Raising a Foal

Beginnings of a Father

The father talks in a Southern accent. Just letting y'all know.

It was just another Saturday night. My last paycheck went into my bank account, I had done all my shopping, and I had crashed in front of the TV in my Alabama hotel room. It wasn't the best Saturday I'd ever had, but it was far from being the worst. My Little Angel sat on my lap, sucking on the bottle of formula the clerk at the store had recommended. Thankfully she seemed to like it and didn't complain. But my Little Angel hardly ever fussed. In fact, now that I think about it, I've only ever heard her cry when she was hungry or tired. I've had to set her down, sometimes, but she doesn't cry for me to pick her back up. Sometimes, I wonder if she knows I'm gonna come back for her, because she gives me a smile that could melt Old Man Winter’s heart once I do.

I still haven't given her a name at this point, but I haven't exactly had the time. My Little Angel has been good for now, but I know that ain't going to fly forever. I look at her and think about it a bit. Anything I think of doesn't seem to fit one way or another. Naming a pony like her is a lot harder than you think, and all the craziness hasn't made it easier. She's looking at me now. Can she sense my worry? I wonder. Her startling emerald eyes make me think so. I find her precious with that little Stetson of hers that perfectly fits her tiny little head. I wonder what I did that made whoever sent her mistake me for a good enough person to take care of her. Looking at where I am right now, it looks like they screwed up big time. Actually, looking back further, it looked like they messed up from the start. I mean don't get me wrong, I love her with all my heart. But how could you expect a 17 year old farm boy to take care of a baby? I barely even know how to take care of myself! Why I'm not dead from exhaustion yet is still a mystery to me.

My train of thought is suddenly interrupted when my Little Angel starts squirming. Usually, that means that she needs to be burped. I rest her tiny body on my shoulder and pat her on the back several times. I’m expecting her to burp until I hear a loud brrrrrrt. Yep, she farted on me. She even giggles a little bit afterwards.

Why me? I think to myself.

Putting my frustration aside, I get up off the couch and set her on the bed. As I undo her diaper, the smell hits me like a train. I start gagging and I almost have to run to the bathroom. Of course, my Little Angel doesn't know any better. She laughs at the faces that I'm making. Even though the smell is still there, I manage to crack a smile. I make a mental note to pick up some Febreze the next time I'm at the store. And a Hazmat suit. It took me weeks to learn how to change a diaper. Now, I'm like a pro at it. She then settles back down and lets out a cute yawn. I guess it's those little moments with my daughter that give me the strength to carry on. I pick her up, sit down on the bed, and lean back. This way, she can fall asleep in my arms. And I can catch some sleep if I need to. My mind flashes back to when I first saw her. God, it seems like it's been forever. But, it's only been a couple of months since that day.

It was a scene straight out of a movie or a book. Find a baby in a basket, and take it inside out of pity. She was probably no more than a few months old at that point. I didn't know what I was going to do.  The last thing that I wanted was to become a father overnight. But my logical mind knew better. If anyone else found her, then her life would be a living hell. It's not everyday that you see an orange-colored baby pony. I don't even want to think about what could’ve happened to her. When she looked at me in the eye for the first time, she smiled at me. Maybe she wanted me to be her daddy. Either that or she had pooped her diaper. It was proven to be the latter a while later. Being the Good Samaritan that I am, I decided to keep her there until I could figure something out.

That first night, I didn’t sleep at all. I just sat on my bed in silence and my eyes would sometimes glance over to her in the baby bed next to me. So many questions were wandering through my mind. What is she? Where did she come from? Why and how did she end up here? For that matter, why was I the one stuck with her? It actually kinda intrigued me how human-like this baby pony was. It was like she had come straight out of a cartoon or something.

She only cried once that entire night. It was a low voice, even for a girl baby. My knee-jerk reaction was to just scoop her up in my arms and rock her back to sleep. When I first held her, I began to feel something. It wasn’t pity, or anger, or even sadness at this point. It was all replaced by a feeling of love. Real, fatherly love. Of course, I still had my doubts about this whole thing. And I’m pretty sure my folks wouldn’t like it. But, I didn’t care. That was when I knew that I would take this child, whatever she was, to be my daughter. It almost felt like God Himself had sent His most precious angel to my side. I’d have to decide on a name later, but I knew what I would call her until then. She was now my little world. My little reason for living. My Little Angel.

