Prince Ali Read online

  He and Max became acquainted somewhat. Max was a bit stand-offish, not much for words, but didn’t try to bully him; he just wasn’t much company for a heartsick, homesick horse. Ali didn’t get a bit of sleep that first night. He spent the night staring at the stars.

  Calvin and Danny bounced down the dirt road, twisting and turning for a while. Calvin finally pulled to a stop. “Ya know we gotta dump this trailer for a while. Makes us stand out like a sore thumb. Let’s get out here and see if we can find a place to leave it. We can come back in a month or so and pick it up again. I’ll borrow a truck from someone at the Drop Inn. Can you hand me the flashlight in the glove box?” he asked Danny.

  “It’s cold out here. I didn’t bring a jacket or nothin’” Danny whined.

  “Let’s find a spot and git this done so we can get outa here, then,” snapped Calvin. “Stop yer snivelin’ and help me find a good hiding place.”

  Danny and Calvin found a place in some trees off the road they could back the trailer into. Danny stood outside with the flashlight to help Calvin get the trailer spotted, then both of them worked to unhook it from the truck. The two men dragged some brush in to cover the front of the trailer so it wouldn’t be easily visible.

  The truck made much better time down the mountain relieved of the extra weight of the horse trailer and the horse. Calvin eventually found himself on paved roads. He followed the directions given to him and turned onto the highway he was looking for.

  The sun dropped below the horizon and dusk came over the hills. Full darkness was right behind. Calvin turned east and stopped at a convenience store with a gas pump out front. “Good thing we got some cash, anyway. We’re not gonna get home on what we got in the tank. You want anything besides a cold one?” Calvin asked.

  “A sandwich would be good. I’m starved! And a coat, but that don’t look too likely in there,” mumbled Danny.

  Calvin walked inside the store to look for drinks and sandwiches. Just as he walked to the counter the TV behind the clerk started the 5:30 p.m. news broadcast with a Breaking News story. The next thing that flashed on the screen was a photo of the horse they’d just sold.

  The reporter announced, “Prince Ali, probably the most famous Arabian horse in the country, was stolen this afternoon from the trailer parking area after the Swallows Day Parade in San Juan Capistrano. The Orange County Sheriff is looking for two men, mid-twenties or early thirties, blond hair, wearing blue work shirts and jeans, driving an older blue pick-up truck with an older blue and white horse trailer for questioning in the case. The horse owner’s 13-year-old daughter was with the horse when it was stolen, but is now in a coma at Mission Hospital in critical condition at this hour. The Sheriff’s office is asking anyone who sees the two men or their vehicle and trailer to please call …..”

  Calvin didn’t wait further. He grabbed a ball cap from the display next to the counter and pulled it on, tucking his hair in on the sides. He walked back to where he’d seen a stack of hoodie sweatshirts for sale and picked up two of them in bright colors. He pulled one on himself and walked back to the counter carrying the other one.

  The evening clerk was not paying much attention. He was a young kid busy texting on his cell phone. He rang up the sale for the drinks, sandwiches, ball cap and sweatshirts with hardly a glance at Calvin. Calvin paid for the purchases in cash, including an extra forty dollars for gas and went outside to pump gas into the truck. He tossed the drinks, sandwiches and sweatshirt in to Danny. He pumped gas into the tank and jumped in the driver’s seat, slamming the door and started the truck.

  “We gotta get outa here,” he told Danny. “They got us on TV now. That kid in there was too busy texting to notice. We gotta get home. It’s a good thing we dumped the trailer up there. The cops are looking for the truck and trailer together.”

  He headed down Highway 138 and turned south on Interstate 15. The stars were lined up just right. They saw no highway patrol cars, no sheriff’s cars, no police squad cars of any kind all the way home.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Ali’s first night at the mountain camp was cold and lonely. He spent the entire night at the north end of the corral staring up at the stars, occasionally glancing at the lights twinkling in the plateau off to the East and West of his location. There were a few lights on the plateau in front of him but they were few and far between. He was heartsick. He had no idea where he was and he worried about Becky constantly. His attempt at conversation with Max failed. Max would answer his questions with a single word and sometimes not even that.

