"Dad, I appreciate you telling me about this place, but I don't have time to go horseback riding right now," Michaela tried to explain to her father. "I have to write three more chapters and edit them before my deadline which is in two weeks. I can't just diddy dally around."
"Your mom and I are worried about you, Mike," her father said, gently. "Myra told us you haven't left your house in two weeks. I'm sure Ms Jennings would give you an extension to finish your book. You need to do more than writing, sweetheart."
After talking on the phone with her father for half an hour, Michaela Quinn was getting a bit anxious to get back to Writing. She loved him with all of her heart and knew he was worrying about her, since she moved to Colorado Springs a year ago. Both of her parents weren't thrilled about her moving away from Boston, but when she found a small house near where her best friend, Myra, who was a nurse and her husband, Hank Lawson were living, then they felt better about it. Even though Michaela was twenty-eight years old, college educated, and an author, her parents still sometimes treated her as a child.
"God, why did you make me handicapped?" she asked, silently.
Michaela was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck causing her not to breathe. In order to save her life, Dr. Jameson had to preformed CPR on her. When baby Michaela cried, everybody was relieved, but Dr. Jameson and her father, who was a doctor also, knew since she was without oxygen for a few minutes, then a part of her cerebral part of her brain might have been damaged and would led her having Cerebral Palsy. Michaela stayed in the hospital for and week to be sure she was breathing properly before going home. Both of her parents decided rather than putting her through an x-ray, they would wait and see if she had CP.
When Michaela did start crawling or walking without help, they took her to a specialist and confirmed what her father expected-Michaela had cerebral Palsy. At sixteen months, she started physical therapy. Since Michaela's CP only affected her legs and her balance, her therapist, Mrs. Cooper concentrated on strengthening them and taught her to crawl and when she got her leg braces Mrs. Cooper had her practice walking with a walker. Michaela could walk with the help of her walker, but when she had to walk long distances she had to use her wheelchair.
Michaela was placed in Special Ed, but her parents knew despite her physical handicap, she very smart and knew she deserved to be mainstreamed into regular classes like their other four daughters. They didn't act until she announced one day after school that she knew her ABC's and 123's and wanted to be in regular classes like her friends in Sunday school. Her parents talked to the Special Education advisors, therapists, and counselors and with their help, it was arranged for intelligence testing to see if she could benefit from academics. It was hard to convince the school Michaela was able to learn, so she went to be tested. Although it was something that had not been done before, the school worked with her and her family to see that she got a chance to learn the things that other kids learned. She became one of the first severely disabled children in the district to be completely mainstreamed, beginning with first grade.
In school, Michaela was treated normally by her teachers and classmates and excelled in all of her subjects. She was always on the honor roll and graduated high school with honors. She attended Boston University, where she majored in English and minored in History. Although Michaela could had have lived at home, she wanted to live in an apartment with Myra and Grace and be more independent. Her parents knew she could take care of herself, so they agreed to pay her part of the rent.
Michaela enjoyed college life. She did what any college student would do. She attended her classes, wrote papers, studied, partied, and went to concerts. Michaela met David Lewis at a Jon Bon Jovi concert and hit it of right off. They spent hours talking to one another in a night dinner after the concert. Michaela and David talked about each other's hopes and dreams for their futures. She told him her desire to be a famous writer and he told her how he wanted to be a heart surgeon because of his brother who was born with a heart defect and died when he was eighteen because they coulddn't find a match in time. Michaela told him about her best friend, Daniel, who had a heart and lung defect and died during back surgery and how heartbroken she felt when her sister, Marjorie, told her he didn't make it. Then Michaela and David talked about how more people needed to be organ donors.
After that night, they were always together and some people wondered why David would want to have a handicapped girlfriend, but others were happy for them. Michaela and David dated all of college and after they graduated, he proposed and she said yes. They planned on getting married after he finished medical school.
"So much for that plan," Michaela thought, bitterly.
