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Show Moon - 34 door. But the inside of the stall was dark. He'd made a small air vent near the top, but there was no window. With the door shut, the stall would be black as a cave. "Horses aren't like dogs who like to sleep in dens," I said. "Horses need to scan the horizon for predators." "There aren't any predators around here." He swept out his arms to the expanse of fenced pasture, the vegetable gardens, the stand of pine, and the white cones of the Sisters on the horizon. "I'm talking about instinct, not logic. You can't change the nature of a horse." Josh, in the nature of a master carpenter, was waiting for me to run my hands on the silken boards, to test the balance and perfect fit of the hand-hewn door. I relented and said, "It's beautifully made. Thank you." If I had one passion remaining, it was that nothing should take the happiness out of his eyes. Josh has never sat a horse. How could I expect him to understand the mind of an animal born to be hunted? I visit Josh in the town of Sisters, where he's finishing a kitchen in salvaged barn wood. I bring him sandwiches and coffee. He looks down at me from the ladder, a hammer poised midair. His young eyes go amber, he smiles so sweetly he reminds me of my brothers, and I want to gather him to my breasts like a child. It's so easy to keep him happy. With Windfall complicating my life, his simple sense of pleasure makes me wonder if I've made a mistake marrying a younger man, though only by a few years. It seems wrong to be so happy, for us to be two children building houses, playing with a horse. |