There is a farm. The farm is in England, it has some sheep and a horse. A girl lives there with her step-dad, younger stepbrother, and step-mom. The girl is tall and slim. She has blue eyes, dark brown hair, a freckled face and reins in her hand. She rushes to the stable and puts the reins on the horse. She gets on and the horse and starts to walk. The horse rears and gallops to a path in the forest. The horse does not stop and continues to gallop through creeks and mud. Then the horse halts at an old cottage up in the mountains, it has moss on the roof and in the cupboard a jar of berry preserves and some french bread.
Then the girl walks to the back of the cottage where there stands a garden. A smile slips out of her mouth as she bends down to get a bucket of oats sitting against the house. She walks back into the house reaching for a pot and fills it with water. She puts half the bucket of oats in the hot water and gives the rest to the horse. The horse digs it’s mouth into the bowl of dry oats. The girl walks to one of the many trees blocking the bright sun. She picks an apple off the tree, takes a bite, then throws it to her horse. She goes to sit down but then hears something hit the ground and people screeching in terror.
The girl jumps on the horse and gallops back towards her farm. The land has dirt erupting out of the ground. The ground shakes every once in a while. Then in the distance there is a airplane bomber coming closer. The girl gets the horse to gallop to the house. The girl jumps off the horse and rushes to the house. She grabs her dad’s saddlebag and stuffs in a handkerchief, a few teabags, three apples, carrots and a bag of oats. She scouts the house and finds her dad and mom dead. She looks for her brother and finds him in her room now destroyed and dirty. She grabs his hand and he shakes. He is scared. He opens his mouth to talk but nothing comes out. She leads him outside. She lifts him onto her horse and gets on too. She runs toward the town. When she gets to the town she grabs her brother and puts him on the boat to New York. She canters to the middle of town where the army is gathered for new recruits and horses. Two men come close and grab the reins and halter. They push her off onto the cobblestone walkway. She screams at them, then two other men come and grab her arms to hold her back. She tries to break out of their tightening grip. But they stand their ground and drop her arms.
The horse puts up a fight and kicks its back legs up. Then the army men load the girl’s horse into a horse trailer. The bombing has stopped temporarily. The girl stands up and walks behind the army men. She hears them say that they are headed to France because it is a border of Germany. She goes to the train station and gets a ticket for the next train to France. That night the girl is back at home packing food and her mother’s book which is called, Life in Upstate NY, which is where she sent her brother.
When morning came she gets up and ran to the train station. The girl got on and took a deep breath and sat on the worn out leather booth. She decides to lay down on the couchette. She is tired, but she knows she has to get her horse back. She does not have a choice, her horse was everything, no, is everything. The train ride is longer than usual, the usual time is three to four hours but now it is eight hours. Finally, when the train ride is over she runs off the train eating some oats. When she gets off she sees army men everywhere. She looks for the horse trailer but no luck. The girl barely has any money, she spent most of it on the train ride to France. She has a little left, enough for two days of food, water and shelter. But again, she does have emergency money that she hid in her old broken down boots. She walks through the army men squeezing by so slightly. Then she see an auction for horses they could not use. She heard bidding and yelling. The girl looked in the ring for her horse but she did not see him. She knew she would not see him. He is probably the best horse they have. Her horse is young, fast, smart and strong. Four things they want in a horse. The girl is tired so she decides to rent an army cot. It is a hard so-called bed, the leather is cold on her sore feet.
The next morning the girl wakes up and runs outside to sit on a bench and eat some oats and an apple. She heard the steps of horses on cobblestone so she pushed through the crowd and saw horses coming down in a line. She sees many horses go down but none where the one she is looking for so far. She stays to look at all the horses anyway. But then a miracle happens. She hears a horse in the back acting up. The girl rushes down to that horse. They have the horse on the ground. A man says hold him steady, and takes out a small pocket knife. Then the girl yells at him saying, “I will take that horse.” The man looks at her in confusion but recognizes her from England and says to give the horse to the girl. The man puts the knife away and starts to walk toward an extra horse. Then the girl says thank you. Then the girl throws her horse an apple relieved that he is back. Next, a trip to Upstate NY to get her brother back.
