Horse Haven

Chapter Four

The next morning, Erin had to leave at 10:00 to make it to her volleyball game.
  "Bye, Erin." I said as I lead Taffy out of the stable.
  "Bye! I had so much fun! Thank you!" She exclaimed.
"Your welcome. Good luck at your game today!" I said. I watched her as she headed down the road on Taffy, glad that I had such an amazing friend.

I started to head inside when I heard hushed voices coming from the house.
"What's wrong? Who called?" I heard my mom ask repeatedly.
"Not now, I am trying to listen to my phone call!" My dad said. By the tone of his voice I could tell he was irritated.
  "Thank you for letting me know. I will talk to you later. Bye." I heard my dad say into the phone.
"What is going on?" My mom demanded. I peered inside the screen door and saw tears glistening in my dad eyes. My dad is the strongest man I have ever known. I have never seen him cry before which gave me a clue that whatever was said during the phone call must have really hurt him.
  "Whatever is going on, you can tell me. We will get through this together." My mom said sympathetically.
"I will tell you but we need to keep quiet. I don't want to scare Alex." 
That was all I needed to hear to get angry. I ran inside, slamming the screen door shut.
"I want to know what is wrong. Why can't I know? Why does it have to be a secret?" I angrily yelled.
My dad wiped a single tear off of his face. "Give me time to fully understand this and then I can tell you both." He said sadly. He walked outside and mounted his favorite horse, Coco. The weird thing was that he didn't move or make an effort to steer Coco toward the road. He just sat on his horse, crying into Coco's mane. Confused, I walked into my room and flopped on my bed, trying to comprehend the last five minutes.

      "Time for dinner!" My mom called. Startled, I sat up in bed realizing that I had fallen asleep for at least two hours. I walked into the kitchen and saw my dad staring at his plate. He had barely any food and wasn't eating. As soon as I sat down, my mom put her hand over my dad's hand.
"Whatever it is, we will get through it together. It isn't going to help to keep your feelings locked up." She said calmly. Taking a deep breath, I watched my dad nervously, wondering what he was going to say. Did someone die? Do we have to sell the ranch? 
"Okay, here it goes. I got a call from my sister, Amanda. She told me that our mom, your grandma, Alex, is starting to show signs of Alzheimer's disease. My sister had planned to move down there to be with her and help her out, but she got a job in Kentucky that she couldn't pass up without blowing away a fantastic opportunity. Since my mom's husband died two years ago and my sister can't move, we are the next people in line to move to Florida." He explained.
I fled to my room crying, hoping that I was just having a nightmare. My mom covered her mouth and sat there speechless at the table. My dad rested his head in his hands and cried. Without saying, we all knew what this meant.