  Ali heard his first owl that night as the large bird flew between the trees hunting for mice or rabbits. Far off in the distance he heard the snarl of a large cat. That snarl gave him the shivers. He didn’t know what made that sound, but he instinctively knew it was something to be avoided.

  Far down in the desert below, he heard the songs of the coyotes. He listened as the breeze sloughed through the needles of the pine trees near the corral. There were few other sounds at night. It was still, dark and very cold.

  As dawn broke turning the sky pink and coral in the East, he finally went for a drink. The water was chilly, but fresh. He nosed around looking for a tidbit to chew on but found little to his liking. Hunger set his stomach growling and did nothing to improve his mood. He was scared and depressed and very unhappy.

  He missed his barn stall, his blanket, his siblings and his mother, but most of all he missed his Becky. His world had been turned upside down and he didn’t know why.

  A few hours after dawn, with the sun climbing toward its zenith, the old man came out of the cabin and brought fresh hay to the horses. Ali could smell him before he saw him. He wasn’t particularly put off by the old man’s odor; he just thought it was interesting. The old man filled up the water barrel with more fresh spring water.

  He unlatched the gate and walked to where Ali stood. He patted and stroked his neck and found the itchy place at his withers again. “You’re sure a pretty boy,” he said to Ali. “I got the best end of that bargain!”

  Carl Nixon spent a few more minutes admiring his new purchase, petting him and speaking to him in low soothing tones. Then he spent a few minutes with Max before heading back to the cabin.

  Carl Nixon was a reader. There was not much in this world he liked better than getting lost in the pages of an old classic. His favorite was Dickens. The life he made for himself on the mountain gave him plenty of time to read.

  He once had a life down below, as he referred to the towns and cities at either end of the high desert plateau. All his best reading time had been spent working for a living, getting to or from work, or taking care of his property and his family. Sometimes he felt like a hamster on a wheel, running as hard as he could but never getting anywhere.

  The one really bright spot in that old life was his little girl. He was completely hooked the minute he laid eyes on her. He’d do anything for her. He loved his wife but his daughter was the center of his universe. The day after his bright, beautiful and delightful little girl turned twelve, she and her mother were both killed instantly in a head-on automobile collision.

  During the black days that followed the accident he lost touch with reality. He drove the old pick-up truck he’d spent years restoring up into the mountains for the solitude.

  One day he packed his truck with a few things he thought he might need, cleaned out the last few thousand from his bank account and disappeared off the face of the planet. He walked away from his home, job, and everything he’d worked for. He no longer felt tethered to the world as most people see it.

  It was quite by accident he discovered this little valley in the pines. And another accident that he discovered his secret stream held real gold that was easy to get. The first afternoon he’d panned for gold in that stream he put the gold he’d collected in a small leather pouch much like the one he handed Calvin. He took it down the mountain to a friend who owned a pawn shop in Palmdale. His buddy measured it and handed him three hundre
d eighty five dollars for that one afternoon’s work.

  He was astonished and he was very pleased with himself. He’d found a way to live the life he wanted. He could work two afternoons a month and have all the money he needed. He had no rent to pay. He used very little gasoline. He was surrounded by all the wood he needed to keep warm in the winter. And he was only feeding himself.

  He rarely spent all of the money he dredged up out of that stream every month. In fact, he had sacks of the stuff sitting under his bed in the cabin. Some of the sacks were so heavy he had a hard time moving them. And he had bags of unspent bills sitting under the bed next to the gold. It does tend to accumulate over twenty years.

