Since Henry was so busy, one of the projects that had to take a back seat that spring was replacing the second step in a set of three that led up to the tack room door. The tack room was actually an old chicken coop, which sat on low stilts just a few yards from the front door of the barn. Because Henry and Annie had more tack then they had chickens, it only made sense to turn the little, nearly one-hundred-year-old building into something they could use. Turning the coop into a tack room was one of the first things they did after they moved in, and it remained pretty much the way they’d built it ever since.

The downside to having the tack room where it was, was that in the wintertime what little snow they got would blow between the barn and the tack room and drift up against the tack room door. It would build up on the steps leading up to the door, and more specifically, on the second step. Because of the mildness of the winters in the area, the snow would quickly melt, with much of the water that was then created by the melting snow pooling primarily in the middle of the second step. Over time, the step had become rotted and weak, and Annie had been after Henry to replace it for going on three years. The step was on Henry’s list, just not very high on it.

Besides, the step was never really a problem for Henry because he seldom used the steps anyway. They weren’t very tall steps, measuring less than about three inches between the top of one and the bottom of the next, so he’d simply step from the ground to the top step, skipping the first and middle steps all together. Annie, on the other hand, not being very tall, always used the three steps. On that day, because she was in a hurry, she jogged toward the tack room, skipped the first step and put her full weight on the second.

The step, which had been slowly disintegrating for years, finally gave way under the impact of her foot. There was a loud CRACK as Annie’s right foot crashed through the board. Instinctively, she turned to her right so she wouldn’t fall face first into the tack room door, but the spur on her boot hung up under the first step, putting the weight of her entire body on her right ankle. Her shin hit the top step as she fell hard into the door on her right shoulder. Simultaneously, there was another CRACK as her tibia splintered just above the ankle.

Oddly, there was no pain at first. In fact, there was more pain in her shoulder than in her ankle. She shifted herself slightly, turning her body away from the door and coming to a sitting position on the top step. Doing so freed the spur from under the step and allowed her to lift her foot out of the hole she just made. It was about then the pain in her ankle shot through her body and she let out an anguished moan that quickly turned into a long, loud shriek.