Luck

            Driving home back roads in West Chester can be daunting if you aren’t familiar with the area, especially at night. Good thing I’ve been testing them out for two years. It is nothing but vast fields that are only occupied by wild grass, wooden fences, stoned walls and the over population of deer. The roads smooth turns and hills make it almost second nature to speed 60 with the windows down and my high beams on. This is exactly what I was doing on my way home from babysitting my cousins when I got the call.

            'Hey, we’ve done something terribly wrong and need your help.” I can hear Kim say in her voice that is trying ever so hard not to crack a smile. She always had the best voice for prank phone calls but could never keep a straight face. “We can’t talk about it over the phone. Please meet us at the spot where we made our pact back in high school. You know the place.” Before I could ask any questions, she hung up. It was about 11:30 and I knew I could just tell my mom that Aunt Shelly and Uncle Rick stayed out late so why not?

            You can’t tell now at night, but during the day I used to say these hills gave me hope that adventure was still out there. So Kim, Carly – who I automatically assumed was involved in the “we” Kim was talking about over the phone, and myself took ourselves on a nature walk one day. We had no idea where we were going, what trails to follow, or where it would lead us. Just as I was about to attempt to take an artsy photograph of Carly and Kim, through the lens I see a massive, black horse standing in the middle of the trial. I don’t know much about horses, never ridden one, and certainly have never stood that close to one before. But they are a lot more intimidating than Animal Planet ever led me to believe. The three of us completely froze in front of the beast wondering who was going to make the first move. Carly raises her right hand and started to take a step closer. Kim tried to grab the back of her shirt to pull her back but Carly had already walked too far but the both of us felt as if our feet had formed into stone and couldn’t move. The horse snuffed loudly at Carly who was creepy dangerously close. “Shhhh girl, it’s ok” Carly whispered, how she knew it was a girl I will never know. The horse stands still and she holds her hand out for her to sniff it. She then lets Carly slowly move towards her ears and starches them. She neighs and lifts her head up to the sky. Kim and I look at each other, dumbfounded by the discovery that Carly is supposedly a horse whisperer. We turn back and the horse is gone and Carly is crying. We carved, “LCK” our initials into the closest, most prominent tree. We told ourselves that we would get out of this town one day, and run wild as Luck – the name we gave our horse.

            I parked my car next to Kim’s two-door Saturn and called her back to let her know I was here. “HEY! You have reached the phone of Kimberly..” Damit voicemail. I pull the phone down from my ear and use the lighted screen as a flashlight. “Would you just shut up, Kim?!” I hear Carly mutter. They’ve already ruined whatever prank they’re trying to pull on me. ‘Carly? Is that you? What is this all about?” I shout out. “Hey Lil, we are over here.” I hear Carly direct me around the corner. But before I can see my friends I hear an unfamiliar grunt, “Tell her to turn out that bloody light.”  Carly startles me by grabbing both of my arms and I drop my phone. In the midst of her trying to tell me that they’ve done something terribly wrong I find my phone face down on the ground. As I lift up my phone I see little brown clogs, raggedy torn pants on a person that couldn’t be any older than 10 years old  - or so I thought until I spotted a long brown beard with grey spots hanging from the face that wasn’t visible to me. “I told you, to turn out that bloody light!” The little man spears with his large, owl eyes whose pupils are dilated so fully that I can just barely tell that the rims are green. I was about to scream in complete terror until Carly covered my mouth. Carly tries to shhh me like she did to the magnificent horse that late afternoon just 2 summers ago. “What in the world is that, Carly?” I now whisper, “And where is Kim?” Carly then goes on to explain she wanted to come back one more time to see if Lucky would appear to her again and she begged Kim to come with her. As they were walking along the trail trying to call out her name, that little man tied up like a dog to our tree showed up instead. He claimed that Carly and Kim had stolen his beloved horse and the argument led to him biting Kim on the leg who was having weird reactions. Carly managed to distract the little man long enough to have Kim tie him up to tell him what was happening to her. “And that’s when we called you.” Carly says looking at me, hoping that I won’t judge.