Free Morning Star by Randy Mixter

enough for him to count. He counted twenty-three of them.

27
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    The firemen did their best but the barn was a complete loss. Nate didn't care. The horses were secured in the corral, all but Morning Star who insisted on pushing Nate toward the back of what was left of the stable. The Millsborough police chief had arrived by then and followed behind.
    The horse nudged Nate to the edge of a field. There amid the weeds lay a body.
    The chief pushed forward. "Let me have a look."
    He bent down and shined a flashlight beam into the body's face.
    "It's Tommy Travers," he said. "He's alive, just unconscious. Looks like he's been up to no good. From that lump on his forehead. I'd say he paid the price for it. I'll call in another ambulance."
    Nate looked down at the still body of Tommy Travers. His eyes scanned the ground around him. Something he remembered from a dream. His friend Dave had said it. You need to find the flower. And so had Katy. You need to find it outside of a dream.
    "Can I borrow your flashlight, Glenn?" he asked the policeman. 
    It was handed to him and he walked to the right of Tommy Travers and stooped down. He pointed the light into the field. Dark blue flowers that looked like roses spread out around him. None were in bloom. 
    Nate stood up and handed the flashlight back to the police chief.  
    "I need to take care of something real quick and then I'm headed to the hospital to see Dannie,." He said. "Call me there if you need me."  
    Nate arrived at Dannie's hospital room to see Martha, Cindy, and Doctor Fleming huddled around the girl's bed.
    He walked over to Cindy. "Dannie?" 
    She stared at the bed and held Dannie's hand. "She's patched up but still hasn't woken up."
    "It might be a concussion. We're waiting on the X-rays," Fleming said.  
    Cindy turned to him. Her eyes were red from crying. "I'm scared Nate."
    Nate moved around to the nightstand by the bed. He held a drinking glass in his hand. Dirt filled the glass. A large flower bud, dark blue in color rose high and straight from the soil.
    Nate placed the glass on the stand close to his daughter's head and walked back over to his wife.
    "What?" she softly said.
    "Shhh."
    The room grew silent. For several seconds no one gathered around Dannie spoke. Then the flower next to Dannie began to unfold.
    All eyes turned to the flower. It spread its petals slowly, each one smaller than the one before, as it spread apart. And when it had blossomed fully, when it looked as radiant as a spring morning, Dannie opened her eyes.
    She turned her head to her father "Did you save the horses?" she asked him.
    He reached for her hand. Tears of joy fell from his eyes as he bent down to kiss her forehead. The sound of crying filled the room around him. Doctor Fleming smiled and grasped Nate's shoulder.
    "I didn't save them," her father said, "Morning Star did."

28
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    Fleming entered the room carrying a large white packet. "The X-rays are negative," he said to the group. "Had a feeling they would be. Want to have a look?"
    "I'll take your word for it," Nate replied.
    "I want 'em!" Dannie yelled out.
    He handed the packet to her. "Take them as a souvenir," he said to her.
    They left the hospital together, but not before Dannie visited her friends in the children's ward.
    She had decided she was hungry the minute she was tucked in, famished she said. She woofed down one bowl of cereal and now plowed into her second serving.
    "We'll be right back Dannie," her new mother said to her. "Okay?"
    "Okay mom," Dannie said without looking up from the bowl in her lap. Martha waved them out with a smile.
    They walked onto the porch. The night was still dark but in the distance, on the horizon, the sky had the light red color of the dawn.
    She turned to him, wrapped her arms around his neck,  and kissed him on the lips. When they broke apart she gently caressed his cheek.
    "What did you do in Dannie's hospital room, Nate? A blue rose that blossomed just as Dannie opened her