June 2009 Story Contest

Tally's Nightly Adventure by skyrider94

The last day of school couldn’t pass any slower for Tally. She longed to be outside, lazily passing the day away with the birds and bees. ‘I wonder how Cleo’s doing’, she thought, thinking of the gentle brown mare waiting for her at home. “Tally? Tally?”

With a jerk, Tally entered reality again and sighed as she turned to her friend behind her.

“Hello? Earth to Tally! Didn’t you hear me?” asked her best friend Allison.

She and Allison hadn’t been friends long, just since Tally and her dad had moved to Texas from Oregon.

“Sorry, no. What were you asking?”

Allison rolled her eyes and said, “I was trying to ask if you were going to the End of School Bash tonight.”

Tally blinked in surprise. “Oh. That’s tonight? My dad kind of wants me home so I can help him get ready for his fishing trip tomorrow. I guess I can’t go.”

“What?!”, Allison screeched. “How could you be like that?! Just leaving your best friend to go alone to the one time in the year we actually get to have some fun without teachers?”

Tally sighed again. She knew Allison wouldn’t relent now. “Allison, even if I could go, I probably wouldn’t have any fun anyway.”

Allison snorted. “Get over yourself! I so would be there with you to make the life of the party!”

The bell for the end of the period rang.

“Look, Allison,” Tally said, finally getting fed up, “I said I couldn’t go, so sorry! Go find that football player you want to go out with and just go without me and leave me alone!”

Tally’s hasty words did their job. Allison swallowed and looked down, but not before Tally glimpsed the flicker of hurt that flashed in her eyes before she hid her face.

“But I just wanted to go with you Tally, my best friend,” Allison whispered. Allison looked up and Tally met her now hard gaze. “But I see I was wrong that you would want to go. And maybe it wasn’t the only thing I was wrong about.”

With a final glare, Allison gathered her books up and walked out of the classroom. Tally winced. ‘Well that wasn’t supposed to happen. Great job, Tally, you made your best friend mad at you. Now what am I supposed to do?’ she thought. With a sigh, she picked up her own books and walked out the door. At least the day couldn’t get much worse, right?

The crickets greeted her as she walked up the worn path that led to her house. “Dad, I’m home!” Tally yelled as she walked through the door. Her dad was in the kitchen cleaning the fishing equipment.

He looked up as she came in. “Hi, sweetheart. Did you have a good last day of school?”

Tally sighed and said, “Well it wasn’t perfect.”

Her dad glanced at her curiously as he continued to clean his tackle. “Why? What happened Tally?”

Tally shook her head. “I’ll tell you later Dad. I’m tired and just want to go to bed.” Her dad’s eyes softened as he set down what he was doing and he looked at her tenderly.

“All right, honey. Sweet dreams and see you in the morning.” He paused and looked at her again. “You know, I’d be willing to bet things will be better tomorrow. It’ll work out, you’ll see.”

Tally shrugged noncommittally and walked up the stairs to her room. Sometimes her dad was just too intuitive for his own good.

BOOM-BOOM-BANG! Tally started awake. ‘What was that?’ she thought groggily. Tally looked at her alarm clock on her nightstand. The red digits blinking back at her read 3 o’clock in the morning. ‘Hmm, the power must have gone out.’ Tally sleepily thought. ‘Oh well. Back to sleep.’

BOOM-BOOM-BANG! The mysterious noise sounded again. Now Tally knew that there was no way the power was out. Something or someone was outside.

She hurriedly drew on her boots and crept outside through the screen door. The twinkling stars greeted her in the night sky. A few crickets chirped, but otherwise it was quiet. ‘Odd’, Tally thought, ‘I’m sure I heard something out here.’ Just then, a shrill whinny sounded through the quiet night.

“Cleo!” Tally said, fearing that whatever had made that noise was now going after her horse. With her heart pounding with growing dread, Tally flew towards the old barn at the edge of the property. Cleo’s shriek sounded again. Fearing she might be too late, Tally flung open the old barn door and raced to Cleo’s stall. She opened the stall door and looked anxiously inside. Cleo’s soft brown eyes looked calmly back at her. Cleo nickered softly. Tally approached her horse and gently stroked her velvety nose.

“Jeez, Cleo, don’t scare me like that ever again!” Tally chided her horse. Cleo nudged her and looked to the end of the barn where the gate to the pasture was. She pricked her ears and neighed again.

Tally knew then that the something she heard earlier was still there. Closing Cleo’s stall door behind her, Tally crept to the end of the dark barn. A huge dark shape loomed out of the moonlight from the pasture gate. Tally yelled with fright. An answering neigh greeted her. Turning on the barn lights, Tally saw that it was only Teddy, Allison’s horse.

“Hey boy, how did you get here?” she asked the lost horse. A soft whicker was the only response she got. “Well, I guess you’re going to have to stay here for the night.” Tally said as she put him into the stall next to Cleo’s.

The two horses nickered to one another as Tally shut the barn door and went back inside to call Allison. She sleepily answered “Hello?”

“Hey, Allison, sorry its so late but Teddy must’ve got out and now he’s at our place.” Tally told her.

“Oh no! Is he okay?” she asked.

“Yeah. Um, I’m sorry I got mad earlier.” Tally apologized.

“Its okay. The dance wasn’t fun like I thought it would be. You were smart not to go.” Allison told her.

“Well, how bout you come over tomorrow and we can go trail riding before you take Teddy home again?” Tally asked.

“I’d like that.” Allison agreed. Both girls said goodnight and went back to bed. As for Tally, she smiled and knew everything was going to be just fine for the next day.