Chapter 1: Travel to the Stable
Tom, Lucy, Steve and Suzy were kids traveling to a farm for their holiday . They were all really excited to see the animals on the farm. When the farm came into sight, Steve shouted “ Look, what a beautiful farm!”
The farm was beautiful indeed, it had a huge garden, it was neat and it had a big stable. When they arrived, the kids jumped out of the bus, and ran towards the man who was waiting for them. He was tall and strong, his hands were rough from the farm work, but his eyes were very bright and tender. The man introduced himself saying:
“Hi, my name is Mr. Roberts, but you can call me George.”
“Nice to meet you George” exclaimed Lucy. They started looking around the farm. Finally, they came to the barn.
“Can we please, go in, George? I love horses.” Steve asked calmly.
They went in, the barn was full with horses and some sweet, sharp smell, which was so unusual to them, was floating all around the barn . The kids couldn’t decide which horse is the nicest one. Until, they saw a beautiful, but a bit strange horse. It was red. His red hair was glittering in the semi-dark corner of his box and only one sun ray was pointing to his beautiful red mane. It seemed like the whole horse was surrounded by the flames of fire.
“Wow, what a strange horse!” said Lucy pointing at it.
“His name is Demon, he is the one of its kind. Demon is the favorite horse of our farm. We are all so proud of him” said George.
“I’m getting hungry” exclaimed Tom. (He is always hungry). “Can we have a snack first and then come back and make a tour?” he went on, insisting.
They went to the restaurant nearby. They had delicious roasted pig, which they ate with delight. When they came back, they went straight back to the barn.
But something was very weird…
Chapter 2: Demon is Missing
“Where is Demon?” Suzy asked scared.
“I don’t know!” George panicked.
The crew went outside to check if Demon is there, but he wasn’t there.
“Oh, oh” Lucy said in a slow voice. They asked the owner if he saw him.
” Mr. Smith, have you seen Demon, we can’t find him.” asked George.
“Yes, he was going toward the fence. He must have jumped over.” They went to check outside the ranch.
“What’s that?” Steve pointed to something red lying on the grass. They all ran to see what it was. What they saw was a red horse lying on the ground. He wasn’t moving at all. His body was motionless and his eyes were staring vaguely to the distance.
“Demon, Demon! Do something, quickly!” cried George. What would they do now? They called the vet to come to check. Will there be bad news?
CHAPTER 3: A Helpless Vet
After 30 minutes, a white Mercedes came driving slowly from the west. When the car parked, a sleepy man came out slowly from the car. He was dressed in a white overcoat and held a big black bag in his hands.
“Hello, my name is Dr. Alexander, have you called about a red horse which was laying on the grass?”
“Yes, we need you to help us, it’s our best horse!” George pleaded. The vet asked George to take him to the stable.
“This is the box in which our horse stayed.” George explained moaning.
“But the horse somehow went out of it, while we were all away and we
found him lying still outside our farm, behind this fence. It’s so sad.” cried Lucy.
“Take me to the horse, then.” the vet said. Children started running towards the spot where Demon was lying, but the old Mr. Alexander was very slow. It seemed that it took him ages to get to the horse!
“Here, quickly, please hurry up, look how helpless he is. You must help him, please!” pleaded Lucy.
Finally, the vet came close enough to see Demon. “What a strange horse! I have never seen a red horse. I hope that only his color is different than the other normal horses and that I will be able to help him.”
After a brief examination, Mr. Alexandar said that the best idea was to get him to the animal hospital as soon as possible, to see if they can help him somehow.
“Please see what you can do, it’s really important for our farm. We are in the horse riding business and this is our best horse.” It was obvious that George was very worried.
CHAPTER 4: The Hospital
The hospital truck came and they put Demon in the trunk. When they arrived to the vet’s office, there was a woman at a round desk sitting in front of a computer, sipping coffee.
“Hello, my name is Mrs. Dida. Have you come because of that red horse?” she asked.
“Yes, we need your help, we don’t know what happened to him, when we found him, he was just lying on the grass like this.” said George, pointing at Demon. They took Demon to the operation room. After a while, the kids and Mr. George found themselves waiting in the hallway. They were very nervous, waiting for the news. After 30 long minutes, a doctor came out with a sad face.
”Take my condolences, he didn’t survive. We tried everything we could, but unfortunately, he didn’t make it. I’m so sorry.” the doctor said sadly.
The kids burst into tears. Suzy was sobbing loudly. Although he tried to act bravely, kids noticed that even Mr. George began crying. He turned his back to them, pretending to look through the window, but his eyes were red and a tear was sparkling in the corner of his eyes. What would they do now? Is it really happening? Is there no hope, anymore?
Chapter 5: A Real Tragedy
The head nurse asked if they wanted to see the dead body in the morgue, so the kids went straight in. Nurse opened the white blanket where Demon was lying .
“Ouch, disgusting. Poor Demon, his beautiful body has been ruined!” said Sally looking at the body with blood stains.
