Nicholas Evans - The Horse Whisperer

'Something smells good.'

'Nothing spectacular, I'm afraid. Is your horse alright?'

'Oh yeah. Her temperature's running a little high but she'll be okay. Have you had a good day?'

Before she could answer, Craig ran in calling Tom's name and telling him he had to come and see something they had on the computer.

'Hey, I'm having a talk here with Grace's mom.'

Annie laughed and told them to go ahead, Grace's mom needed to see to the food anyway. Diane came in to help and the two of them chatted about the children while they got things ready. And every so often Annie would glance through into the living room and see Tom in his pale blue shirt, hunkered down among the kids, all of them vying for his attention.

The spaghetti was a hit. Diane even asked for the sauce recipe and Annie would have owned up if Grace hadn't beaten her to it and told them all it was out of a bottle. Annie had set the table in the middle of the living room and lit it with candles she'd bought in Great Falls. Grace had said this was overdoing it but Annie had persisted and now was glad she had because their light gave the room a warm glow and cast flickering shadows on the walls.

And she thought how good it was to hear the silence of this house filled with talk and laughter. The kids sat at one end and the four adults the other, she and Frank facing Tom and Diane. A stranger, it occurred to Annie, would have assumed them couples.

Grace was telling everyone about the things you could access on the Internet, like The Visible Man, a murderer in Texas who had been executed and donated his body to science.

'They froze him and sliced him up into two thousand little pieces and photographed each one of them,' she said.

'That's gross,' Scott said.

'Do we want to hear about this while we're eating?' Annie said. She'd meant it only lightly but Grace decided to take it as a rebuke. She gave Annie a withering look.

'It's the National Library of Medicine, Mom. It's education, for Godsake, not some stupid beat-'em-up game.'

'Slice 'em up, more like,' Craig said.

'Go on Grace,' Diane said. 'It's fascinating.'

'Well that's it really,' Grace said. She spoke without enthusiasm now, signaling to everyone that her mother had, as usual, deflated not just her but the topic too of both interest and fun. 'They just put him back together again and you can call it up on the screen and dissect him, like in three-D, you know.'

'You can do all that right here on that little screen?' Frank said.

'Yes.'

The word was so flat and final that only silence could follow it. It lasted but a moment, though it seemed to Annie an eternity, and Tom must have seen the desperation in her eyes, because he gave Frank a sardonic nod and said, 'Well, there you go little brother, your chance for immortality.'

'Lord have mercy,' Diane said. 'Frank Booker's body on view to the nation.'

'Oh, and what's wrong with my body may I ask?'

'Where d'you want us to start?' Joe said. Everyone laughed.

'Hell,' said Tom. 'With two thousand pieces, you could put them back in a different way and get a prettier result.'

The mood began to flow again and once she was sure of it Annie gave Tom a look of relief and thanks, which he acknowledged with just the smallest softening of his eyes. It struck her as uncanny that this man who'd never fully known a child of his own should so understand each wounding nuance that passed between her and Grace.

The apple tart wasn't so great. Annie had forgotten the cinnamon and she could tell as soon as she cut the first slice that it could have done with another fifteen minutes. But no one seemed to mind and the kids all had ice cream instead anyway and were soon off to the computer again while the adults sat and had coffee at the table.

Frank was complaining about the conservationists, the greenos as he called them, and how they didn't understand the first damn thing about ranching. He addressed himself to Annie because the others had clearly heard it a hundred times. These maniacs were letting wolves go, shipping the damn things in from Canada so they could come and help the grizzlies eat the cattle. A couple of weeks back, he said, a rancher down near Augusta had two heifers taken.

'And all these greenos flew up from Missoula with their choppers and consciences and all and said, sorry old buddy, we'll airlift him out for ya, but don't you go trapping or shooting him or we'll nail your hide in court. Damn thing's probably lazing by the pool now at some five-star hotel, you and me footing the bill.'

Tom was grinning at Annie and Frank saw and pointed a finger at him.

'This guy's one of 'em, Annie, I tell ya. Ranching in his blood and he's green as a seasick frog on a pool table. You wait till Mr Wolf takes one of his foals, oh boy. It'll be the three big S s.'

Tom laughed and saw Annie's frown.

'Shoot, shovel and shut the hell up,' he confided. 'The caring rancher's response to nature.'

Annie laughed and was suddenly aware of Diane's eyes on her. And when Annie looked at her, Diane smiled in a way that only emphasized that she hadn't been smiling before.

'What do you think, Annie?' she asked.

'Oh, I don't have to live with it.'

'But you must have an opinion.'

'Not really.'

'Oh surely. You must cover this kind of thing all the time in your magazine.'

Annie was surprised to be so pursued. She shrugged.

'I suppose I think every creature has a right to live.'

'What, even plague rats and malarial mosquitoes?'

Diane was still smiling and the tone was light but there was something beneath it that made Annie cautious.

'You're right,' she said after a moment. 'I guess it depends who they bite.'

Frank gave a roar of laughter and Annie allowed herself a glance at Tom. He was smiling at her. So too, in a less fathomable way, was Diane who seemed at last prepared to let the subject drop. Whether that was so remained a mystery because suddenly there was a yell and Scott was behind her grabbing her shoulder, his cheeks hot with outrage.

'Joe won't let me use the computer!'

'It's not your turn,' Joe called from where the others were all still huddled around the screen.

'It is too!'

'It's not your turn Scott!'

Diane called Joe over and tried to mediate. But the yelling got worse and soon Frank was involved too and the fight shifted from the particular to the general.

'You never let me have a turn!' Scott said. He was near tears.

'Don't be such a baby,' Joe said.

'Boys, boys.' Frank had his hands on their shoulders.

'You think you're so great—'

'Oh shut up.'

'—giving Grace riding lessons and all.'

Everyone went quiet except for some cartoon bird squawking on oblivious on the computer screen. Annie looked at Grace who immediately looked away. No one seemed to know what to say. Scott was a little daunted by the effect his revelation had produced.

'I saw you!' His voice was more taunting but less certain. 'Her on Gonzo, down by the creek!'

'You little shit!' Joe said it through his teeth and at the same time made a lunge. Everyone erupted. Scott was knocked back against the table and coffee cups and glasses went flying. The two boys fell in a tangle to the floor, with Frank and Diane above them yelling and trying to lever them apart. Craig came running, feeling he should somehow be involved here too but Tom put out a hand and took gentle hold of him. Annie and Grace could only stand and watch.

The next moment Frank was marching the boys out of the house, Scott wailing, Craig crying in sympathy and Joe in a silent fury which spoke louder than both. Tom went with them as far as the kitchen door.

'Annie I'm so sorry,' Diane said.

They were standing by the wreckage of the table like dazed hurricane survivors. Grace stood pale and alone across the room. As Annie looked at her, something that was neither fear nor pain but a hybrid of both seemed to cross the girl's face. Tom saw it too when he came back from the kitchen and he went over to her and put a hand on her shoulder.