Last year Michaela and David were supposed to get married, but a month before he had told her he couldn't marry her because he fell in love with someone else named Miriam Tilson. David told Michaela how he tried to fight his feelings for Miriam but he couldn't lie to himself anymore and told her that marrying her wouldn't have been right. Michaela was angry, sad, embarrass and disappointed. She wasn't herself for months after that, but then one day, she realized she needed a change and moved to Colorado Springs.
"It was one of the smartest things I ever done," Michaela told herself. "At least here I'm not reminded about David everywhere I turned."
Her father's voice made her come back to the present.
"Michaela, did you hear a word I said?"
Michaela told him, "I'm sorry, Dad. I got distracted. What did you say?"
"I said it would be good to do hippotherapy again," he said. "You always enjoyed riding horses ever since you were little. You could meet new people."
Before she could respond, Myra walked through the door carrying groceries. "Dad, Myra just walked in with my groceries. I need to help her put them up. I'll call you back tomorrow."
"Okay, Mike, but promise me you'll think about going to that place. "
To appease her father she said, "I will. Bye, Dad. I love you. Tell Mom and everyone hi for me." After he said he would and goodbye, she hung up.
Myra, who heard the last part of her conservation asked, "what did your dad made you promise to do?"
Michaela wheeled herself to the kitchen and put a head of lettuce in her lap so she could put it in the refrigerator. After she did, she answered, "Dad wants me to go somewhere near here where they do hippotherapy. I think its called CD Ranch."
"Oh, I heard of it," her friend told her. "They did a special about it on the news a year ago. The owner name is Larry Seller or Cloud Dancing as his friends calls him."
Michaela's eyebrow lifted and asked, "Cloud Dancing? Is he an old hippie?"
"No. He's Cheyenne Indian," Myra explained. "Cloud Dancing is his Indian name. Anyway, he started doing hippotherapy after his best friend's older brother was paralyzed from the waist down after a car wreck. He loved horseback riding, so Larry decided to make a platform with a ramp so they could mount him up on a horse easier. Cloud Dancing saw how much he enjoyed coming there to ride, he decided to let any handicapped person come and ride."
"How can you remember all that?"
"What do you mean? You know I have a good memory."
Michaela gave her a suspicious look. "Myra, we have been best friends since first grade and I know when you're keeping something from me. Dad called you and told you about CD Ranch, didn't he?"
"What if he did?" she asked countering her. "By the way, I did saw the special that aired on the ten o'clock news. All right, I watched it on YouTube last night, but I digressed. Your parents are worried about you. All you do is eat, sleep, and write. You don't go with me anymore. We use to go shopping, eat out and go to the movies. The last time you went out was two weeks ago when we went to the doctor's to get your botox injections for your legs. It isn't good being cooped up in this house. You even missed church two weeks in a roll. Reverend Johnson and his wife, Amanda asked if you were sick."
Michaela let out a sigh and said, "You know I have a deadline to meet and I need tot spend every minute I can to write."
"That's bull and you know it," Myra interjected. "You have never missed a deadline and if you did, Dorothy Jennings would give you more time. Tell the truth, you haven't been yourself since you found out David and Miriam were engaged. Michaela, being depressed and hiding behind your writing won't help you. You need to get David Lewis out of your system once and for all. I'm going to make sure you go and do things you enjoy starting with horseback riding. Tomorrow morning I'm going to take you to CD Ranch."
"Why can't people just let me be?" she asked.
"Because we love you and want you to be happy again," her friend replied gently.
Michaela ran a hand through her hair, knowing she had been defeated. "You will keep bothering me until I go, right?"
Her friend smiled and said, "Yep."
After rolling her eyes and sucked in air, she gave in. "Fine, Myra. I'll go. I'll call you when I'm ready."
"Great!" Myra exclaimed, bending down to hug her. "I have a Wonderful feeling about this."
"Myra, it's just horseback riding," Michaela said, dryly. Then turning back to the groceries she said, "we need to up the rest of these up, especially the milk, cheese, and eggs."
Myra smiled and nodded. While she was helping Michaela putting the groceries up, Myra silently prayed her friend would find happiness she really deserved.
She wasn't the only person who hoped their friend would find happiness again. Outside of the city limits, a man asked God to bring his friend's true love into his life.