George hesitantly touched the body of Demon. His hands were shaking and trembling. The kids were afraid that George would faint. He seemed so desperate. Lucy took George’s hand and tenderly pooled him toward the door. They slowly started walking toward the exit.
When they got out of the building, George stopped for a second to take a deep breath and to pull himself together. Slowly, he went into the car and started the engine. However, a pedestrian, who was passing by and who saw the whole scene, advised George that he shouldn’t drive under these conditions. George accepted and they went to the café close by to take a drink, and recover.
Chapter 6: The Travel Back
During the travel back, the humans inside the van tried not to think about Demon, but it was hard not to. At one moment, Tom asked
“What if this horse isn’t Demon at all?”
“Don’t speak nonsense” Lucy reproached him.
They continued driving and then Tom said again “ Something is telling me that it was a wrong horse!”
As they drove closer and closer to the farm, the more the red horse was escaping from their mind. After 30 minutes, they seemed to have forgotten about the terrible image of Demon lying in that creepy morgue.
Finally, after 45 minutes, they arrived to the farm, but didn’t go straight to the stable. They were hungry, so they wondered off to the restaurant . Everybody ate spaghetti with great delight. The cook told them that the cheese he uses for the sauce was produced at the farm and that they should visit the house where it is produced. After that, they took a walk around the whole farm. There are so many interesting things to see and so many noisy but cute farm animals to play with. They were so excited that it took them almost whole afternoon before they remembered that they didn’t visit the stable yet.
“Hey, guys, let’s go back to the horse stable. I want to check why I had that strange feeling when we were driving back from the vet’s place!” Tom finally suggested.
Chapter 7: Surprise!!!!
When the children entered the stable, they found their mouths wide open. In one of the boxes, there was a red horse! Around his strong, healthy neck, there was a silver chain with a big name tag saying ” Demon” .
“ Yak, you are alive, you, silly, gorgeous horse!? Do you know what we went through because of you?” They all shouted, excited and happy.
Demon replied with a snore, he was obviously very tired. Slowly and hesitantly, Demon started walking towards the stable’s exit door. When they all went outside, George mounted on Demon. However, Demon just sat down and wouldn’t move. He just waved with his head, as if he wanted to tell them to leave him alone and eventually, threw George off the back. The horse stayed like that for an hour. From some reason, he wouldn’t let anybody ride him that afternoon.
Nevertheless, the company was still happy and there were no more tears of sadness anymore, only tears of happiness.
“Demon will feel better tomorrow, I’m sure. Let us not force him to do anything he doesn’t want to.” Kids agreed. They were happy enough just for the fact that he is still with them!
So, they all went to make a little party to celebrate happy end of their adventure. There was a lot of laughing, music and food. The kids especially enjoyed it, because they didn’t experience a feast like this before, on a farm. When the party ended, they all went to bed. It was an exhausting day, full of happy, sad and surprising moments.
When she almost fell half-asleep, Lucy remembered that they didn’t call the hospital to tell them that it was a mistake. Another problem was to find out whose horse was the one that they found lying on the ground and who was dead now.
“We must do something about it tomorrow. I should not forget it…”she whispered to herself, already half-asleep.
Chapter 8 : A Whole New Exciting Day
The next day, Lucy told her friends about the problems that she remembered the previous night, while sleeping, and everyone gave a loud moan.
“How did we forget about all that, we were so happy to see Demon alive. We must do something about it, as soon as possible!” exclaimed Steve.
“ This means a new day full of adventures” Suzy cheered. “ This will be a fantastic holiday!”
It was high time they got started, they hurriedly ate pancakes for breakfast, got dressed and went out to meet George. Suzy was dressed in an unusual way for a place like a farm, with a long black dress, a ribbon on her head and white mittens. Tom just whistled, as a reaction to this outfit, because it fitted Suzy well, she was blonde and he found her very beautiful.
On their way to meet George, Steve tripped over a rolled bucket and fell in mud. Everyone giggled, his white shirt was no longer white, it was stained with mud all over and he looked like a little, lost boy who just had a major mischief .
“ Steve, what a bad luck, now no girl will like you like this” Tom joked with him.
“ Ha, ha, ha, not funny” Steve looked angrily at Tom. Meanwhile, the girls were choking of laughter. They were all in a good mood that day.
When they found George, he was riding cheerful and beautiful Demon, whose gallop was again steady and fast. When they saw that everything is well with their favorite horse, they felt even more pleased. Kids were all having smiles on their faces.
Oh, the only bad thing was that it started raining. George was dressed nicely too, he had white trousers, black boots, white shirt, and a red jacket.
They then, altogether went to the riding arena, to try to ride Demon for a while. When Lucy mounted, Demon started a gait, and threw Lucy off, right into the mud. Her beautiful red vest got dirty, which was a disaster for her. She loved fashion and always insisted on staying clean and neat, in other words, she was a proper little lady. Nevertheless, it wasn’t the right time to make fuss out of it now, because they just remembered that they haven’t announced to George the problems they thought of during the night.
