A Stevie Story

NOTE: This is the first story I wrote about Stevie Buckbee. The story occurs during her exile in Tulsa. It might even qualify as the first time Stevie ran with horses. In the novel, Cocoa was renamed Rain and became an appaloosa.
 
Running Free
by David Michael
 
"Alright, everyone," the soccer coach yelled, "line up in the front of the goal."
 
Stevie Buckbee stopped the ball she had been dribbling, and kicked it to the side lines. Then she jogged over to join the other twelve-year-old girls in front of the goal.
 
Some of the girls on the team were slower about forming up, so Stevie found herself looking across the practice pitch towards the other goal, waiting with unusual intensity and anticipation for the coach to give them the inevitable order to run sprints. She felt her arms and legs tremble, her nostrils flare and breath in the spring air. She resisted the urge to shake her head and blow.
 
She laughed when she thought how much she was acting like one of her horses.
 
"What are you laughing at, Buckbee?" Kelly asked, beside her.
 
"Just thinking of how much my horses would love to sample the grass here," Stevie said.
 
"When will you shutup about your stupid horses?" Kelly asked.
 
"Maybe when she goes home to the farm," Amber suggested from the other side of Kelly. "Finally."
 
"That'll suck, though," Kelly said. "Some other poor girl will have to come in last on sprints."
 
Stevie's face got hot. "I'm not poor," she said.
 
"Whatever," Kelly said.
 
"Sprints," the coach said then, her booming voice overwhelming the chatter of the girls. "Four times, back and forth."
 
The other girls took off, including Kelly and Amber, leaving Stevie standing there, still trying to think of something to say.
 
She blew out a breath through her nose and launched herself from the line, right foot first, a right lead, the same kind of lead she liked to use when barrel racing.
 
Her cleated shoes clawed the turf as she ran, her legs pulling her forward as her arms pumped at her sides. She felt the wind pull her hair back like the unshorn mane of a wild horse. She imagined a white and blue barrel set right on the goal line, between the posts. This was the first leg of the race.
 
She finished the first sprint in last place, toeing the line, cutting left–almost cutting the turn too close and knocking the barrel over–then digging in her cleats for the next leg of the exercise as her hair whipped around face.
 
In her mind's eye she could see Cocoa, her mother's old mare, galloping across the practice arena back home, brown eyes gleaming, muscles rippling beneath the smooth brown coat. Stevie and Cocoa seemed to be running at the same pace, closing in on the second barrel, no longer in last place.
 
This time she cut right, her boots carving a furrow in the turf. She and Cocoa both cleared the barrel perfectly, legs in sync, with minimum loss of speed. Their combined momentum hurtled them towards the last barrel.
 
Only Amber and Kelly, the team wingers, were still in front of her when Stevie–and Cocoa–cut left again, cleared the third goal line/barrel and headed for the final goal line/gate.
 
Cleated boots and shod hooves pounded the turf in time with each other. Girl and horse took in huge lungfuls of air and blew them back out again, steaming. Two sets of brown eyes saw only the finish. Neither of them noticed the losers being left behind.
 
"Way to hustle, Buckbee," the coach said as Stevie came to a stop.
 
Stevie only nodded in response, still breathing hard, watching a private vision of Cocoa, prancing and gloating in the fields of her father's ranch.
 
# # #
 
Read more about Stevie Buckbee and her horses in The Girl Who Ran With Horses.
 
The Girl Who Ran With Horses
 
It's summer vacation and all 13-year-old Stevie Buckbee wants is to be close to her family again and to ride her horses–especially Jack Rabbit, her first horse all her own. But past tragedies threaten her plans before the summer even begins. Even as she discovers that she is somehow able to communicate with Jack Rabbit and the other horses on the family ranch, she finds she can no longer get through to her Dad and brother Blake. And what good is it to be able to run with the horses if no matter how fast and how far she runs, everything she knows and loves is lost?
 
Available in trade paperback and ebook formats!
 




The Girl Who Ran With Horses Edition


Price




Trade paperback (Amazon)


$9.99




Kindle edition (Amazon)


$3.99




Nook edition (Barnes & Noble)


$3.99




Ebook (Smashwords)


$3.99