To Rescue a Dream
By HorseCrazy

Chapter One:

“Beth!”  I heard a hushed voice outside my window.  I hurried across my room and stuck my head out. 

“Who...? Rae!  What are you doing?” 

“Shh!”  Rae shushed me, glancing over her shoulder.  She was on her bike.

“What’s up?” I asked curiously. 

“Can you come down here?  Please?  I need to tell you something!” 

“Um ... yeah, but ...?” 

“Hurry!  Meet me in Chakotay’s stall!”  Rae rode off on her bike.  I ran out of my room, got my bike and rode as fast as I could to Rae’s house.  When I got there, I dropped my bike in the lawn and raced to the barn.  While I was running down the stall way, I ran smack-dab into Rae’s twin brother, Grant. 

“Oh ... sorry!” I said. 

“That’s fine,” replied Grant, walking away. 

I ran to Chakotay’s stall.  “Rae, what...?’’ 

“Elisabeth!  We’ve got a serious problem!” 

“What?”  I latched the stall door, hastily spread out some clean straw to sit on, and sat down next to my 13-year-old friend. 

“There’s this abused horse at a ranch, Elisabeth!  And we need to do something about it!” 

“Abused horse?  What ranch?” 

“Something like ... oh, what was it called?  Um ... yeah!  She’s at the Harley’s Heavenly Ranch.  Really dumb name.  But oh, Beth!  It‘s so sad!  I mean...” 

“What do we do?” I interrupted. 

“I don’t know.  That’s why I asked you.” 

“Oh.” 

“Steal her?” 

“No.’’ 

“Then what?  It’d be real hard to...” 

“Shut up?  People can’t think when there’s someone gabbing!  Be quiet and think.” 

“Okay.”  Rae pulled her knees up to her chin and sighed.  Happy snorts and a few whinnies kept the barn from going silent.  Chakotay wrestled with his hay net. 

“Tell me more about this horse,” I said at length. 

“Well,” said Rae slowly, then speeding up.  “She’s a black Mustang filly, and she’s about 3 years old.  She’s abused so bad!  The stupid guy who owns her, Harley, was whacking her with the lunge whip... in front of us!  I was almost in tears!  Oh!  And my brother Abel, and my dad went up to him and tried to get him to stop, but all the guy did was hit the poor horse another time and call for the hired guy to come ‘put this stupid mutt in it’s stall!’.  I named her Hopeful Dream, though, because... well, you sort of gave me the idea when Keeta died.  But it really fits this horse.  Oh, and Harley said that he totally hates the horse.  I was so sad!  So I came and told you.” 

“Makes me sick!” I said fiercely, gritting my teeth.  “Makes me wanna go and...” 

“Elisabeth Grace Atwood!”  Rae exclaimed.  “I have it!” 

“Have what?” 

“You know what!”  Rae frowned at me in irritation. “How to save Hope!” 

“How?” I asked. 

She grinned.  “Buy her!”  Think Harley would let us?..." 

Think our parents would let us?” I added. 

Rae closed her eyes and sighed.  “Oh.  Yeah.  I forgot about that.” 

We thought for a moment.  “Rae, I’ve got it!” 

“What...?” 

“You know what!  I have 300 dollars.  How much do you have?” 

“200.” 

“Cool!  How far is this ‘Harley’s Hellish Ranch’ from here?” 

“Um,” Rae’s brow wrinkled with thought.  “Three miles from our house.  It took us ten minutes to drive there.” 

“So... that’d take us... about an hour to bike there.” 

“Yeah, but what about our parents?” 

I thought a minute, and then said, “I’ll ask them if I can go to a horse ranch with you.  They’ll say yes, probably.”  I stood up, and then helped Rae up. 

“I hope this works,” said Rae.  

I nodded reassuringly.  “It will.  Deal?”  I stuck my hand out.  Rae looked at me hesitantly, and then shook my hand. “Deal,” I grinned. 

“Great!  See you... tomorrow after school?” 

“Yeah!” 

“Okay.”  We walked in silence to my bike, where Rae turned to me. 

“Beth,” she said, “thanks.” 

I smiled.  “No problem, Rae!... Just pray.”

Chapter Two:

“Hurry up, Rae!” I yelled at my friend.  It was 7:00 Wednesday morning, and we were getting ready to leave for Harley’s Hellish Ranch. 

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” my friend replied, catching up with me.

“We have to hurry, Rae!” I complained.  “You have to speed your bike up!” 

“Knock it off, or I’ll just let you do it yourself!” she replied. 

“You got your money, Rae?” 

“Yes, Beth.” 

“Good.  I've got mine, too.” 

“Hmm. Well, lets go!”  We finally set off to see about rescuing Hopeful Dream.

To be continued...

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