Page 2 of One Weekend On Mackinac Island
“Did Todd ever tell you the real reason we missed your tenth birthday?” Owen asked.
The random question caught me off guard. “What?”
“Remember? We were so late to your birthday party, our parents were livid.”
“I remember Todd was grounded for a month.”
Owen chuckled sheepishly. “Yeah. Me too.”
“So, what happened?” I asked, my curiosity piqued. I never knew why they skipped my party. It was my assumption that they were not interested in attending a party that was intended for “kids”. Being two years older than me, I figured they thought my party would be childish and boring. At the time, it hurt. I looked up to my big brother and his friends. And the fact that they skipped out on my party stung.
“Remember Duke?”
I searched my mind for the name. No one came to mind . . . except . . . wait a minute . . . “Do you mean Farmer McCorkle’s horse?”
The McCorkle farm was right behind our homes, and the smell of manure and hay always wafted over our backyards, which were separated only by a thin line of trees and a dilapidated fence. There were many times when we’d wake up to find Mr. McCorkle’s cows had slipped over the fence into our yards. They seemed to love my mom’s garden the most. She had Farmer McCorkle on speed dial to report the trespassers.
Duke was the only horse at the farm. From my young perspective, he was an enormous and frightening creature.
And mean.
To get to our friends’ houses, we'd cut through the McCorkle property, but only if Duke, the hulking, white stallion, wasn'tlurking in the shadows. The horse was very territorial and would react aggressively when people came onto his property.
“The one and the same,” Owen answered, a mischievous glint in his eye as he chuckled.
“What happened?” I could only imagine when it involved the two of them. The wild, reckless adventures they had as youngsters were the stuff of legends.
“Well, we were running late to get to your party.”
“So, you took the shortcut through the field,” I guessed.
“Yup. Big mistake.”
“Duke was out?”
“Yup. We didn’t see him at first. We thought we were home safe until that white blur came charging at us.”
I could picture it in my mind. If I saw that giant horse charging toward me, I would have peed my pants. “How did you get away?”
“We didn’t. The only thing we could do to get away was climb a tree.”
My laughter erupted, a mixture of disbelief and amusement. “No. Really?”
“Yup. Todd scurried up first, going as far as he could before the branches thinned out. I scrambled up the tree just in time, barely avoiding Duke's snapping jaws. That made Duke even more pissed off. He even kicked at the tree a few times. I’d never seen him so pissed.”
“That horse had issues with people being on his land. I’m surprised he tolerated the cows.”
“Guess he preferred four-legged creatures over the two-legged ones.”
“Unless your name was McCorkle.”
“Right. The control McCorkle had over those animals was impressive.”
“He’d call out their names, and they’d go running to him. Duke included.”
“It’s too bad his call to Duke came too late for us to get to your party.”
“How long were you stuck up in that tree?”
