But the thing that worried him the most was that a different human came to his pen each day to feed and water him, and then a completely different human would unexpectedly show up to clean the pen later in the day. It was the not knowing who to expect or when to expect them that kept the colt emotionally off-balance the most, and it was a huge struggle for him to keep up with it all. At the tender age of three years old, the colt simply had no life experience that could help him deal with what he was going through, and without being able to emotionally sort things out very well, he instinctively felt the need to keep himself moving. He didn’t know why, or for how long he would need to move, only that he felt better when he did.

Still, the time Jessie had given him to get used to the place had helped him. Even with all the commotion and the different people coming and going, after a while the colt was able to see it was all just that: commotion and people coming and going. Nobody appeared to want to harm him in any way, and in fact, two of the humans he had actually begun to feel relatively comfortable with, over time. One was the lady that came by every evening to quietly watch him through the fence; the other was the man who came to clean his pen every day. Most of the others that came around he could either take or leave as far as feeling comfortable with, with one exception. Of all the humans he came in contact with, no matter how fleeting, there was one he didn’t like at all, and in fact would run from any time the man came around. There was something about that human that told the colt he couldn’t be trusted, and probably never would. As a result, while the colt was starting to feel a little better about some of the humans he came in contact with, as well as his situation in general, he remained extremely wary of the man in the big hat.

The fact that the colt was extremely uneasy around Chad didn’t escape Jessie, and in an odd sort of way, she knew exactly how he felt. Jessie was getting more and more uncomfortable around him herself, and she found herself counting down the days until the ranch closed for the season, not so much to be rid of the guests, but more to be rid of Chad. As the season wore on, she could finally see what Mrs. Rodriguez had been so worried about. Chad was no good, maybe not to the bone, but no good nonetheless. She found she was kicking herself nearly everyday for allowing him to get so close to her, for inviting him into her home and for sharing that most intimate part of herself.

The longer the season went, the more distant she had gotten from him until, near the end, she was unconsciously doing everything she could to avoid speaking with him altogether. If she needed to get some information to him, she relayed it through one of the other wranglers. “Steve, could you please tell Chad I need him to… Jake, if you see Chad, could you let him know… Dan, could you ask Chad to…” was the best she could do. If she saw Chad coming, she would go the other way; if he spoke to her, she would try to give one-word answers, if she spoke at all. If she could get away with nodding or shaking her head, she preferred to do that.