain, but I was going to stay. Your father and I fell in love, you see, and just like your friend Anna decided to stay back when she went through, I was going to stay back, with Belle and remain with your father,” her mother had said.
Then her mother explained the rest of the story. Falling in love, getting married, buying a homestead, building a home, and then deciding to start a family. And her mother, looking deeply into her father’s eyes as she suddenly explained the entire shocking story to Liza, told of the day she jumped onto Belle and raced to where they had originally passed through to come back to her present. To this world.
Liza was confused. Back in the kitchen, she was confused what this all meant. Her mother had gotten married, was pregnant and had then left her father and had returned back to this world?
Her mother explained the anguish and the fear of living in the past and of raising a child. She was in love, but she was frightened. She had found the man of her dreams but staying with him forever would have meant living in the past. So she and Belle fled. And then in horror, feeling the anguish and foolishness of leaving her husband, she and Belle immediately found their way back through once again.
“I was lucky. No time had passed. Not like for you where it was six years later after you returned, Liza,” her mother had explained.
Liza remained confused. “But Mama, then how are we all here, in Virginia, today, on this land, here, today, in the present? If you went back and had decided to stay back,” Liza had asked, eyebrows furrowed, “how are we all here?”
As she stood with the horses, she tried to get the story straight as she explained it all to them.
“This is very confusing but I hope I can explain it correctly to Libby,” Liza thought. “Belle and Dude know what had happened.”
Here, in the pasture, under the moonlight, standing with the horses, she felt Dude come over closer to her and nuzzle her. “Dude does understand me,” she thought. “Dude understands because he’s known all along.”
Thinking back to the conversation in the kitchen, she recalled that her father had stepped over to her and had put his hand on Liza’s shoulder.
“I came forward to be with your mother,” he had told her. “Do you understand, Liza? I came forward, with Dude,” he explained with that kind tone in his voice that Liza loved.
Liza was stunned at this news. Her mother had gone back and forth several times and then there was the finality of her father’s decision to come forward. Her father was also a Traveler! However, her father had given up absolutely everything, and he had done it all for love. He started his life all over again for her mother, and for their unborn child. Liza could not believe the tremendous sacrifice her father had made.
The truth was that he had come forward knowing he and Dude could not ever go back. That rule of being a Traveler had truly shocked Liza.
Liza also learned from her father that horses that came forward with someone could understand but not speak. She also learned the cruel reality that once the pair had come forward, they could not ever go back. It was only Travelers who initially went back in time who could take multiple visits back and forth she had learned. Now she understood the deep bond between her father and Dude. And she understood the trips to Colorado that they had taken over the years, in addition to all of the other trips out West.
“Papa must have been searching … searching for someone or something that could help him feel more complete. He always had us, but he had given up so much,” Liza said to herself as she came to this realization while standing there with Libby, Dude and Belle.
Libby clearly wanted to say something.
“Belle had almost let the story slip out one time,” Libby admitted, “now that I think about it,” she said, looking at Belle.
“It wasn’t my story to tell,” Belle said.
“But you sure did keep the secret,” Libby added as she leaned over to touch her nose to Belle’s.
“It was a tremendous sacrifice your mother was willing to make with Belle,” and Libby paused while Belle nickered, “and it was an even larger sacrifice that your father made,” Libby said. “He and Dude can never go back, not to that time,” Libby added.
Dude touched Belle with his nose. She nickered again. Libby looked at Liza and could see her eyes.
“This is an incredible moment,” Liza thought. She thought about packing up and leaving this ranch and moving to Colorado. She liked that idea. Colorado was beautiful and the mountains were stunning, and they even reminded her of all the places she had been in Switzerland. She didn’t mind change. She loved adventures and the thought of moving to Colorado was exciting.
She got thoughtful for a moment and looked at Libby.
Libby was looking earnestly at Liza too. “I swear she can read my mind,” Liza thought.
The other horses walked away and began to look for grass to eat. It was a quiet evening, and even with the fading moonlight, Liza could see Libby’s face quite clearly. She watched her mare closely. Liza knew her friend had something on her mind.
Libby stood there and began to chew then lick her lips. “This always means Libby is thinking about something very important,” Liza thought.
The light of the moon made Libby’s hair glow a bit. “What are you thinking, my girl?” Liza asked of her friend. “Please tell me, girl, what are you thinking?” Liza asked again.
Did Libby look timid just now? What was she thinking? Libby never hesitated to say what was on her mind. Then Libby spoke.
“Liza,” she said shyly, “Perhaps we can look for Lila, you know, just look a little?” Libby asked rather hesitantly.
“Liza, once we get to the old homestead, can we look for the place where your parents had passed through? I think Belle once told me about a special waterfall or something. She once started to tell me about an enchanting waterfall but never finished the story. I’m just wondering, you know, well, perhaps by the waterfall, maybe we can go through there, and we can go back to the big city and perhaps we can look for Lila just a little bit?” Libby asked, her voice quivering.
Liza had never seen her mare like this. Libby was her strong and wise and kind friend. She was never timid like she was just now. It was kind of endearing.
“The waterfall, if it’s there, it sounds like a place where Travelers can pass through,” Libby continued.
Liza gently held Libby’s cheeks and looked at her face, into her eyes. She gave Libby a good rub on her cheeks, which she knew Libby loved, and Liza finished by playing with her mane and then rubbing on Libby from the top of her head down to the tip of her nose. She kissed her friend on her soft nose. There was a spot just on the side of her face that was so soft and so wonderful. She felt Libby’s breath and felt Libby’s hair tickle her own cheek.
