As the steady thudding of the hooves increased Amos felt more and more clumps of cold earth and sticky grass fly up against his bare arms and legs as he struggled to hold on. He could not find any sort of rhythm with the violent jarring beneath him and he was slowly getting battered as a result. Up ahead, when he was able to steady his head enough to look, he could see Alanah moving much more gracefully and smoothly than he was over the rolling meadow. His mount was supposed to be a calm mare, most suitable for new riders he had been assured and for the first half of the ride Amos would have agreed with this description.

  Things had taken a drastic turn just minutes after Alanah and Amos had been turned loose by the farm hand for a “short walk around the meadow” as Alanah had described her intentions for their solo ride. Since she had proven to be an almost instant natural atop a horse the farm hand Randy had obliged and sent them off with a “you best be careful now ya hear” as he turned his horse back towards the farm.

  Once out of sight she had encouraged her horse to a fast canter and had given Amos’s horse a great whack of encouragement as she had ridden by startling his horse into the chase she was now leading.

  Amos was not a natural rider or even a competent rider for that matter. The faster his horse moved the higher he bounced off the saddle. He could find no way to get in sync with the horse and he felt like he was going to fall at any second unless he could stop his mare somehow.

  All of the commands and advice he had been given about riding a horse had seemed to be ineffective and he felt completely out of control. His horse had not followed a singe direction he had tried and there was only one left to give.

  After another jarring impact against the saddle and the long white neck of the mare, Amos grabbed the pommel on his saddle with one hand and used his other hand to pull the reins back as hard as he could while shouting “whoa whoa whoa”. He felt the horse slow and change the tempo of its gait. The pace of the mare decreased somewhat, enough that Amos took his hand off the pommel and used both arms to pull the reins straight back and even harder.

  The mare came to a stop, wheeling in a small circle and snorting in perhaps both disgust and anger. Having found something that worked, Amos was afraid to let go but did ease up on the pull once he felt his mare start to step backwards as it circled. When she finally did come to an almost standstill Amos swung his left leg over the horse and hopped down to the ground letting the reins and then the horse go as he did so.

  “What happened you wuss?” Alanah called out from a fair distance up ahead as she pulled up on her horse and then started back towards Amos. “I just don’t feel safe on these things” he replied. “I can’t seem to hold on or make it do anything I want it to do. Since the farm is fenced in I am sure she will find her way back to the barn”.

  ‘I’ll meet you back there the” called out Alanah as she leaned forwards on the young bay she was riding to get them moving again. “I am sure they will be worried to see your horse with no rider so I better tell them you are ok”. Amos watched with admiration and a bit of envy as she rode off elegantly towards the barn before veering off and galloping away toward a distant corner of the pasture.

  She’s not in any hurry to get back thought Amos as he trudged back through the grassy field to find Jim and his friends who owned the farm. He didn’t blame Alanah at all. Coming to the farm was a treat they had been looking forward to for weeks ever since Jim promised them an outing out in the country.

  An hour and a half drive from Boston had brought them to New Hampshire and a small town close to the state border called Greenfield. The fields and forests around the town radiated a sense of lush greenery that was unmatched anywhere in Boston.

  It wasn’t just the rolling hills, the pastures with gold-tinged grasses swaying lazily in the breeze. It was smells that permeated the air. The new life of trees, flowers and the rows and rows of crops standing obediently in the fields just getting started with their season of growth and eventual abundance. The rich odour of decay as present too, from heaps of manure in barnyards to the layers of last years leaves and the previous years before that slowly rotting amongst the trees.

  Amos was so conditioned to the smells of diesel exhaust, urine stained sidewalks and bags of abandoned trash and the sickly sweet smell of greasy restaurant dumpsters that he found himself subconsciously reverting back to breathing through his mouth at times when he was hit with a new scent. It was hard for him to believe that nothing smelled remotely bad out here in the country and that the air could seem to hold such a richness to it.

  Jim had warned the pair of them on the way out of Boston that the countryside was not to be taken at face value, things were not as idyllic as it seemed. “Most folks out in the country is quite poor, it’s hard to make a livin offa the land most times. This used to be a big tourist area, especially for fall leaf chasers and summer cottagers. Those dollars have all but dried up so work and extra money is real scarce out here.”

  Amos and Jim had put together a box of canned goods and supplies that Jim’s long time friends on the farm had said Jim said they would welcome and that would make their visit much less of a burden on the farm. Friends from college, Simon and Andi were a well married couple who had raised three kids, two of which who were still on their farm. They kept chickens, ducks, dairy cows, a few horses and a large vegetable patch. The dairy cows and the chickens were the big earners for the farm and soon Amos could see why.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  The cold milk from the fridge had been sourced from the cows that morning. The taste and freshness was so unusual to the kids that it did not seem real. The eggs they had on top of fresh, homemade bread had a rich orange colour to them along with a wholesome flavor that was unlike anything they had eaten before. After their late breakfast they were shown around the farm and they both took their turns at milking cows and looking for fresh eggs.

