gathered around the hole with the horse lying in the bottom, covered with a blanket. She pulled a piece of paper from her pocket and read:
By the edge of a woods, at the foot of a hill,
Is a lush, green meadow where time stands still.
Where the friends of man and women do run,
When their time on earth is over and done.
For here, between this world and the next,
Is a place where beloved creatures find rest.
On this golden land, they wait, and they play,
Until the Rainbow Bridge they cross over one day.
They trot through the grass without even a care,
Until one day they whinny and sniff at the air.
All ears prick forward, eyes sharp and alert.
Then all of a sudden, one breaks from the herd.
For just at that second, there’s no room for remorse.
As they see each other . . .
Her voice broke and Ashlyn slipped her arm around Tiffany’s shoulders.
So, they run to each other, these friends from long past.
The time of their parting is over at last.
The sadness they felt while they were apart
Has turned to joy once more in each heart.
They nuzzle with a love that will last forever.
And then, side by side, they cross over together.
“Rest in peace, Dynamite. Someday I’ll be with you again,” Ashlyn said as she picked up a shovel and began to fill in the grave.
Jayden slipped her phone from the hip pocket of her jeans and started the song Carmella had asked for. The girl had been right. The words did fit every one of the kids gathered around the grave that hot, sultry afternoon. The lyrics of the song talked about a dream being like a river, trying to learn from what’s in the past, and that they would never reach their destination if they never tried.
They were still shoveling dirt when the song ended, so Jayden hit the “Repeat” button and let it run until there was a long mound of dirt beside the half-mile marker. Then Quinley and Violet pushed the wheelbarrows close to the grave and all the girls piled rocks on top until it was completely covered.
Ashlyn carefully picked a yellow flower from a cactus and laid it in the middle of the rocks. “You were a good friend and you will be missed. Now, we’ve got stalls to clean before supper, and two horses to exercise. I’m sure all y’all from the other cabins have work to catch up on, too, so let’s get it done so we won’t be behind tomorrow. I hope all of y’all listened to the words of that song. When any of us think about getting into trouble when we get home, we should play that song again and remember what we’ve learned here.”
“Wow!” Novalene muttered under her breath.
“Amen,” Diana agreed. “I believe we’re going out on a victory note with this group.”
Jayden didn’t comment. She was too proud of Ashlyn for words, and besides, she couldn’t have gotten them out past the lump in her throat, anyway.
Chapter Twenty
Jayden had just turned off her bedroom light when a soft rap on her door made her sit straight up in bed. “Yes?” she asked.
“Jayden, can we talk?” Ashlyn asked.
“Of course.” Jayden reached out and turned on the lamp on the nightstand beside her bed.
She was surprised when all three girls came into her room and sat down on the floor beside her bed. They’d evidently turned their hats around when they were slinging dirt, because they had half-moon-shaped sunburns on their foreheads.
“Have you ever been to a funeral?” Tiffany asked.
“Three that really affected me,” Jayden answered honestly. “My grandmother died when I was sixteen, and my grandpa came to live with me and Mama. Then he died a little while after that, and I lost my mother a few years later. How about y’all?”
“My nanny died, but Mama said I couldn’t go to the funeral. She said they were depressing, and that I hadn’t seen her since I got too old for a nanny, so . . . ,” Ashlyn answered.
“I haven’t been to a funeral before today,” Tiffany said, “but I got to thinking about how hard it would be to lose my mama or my daddy or my sister. They’re not perfect, and they don’t have much time for me, but to stand there and look at their dead bodies in a casket would break my heart.”
“I went to my grandmother’s memorial when I was about four or five.” Carmella frowned as if she was trying to bring up the