I finally manage to drift off to sleep with my daughter’s tiny heart beating against mine. I rarely ever dream anymore, but this time I do. And I dream of the one thing that I don’t wanna see: her.

A knock comes from the door. My eyes jolt open in fear. This is the time to hide my daughter away from curious eyes. I can’t let anything happen to her. Slowly, I get up off the bed, set my daughter in her little car seat in the corner hidden from sight, and go to the door. I peer through that little peephole to find that it’s one of the hotel maids. I set the bolt on the door to keep anyone from opening it all the way and open it.

“Housekeeping?”

“No thank you. I’m fine. You can go on.” And I close the door. As I’m walking away, she knocks again. Harder this time.

“Housekeeping, por favor?”

“No thank you!”

“House. Keeping,” she says with a little more force. It then occurs to me that, chances are, she can barely speak English. And I barely speak Spanish.

I open the door again and do the best I can. “Senora…uh, yo no… quiero… housekeeping.” Way to butcher it, I think to myself. Luckily, she gets the gist of it.

“Lo siento, señor. Mi Inglés no es tan bueno.” I have no idea what that means, but she goes on so I’m guessing she said sorry. I turn my attention back to my daughter and find that she’s still asleep. She’s even snoring a little bit. My heart is just bursting with d’aaaawww. Thank God she’s a heavy sleeper, or else we’d be in trouble. To help calm myself down, I flip on the TV. I rarely watch anything anymore, but I turn to the news every so often to see what’s going on.

“Massive floods in Louisiana continue to destroy thousands of homes, leaving thousands of people homeless. The White House has sent much needed help to the region to assist in finding shelters for the homeless and providing food and water for those that cannot reach it. No one knows when the state will be able recover from this disaster. In local news, residents at a roadside hotel continue to complain to the managers that they have seen strange behavior in one of the guests. The attendant has been described as being reclusive and has been living there for almost a month. Many have often thought that they might be hiding something, possibly an illegal substance. K-9 units are on their way to investigate the scene as we speak and we will have updates on that later. Still to come, a popular TV show with a fanbase of more than 2 million has announced its final season. Check back with us to-”

I have to shut the TV off. I’m scared outta my mind. The cops are on their way here?! We need to get out of here, now. I gather up all my stuff, making sure to not leave anything behind, put it into a trash bag, and scoop my daughter up in her little car seat. I also grab the card key to my room. I’ve already paid my dues for the week, so I just have to drop off the key. I rush out the door, put all my stuff into the truck, load up my daughter, cover her seat with a blanket, and run to the front desk. I give them back the key and I thank them for all they did for me. I jump back in the truck, start her up, and go off. Of course, I wanna seem unsuspicious so I drive the speed limit to keep the cops from coming my way. Just as I pull out, the cops show up in the parking lot and they don’t speed towards me. I breathe a sigh of relief knowing that we’re safe. For now.

We’re about fifty miles outside of town before I pull over to the side of the road. I’m tired and I wanna go to sleep, but the adrenaline pumping through me ain’t helping one bit. Sleep was one luxury that I could rarely afford now. Not until we found a safe place to settle down at. The only problem is that the news is probably spreading fast all over the state about a strange guy getting away from the police. Now, I’m pretty sure that I got no other place to go to. My parents’ house wouldn’t work since they kicked me outta there themselves, and the apple farm was all the way in Washington, about 2,500 miles from where I was at. No way that I’ll make it there in this hunk of junk. I don’t know where the hell I’m supposed to go now, so I guess we’ll just have to keep moving until we can’t move anymore.

-Two days later-

I don’t know how much longer I can keep doing this. Running across the country like some kinda outlaw carrying precious cargo. It ain’t the right thing to do at this point, but I can’t help but wonder what my life would be like if my daughter had never come into my life. I’d probably still be working on my grandparents’ apple farm for a decent wage. I’d see all my cousins, and uncles, and aunts, and close friends that came by almost daily. Never a dull moment in that place. Now I’m starting to miss it. My Grampa Jack giving me sage advice while we picked apples, the smell of the pies that my Granny Smith would make, Cousin Mel and Cousin Burney always competing with me, having to keep an eye on all my nieces and even that lil' Collie pup Winona nipping at my leg from time to time.