  Once Alanah had seen the horses in the paddock beside the dairy barn she had practically begged for a ride and her enthusiasm quickly won over Randy who offered to tack up some horses and give them a quick lesson. It had been a great day up until then Amos thought ruefully and then let his negativity go. Alanah was having a great time and he hadn’t been hurt, he just did not like appearing weak or incompetent in front of Alanah and his horse skills had been absolutely non existent.

  As it turned out, his feeling of ineptitude around Alanah was due to get much worse that afternoon. Simon and Randy were skilled marksmen and Simon reloaded his own ammunition so at the behest of Jim they agreed to do a bit of rifle and handgun training with Amos and Alanah. After an hour it was apparent to Amos that he might, with lots of work, become a decent shooter but Alanah, she should have been born with a small handgun in her fist.

  Hitting a pinned target at a close range was easy enough but once they had gotten into moving around obstacles and hitting targets that suddenly sprang up, Amos was lucky to get the occasional hit. Blam Blam-Blam Blam Alanah was controlled and steady destruction with a pistol in her hand. She absorbed all of the shooting tips she was given and kept improving with every round. Amos would have felt self conscious but everyone was so impressed by Alanah that no one said anything when Amos stopped shooting for the day.

  Once Randy and Simon had had moved her onto a rifle with a scope from a not inconsiderable distance away from the target Amos noticed that Jim was watching him with an appraising look. “you don’t like guns much do ya?” his older friend had asked him. “No, no I really don’t” came his reply after a moment’s thought. “I thought that having that old revolver would be a powerful tool but most of the time I just worry about dropping it or having it go off on me or be used against me”.

  “You’re not wrong to worry, once the shooting starts things seldom go well. I was really against giving you the ammunition that first time but you both have proven yourselves capable of the responsibility. Just do your best to avoid having to use them if you can.” Jim jerked his head up the field towards the makeshift range where Alanah was laying waste to all manner of target. “You’ll need to watch that one. She is all spirit and likes to spit flames if she can. You’ll need to avoid getting her in situations where she might go off suddenly”.

  “We’ve been doing our best” Amos replied. “We’ve started trying to get caught up with school, I’ve signed us up for a distance learning program and we avoid the north end like the plague but….”. The young boy looked up at Jim “we don’t know what’s next, how will we survive once our money’s run out and how can we earn enough to live on?”

  His older friend shook his head sadly and gestured broadly at the farm. “I wish you both could live out here but trust me, just as many are struggling to get by out here as in the city. Simon’s farm is really struggling and there’s no room for newcomers out this way.” He looked at Amos and went on “you both is figuring out things just fine. Take your time and keep your friends close and you’ll end up ok. I look at you both and I see the type of young folks who can start turnin’ things around, fix up the mess we’ve made of it all.”

  A few hours later, after their heartfelt goodbyes and thank-you’s they climbed into Jim’s truck and rattled down the gravel track the mile or so it took to get to the main road. The small cabin of the truck reeked of gunpowder until Jim had gotten it up to speed and pushed some air through the interior.

  Alanah’s eyes were alive with excitement. “This was just great Jim, thank you so so much. I had so much fun out there and I can’t wait to get a rifle…and a scope …and a night scope maybe too”. Amos smiled at the thought of Alanah with a hunting rifle strapped to her back, she would happily wear it around town if she could get away with it too he realized.

  As the truck made its way back to Boston his smile faded away and he went back to turning their problems around in his head while he looked out the window as the urban landscape started to take form once again with each passing mile.

  A lack of stability was their biggest challenge. Amos was very aware that at any moment they could lose their home in the abandoned floors of the office building. It could be days, months or more but eventually it would happen. Long before that they would run out of money. They still had enough for many weeks yet but their funds would eventually run out. Having an income would perhaps resolve both issues, certainly at least a lack of funds so that was the problem Amos decided to solve first.

  As they started winding their way through the neighbourhoods of the city Jim pointed out some of farmers markets that were starting up again all over the city. Amos figured he was doing this to try to soften the harshness of the sudden change between gentle farm land and the concrete landscape of Boston proper. He could tell Alanah wasn’t remotely interested and they could all feel that her mood had soured considerably the further they had gotten from the farm.

  Still, the farmers markets were a good thing, a positive sign and perhaps more. He felt that there was something there for them but he just couldn’t see it. He asked Jim if they could turn back and stop at the one they just passed and while Alanah sulked in the cab feigning tiredness Amos and Jim made a round of the stalls.

  Ten minutes later with a bag of fresh asparagus in his hand, Amos returned with Jim and the inkling of a solution to their money problem albeit with several obstacles that still needed to be solved. He was excited to tell Alanah what he was planning but wanted to wait until he was alone with her as this was a scheme that Jim needed to find out about gradually if at all.

  He did not like to keep secrets but Amos had also learned with adults that most things with the element of risk earns a “no” by default. Sometimes it was better to do things first and explain later.