The Cowboy, the Dying Girl, and the Horse No One Could Ever Move
A tear slipped down her cheek. “But I can’t run anymore. I can’t even walk. I’m going to be so slow. What if I can’t keep up with the angels? What if everyone runs ahead and I get left behind all by myself?”
Jax felt his chest crack open. This tough, hardened cowboy, who had spent decades getting thrown off bucking horses and trampled in the dirt, suddenly felt hot tears streaming down his scarred cheeks.
He couldn’t stop them. He didn’t even try.
“Do you think,” Lily whispered, looking back at the giant black horse. “Do you think if Goliath has a soul, he could be my horse in heaven? So I don’t have to walk? So I won’t be left behind?”
Jax reached out. He placed his rough, calloused hand over Lily’s tiny one, which was still resting on Goliath’s nose.
“Listen to me, Lily,” Jax said, his voice thick and shaking. “I don’t know much about angels. But I know horses.”
He looked right into her eyes. “I know this horse better than anyone. He doesn’t like people. But he loves you. He picked you.”Jax wiped his face with his heavy canvas sleeve. “I promise you, with everything I have, that Goliath has a soul. A bigger, braver soul than most people I’ve ever met in my entire life.”
Lily’s eyes widened. “Will he find me?”
“He will,” Jax said fiercely. “We’re going to make sure of it.”
Jax stood up. He reached to his waist and unhooked his prized possession. It was a solid silver belt buckle from his very first championship, worn smooth from thirty years of wearing it every single day.
He knelt back down and placed the heavy silver buckle right into Lily’s lap.
Then, Jax pulled a small pocket knife from his jeans. He reached up to Goliath’s thick mane. The horse didn’t flinch.
Jax carefully cut a long lock of coarse black horsehair. He sat right there in the dirt and quickly braided the hair into a tight, simple bracelet.
He gently tied the black horsehair bracelet around Lily’s small wrist.
“This is a contract,” Jax told her. “You keep this on. When you get up to heaven, you wait right by the gate.”
He pointed at the giant horse. “When it’s Goliath’s time, he’s going to come looking for his rider. He’s going to smell this braided hair, and he’s going to know it’s you.”
Jax smiled through his tears. “And when you climb on his back, Lily, you are going to ride faster than any angel up there. You will never, ever be left behind.”
Lily threw her thin arms around Goliath’s massive neck and buried her face in his mane. The giant horse let out another soft rumble, standing perfectly still like he understood every single word.
Lily passed away just three weeks later.
Her mother called Jax to tell him the news. She said Lily wasn’t scared at the end. She was actually smiling, and she had flatly refused to let the nurses remove the braided horsehair bracelet.
She took it with her.