“Libby, you know that Laura and her husband would have returned to Massachusetts by now, taking a steamer or something and they would have brought Lila with them,” Liza said. “Our own travels in time have crossed oceans, Libby. I don’t know how to ask to travel to a specific location,” Liza explained a little sadly.
Libby dropped her head, in sorrow it seemed.
Then Liza got an idea and got excited for the possibility of new adventures.
“But you know what Libby? Absolutely,” Liza said. “Absolutely, my friend, we will become Travelers again, we sure will,” she said, patting Libby on the back. “We will find a way to make this work. We just have to.”
Libby lifted her head and stepped closer to Liza.
“But remember what Mama always told me?” Liza continued.
“What’s that?” asked little Beata, clearly excited for this news. She had stayed while the others had left looking for grass to eat and had been standing patiently, excitedly holding in all her questions and comments since she had wanted to let the big horses speak first. She bounced around a little bit then settled down, turning her ears back and forth and flicking her tail.
Liza continued.
“Mama always told me that as Travelers, we must always be happy here, in the present, and we must not look for ways to go back,” she said. “The only way to go back once again, is that we will be called to go back,” she added.
Liza gave a playful pat to Beata and stroked her neck and back. Then she rubbed on Libby again and she felt her mare relax. Libby took in a deep breath and exhaled, clearly relaxed and content.
“What does it all mean when you want more magic, and you want more enchantment, and you want even more adventures?” Liza thought to herself.
Liza looked all around her. She looked at her mare, her sweet Libby-girl. She looked at her parents’ horses and then she looked over at the other horses of their incredible ranch.
Liza looked back at Libby and slowly nodded. While looking into the eyes of her beloved Libby-girl and giving her a special caress, she said, “We must be happy here in the present, Libby. But it’s okay to be prepared to go back. And we will find your Lila again one day, I just know it.”
THE END
Hold on everyone!
Libby will be back and will be right by Liza’s side for the next set of magical adventures.
What people are saying about “The Liza and Libby Adventure Trilogy”
“You could really tell the author knows her horses. Very descriptive. You can tell she’s a real horse lover.” - C
“This is the loveliest story! You couldn’t wait for the story to unfold. It really felt like you were really traveling with the characters on their adventures. You could see and feel and experience everything the author was describing.” - M
“As an adult reading this book, my inner child was loving it. I wish I would have had a series of books like these when I was growing up. This was a wonderful heartfelt adventure from beginning to end. You can tell that this book was written by a person who personally has horses and has traveled with them. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to be whisked away into a beautiful adventure! I cannot wait for the next book.” - T
“I just finished the book and loved it. … I haven’t read a book that I was that interested in for a very long time! … I wanted to know what happened next.” - L
“I thoroughly enjoyed the adventures of Liza and Libby. Preteen girls reading this story should be entertained but also inspired by Liza’s courage and ability to adapt to unfamiliar situations. Also, her care for Libby’s well-being is a very important message about thinking of others. I do hope there is a sequel to their adventures.” - A
Disclaimer for book one and book two:
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
H aving said that, historical events and observations noted in the books have been researched and are presented as accurately as possible
In Book One, the dates for the arrival of the Statue of Lib erty to New York City as well as the arrival of trains in the Alps are true
In Book Two, tetanus shots were developed shortly after the events in this story took place and were not available to save a dying horse in this time period. References to arc lamps, gas lighting and self-filling pens are historically accurate. Stagecoaches still ran in Colorado during this time and ocean steamers began to be outfitted with electricity. The RMS Servia was a real ship from Boston to Liverpool so we can imagine that the journey that took place in this book was true.
Thank you for being you:
Mom – “I’ll protect you.”
N – For continuing the magic of fairies, ferns and ladyslippers. Make believe still exists.
S – For the best farrier care ever. Because a great farrier makes all the difference.
M’s – For wonderful veterinary care. Loving vets make everything better.
M – For big words and your thoughtful kindness.
N – Your generosity is amazing.
T – For digital assistance par excellence!
S, C, T – You help me to grow with every single encounter.
K – I will love you forever too, you know.
Rules of Travelers:
“The enchantment follows all Travelers.”
One rule was that horse and rider were connected as one pair. If one passed through the other had to pass through as well and at the same time.
As a Traveler, horse and rider were connected to one another even more powerfully than they had been before they passed through to another world. Once they entered the other world, they were connected so completely that their aging process slowed to be more aligned with one another.
“The Traveler network isn’t just about crossing time. It crosses emotions and the network feels and shares both pain and joy. It calls to all of us in different ways. Different groups of Travelers can feel what the others are experiencing.”
“You travel when you are called, or you travel when you experience something extraordinarily special with your horse as you are riding together.”
“When you go back, it’s impossible to ever recreate the moment of joy – or sorrow – that you are feeling at that very moment the first time you go through as a Traveler. That’s a moment in time that is perfect - that connection with your horse, those feelings you are experiencing, the moment is so perfect and you will waste your life trying to recreate that exact same perfect moment.”
Connect with Author Alexandra M. Wallace: www.AlexandraMWallace.com Instagram: @AlexandraMWallace
The author is a life-long equestrian who fell in love with horses at the age of five, and has never given up her enthusiasm for life, horses and love.
Connect with Liza and Libby!
www.LizaandLibby.com
Instagram: @Liza_and_Libby Facebook: Liza and Libby Adventures
The Trilogy:
“Liza and Libby: The Adventures Begin”, Spring 2022
“Liza and Libby: The Adventures Continue”, Fall 2022 “Liza and Libby: The Adventures Everlasting”, In 2023!
Order a book or two today: www.LizaandLibby.com www.PonderaPublishing.com
