Chapter 12

Chapter 12
When I returned Winnie to the pen, Starlight got it in his head that it was his turn to go bye-bye and tried to come out the gate as I was pushing Winnie in. After all, that was the usual routine. I would leave with Winnie then come back to get him, after she had tried to kill me. This was the end of the day and I convinced Starlight to go back in. Tomorrow was another day.


The next morning, the strangest thing happened. Just as I passed through the gate, Starlight was standing against the opposite side. He turned and looked at me. If looks could kill, I was already dead. His ears went straight back and he raised his upper lip, showing me his teeth. He then lowered his head and dove straight toward me, leading with those teeth. He was charging me! “Uh, uh….Starlight?” I ran for the gate but he was too fast. I could feel his breath on my backside, as I literally flew over the top of the gate.


Sitting outside, on the ground, I peered through the boards at Starlight. My first thought was to look for foam around the mouth. This was the docile horse! This was the kind gentleman! What was going on?


“Starlight? What’s the matter, boy?” He reared up and twisted around, trotting off to the other side of the pen. I rose up and dusted myself off then just stood there. I didn’t know what to do, with this situation. I’d never seen Starlight act this way. He was mad at me but for what!


All this, was going way too far. Two jealous horses? I thought, “Oh, this is just too crazy”. When I tried to enter the pen again, Starlight dove at me with those teeth, a second time. This time, I ran around the post that held up a lean to, and caught him around the neck.


As he was pulling back, trying to get rid of me, I was hollering at him, “Hold it, boy. Hey! Hold it! What’s the matter with you?” After a few seconds, he calmed down and lowered his head. I went eyeball to eyeball, asking him, “Baby, what’s the matter?”


The only thing that could possibly make sense is that he had thought, the night before, that he was going to get his turn and it didn’t happen. I truly think he was mad at me.



I brought him out to the tack room and began brushing him down. Every few seconds, he stretched his neck around to watch me, while I groomed him. “Aw, poor baby. Winnie’s got us all crazy. I’m sorry. Wanna go bye-bye, now?”


Was it my imagination or was this animal jealous? Starlight was a whole new horse, that day. During the entire time we rode out together, he held his head high and he strutted. You’ll never convince me that horse wasn’t trying to impress me that day.


The next day, I went back to that very spot where Winnie had flown over the top of that Volkswagen. The little side street was only about 20 feet wide but it blew my mind, realizing Winnie had never so much as touched the pavement. Peering down at the ground, where she had landed, I noted where her hind feet had dug into the ground harder than her front feet. She had barely touched the ground with her front feet. She was still digging in, still running with all her might. All of my intelligence mustered up a , “Wow” as I pondered what had happened.


The gang type girls at school took advantage of Willie’s absence. She wasn’t back from vacation yet and school had started up again, after the Christmas holidays. As I was walking along a small ditch, behind the houses, on my way home, one of those girls suddenly appeared and threatened me, saying, “You better watch it, bitch! I won’t be alone, next time”. Then she just walked away.
The next day, just after school let out, I was walking along the outer fence of the schoolyard.


There was no sidewalk on this side of the street, just a wide dirt area between the little road and the school fence. I looked up to see about 20 boys, with that same girl, all lined up across the dirt area to block my path. Evidently, she had gathered reinforcements to attack me.


I thought about crossing the road but I knew they would just cross over, with me. I held my ground. I had no choice. Knowing these kids, the way I did, I knew better than to try running. If I turned around and went the other way, the race would be on and I would lose.


I was the unusual twirp, in their world. While the little Mexican girls had long black hair, mine was red and very short, cut into a ducktail. I didn’t carve some boy’s initials into my arms. I didn’t load myself down with jewelry. I didn’t wear makeup. I was totally the opposite of these girls.


My arms were loaded down with a stack of books, my one and only defense. I raised the books high up to my chest, raised my nose in the air and marched right through the crowd of boys, while the girl screamed profanities at them for not killing me.


The boys didn’t know what to do with this gutsy girl, who barely acknowledged their existence. They just parted the waters, so to speak, and let me pass.


This is the day I learned a huge lesson. For a confrontation to come to fruition, one had to either show fear or act as though ready for a fight. Otherwise, they didn’t know what to do or when.
It was about that time, I discovered a switchblade in my father’s desk. It was a souvenir from his days in the military, when he went over seas. I took it without asking, and carried it for self-defense, from that day on.