The Wish

(Write for at least 600 words about a message, a holiday, and a horse)

It was one of those autumn days where the scent of the air triggered old memories of comfort and happiness. A gentle and cool breeze sighed through the leaves of the trees, but didn’t cause a chill. A bright and warm sun spilled light across the landscape, but it wasn’t oppressive. These were Lisette’s favorite days of the year. Maybe that was because they never lasted long enough between the sweltering summer and frigid winter. She tried to spend this time outdoors and away from home, especially on a night like this. It was Halloween tonight and that meant no relaxation at home if she were to stay in and read. So she decided to leave out some candy for the brats and go for a walk instead.

Lisette already lived out in the sticks in a small Maine town, but she still relished those long walks that took her even farther from civilization. It was a perfect day for that so she had packed some snacks and water to get the most out of the clear afternoon.

The orange sun perched in some branches of a tree that had already lost its leaves. It cast long shadows across the clearing Lisette was walking through. Some rustling in the shrubbery to her left caught her attention. It wasn’t unusual in this part of the country to hear wildlife doing their thing, especially when this far away from a road. It wasn’t unusual until she her a horse snort from back there.

She froze in her tracks and turned towards the noise. A brown horse walked out slowly and stared apprehensively at her for a minute.

“It’s okay,” she said soothingly as she approached slowly towards the nervous mare. 

The horse seemed nervous or alarmed and was lifting its head up and snorting again. It seemed agitated for some reason or another. Lisette was determined to calm the animal.

She noticed something shiny in the horse’s black mane that was about the size of a cigar. She closed in carefully and slowly, crunching wild terrain beneath her hiking boots. With her arm outstretched, Lisette finally made contact wit the side of the horse’s neck and pet her gently and offered some soothing indistinct words to calm her down. The mare felt immediately at ease with Lisette’s approach.

She could now see what was in the mane and she felt safe enough to investigate it. Lisette brushed away some of the hair to get a better look. It was a metal tube of polished metal, possibly aluminum, and it had a screw top with an eye for tying a loop through it. She thought it looked like a cigar tube. She had never one with a top like this though. What was bizarre about it was the way it was fastened to the horse. a small lock of the horses mane was braided and looped through the eye of the cap. The free end of the braid was spliced back into strands before the eye, making it a perfect loop with no bitter end. The braid was too tight to loosen, so she decided to leave the cap on the horse if she were to open this tube.

Lisette began to think it through. What if this tube had some crazy disease and opening it would start an epidemic? What of it  was filled with diamonds or some other valuable item? What if this was all just a Halloween prank and it was just a snake popping out or, even more disappointing, nothing at all? She couldn’t help herself and made a decision to open it. 

Lisette began to unscrew the tube and was surprised how finely machined the threads were. There were no imperfections and it rotated very freely. She held her breath when she pulled the tube loose, allowing the cap to dangle freely from the braid in the horse’s mane. Peering into the tube, Lisette could see a piece of paper that was rolled into a tight scroll. She let her breath fall out and pulled out the paper by a small ribbon attached to it. It slid out effortlessly.

The excitement of the situation caused her fingers to tremble when she was pulling open the spiral of paper. She read with anticipation and fascination, her eyes flitting this way and that across the page. Her expression changed from eager to confused, then finally her eyes filled with dread. She slowly lifted her head and looked at the horse. The horse was no longer there and instead was a naked woman with skin as white as porcelain and hair a light brown. It cascaded down her shoulders and covering her breasts. Lisette saw the unique braid that held the cap to the tube she just opened and the strands of hair comprising it slipped apart from each other like slick noodles until the cap fell free and into the woman’s hand. 

The woman took the tube from Lisette’s hand and put the cap back on slowly. She reached out with one hand and stroked a lock of Lisette’s hair. She was petrified and couldn’t move a muscle or even scream in terror. The woman’s dexterous fingers began to impressively form a tight braid like watching a spider wrap its victim in a web sac. With the other hand, she slipped the tube’s eye around the braid she just made then spliced it into the rest of the braid forming a loop.

Lisette collapsed into a fetal position on the ground and blackness clouded her consciousness.

Two weeks later…

Two hunters were trudging through the snow in a small clearing. Dead leaves and twigs crunched and snapped beneath their footfalls.

“Earl, take a look at this,” Jimmy pointed at the ground towards a piece of rolled paper.

Earl spat, “It’s a shame that no matter where you are, no matter how isolated it is, you will still find trash, ayuh.”

Jimmy picked up the old piece of paper and began to unroll it, “It looks old though, I’m gonna see what it is.”

“Don’t touch that; it’s trash Jimmy, jeez!” Earl was distracted when he heard a horse whinny off in the distance, “There aren’t any horses in these parts,” he said.

“It looks like the page of some little girl’s diary,” Jimmy frowned, “Gee, Earl, this is from the 80’s. At least that’s what it’s dated as.”

“Well?” Earl looked intrigued.

“Well what?” Jimmy asked.

“What does it say?” Earl started to look impatient.

Jimmy scanned the page, “It is dated October thirty first, 1981. It’s just some girl’s account of her trick or treating experience,” he read some more, “She dressed up to look like a horse and she goes on and on about how she wishes she could be a horse.” 

Earl stroked he beard, “It sounds like the lass really liked horses.” 

“Ayuh, you know if I could be somethin' other than a person, I would wish that I was a tree. That would be peaceful, you know?” they sauntered away and Jimmy dropped the page and followed him through the clearing.