Day 303: Stairway to Heaven
The horse is gone. That horse rescued from the zed-infested barn, she was making too much noise in the house. Distracting. Certainly one reason not to keep a horse indoors. Led her down and over through the tunnel, aiming to keep her temporarily in the cleared-out house.
That tunnel, its upward exit, has always been a mystery. It was first carved upward, somehow through the house’s existing floor. Its first ascent was extremely disorienting. Going up never leaves any memory of reaching the top. The last recollections are of a looming decision, the dreadful sense that retreat would be impossible after going forward, and of decisively proceeding. Clearly having reached the top afterward, there is no evidence of a stair, only blank floor. Staring up the stair from the bottom gives the same dreadful, looming feeling, when the will to proceed upward fails.
The horse, she had already shown to like following up and down stairs. But at the mystery stair, she was lost. The willpower to proceed comes easily after many repetitions. Not for the horse, however. The last clear memory is of her faithfully following, just by the stair. Upon arriving at the top, she was gone. No hooves could be heard coming up, and she did not appear. Running quickly back to the tunnel, through it, and to its end where she last followed, she was nowhere to be found.
Perhaps horses are incapable of decision, and go instead to some limbo. Perhaps she will emerge yet. Or perhaps she now spends her time grazing in golden fields beyond my reach.
