It wasn’t that Jessie was afraid of Chad, because she wasn’t. She wasn’t really afraid of much of anything. It was just that there were things in her past she wasn’t proud of, whether leaving the ranch and her father when she did and for the childish reasons she did, or some of the things she’d done when she lived in Denver. Jessie understood she was a much different person at forty-two than she had been at twenty-two. But still, nobody likes being reminded of her life’s failures, disappointments or bad decisions. For Jessie, Chad’s continued presence on the ranch had become exactly that—a bad reminder of all those things in her life that she probably could have, and should have, done differently.

Still, as much as Chad was a reminder of all those things she wanted to forget, the colt was a reminder of all the promise life could hold. It was clear, even at the colt’s young age, he had already lived a life full of struggles and bad decisions. The only difference was the colt carried the scars of his missteps on the outside of his body, while most people, including Jessie—and from all indications, Henry—carried them on the inside.

Yet, the colt stood in the round pen every day trying to find a way to move through his life in a way that helped him feel better. No matter how worrisome things were for him, Jessie was aware of how the colt would face them, literally, and try to figure them out. Every day since he’d arrived, the young horse’s courage in his situation began to grow, slowly at first, then with more confidence. Lately, she even noticed the colt had taken to following Henry around in the pen as he cleaned it, a feat that, for the colt, would have been unheard of when he first arrived just a couple weeks before.

The final weeks of the season passed quickly and before anyone knew it, closing day had arrived. The last guests had actually left the week before closing day, and with them went the majority of the staff. The only help Jessie kept for the final, non-guest week, which was primarily used for closing the guest cabins and cleaning the big kitchen and dining room, was a skeleton crew of housekeepers and kitchen staff. She also kept as many wranglers as could stay to help clean and oil saddles and tack, move the horses to summer pasture, and generally close things down in the big barn. As it turned out, all but three of the crewmembers were able to stay for the last week. Ted, Todd and Little Steve all had jobs they had to get to up north and had said their goodbyes the day after the guests left. That left Jake, Will, Dan, Big Steve, Henry, and of course, Chad to close the place down and get it ready for the off-season.

While the rest of the crew was cleaning tack, moving horses and closing things down, Chad kept Henry on clean-up duty, scooping manure and hauling it off. It was about mid afternoon on the last day when Henry pushed his fifteenth wheelbarrow full of manure toward the ramp to the spreader. He was almost to the ramp when from behind him he heard Jake call, “Hey Henry, wait up.” Henry looked around to see who it was, but kept on going.