Steve was sitting on the bottom stairs, looking out the window at the rain. It always seemed to rain at Follyfoot, especially in the Autumn! The leaves had just turned and the chestnuts were falling at the end of the drive.
"Morning Steve" came a cheery repose from Dora as she siddled past him on the stairs! Her long legs were hidden inside her pale blue jeans, but he could feel her as she floated past - a soft warmth that made him think of an angel, floating past and looking down at him.
As he looked up, he saw her eyes in a solitary shaft of sunlight that came in from the dining room window - a shaft that somehow made it through all the rain and the clouds and the storms and touched her face, bathing it in a radiant golden glow. . . . .
Steve looked at her eyes, those soft, clear pools of brown in her white face, surrounded by her softly flowing hair that seemed to just touch her shoulders . . . she smiled at him . . and he felt this warm feeling spreading from his heart upwards towards his face, his boyish good looks overcome by this feeling of . . . . .
And she was gone - - Dora jumped down off the lowest stairs and into the dining room.
Left all alone, Steve suddenly felt - - empty! This was a feeling that he had never felt before - all he wanted to do was go back and relive that moment as she floated past him, a moment in time when he felt safe, warm, surrounded by love and affection - all conveyed to him in a split second by one glance from a woman that he realised he knew, yet he really didn't know at all!
And she was a woman - no longer the young girl that had arrived at Follyfoot just three years ago, Dora had blossomed into a well educated, professional young woman who knew what she wanted and was not afraid to fight to get it.
He remembered all those moments over the past 3 years that he had spent with her - seeing Charley down by the river, celebrating a birthday at Follyfoot, getting the present for Sandy, competing for the Prize and then getting the Hundred Pound Horse, realising all that had to be in an Awakening moment, then Flying off Home to see his mother and realising that he truly missed Dora, wondering if she ever missed him when he was gone, dreaming of her all those long lonely nights, then trudging through the fields looking for Copper in the Rain on Friday, finally going for that magical Walk in the Woods with Dora!
Did she really care, was he imaging it when she took his hand as they walked along that leafy path, did he really hear her laugh in that lovely singsong voice as he told her about falling down in the mud when he slipped - or was it when Copper pushed him from behind?
Dreams - all dreams, but they made him feel so good....
But wait, he's a guy, guys don't get dreamy over a girl, guys don't sit on the stairs wishing that they were with a girl, guys don't . . .pine for a girl........do they?
Is this love? Could be have fallen for Dora - the girl that he just took for granted - that was always there for him - that was just it, she was always there for him, always there to make him feel good, to bathe his wounds, hold his head when he hurt, comfort him on those long dark nights when they stayed up with Copper after he cut his leg, she was the one that held Steve in the dark to stay warm, she was the one that told him not to cry when they didn't know if old Charley would be okay, she was the one that was just always there for him......
Steve wondered if she would always be there for him, or would she find someone else, someone who would treasure her, look after her and care for her better than he could, someone who would steal her away from him......
Steve realised that there were tears streaming down his face, his eyes were tearing and the tears just kept coming - silent tears, the kind that no-one would ever know about . . .
A soft hand gently brushed his cheek, a tissue caught the tears as they fell, a soft voice whispered into his ear - "I'm here Steve, I'll always be here for you . but you have to reach out to me - I want you and I need you, but only you can break my heart and I need my heart broken and then fixed - by you, Steve, by you!"
Steve looked up to see Dora standing over him, her soft hands cupped his face as she leant forward and whispered in his ear "I will love you, my darling, I will love you but only if you will love me back"
"Send me a song, my love, send me a song and I'll send it back to you, all wrapped up in love"
Dora loooked into his eyes, searching for some sign that Steve really did love her and that she was not in some strange dreamworld that would shatter in the next few seconds ...
"I do, I love you" whispered Steve as he gazed back into her eyes....
Standing up, he reached out and took Dora in his arms, their lips met in a gentle motion that sent shivers down both their spines, tingling feelings that neither of them had ever felt before.
"Ah mmm" coughed Slugger - "And when you two lovebirds have finished, there's baked beans for breakfast and some left over bacon from last Monday"
Jolted back to the real world, Steve and Dora walked into the kitchen, hand in hand and sat down to the first breakfast of the rest of their lives . . . together!
