GOING HOME
Jeremy jumped to his feet. "Hey, Jason, stop!"
Jason pulled up the horses. "Jeremy, you know better than to stand up when we're moving! What is it going to take to break you of that? Broken bones? Concussion? Tie you down? Toss you in a sack? A good old fashioned spanking?"
Jason turned and yelled at Joshua, who had been sitting back; happily, almost dreamily watching the trees go by. He was half daydreaming, half just soaking in the feeling of going home.
"Me? How'm I supposed to know when he's gonna do some stupid something he knows better than?"
Josh's indignation eased Jason's irritation. "I suppose you can't. Jeremy?"
"Huh?" He wasn't sure if he was in trouble or not. (He was also still standing.)
"Why did you tell me to stop?" A bit of the irritability had returned. What else would he be
asking?
"Oh. I just wanted to."
"Just want– ! You put yourself in danger because you just wanted to?"
"Uh-huh."
Jason threw his hands in the air. "Well, we're stopped! Now what?"
Jeremy leaned back against Jason's back and opened his arms to the sky and the treetops. "Jus' look! An' b-breathe!"
Josh laughed. Jason's expression!
Jason picked up the reins. "I've been breathing all along. You'd have noticed by now if I wasn't." Probably not the kindest thing to say, but, really, that boy!
Jeremy turned and put his arms around Jason's neck and rubbed his face on his shoulder. "That's just b-breathin'. It ain't breathin' IN."
Jason took a deep breath and blew it out. "Will you sit down now?"
Jeremy didn't answer immediately.
His brothers waited, one with amusement and exasperation, the other with amusement and curiosity.
"J-jason?" Jeremy sounded almost timid.
"Yesss?"
"Can we – c-can we w-walk? D-do we g-gotta b-be in a hurry?"
"Not a bad idea," Josh said.
"Sounds like I'm already outvoted. No, there's no hurry. Not today. Not for the next few days. We have all the time we need and we can take all the time we want."
"Then let's walk a while,"Josh said, hopping to the ground as his brothers did the same.
"In f-front of the h-horses," Jeremy added, which set the other two to laughing as they took his advice.