Those were the days alright. And now, here I am going down the highway in a beat-up old Silverado acting like my life’s normal as normal could be. I don’t even know where I am at this point. The only stopping I made was for my daughter, my truck, my tired eyes, and pit stops. I’m trying to save as much money as I can, so it’s all been going towards my Little Angel and gas. I haven’t eaten anything in two days, and my stomach is growling like some kinda wild beast. It doesn’t help that I’m running out of money fast and gas is starting to go up again. I just have to stop and figure out what to do. I pull into a corner store parking lot and I look around for any sorta sign.

Finally, I saw a great big sign that said, “Welcome to Michigan! Great Lakes! Great Times!”

My jaw drops at the sight of it. Had I really been driving for that long? At first, I’m relieved because the cops in Alabama wouldn’t go this far for one suspicious character. But, it quickly turns into despair because now I’m even further away from home than I was before. I bang my head on the steering wheel at my act of stupidity. If my daughter wasn’t in the car with me, I’d be cussing worse than a stranded sailor. As if to add to my anger, my daughter has a toy in her hand – I mean hooves, and throws it right at the back of my head. I glare at her and I swear I saw a smug look on her little face. I reach down into the side of the seat to get her toy out, and my hand feels something else down there with it. It feels like paper, but a little thicker. I pull out the toy and the other thing and I see that it’s a photo. I hand the toy back to my Little Angel and look closely at the photo.

“You clever little sneak,” I say to my daughter. She gives me a giggle in return, almost as if she can understand me. I don’t know whether it was a coincidence or an Act of God, but I can’t say that I expected to see a picture of me and my ex-girlfriend. I could’ve sworn that I burned every picture of us, but apparently not. Her name was Laurie Faustus and she used to be the best thing that ever happened to me. Now, she was just another pain-in-the-ass memory. I open up the window and I’m just about to throw the picture out the window when something pops into my head. I remember the day that she left me.

“I’m sorry,” she said to me, “but I have to go back home with my dad.”

“All this time that we’ve spent together, and you have to go now?”

“Hey, it’s not like it’s my choice! It’s not like he would let me stay with you!”

“Why don’t you just stay with my grandparents? I’m sure they wouldn’t mind!”

“No, I can’t do that to them. That would just make me feel guiltier.”

I really didn’t want to say it, but I knew that I had to say goodbye to her. I was really going to miss her. “So, where are you going off to?”

“Michigan.”

It finally clicks. I’ve accidentally driven to where she last lived! It’s slim, but it’s still a chance. If I can find her, then maybe she can help me out! But then I consider what might happen when she meets my daughter for the first time. Then again, we had some good moments in the past. Maybe she’ll understand. I don’t know anymore, so I guess I’m just gonna have to take that chance.

I park the car close to a pay phone, put the blanket over my daughter’s seat, and go over to the phone. Luckily there’s a 2012 phone book in a little slot. I quickly take it and go back to the truck. I flip through the pages looking for the F’s. When I find them, I find Laurie’s name first. I write down her address and call her house. Luckily, the phone rings and I’m expecting her any second. It rings four times and I hear it pick up.

“Hey Laurie, it’s been a long time since I-”

“Hi there. You’ve reached Laurie Faustus at home. I’m sorry I can’t come to my phone right now. But, if you’ll leave your name and number, I’ll call you back as soon as possible. Thank you and have a wonderful day.” BEEEP!

“Hey Laurie. It’s me. Been a long time since we talked, huh? I know this is all of a sudden, but I need your help. I’ve got a certain someone with me that ain’t exactly something you see every day. I’ve been running around the country trying to keep her safe and I’m pretty much outta options. I know that our history together isn’t the best in the world.” Meaning that you turned into a total bitch after you left me, I think to myself. “But, even you have to remember all the good times that we had. So, can we just put the past behind us for now? I literally got nowhere else to go! So if everything’s okay, then please for the love of God, give me a call back at this number. If you don’t call me back, then I’m gonna be in trouble. I have almost no money left cause of the damn gas prices and taking care of this kid. Hope to see you again. Bye.” And I hang up. This may turn out to be either the best decision that I ever made or the worst decision I ever made. I can only pray to God that this doesn’t bite me in the ass like everything else.

I glance back and notice that my Little Angel is asleep again. That does it, I think. I’ve got to find a new name for her...Eventually. I need to keep my mind focused on the task at hand. Wanting to pass the time, I flip on the radio.

“And now back to The Classics 94.5! This next one is an oldie, but a good one! It’s a little diddy by Dolly Parton called Applejack.”

Applejack? That. Is. PERFECT!