  What Carl Nixon didn’t know is the owner of the pawn shop had been cheating him for years. He paid him cash for his gold at prices established twenty or more years ago. The actual price of gold escalated a lot over that time. What Carl Nixon received for his gold was less than a quarter of the gold’s true value. Carl didn’t know he had almost enough to buy Ali at his actual value sitting under his bed in that ratty old cabin.

  The only thing Carl Nixon bought in the last twenty years just because it was pretty was Ali. He was struck by the horse’s beauty when he first came out of the trailer. There was nothing in or around his cabin, except nature, that was especially pretty. He thought it was odd he could be attracted to an animal in that way. He just knew he wanted him when he saw him and he would have worked any deal necessary to keep him.

  After feeding the horses their morning hay, Nixon brought a cheap plastic patio chair out behind his cabin. He turned over an old broken bucket for a foot stool and settled down with his current book. He wanted to be outside in the fresh air, but he also wanted to be able to look at Ali.

  As he read, he glanced up every few paragraphs just to admire the horse. Ali stood quietly in the north end of the corral staring out at the vista below. He ate little and seldom drank.

  Carl fed the horses that evening as the sun was sinking below the horizon. He gave them fresh water and went into the corral to pet and scratch them both, talking to each in his soft, comforting voice. Then he went inside for the night, stoked up the wood stove, had his evening meal and took his book to bed, reading until he fell asleep with the book opened on his chest.

  Ali faced a second night like the first one on this mountain. The only difference was he was sinking deeper into depression.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Walter hung up the phone and joined Caroline in Becky’s room. As he entered, he was shocked all over again at how small and pale Becky looked. He also knew Caroline was an emotional mess. She was desperately worried about her only child. But he also knew how much she loved Ali. She thought of him more like a son than a horse. He didn’t know how Caroline was holding up as well as she was, with one child in a coma and the other one missing entirely.

  Both Walter and Caroline were anxious about Becky waking up and finding Ali gone. Becky would be wild to find him. Walter was a little ashamed of himself when he thought it might be for the best that Becky was “asleep” right now. He hoped that would give them time to find Ali and get him back home where he belonged before she woke up.

  “Do you really think someone would take Ali for money like that?” Caroline asked after a while.

  “Well, that’s one theory,” Walter said pensively. “If that’s what happened I have more hope of getting him back safely, in one piece. We can afford to pay. That seems to be the theory the Sheriff’s Department is working on. They are operating strictly on his dollar value. I know we don’t think of him that way, but to most people he’s just an animal worth a lot of money.”

  “I know, I know,” Caroline said plaintively. “But it’s like one of my kids has been kidnapped. I don’t know where he is, I don’t know how he is, and I don’t know if they’re taking care of him. It just makes me sick. And they hurt our daughter to get to him. What I wouldn’t give to be left in a room all alone with them right now, whoever they are. I’d take them apart with my bare hands.”

  “I feel the same way you do, Mama Bear,” Walter told her. “Let’s hope they call soon. I want them caught – the sooner the better. I really don’t want to have to tell Becky he’s missing.”

  Joanne stopped in to check on Becky and typed notes in the chart. “We did get an order from Dr. Spencer to move in a folding cot so at least one of you can stay through the night with her. It should be here in a minute.”

  “Thank you so much, Joanne.”

  Walter, who preferred action to inaction, was antsy and restless. Finally he could stand it no longer. “I’m going outside to take a walk. I just need to get moving right now,” he told his wife.

  Caroline understood. Walter was never one to sit around waiting for something to happen. That was why he was so successful in business. He MADE things happen.

  “You go ahead, Papa Bear. I’ll take the second shift going home. I don’t want her to wake up alone.” Caroline said.

  “Think I’m going to bring my running clothes back with me when I go home to shower and change. I need to check on the home-front anyway. I can always change here in the bathroom. Running helps me relax. I can’t stand just sitting around worrying.” Walter told her.

  “You do whatever you need to. I’ll be right here because that’s what I need to do.” Caroline responded. “If she wakes up while you’re out, I’ll send up a flare. Be on the watch for it.” she smiled at him.

