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Mabel wasn’t sure whether their slow movements were because they were sad that Janice was leaving, or because they didn’t want to leave the filly.
They halfheartedly hugged Janice as she told them to be good and told them to call her if they needed her.
It was sad for Mabel to watch. As rough as Janice pretended to be, it couldn’t be an easy thing for her to walk away from her grandchildren, knowing that she was handing them over to people who wanted to adopt them and that she would lose guardianship of them completely.
At the same time, she was old enough, and perhaps in such poor health, that it must be a relief to know that they would be well taken care of.
Mabel could only imagine what she was feeling, since she didn’t say, and she left without saying much more.
Mabel let the suitcases sit in the driveway where Janice had left them and walked over to where the girls had gone back to petting the filly.
“They’re trying to figure out a name for it,” James said as she approached him.
“I think she ought to be Rainbow,” Caren said, beating the other two girls and saying her name first. Like that would sway Mabel’s opinion.
“That’s a dumb name. She needs to have a pretty name, like Diana.”
“Diana is the name of the goddess in ancient times. People committed idolatry by worshiping her,” Mabel said casually and hopefully without too much judgment. She didn’t think she wanted to name an animal after a goddess, but she supposed that a name was just a name.
And there was something very regal about Diana.
“I want to call her Brownie. Because she’s brown,” Bernice said, shrugging her shoulders, like that was the obvious choice.
“Well, foals are really a lot different than other baby animals, and sometimes the color that they’re born with isn’t the color that they end up being at all. She’s brown now, but she might end up being a white horse.”
“Really?” James said, tilting his head like he wasn’t quite sure he believed her.
“It’s true. I know that’s kind of crazy, but they really can totally change their looks by the time they’re a year old. After that, it’s not as common, but I’ve seen paint horses who had obvious markings on them turn completely white. And of course, dapple gray horses usually turn white as they age as well.”
The girls were listening, and while Mabel figured that they weren’t going to learn everything in a day, it didn’t hurt to give them a little bit of information to absorb piece by piece so that they learned a little bit at a time.
Maybe that was just her hoping. It seemed like kids picked up a lot, but it had to be thrown out in order for them to pick it up.
“What do you think we should name her?” James asked.
“Well, we have Annabelle, Bernice, and Caren. Maybe we should name her something that starts with a D? After all, all four of you came on the same day.”
“That’s right! She’s just as new as we are!” Annabelle said.
“Exactly. We thought we were getting three girls today, and we ended up with four. So, since she’s the youngest, she would need the D name. But I really don’t care.”
“Then we could name her Diana! Because that starts with a D!”
Mabel laughed to herself. It sure did. And it was the one name she hadn’t really wanted.
“But it’s not fair that the name that you wanted was the name that we’ll pick. Mr. James, what do you think?”
“Well, Diana does start with D, and I think it would be a good idea to pick a name that starts with D, but there is also Dana and Danielle and Denise—”
“I like Denise!”
“What about Dolly?” Bernice said.
“That’s pretty.”
“You guys could all pick a D name, we could stick them in a hat, and when Aunt Carol gets home, we’ll have her pick out of the hat, and that way it’s fair,” James suggested.
“Who’s Aunt Carol?” Bernice said, her eyes narrowed in suspicion, like they were going to spring something on her that she wasn’t expecting and wasn’t going to like.
