Shades of brown, orange, yellow, and red sprinkled the ground, crunching under Sadie Brown’s faded Converse. October was her favorite month—wearing cozy sweaters without a coat, the trees cosplaying as fireworks, and long walks in the woods. Sadie loved going on long walks, and October was the best month to do so. She had all of her regular routes, but that day, she deviated, ambling past the nearby farm and through a thicket.
She was about to turn around when she noticed another fifty feet ahead, around a bend, a riding ring with a small stable and two horses grazing. Intrigued, she continued forward, stopping only when she reached the wooden fence. The speckled black-and-white horse—the other was deep brown in color, with a star between its ears—trotted over, extending its long neck over the fence for her to pet. Sadie reached her hand out to start stroking its neck when a boy’s voice shouted out from the stable: “Oreo! Don’t be too friendly!”
The horse turned away from Sadie and trotted over to the boy, who had just come out of the stable. He was tall, with medium brown skin and dark, curly hair. He gave her a warm smile from across the field. “Sorry about him,” He called out. “He thinks every human wants to pet and cuddle with him.”
Sadie returned the smile. “You’re good! I love horses. I actually used to do some riding when I was younger, near my grandmother’s house.”
The boy started walking over, Oreo right behind him. “You can come in, if you want. Both Oreo and Chestnut”—he gestured to the other horse—“are super friendly. Just duck under the fence.”
She complied, meeting him halfway across the ring. Oreo bent his head down to her level, and she was finally able to caress him. While stroking his neck and mane, she turned to look at the boy. “What’s your name?”
“What, you expect me to share that with a stranger?” he joked. “To you, I’m just…Horse-Boy.”
Sadie laughed. “So, these are your horses?”
“No, I just take care of them. Groom them, put their tack on—y’know, the saddle and reigns and stuff—and occasionally, I do ride them,” he explained.
“Ah.” Sadie nodded. After a pause in their conversation, she turned to him. “Can I see the stable?”
For the next two months, Sadie walked to the stable and spent time with Horse-Boy as much as she could. They’d brush and ride the horses, but mostly, they just talked— about life, school, whatever was on their mind. He lived in the next town over, which was why Sadie had never met him before, but he found out about the job of taking care of the horses through a family friend.Yet, in all of their conversations, they never told each other their names. They didn’t need to. Their friendship, or whatever their relationship was, didn’t require names. It was just the two of them.
For the winter, the horses were boarded away in an indoor riding space. Sadie had never enjoyed winter, but that year felt especially cold to her, without the warm excitement of seeing Horse-Boy every day. But in March, the horses were brought back, and both Horse-Boy and Sadie returned to the stables. Again, nearly every day after school, they hung out, often riding the horses out of the ring and around the paths, sometimes going almost all the way to town. Sadie loved the reliability of it all—rain or shine, he was always there.
Until the day he wasn’t.
Sadie arrived at the ring, Oreo running over and Chestnut ignoring her, as usual, but Horse-Boy’s familiar voice was nowhere to be found. She checked the stables, ventured through the nearby paths, but he never showed. She waited until the sun set, at which point she realized she had to go home. She kept running through what could’ve happened to the boy. Perhaps it was something inane, like… a doctor's appointment! Yes, surely, nothing had happened. He would be back the next day!
But he wasn’t. Nor was he the next. The weeks came and went, and he was nowhere to be found. The horses’ food bowls were always full, and their coats were kept at a short length, but by whom Sadie didn’t know. She started asking people if they knew of the boy, describing him to the best of her ability. But no one understood who she was talking about; it’s remarkably difficult to find someone when you don’t know their name, especially considering the fact that he was from the next town over. After months of looking, Sadie finally accepted that it was out of her hands. Plus, she had to give up the search in order for her parents to stop asking their stupid questions; so what if she didn’t know his name? Did that make him any less important? Sadie couldn’t stand the way they’d glance at each other with those concerned faces, communicating mentally, as if she didn’t see them doing it. So she let it up. She stopped going to the horses, stopped asking people about Horse-Boy, just returned to what she had done before she met him. But he was always in the back of her mind.
A year passed. It was the beginning of June, and Sadie was in her senior year of high school. Only three months later, she would cross the country to start her new life in the shade of the palm trees in Los Angeles. But Sadie felt wrong just running off without saying goodbye to her previous one, the only one she had known thus far. So she made it her mission to find closure in every aspect of her life—she made thank-you cards for all of her teachers, she had all of her friends over for a graduation party, and she walked all of the trails she had frequently hiked throughout the last few years. Including the one that led to the horses.
As she approached, she saw the horses’ familiar faces. The last time she had been there was more than a year ago; she couldn’t help but duck the fence and run to the majestic creatures, Oreo trotting over to her in return. He bowed his head to her level, offering himself for her to pet. She caressed his neck, her hands running over the familiar feeling of his coat. Resting her forehead on his stomach, feeling the gentle giant breathe in and out, she was finally able to take a deep breath of her own. Honestly, that moment would’ve been enough for Sadie to reach the closure she desired. But then a voice came out from behind her, a voice she had longed to hear for so long. “We’ve missed you around here,” Horse-Boy said.
She spun around, seeing that he was truly there, not just some figment of her imagination, and proceeded to immediately collapse into his arms. They stood there, not speaking, yet saying so much. Just lost in the warmth of the embrace.
But after a minute, he gently pushed away, and they stood staring at each other. He gave her that small, knowing smile she loved so much. “I’ve missed you.”
She wanted to ask him what happened, why he left, all the millions of questions she had accumulated over the past year. But when she opened her mouth, no sound came out. What could possibly be adequate? What mattered wasn’t that he had been gone, but that he was here now. So she just smiled, a single tear running down her face, and pulled him back into the embrace. “I’ve missed you too, Horse-Boy.”