My short story for Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers FFfAW:
Photo prompt by Scott of Scott’s Place
When Horses Come Home…
The way he had spent his whole life with horses, it was no surprise that the smart animals understood him more than humans did.
Jackie was little when his father passed away leaving the horse ranch to him. He loved his family of horses. He looked after them, fed them well, cuddled them. They too did all the hard work they were supposed to do.
As they all came home, each night he would sing lullabies to them. Not exactly singing but secret words and voice tone that could only be deciphered by his neighing horses. As he sang, most of them would begin to relax and retire. But every second day, at least one or two hyper-active colts would throw up tantrum snorts and refuse to sleep.
What Jackie did then, was similar to what he, as a single father, did to his own children. Simple set of rules:
Dole out extra love while also ruling out hunger, pain or other reason for the colt’s misbehavior.
If coercing doesn’t bring about the required response, then better ignore the brats. Left alone, usually they go off to sleep in no time.
After all, good manners don’t come by easy.
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© 2015 Alka Girdhar
Great story Alka! It gave me a wonderful image of a kind and compassionate horse owner who truly cared about the well being of his horses especially to sing them to sleep each night. A wonderful story! Thank you so much for participating in Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers Challenge!
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Than you so much, Joy! He is very kind and compassionate esp. for a man who has been given extra responsibilities by nature, he is coping well and not shirking his role/s. Participating in Writers Challenge is fun as well as creative. I’ll see where it takes me…
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You are becoming quite a good writer Alka! I can tell through your stories.
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If we love those brats it is quite difficult to ignore till they have had enough of our love and we feel we have exhausted all our strategies!
Short stories are fun! They can hold attention so well.
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True! But that’s Jackie’s parenting style for his kids as well as his horses, esp. when they go brattish. A busy ranch man and a single father with less time in hand… it seems like this strategy, of doling out love followed by avoidance, works for him.
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Such a sweet and compassionate story. He learned early on just how to handle the horses and it paid off. 🙂
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Thanks 🙂 The skills learnt early on do pay in life.
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Reblogged this on Stories I Need to Tell.
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Enjoyed this post.
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Thanks! I saw your comment only now.
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No problem. I have blurred vision so I am about acweek behind on answering comments. Be well.
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