A Boy and HIs Horse
The sweet sun of spring embraced my face, and the celestial clouds were big white and fluffy. Clouds were a wonder to me, how sweet it would be to lay my head upon them, their billowing softness caressing my every limb. I take a deep breath and inhale the fragrant fumes of the lush and bounteous forest. I am Sir Matteo, courageous and valiant and I am going to save the voluptuous princess from the evil villain, Fredrico. Before me stands a tall tree, long bereft of it’s beauty, now dead and infested vicious, yet amazing bugs. So many of them, bugs of all sizes and specimens, some of vibrant, and majestic seeming breeds. But no, this is not a tree; it is a monster! Just look at those fateful branches, only two haven’t fallen, the twigs knurled like overgrown unsheathed claws. A large hollow bearing a howling and hungry mouth and two smaller ones above that stare upon me mercilessly and pierce my heart. Well this is just the job for Sir Matteo, mightiest of knights. I kneel down, and pick up some small pebbles, and hurl them upon the horrific thing when suddenly my vast imagination is silenced forever by the shrieks of Fredrico.
“Matteo! Matteo!” he cried
I dropped the smooth little pebbles and proudly drew my woody little sword
“Halt villain” I shout “Now return the glorious Rosa, or you shall die by my sword!”
Fredrico quickly grabbed the sword from my hand, threw it to the ground and smashed it to pieces with his boots. Then he grasped my shoulders tightly, and shook me a couple of times, “Shut up about the make believe knight! This isn’t a game anymore! Rosa is GONE!! I’m serious!” He screamed, then let go of me and broke down in tears.
I just stared at him paralyzed with shock and disbelief. His thick curly brown hair was swaying with the light breeze while his face was buried in his arms that were folded over and clasping his knees.
Furiously I grasped the curls, forcefully pulling up his head “What did you do, with my little sister?!” I demanded
Fredrico didn’t look up. His silky white shirt and smart looking creased black pants were soaked in tears, his face red with anguish, goo smothered his chin and lips from under his nostrils and his lips quivered as he tried to speak “I can’t…can’t..s..a..” he stuttered.
What in the world was wrong with Fredrico? Had Rosa died or something?…what if she drowned in the river? I couldn’t bear it anymore, I released my grip from his hair and watched his head fall back in his arms. I raced through the pear orchard back to Fredrico’s house and threw the door open “MAMA! UNCLE MORT! COME QUICKLY!” I cried.
“Matteo! Not so loud! You just made your new cousin wake up!” she scolded.
I pulled my mother’s rough skinned arm, and felt my lips quiver
“But Mama….Mama.. SOMETHING BAD HAPPENED TO ROSA! Fredrico says so”
My mother knelt down so she could see my face, and her large brown eyes stared into mine with a stern look
“This better not be a joke Matteo.”
To my despair it wasn’t and here I sit only a year later since the day I lost my sister but Fredrico had just brought home a sister of his own and I remember the day like it was yesterday. This is my uncle’s pear orchard where me and my cousin Fredrico once played but we haven’t spoken since. The memory is so vivid, a bad man had really taken Rosa and poor Fredrico saw all of it but there was nothing I could do, I am a just a little boy, I am no valorous knight Mommy reads about in my story books. I look around, the pear trees just trees and the river just a river. I once pictured the river as a great moat around a massive castle, and the trees were chocolate. But I dream no longer, the cruelty of the world is too real and adventures just aren’t what they seem.
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