The Barn

Jon kept going back and forth from the house to the barn. No one said anything but we notice. “Why does Jon keep going back and forth?” Our mom asked me and Ken (Jon’s friend who came to visit Jon).

Ken and I just looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders. “We don’t know mom,” I replied.

We continued to visit. The rest of the night my mind couldn’t stop wondering why Jon was acting this way. Each time Jon came in the house he didn’t say anything, he would walk in fast looking at the floor. I don’t think anyone asked him anything because of how he was acting. Our mom headed to bed. Ken headed to the door and said, “I’m going to see if Jon needs me. He called me earlier asking me to come. When I got here he asked me to wait so I just came in here with you and y’alls’ mom.” No one really goes out to the old barn anymore. After our dad had his accident with one of our horses, he got bucked in the head by one of the horses and he died. Well that’s what we were told that happened. After that our mom got rid of all the horses and never went to the barn again.

About three am Jon came in my room, “Alice, I need to talk,” he said to me.

I wasn’t sleeping yet my mind was on my brother’s state of mind and was wondering what he was doing.

“I’m trying to surprise mom. No one really goes in that barn since dad died. I found out when dad got bucked it wasn’t an accident. Rodney dad’s business partner got Sugar spooked to where Sugar bucked dad. You notice how Rodney acted when that happened? Well, I got the police to check into it. Dad was about to cut ties with Rodney because Rodney was embezzling their a lot of their profits. Mom loved the horses, horseback riding and loved the barn. If the police can prove Rodney set up dad, then we can get justice for dad, get mom back to her love of horses, and get the barn back to the way it was. Dad loved mom so much that he got this property fixed up the old barn so she could have a place for her horses.”

I sat in shock for a few minutes. We were all sure it was an accident, but now I think back Rodney was acting funny and dad was talking about cutting ties with Rodney. “Hope it works. Getting justice for dad. Plus that would be great to see mom work with horses again.”

The next few weeks worked out the police were able to prove Rodney had motive, opportunity, and prove that it wasn’t an accident about the horse and my dads death. Our mom’s love for horses was back and the old barn was back in use.