  “I love you both, you know.” he said quietly. “I don’t know what I’ll do if anything happens to either of you.”

  Caroline replied quietly, “I know. I know.”

  Walter left the hospital and took a long walk in the dark. The action felt good. He’d been sitting too long. He breathed deeply of the damp, salty air. He looked up at the stars and sent his own prayer to the heavens. As he moved, he felt the tension leaving his body and he became more aware of the chill in the air. He’d have to remember to bring a windbreaker with his running clothes tomorrow. He should include one for Caroline too. He knew she’d forget it. He was very worried about Becky, but somehow in the deep recesses of his mind he knew she was going to be all right. She’d wake up and they would find no damage to her brain. She’d be the same bright, happy child she’d always been. The only question was how long would it take? And could they find Ali before then?

  What he didn’t know was that Ali stood in a make-shift corral on a mountain top, not so far away, looking at the same stars, and wishing he were home too.

  Walter passed the hospital gift shop on his way back to the ICU. He spotted a small white teddy bear in the window that had Becky’s name written all over it. The shop was about to close but he got inside just in time and bought the bear. When he walked into Becky’s room, the cot was alongside the wall under the window, made up and ready with pillow and blankets. He stopped by Becky’s bed and tucked the little bear in the crook of her arm so it would be the first thing she saw when she woke up.

  “Any change?” he asked Caroline, who looked up from a paperback book and shook her head.

  “No, it looks like she’s sleeping peacefully.” Caroline said. “Why don’t you try to get some sleep first? I’ll wake you up if anything happens, but for sure I’ll wake you up about two a.m. so you can take a turn. That okay with you?”

  “Yeah, that sounds fine.” Walter said as he stretched out on the cot. He tried as best he could to sleep, but his mind kept spinning with the events of the day. He did close his eyes and get some rest, but never fell completely asleep before Caroline shook him at 2 a.m.

  “Your turn,” she whispered. Walter went to the bathroom and Caroline settled on the cot, pulling the blanket up around her shoulders. She closed her eyes and slowly drifted off.

  Walter grabbed his book and sat down in the chair beside Becky to read. It was hard for him to focus. When he realized he’d just read the same paragraph three times, he closed the book. He reached through the bed rail and held Becky’s hand, leaning his
other arm on the top of the bed rail. Within a few minutes, his head rested on his forearm as he sat there, he too drifted off.

  Becky lay in the hospital bed silent and motionless. She was in a deep fog but heard her parents’ voices far, far away. She heard another male voice and another woman’s voice off in the distance but try as she might, she could not understand a word they were saying. She wanted to get up and go find her Mommy and her Daddy but she could not make her body move no matter how hard she tried. After a while she gave up and slipped back into the fog and heard nothing for a long time.

  Walter woke with a start when Susan, Becky’s night nurse, came in the room at 6:30 the next morning. She was holding two trays. “I took a chance that you and your wife would still be here at breakfast time,” she told him, “So I ordered you both a breakfast.”

  Walter looked over at Caroline. She was just opening her eyes. “Any change?” she asked.

  “No, nothing,” Walter said, as he took the tray from Susan. She walked the other tray to the cot and handed it to Caroline who’d just sat up and stretched.

  “Thank you so much,” Walter said to Susan. “It was kind of you to think of us.”

  Susan checked on Becky and typed notes in her chart. She said, “There’s coffee at the nurses’ station. She invited them to “Help yourself. Cups are next to the machine with the creamer and sugar.” as she left the room.

  “You want some coffee?” he asked Caroline.

  “Yes. I’m dying for a cup of coffee,” she answered. He brought two cups back to the room.

  Walter said, “I think I’ll take off in a few minutes and go home to shower and change. I’d like to check on things at home. I’ll make the phone calls to our families and bring them up to date. I can be back here in two hours so you can take the car and do the same,” he said, “unless, of course, there are any changes here. I can be back here in ten minutes if you need me.”