He wanted to see the horses. He’d been told more foals had been born and hoped to touch them before they got too big. Maybe he’d see Tess. Tess was different. She wasn’t always talking like Hannah. And she was close to her horses the way he was to his calf without ever having to say it. Eli didn’t feel like saying much. Or thinking. Especially about what Grandpa had told him in the barn. Or the lobelia Pa found in Fancy’s field. Eli tugged at his cap and began to jog as soon as he heard whinnying. When he got near the white ribbons on the electric fence surrounding the pastures, Blue barked. “Blue! Come here, Blue!” It was Tess calling. The little blue-gray dachshund waddled next to her heels with his squatty legs and stuck out his tongue. Eli rested behind the deeply grooved trunk of a sugar maple nearly stripped of its golden leaves and caught his breath. He watched Tess lead an Appaloosa he hadn’t seen before into the pasture above the lake. “Hi, Eli.” Tess smiled.
