Kat and Sable by WARDHA JAWDAT (christmas read aloud .TXT) 📖

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For L

oveeza


W. J

.

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I

t was warmer today. The sun shone timidly through the window and its gentle rays tickled her eyes into wakefulness. Sable!

She leaped out of bed and shot into her bathroom, brushing her teeth with one hand and splashing water onto her face with the other desperate to shed her nightclothes all in the same heartbeat. Oh! Why couldn't fifteen year old's have eight arms like the octopus, Lord knows they had enough things to keep twenty occupied! She couldn't wait to get to Sable and see how she was doing. They hadn't let her stay the night. Parents, sometimes, could be so heartless and tedious! Didn't they know she wouldn't be able to sleep. Alright, so maybe she had slept but it hadn't been all that restful. She had been dreaming about the foal all night long. Four days longer than expected, her mum kept saying meant it would be a colt. She'd wanted a filly just like Sable. Well, who knew she still held out a hope that she'd be getting her wish.

Corelle. Thats what she wanted to name the filly. Her clothes on, Kat took the stairs two at a time.

The table was littered with china. Everyone was up and out it seemed. Everyone but her! She could feel a royal sulk coming on but the sound of a heavy neighing put the spring back in her heels and off she shot. Across the kitchen floor, out the back door, bursting into the sunlight like a wonderfully free spirited filly herself.

Kat ran to the stalls. Sable had her own stall for the foaling. She'd been there for a couple of days now. She'd looked so tired and big with foal that Kat almost thought this whole cycle of procreation was a tad unfair to the fairer sex, regardless the species. Just as she was about to spring past him, Phil grabbed her by the waist and swung her back from the entrance to the stall. Kat beat at his arm and almost bit his hand out of all the frustration of the previous night. ”Whoa! Hold your horses, pigtails”, he smiled but there were strain lines around his mouth and dark shadows under his eyes.

”Why?”

He kept smiling, not paying attention to the question. She had amazing spirit, this one! She always was the most favored child out of the three his sister had borne, the most tender hearted, the most friendly and the most passionate in everything she did. He loved her to within the limits of a fault. ”Uncle Phil?! I want to see her. Right now. Now!”, she hissed but only because she didn't want to upset her mare by hollering.

“Kat, it's best to let her do her business alone. Mares don't like company when they're foaling. You'll only agitate her, child!”

“Kat!”, her mother came around the back of the stall, ”there you are, why didn't you have your breakfast. It was sitting on the table for you”.

“I'm not going to be made to miss another moment of this, mum!”

“Kat, don't!”, Liz caught Phil's look and gave up. ”Oh alright! Stay then.”, she said and walked off to talk to the vet who'd just arrived with Kats' dad. Sable neighed and Kat turned to look in from the edge of the door at her beautiful mare. “Does it hurt Uncle Phil?”, suddenly the anger was all gone and Kat's heart was in its right place again.

“She can handle it Kat, she's a strong girl.” Yes, she could handle it. Kat was sure of that. She couldn't dream of the “otherwise” situation.

“How long now?”, she asked.

“Not much longer.”

She turned to look at her dad who'd come up to hug her hello.“Hey dad!”, she hugged back and looked at him with her soul in her eyes and asked him, “She'll be OK, right?”

“Of course, sugah!”

Dave turned away even before he finished the sentence, hiding his eyes from his daughter, covering up his concern. This didn't look good to him. Sable had been restless too long. Two hours had passed and he saw no signs of any progress. He just didn't know what to tell Kat. She was so smart she'd be able to tell at his slightest hesitation that something was wrong and he didn't want to have to handle her distress right now. So he just walked away purposefully before she could ask him anything more.

Kat didn't like it. She wanted to follow her dad and ask him some more questions, she could feel that he had just avoided her, but then she didn't want to leave the stall. Sable kept circling and then sitting down only to stand up again with a fevered look in her eyes and Kat couldn't leave her now. Uncle Phil was leaning against the stall and chewing on his piece of habitual straw, eyes covered with his stetson, looking very uncommunicative which was unlike him. Kat decided she couldn't stand outside away from Sable any longer. Sable needed her, she could sense it. She had grown up with Sable by her side, sharing each new experience of her teenage years with her steadfast, trustworthy filly. Sable was the treasurer of all Kats' secrets. No one knew Kat like Sable and no one knew Sable like Kat. And so trusting her instincts which had been honed to perfection by this proximity to nature through life upon Heather Ranch, Kat silently slipped into the stall with Sable.

Sable stopped her restless wandering about the stall and stood still, sensing Kat in the shadows.

She neighed gently and shook her head in greeting and Kat grinned. She knew Sable would never be angry with her for intruding. Kat left the shadows, and walked towards the mare. Sable suddenly tensed and Kat arrested her step mid-stride.

”Sable!”, she cooed,”It's me, Kat.”

The mare suddenly turned and neighed louder, aggressive, agitated. “Don't move”, Uncle Phil was right beside her,”Talk to her like usual, don't let your voice show any tremor Kat”, he whispered.


“Sable it's me Kat, it's alright girl,it's all going to be alright.”

Kat tried hard to keep the fear out of her voice. The mares' look hadn't altered, maybe she'd been too hasty, too cocky with her decision to step into the stall. Then suddenly the mare fell to the ground and Kat forgot all her fear and ran to her side. Suddenly, Sable was shivering and sweating, all muscles tensed and hot from the effort of foaling. Kat was beside her best girl, sweating alongside. She remembered nothing but the time spent upon the pastures riding Sable with the trust and confidence of a seasoned equestrian.

Kat was stroking Sable, cooing gently to her all the things she could possibly think of that she'd used in days when she was more sure of her friend and more in control of the situation they were in. She could hear a song and was surprised to realise that she was the one singing it, a silly ditty which she habitually sang whenever they were out together. The tears she shed were another surprise but she wasn't ashamed of them, she kissed Sable's neck and willed the foal to be born safe and whole.

Within minutes the stall was filled with cheers and a loud buzz of activity that startled Kat. She had been so wrapped up in her private chamber of prayer and devotion to Sable that she hadn't noticed. The foal had emerged and Sable's sudden movement towards the newborn shook Kat aware.

She was being hugged and tickled, her pigtails were being pulled, her back thumped. She felt like she'd just won the rodeo. It was intoxicating this hero worship business!

Kat was crying and laughing simultaneously. She was on top of the world and then her mother winked at her.

It was Corelle after all. Sable licked the filly clean and then nudged her till she stood, all four legs twig like, bent at odd angles to one another and Kat laughed as she called out happily.

“Corelle!”

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See next page for
list of books by Wardha Jawdat

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BOOKS BY WARDHA JAWDAT

Poetry

Shades of Grey
Known Stranger

Fiction & Writings

A Summer in Black
Writing by Numbers

Short Stories

Kat & Sable

Folk Tales

Enchanted Lake

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Text: Copyright © 2010 Wardha Jawdat. All rights reserved. This book contains material protected by Copyright. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author. Layout and design: Copyright © 2010 Faisal Mahmood Cover Page & Background: 'The Farm Girl' Copyright © 2008 'Baby Daisies' Copyright © 2010 Layout Sparks
Publication Date: 07-28-2010

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