Short Story - A thin cotton dress - Allison Janz

I thought it would be fun to have a guest on my blog.  This is a post from Allison Janz.


Allison Janz's blog: www.alliebock.com 
Prompt: A thin cotton dress   

  

                                                                                                  
I was late.
When the head of the department nominated me for an award at the annual Christmas party, I couldn’t say no. It’s not often that someone in accounting gets recognized for their contributions to the company. Sales, yes. Marketing, yes. Designers and IT staff, of course. But not us lowly pencil pushers and number counters. The party was fine, the food was good, and the award was nice but now I was late.

I pulled up in front of my house and jumped out of my car.

“Hang on, girl. I’m coming.” I reached inside the door, kicked off those ridiculous heels and pulled on my boots.

But something wasn’t right. No answering nickers, no neighs, and no banging on the stall door because I was late with her dinner. She was always hungry. My heart stopped for a moment and I couldn’t breathe. Something was wrong with my horse. I sprinted to the barn, crashing through the snow, and sliding across the ice. I swung open the wooden bar door. The cold air burst through, swirling around my legs. The scent of horses, molasses, and fresh-cut hay filled the barn. I jogged the length of the barn until I got to her stall. Panic welled inside of me as I looked in on her. She was laying down in her bed, groaning and looking back at her side.

Without thinking, I hit the button that had the vet on speed dial.

“Hello, Andy, I mean Dr. Andy?” Tears welled in my eyes as my poor horse groaned.

“Maddie?” His deep voice scratched out. “What time is it? What’s wrong?”

I explained what was happening.

“I’ll be right over.” He hung up without a goodbye.

What seemed like an eternity later, but was probably just a few minutes, his truck rumbled into my drive. His footsteps thudded to the barn and the door slid open. He was by me in a flash. I shivered in the cold and hugged my arms around myself. The thin cotton dress I was wearing didn’t keep it out.

“Here. I can’t have you freezing to death.” He slipped off his jacket and wrapped it around me. “You can call me Andy, even though we aren’t dating anymore.” He kissed my forehead and entered the stall to care for my horse.



_{^{My response to the prompt is on Allison's blog located here}}