any man's gonna take my horse gonna have to kill me first



It had been a health rehabilitation facility before, but that was done with. Hollis had known about the place from way back I guess when he used to landscape or whatever.



The grounds of this place were immense and all overgrown with field grass and brush. It was late in the day. We cantored for a while around this huge island of trees out in the middle of this sloping field behind the place, popping off our .22 pistols at cans and crows and little mammals when we saw them, just for the fuck of it. We didn't kill anything.



After a while Hollis's huge white bay just sort of quit, stopped and stood there, all done. Hollis climbed down and just left him standing in the field as he humped off toward the abandoned loading dock, hitching his cords up over his fat ass as he did so and hollering over his shoulder at me to come on. I watched him bound up some concrete stairs and disappear inside the building.



I reined the yellow mustang to trot over to the iron railing at the edge of the long concrete wheelchair ramp and looped the reins over the rail. That old white bay would probably hang around in the field but I didn't feature looking two towns over for this boy or maybe losing him altogether.



I paused to piss by the dumpster, thinking about all that beer we had cooling in the stream. If we were going to stay here awhile, someone would have to go get it.



It was getting chilly, then sun on its way down, firing the sky back of the field deep hues of blue and orange. I hoped there would be some old, dry wooden furniture to burn.



Also, I was seriously jonesing for some fucking nicotine. I wondered if any of the old simps, dupes, druggies and critical care patients had squirrled away any fags up here in this big abandoned bitch. I knew I'd be looking soon.



Then Hollis yodeled above me, "Woo HOO, motherfucker!"



I looked up to see his cracked blond mug hanging out the fourth floor window, grinning down at me. He looked happier than a kid on Christmas morning. I called up to him.

"What'd you get?"



"Pills," he cried. "Mercy mother of Hay Zeus, we gots us some pills!"



So it was going to be a rare one. A fucked up night bar none. I hopped up onto the loading dock, then stopped for a minute to look at the yellow mustang.



It was looking back at me, its brown eyes complacent.



I should probably let him out in the field to graze, I thought. I didn't know if he'd run away or not. I was far from a fucking expert when it came to horses.



I could hear the thumps and minute grunts of Hollis just beginning his apeshit routine upstairs and then I thought, You better fucking watch it tonight, you don't want to wake up dead quite just yet.