Morning all. The sun is sunny, although how long that will last is anyone’s guess and I managed to get a good night’s sleep. Let me tell you those Ollie Sleep Gummies have become a lifesaver. They don’t actually put me to sleep, but they do help me drift off easier which is nice. sometime, you just have to quiet the brain. But this isn’t a commercial, it’s a writing prompt.So let’s get to it.
I have to admit I found this a lot of fun. I really didn’t want to stop when the timer dinged. It was hard to step away. I think this could be a really fun story to play around with and will probably circle back. Possibly even later today.
Tuesday, June 8th: Until that day I had never seen a donkey, much less ridden one.
Until that day, I had never seen a donkey much less ridden one. Somehow the thought that I might actually have to ride one at any point in my life never occurred to me. I was simply not that sort of person. Growing up I had friends who went for riding lessons but I had no interest in horses.
It just wasn’t for me. In fact most of the outdoors weren’t for me. A good game of tennis was enough time in the great outdoors for me, and then it was back to the club hose to recover from the ordeal.
And yet here I was.
I glanced over at the others. They seemed almost giddy at the prospect and joked and laughed. I looked back to the donkey in front of me. He stared back at me looking almost as morose at the prospect as I was. The handler holding the reigns smiled encouragingly at me.
“First time?” She asked.
“Um, yes,” I replied. “There aren’t a lot of …donkeys where I life.” I started to add that I did know jackasses aplenty, but it didn’t seem the time for humor. “Are there things I should know…warning signs?”
“Rupert here is as gentle as a lamb,” She told me.
As I had no experience with lambs, it wasn’t as encouraging as she thought.
“We’ll get you mounted then,” she continued.
I had an alarming vision of my head mounted on a plaque attached to her wall. Then I noticed she was showing me how to put my foot in some sort of leather loop. As the others were already mounted I followed here instructions and surprisingly found myself astride the beast with little incident.
“See you’re a natural,” she said.
“No but I can hum a few bars,” I muttered.
She ignored me and handed me the reigns. “Just hold them loosely like this. Kive him a slight tap on the sides to get him into motion and he’ll follow along with the others. When you want him to go left, pull slightly on the left reign, to go right pull on the right one. To get him to stop pull on both simultaneously.”
I nodded, my mouth going dry. Somehow it never occurred to me that I would have to steer. Seeing that I was finally mounted, the others began to move. I braced for the worst and gently tapped Rupert with my feet. He took this as his cue and began ambling off after the donkey in front of him. The first part of the trip I paid little attention to much of anything other than the need to hold Rupert’s reigns loosely and not accidentally kick him again. Laughter drifted back to me.
I glanced up from the back of Rupert’s head to look at the others. They were paying no attention to me. I was relieved not to be the source of their amusement. As I wasn’t exactly close with the others I didn’t need to be in on the jokes. I just needed to not be the butt of them. I was here representing the family and all I had to do was be a presence. I thought of my sisters, each far more comfortable in the wilds of the world than I was and wondered again why I was selected for this particular representation.
Ten til Midnight 