“ George, we forgot to tell you that we need to find the owner of the other red horse.” Steve said.
“ Good that you remembered, I would never think of that.” George looked thankfully to Steve.
“ Cough, cough, excuse me, but it was me, who remembered that, so, you should be thankful to me.” Lucy pointed out.
“ We need to search for people who are missing a horse. They must be living nearby.” George instructed. They started researching the internet in order to find out telephone numbers of other horse stables in the neighborhood . They were calling all of them, hoping to hear that some of them own a red horse, as well. They searched, searched, but nothing.
Until, an old lady answered.” Hello, who is it?” the lady asked.
“ Hello, are you, by any chance, missing a horse which is red?” George asked listening carefully.
“ Yes I am, why are you asking? And how do you know that?” the lady wondered.
“ Because I found him lying on the grass close to my farm. Unfortunately, he was dead when we found him.” George explained sadly.
“What!?” The lady shouted desperately and arranged for them to meet in a village, close by.
Chapter 9: Meeting with an Old Woman
That afternoon, they all went to the neighboring village to meet with the woman whom they called about the horse. When they arrived to the cafe, there was only one customer in it. It was a white haired old lady with a pink blouse, jeans and a white hat with a flower on it.
“ Hello, are you the lady to whom we talked about the red horse, this morning?” George asked, approaching the lady.
“ Yes, my name is Mrs. Jackson, please, sit down, children, and you, dear sir.” The lady replied.
“ Nice to meet you Mrs. Jackson, I am George.” He said. “ My name is Lucy.” Lucy explained. “ I am Steve.” Steve said. “ My name is Tom.” Tom said shyly. “ And I am Suzy” Suzy exclaimed.
So, the table members chatted for almost an hour. George and the kids told the old lady what happened the previous day and how they got confused and thought that it was their Demon. They told her about their effort to help him and about their sad experience with the helpless vets in the hospital.
“ It is so comforting to know that there were some nice people who wanted to help my dear Thunder. Yes, Thunder was the name of my red horse… He was with me for such a long time. He was rather old, but we kept each other company… You see, he was, so to speak, my best friend since my late husband passed away.” Mrs. Jackson’s voice was weak and trembling.
“ Oh, dear me,” Lucy was almost crying,” But, haven’t you noticed that Thunder was missing?”
“Oh, yes. He wasn’t feeling well, yesterday morning. He seemed so depressed, so, when I saw him going away, I thought that he needed few moments alone, for himself… “
Then, Mrs. Jackson suddenly remembered something and giggled a bit:
“ You know, I always suspected that he had some nice company somewhere in the neighborhood. When he was younger, he used to disappear for a day, or two. It must have been a female horse… You know how it goes.” the old lady’s cheeks blushed.
Now, George started to smile and a joyful look appeared in his eyes. “ Oh, this explains how did our stable get Demon. His mother wasn’t red at all. You know what I mean…”
“ But now, we know who was his father!” kids were delighted. Even the shy Tom was greatly amused.
It was time to go back to the farm. When they stood up, Mrs. Jackson’s eyes were full of tears. The kids gave her a big hug to console her. That helped her a lot, because she got her smile back on.
“ Dear Mrs. Jackson, please come to visit our farm, whenever you feel like it. You must meet your Thunder’s sun, by all means!”, George shook hands with the nice, old lady.
On the way back they discussed their second problem, contacting the medics to announce that it was a wrong horse, and that they found the owner. How would the doctors react to that?
Chapter 10 : News in the Hospital
When the crew came back, they immediately ran to the phone to call the hospital. The phone rang and rang, but nobody answered. At last, a doctor answered. “ Hello, can I help you?” a male voice asked.
“ Yes, can we talk to Dr. Dida, please” George asked.
After that there was silence, but soon, a lady voice appeared. ”Dr. Dida on the phone, who is it?” Dr. Dida asked.
“ It’s George, the one that brought that red horse which was mine, well, there was a little mistake, the horse which I brought wasn’t actually mine, it was belonging to one old lady called Mrs. Jackson. We were wrong when we thought that it was our horse, but everything is explained now. We found the real owner and told her everything. I hope that this fact hasn’t disturbed you much.” George explained.
“ Don’t worry George, these situations happen, but thank you for telling me. Anyway, we are sorry that we were not able to help the horse. He was quite old, you know…” Dr. Dida said.
So, George put down the phone and gave a big HOORAY, all their problems were solved! They can relax now and start having fun!
The children were so happy that everything ended well. The rest of their holiday, they all spent together, hiking, horseback riding, fishing and hanging out, telling jokes and enjoying themselves.
When it was time for the kids to go, they were sad because they would be missing all this farm fun in the urban civilization. And they will miss their new friends, George and Demon, the most. They promised that they will come back next summer.
“Will you be waiting for us, Demon? No more funny adventures, promise?”, they all shouted.
Demon waved his head and his beautiful red mane glittered in the sun.
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