Tangled Yarns: Flashback

She had been sitting in a cart, with her mother. They were coming down the winding shingle road from town in the evening, and her mother was clicking the reigns to get home before dark.

"Sit still!" her mother was saying, "If you don't behave yourself, I won't take you to town next time!"

But she had waved her arms, and laughed, and pretended to be a bird.

"Christine!"

The hard wheels of the cart bounced and jiggled as it passed the stone houses, built by the men from Cornwall, and the irrigation ditches, dug into the hillsides by the miners. On the hills around them, the newly-planted orchards were beginning to turn yellow and gold with the first touch of Autumn, and far away to the south, the mountains were already wearing their first sprinkling of snow.

As they approached their house, Christine heard the sound of horses. She looked around and saw them, coming down the hillside, like a crowd of children, tossing their heads and squealing.

"Look Mummy!" she cried, pointing.

Her mother clicked the reins to make Jed, the newly-broken horse speed up. He broke into a smart trot and lifted his head to snuff the air. He had heard the horses coming too and he was disturbed.

The wild horses came galloping, snorting and frisking, prancing and kicking, filled with the strange energy that affects animals at dusk.

Jed began to canter.

"Whoa Jed!" said Christine's mother, pulling on the reins, but Jed had his nostrils flared and his ears back. He was sharing the excitement of the other horses and beginning to gallop with them.

Suddenly Christine was scared.

"Stop them mummy!" she cried, clinging to her mother's thick coat.

"I'm trying to!"

Jed had the jitters now. He twisted his head sideways, to avoid the restraint of the bit, and swerved across