Taming the Star Runner by S. E. Hinton

Author:S. E. Hinton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUVENILE FICTION/General
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2013-03-18T04:00:00+00:00

The barn was quiet, except for the rain drumming lightly on the roof. Casey never had the radio on when she was here alone. He could hear her on the phone with a pony parent. It amazed him how patient she was with the parents. Anxious parents, pushy parents, parents who seemed to think buying lessons meant buying the trainer—some were okay, and tried to be helpful, but once, after listening to a mother raving about a ribbonless show—was it the pony’s fault, did she need a new pony? And, it was implied, a new trainer?—Travis said, “Why do you put up with that stuff?”

Casey replied, “It’s my paycheck. I need to earn a living. It comes with the territory. If it was just training horses, it wouldn’t be work.”

Now he listened to her explaining why a class of five couldn’t be rescheduled around one grandparent’s visit and thought: Whatever they’re paying her, it’s not enough.

He’d also been listening to a dog barking outside, Ken’s old Labrador by the sound of it, and it seemed to be getting more and more excited.

Travis decided to go take a look. Maybe Motorboat had caught a rabbit, which seemed to be one of his great goals in life lately.

It was the biggest snake he’d ever seen, coiled and lunging at the dog, who jumped and kept barking.

Biggest, hell. As far as he knew it was the only snake he’d ever seen, and he couldn’t account for the revulsion and almost mindless terror that he felt.

And then he saw Motorboat, flattened into a stalking position, eyes glittering, creeping up by fractions of inches, getting ready to go in for the kill.

He had the shovel in his hands, swinging the edge at the snake, yelling at the dog to get back, knowing he was going to trip over the damn mutt and fall right on top of the snake. He got the head pinned as Motorboat leapt on the thrashing body, grasping with his teeth, thumping hard with his hind claws. The head was severed with a sickening crunch before Travis realized he was using all his strength on the shovel handle.

The headless body still twisted, Motorboat still fought it, and Travis ran back into the barn to get Casey. He slid to a stop, thinking: If the body was still moving, the head…

He turned back. The Lab was barking at Motorboat now, who seemed to be torn between batting the snake’s body and clawing the dog.

The snake’s head lay in the wet grass, and Travis poked at it with the shovel, intending to scoop it up and put it in the trash barrel. Suddenly it seemed to disappear. Travis lifted the shovel, searching the ground. Then he saw that the severed head had bitten onto the edge of the shovel, and hung there, staring at him.

“Goddamn.” He half sobbed, shuddering, sickened, amazed. He didn’t throw the shovel, screaming, although the thought flashed across his mind.

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