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She felt him staring down at her but led him slowly toward the pasture. Finally he said, “What’s going on, Laila?”
She gripped his arm more tightly and said, “Come and see.”
As they rounded the barn, the fence surrounding the pasture came into view. A dense woods surrounded the pasture, the trees a vibrant green. As they reached the fence, Laila spotted Mirage inside it.
She clicked her tongue as she stopped at the fence, and the big bay horse raised his head and twitched his ears. Began trotting toward them.
Jase watched the horse approach. “Is that horse limping?” he asked.
“He is,” she said. As Mirage neared the fence, she pulled two small carrots out of her pocket and handed one to Jase. She held hers out to the horse, and his soft lips snuffled the treat out of her hand.
“Go ahead and give him the carrot,” she said. “Just put it on your palm and keep your hand flat.”
Jase offered the horse the carrot, and Mirage took it delicately. Snorted once, and Laila reached out and stroked his forehead. His soft nose. Finally, with another snort, the horse moved away. Began grazing on the grass again.
Jase turned to look at her. “What’s going on, Laila? What’s this about?”
She nodded at the horse. “Mirage is a thoroughbred. He was a racehorse, until he was injured in a race. Tore a bunch of tendons in his right rear leg. The track vet told his owner that he needed to be put down, but his owner said no. She loved that horse.
“Mirage had surgery to repair the tendons at the veterinary school in Madison. It took a while, but he recovered. He still has a limp, and he’ll never race again, but he can still be ridden. And he’s been retrained.”
“As what?” Jase said, staring at the horse.
“As a therapy horse.”
Jase turned slowly to look at her. ‘You think I need a horse for therapy?” he said, raising one eyebrow.
“Not what I’m saying,” she answered immediately.
“What’s going on, Laila?”
She nodded toward the house. “Let’s go sit under that tree with our picnic while we talk.”
He nodded and she hurried to the car for the blanket and the picnic basket. She spread it beneath the huge sycamore tree in front of the house, helping Jase sit where he could rest his back against the smooth bark.
Once they settled in, Laila began, “I wasn’t looking for a farm,” she said. “But Mirage’s owner is the mother of one of my students. I saw her at the farmer’s market last Saturday while you were at PT. We got to talking, and she told me they had this farm they needed to sell. Her husband was being transferred and they wouldn’t be here to take care of it.
“And Mirage would be part of the deal.”
“So, what?” Jase said, shifting to look at her. “You want to buy a farm?”
“Buying a farm was the farthest thing from my mind,” she answered. “But Penny described it, and it sounded beautiful. So she brought me out and showed it to me. I fell in love with the farm. And with Mirage.”
“We don’t need a farm, Laila,” he said, studying her.
“Maybe we do, Jase,” she said. She waved her hand toward the pasture. The barn. The house. “What did you think when you saw this place?”
“The house is beautiful,” he said slowly. “The pasture and the barn, the woods... they’re gorgeous. Peaceful.”
Laila nodded. “Exactly what I saw,” she said. “This farm is about as different from those caves in Afghanistan as anything could be.”
“We survived those caves. Pretty sure we put them behind us a long time ago,” he said.
She swiveled in her chair to face him. “We did. We were lucky to be able to get past everything that happened in Afghanistan. Even your injury. You’ve made so much progress.” Physically, anyway, but she didn’t want to push that.
She reached for his hand. “But not everyone who served in Afghanistan was able to put it behind them. There are a lot of veterans recovering from horrific injuries. Those soldiers, and a whole lot of men and women who weren’t injured, are suffering from PTSD.”
Jase leaned toward her, a spark of excitement flickering in his eyes. It was the first time she’d seen anything but apathy and hopelessness in his expression since the hospital. “What are you saying, Laila?” he whispered.
