excerpt
…drove past Tanya’s old place and saw in the distance the light in
the window of her father’s trailer, he wondered if maybe Tanya
had visited her dad that night. Then, as they loaded the horses
onto the trailer this crisp Montana morning and did one final
check of the rig, Tanya reported that was what she did.
Tanya told Joel of how she had spent a couple of really good
hours with her dad. He was still struggling with his alcoholism,
not much had changed there, and yes, he was pretty much a
member of the walking, talking dead, but at least they had a good
visit. No anger.
For Tanya, it was almost as if the day she left the dusty little
ranchette and the rundown trailer she had severed the emotional
ties to that chapter of her life. It was as if all of the pain of the past
had vanished and she was no longer emotionally hooked into the
sad and sorry life that her father had chosen to live.
What Tanya did hear were words of encouragement from her
father, and that meant a lot to her. He had told her how he heard
great things about her training and riding from the few lost souls
who occasionally paid him a visit. He was proud of her, he loved
her, and he was sorry, so sorry for the way that everything turned
out. His words meant so much to Tanya because for the first time
in her life she was seeing and hearing love, real love, from her father.
After all, your dad is always your dad, no matter what.
The beat-up cream-colored truck and rusty old brown trailer
seemed to enjoy the road. Joel couldn’t understand it, but for some
reason, the truck and trailer were not only surviving the drive but
also seemed to be attuned to the special significance of the journey,
and for that reason, they were showing their best—the truck engine
purred as the trailer tagged nicely behind.
The first night they made it as far as Casper where Tanya had
arranged for them to stay at the home of the old vet, Dr. Morgan
Brown. He and his wife greeted them both with a big welcome.
They immediately helped them unload the horses into
side-by-side paddocks so the horses could relax, rest, and recover
from their first day, the longest day, on the road.
Libros Libertad 