August Story Contest

The Horseshoe
By: Uzigirl2020
Age: 17

The bell rang and the girl jumped hurriedly from her seat and grabbed her bag off the hook near the door. All the school children filed out one by one as the teacher shouted above the noise of scuffing feet, desks and children exclaiming from joy that they had to finish their math homework tonight. Meg didn’t listen. She was out the gate and was racing down the street to her favorite place of all time. The brewer’s stables were neat, tidy and the horses immaculately looked after, they were big draught horses and were all colors ranging from dapple grey to a very deep roan. When Meg had first seen the stables she had first noticed the shining horseshoe nailed above the door. It was in that doorway as an eight year old she stood, breathing in the smell of horses, dung and polished leather. It wasn’t until she was twelve that she finally had the courage to walk up to the old roan horse in the stall nearest to the door.

The horse was nervous at her approach but when she first touched the horse it stood quiet and still. The nice smiling man, who ran the stable, Mac, came out of the feed room at that moment to find the girl patting the horse. He was about to yell and tell her to get out of there because that horse had a bad reputation but then what he saw between the girl and the horse silenced him. When Meg noticed he was watching her she ran away, coming back the next day of course. After that she got a job as groom there, she remembered Mac slinging her up and over the back of a big Clydesdale with a smile. She rode around the yard shrieking with delight. She even remembered getting Mac’s permission to ride the Clydesdale home one day and how pale her mother looked when she rode up to the front door on the big black giant.

Now as a fourteen year old she arrived panting and breathless in the stable yard. Mac was waiting for her at under the door way where the shining horseshoe still hung. It was getting a bit rusty but it was the same horseshoe that had drawn her to the stables one sunny afternoon after school. He was leaning against the doorframe.
“Well if it isn’t my trusty stable lass,” he said with a smile as she walked up.  “How are you going?” she asked.
“Fine thanks, I have to make a delivery and I was waiting for you to come and hold the fort for me, would you mind?” he asked.
“Not at all” she replied, “I’ll just get out of this horrid dress and I’ll get to work!”

Meg listened to the clip clop of hooves leaving the yard as she mucked out a stall. She was smiling and whistling as she worked, enjoying the smell of horses, hay and dung. After she cleaned up the stables she groomed two horses that had to take the next load until their coats shone. That done she cleaned their harness and just as she had finished that Mac came back with the empty dray, the two horses panting and covered in sweat.

Mac never overworked his horses but it was a really hot day. Meg unhitched the two horses while Mac harnessed and hitched the next two and filled the dray. He left as quickly as he came in. Meg washed the two horses and put them back in their clean stalls with their feed. This routine went on with thirty horses in all making deliveries. Between the two of them Mac and Meg could get through all the horses in an afternoon. They believed working in a team helped a lot but Mac also believed that the silver horseshoe nailed above the doorway kept everything in order. After a while Meg believed it to. Of the thirty horses in the stables not one got ill or injured and not one broke down.

Two months after that glorious afternoon working the horses Meg again raced to the stables but when she arrived she noticed the horseshoe above the door was not shining today. Mac stood in the yard with a man in a suit looking glum and hanging his head. The man in the suit saw Meg coming and quickly left. “What was that all about?” she asked. Mac turned towards her. Meg had never seen him so down. He always had a smile for her and a good word for his horses and even when it was raining he still was in high spirits, even though he had to make deliveries and the horses would be soaked and the harness wet, he still looked on the best side of things.

“As you know” he started “this yard and stables don’t belong to me. I only lease them. Turns out the owners are selling the place, stables included. I offered to buy the place but because we have kept the stables in such good order the price is higher than I earn in a year.”
“What does this mean?” asked Meg, fearing the worst.
“I’m afraid that we can’t work here anymore, the horses are to be split up and go to different stables where they will most likely not have such as good a life as here ever again, you’ve to find yourself some other stable yard to work at, I can recommend someone, things will never be the same again.” “What about you?” asked Meg, her voice full of concern “what will you do?” Mac shrugged.
“Horses are my life” he said “always have and always will be I’ll find a job somewhere and if that isn’t successful I’ll just take an early retirement.” He looked so down and miserable that Meg didn’t know what to say.
“I guess this is goodbye for now Meg, you know where I live, come and see me about that job in a stable, you should keep on with that, want to say goodbye to the horses before you leave?” Meg nodded glumly.

After she said her goodbyes she walked up the driveway leading to the yard and briefly turned around to look at the horseshoe nailed above the door. Half of one side was shining and the other half was in the shade, grey looking. Meg smiled and knew that not everything would happen for the worst; some good would come out of this she was sure. She walked a couple of paces and turned back to see Mac, standing and staring up at the horseshoe nailed above the stables double doors. With a half-smile she turned and walked away.