The hours drip by like paint, dousing the tiny trailer which is practically falling apart with a sense of wisdom beyond its years. A man chewing gum with a golf cap on is familiar to that feeling. He has a sweaty horse called Moose on a lead rope. His eyes are about wrinkled shut with age, but his smiling face gives away his mood. He stands to the left of the trailer, and puts a feel on Moose's lead rope, urging him to come forward. Moose locks his feet and his eyes go wide and starry. There was no way that 2 legged thing was going to get him on that cage on wheels. The man shrugs and keeps the feel on. 2 minutes pass. 4. Then 7. At 10, he gracefully, while keeping the feel precisely the same, sinks down onto the trailer bumper feeling content to wait there all day. At 20 minutes, Moose's eyes soften, and the man releases the feel instantly. Moose just stands there, not even noticing. The man sits still for a moment, his breath the only sound in the air for a moment while the onlookers wait patiently. He then climbs to his feet, and walks to Moose, who tenses up at his approach. The man looks him in the eye, bends down and breathes into the horse's nostrils. Moose stands still as a statue. Then, the man asks for a chair. An audience member hands him one noiselessly. He drags it back to the trailer, dropping Moose's lead rope and letting him stand where he is.
He begins to whisper, "What are you seeing right now?" His voice grinds over the words like a jagged saw cutting wood.
A girl raises her hand. The man nods at her. She yells, "I see-"
The man puts a finger to his lips, then points at the horse.
"Sorry," the girl apologizes. "I don't see anything."
The man nods, as if he hearing what he expected to hear. "Anyone else?" No one else raises their hands. The man stands, and walks to the edge of the little corral he was in. He ducks under deftly and shuffles away. The audience members are stunned. The girl runs up to him.
"Uh, sir. . ." she twirls her hair nervously.
The man looked down at his watch as if surprised to find he had it on. "Lunch break. Be back in an hour." The audience members raised their eyebrows as he hobbled to his truck and drove away. They decided to leave Moose just as he was, and everyone went back to their cars to get their lunches. It was already late in the afternoon.
An hour later, the man pulled back up and wandered right back into the pen. No announcement we're starting. No words to anyone. Apparently the only person he needed to talk to was a horse. Moose perked up at seeing him duck under the corral rail. His eyes were brighter and he took a half step towards the man. The man stopped instantly, and walked right back out. He turned his back to the horse and addresses the reconvening crowd. "Do you see the difference now?" He smiled as he jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the now-curious horse. The onlookers were puzzled. Just looked like a horse to them.
The man turned around slowly to see the horse staring right at him. He went into the corral, and walked up to the horse. The horse took a hesitant step back. The man did too. Then he stepped forward again, and the horse stepped back. The horse ended up backing all over the corral. One step at a time. With Moose still keeping him the same distance away. After this went on for some time, the man stepped forward, and Moose stayed where he was. The man extended out his hand toward the horse's nose. Moose lowered his face and sniffed his hand. The man smiled and walked out of the corral. "Bathroom break."
A half hour later, the trailer loading started up again. Moose had been moving freely in the interim, and had started to pace the fence. He was looking for the funny man who he was starting to trust. Just as he got worried the man wasn't coming back, he spotted him ambling towards him. In no time, the man reached him, and this time Moose relaxed as he stroked his face. He lowered his head, and cocked a leg. The man grabbed a rope from outside the ring. Moose ignored the fact that it looked like a snake, and allowed the man to slip it over his head. The man walked away and Moose followed with no hesitation. There was no drag on the rope. The man walked in a few circles and then walked right up to the trailer. Moose hesitated when he felt the man put a little feel in the rope, directing him in. The man released the pressure as he saw Moose's indecision. He walked over to him and pet him, convincing Moose again that this man understood him. The man shuffled to his spot at the left of the trailer and sat down on the bumper again. He slowly took the slack out of the rope, and Moose strode right into the trailer.
The man cracked a smile. The horse was barely small enough to fit in the lousy thing. Then, much to the amazement of the audience, the man proceeded to load and unload Moose for the next half hour until it got so good that if you put one finger under the rope and pointed he would jump in. Once the man got Moose to do that, he loaded Moose one last time and shut the doors.
He took off his golf cap to expose a balding head of salt and pepper hair. He held the cap over his chest. "Any questions?" he coughed. The onlookers were stunned beyond words. They simply started at him. "Thanks for having me then." He shrugged the cap back onto his head and moseyed back to his own truck. He fired up the engine, and drove down the gravel driveway.
"Wait!" a girl yelled, running after him furiously. The man didn't stop. She screamed "WAIT!!!!" The truck puttered to a stop. Almost out of breath, the girl skipped over to the driver's seat. The man rolled down the window.
"Did I forget something?"
"Yeah," she panted. "You did. I have something to tell you."
"What might that be?" His eyes crinkled.
The girl turned to indicate the whole audience with her arms. "We couldn't see anything."
He shrugged. "I'm sorry to hear that." When the girl didn't reply, he started rolling up his window.
"Oh one more thing!" the girl yelled, pressing her hands against the window.
"Yes?"
The girl tilted her head to the side, playing with her bottom lip. "What did you do in there?"
The man's eyebrows raised. "I gained his trust. Told him I wasn't going to hurt him." The girl pondered his answer, and turned around to leave. The man raised his window, and left. The girl skipped back to the audience. A woman with short blonde hair approached her and mistook her pondering face for a sad one.
"Oh sweetie, it's alright, none of us saw anything either. Don't worry dear," she held out her hand for her daughter to grab. The girl latched on to it, jumping around as she walked.
"Did you know he can talk to horses?" she said eventually.
"Really?" Her daughter didn't see the doubt on her mother's face.
"Yeah. Said he told him he wouldn't hurt him." The daughter bounced around some more. She stopped and asked. "Can I learn to talk to them too mommy?"
The lady's face was blank as she answered "Sure, sweetie, whatever you'd like." She herded her bouncing daughter into the truck and sighed as the door clicked shut. She did not want to ruin her daughter's dreams, but that man would now have to be paid for 6 hours of work when it only really took him 10 minutes to get that horse in the trailer. Such a rip-off she sighed.
She then hopped into the truck, and they drove Moose home. "Could he teach me mommy?" her daughter's eyes glistened.
Mom looked back in the rear view mirror. "I'm sure he probably could," she smiled to her daughter, but frowned on the inside.
The girl giggled all the way home. When they arrived home, the mother took her phone outside and called the man right away. "I'd like to talk to you about price."
"Alright,"
"That was a 6 hour trailer loading, but you loaded my horse in 10 minutes. I'm not paying for 6 hours then." The mom was resolute.
"Then I have a proposal."
"What might that be?"
"Pay me for 10 minutes, and your daughter can come work off the other 5 hours and 45 minutes."
The mother sat down in a chair, sighing loudly. She did not want her daughter associating with this man, but it would make her so happy. Eventually, she agreed to it. As long as she came with though. The man said that was fine. Her daughter was ecstatic. The mother just hoped she was making the right choice.
