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“No!” Tyler cried. “No, it’s not fair!” He dropped his fork, and tears welled in his eyes. “I hate it. I hate it! I hate it!” He flung himself out of his chair but fell to his knees, off balance.
Kara jumped up, but Jim was beside his son in a heartbeat, gathering him up, trying to hug him even though Tyler wriggled. “Let me go! I can do it myself!”
“Ty, babe, I’m sorry. I know you hate physical therapy. I hate it, too.”
“It’s not fair.”
“No. It’s not fair.”
The child was sobbing. Kara came around the table, put a hand on Ty’s shoulder. He immediately hid his face from her. “I wanna go to my room.”
Jim met Kara’s eyes over the boy’s head. His were damp, and her heart tied itself into a hard knot. “Go on, Jimmy,” she said. “Take as long as you need.”
He nodded. “Don’t leave, okay?”
“I won’t.”
Hugging his child tightly, he carried him to his bedroom.
Kara had completely lost her appetite, and doubtless Jimmy had, as well. Poor Tyler. No child should have to go through what he was going through. His entire day ruined by a single sentence from his father. She started to clear the table and she racked her brain for some way she could help ease the pain from little Tyler’s eyes. If only she could think of something fun to do in Tucker Lake. Something to take his mind off the PT or even make it worthwhile. Something he would love so much that he would be willing to get through his therapy just to get to the reward on the other side.
She hit on something while loading the dishwasher.
She finished her task, then grabbed her phone from her purse and called the Corral. No one would be home at the house. Her mother answered on the third ring, the din of the evening just warming up around her.
* * *
Kara poked her head in the bedroom door just as Jim was finishing up one of Tyler’s library books. Ty wasn’t asleep yet. He’d brushed his teeth and put on his pajamas, been tucked in and read a story, but he was still agitated at the thought of the day to come. He would probably wake up crying tonight, Jim thought. It made him ache down deep to know there was nothing he could do about it
It wouldn’t be the first time Tyler had lost sleep while dreading another round of physical therapy. His eyes were red-rimmed, and Jim knew he was embarrassed to have cried in front of Kara. He almost waved her away, but Tyler glimpsed her in the doorway and gave her a halfhearted smile.
“I’m really a good boy most of the times,” Tyler told her.
“I know you are, Ty,” she said, coming inside. “Such a good boy that I wanted to do something nice for you. Something that would make physical therapy day into the most fun day you ever had. And I think I figured out just how.”
His lower lip quivered. “Nothing could make it fun.”
Jim almost told her to stop, not to get his son’s hopes up, but she went on before he could form the words.
“Oh, I thinkthiswill. See I have a friend... well, she’s a friend of my mom’s, really. Her name is Barbara. She has a farm in Tucker Lake. That’s the same town where you have to go for PT.”
“A real farm? With animals and stuff?”
Kara nodded. “Uh-huh. And I’ll bet you can’t guess what kind of animals.”
“I don’t know,” he said. His tone was sulky, his shoulders were slumped. “Cows, prob’ly. Or chickens.”
“Ponies.” Kara dropped the word into the middle of Tyler’s dark mood as if she were dropping a glowing light into a dark cave.
Tyler’s head came up off his pillows and his eyes widened. “Ponies?”
“Miniature horses if you want to be technical about it. I just spoke to her on the phone. And she said that after your physical therapy session tomorrow we can come over. And you can see the ponies. You can feed them and brush them, even ride one if it’s okay with your dad.”
Tyler sat up in the bed, his tears forgotten. “Can I, Dad? Can I ride a pony? Oh, please, can I?”
It was an effort for Jim to tear his eyes away from the face of the angel standing in the bedroom doorway, but he did. His son was transformed. Animated, excited, happy. “Of course you can ride the pony.”
Tyler’s smile lit up the room.
