Jessa’s Patient Barrel Star — Behind the chutes, while the crowd stamped clap-clap-clap on the boards, Jessa kept her mare, Cricket, walking tiny circles in the dust. Read the full story →
Behind the chutes, while the crowd stamped clap-clap-clap on the boards, Jessa kept her mare, Cricket, walking tiny circles in the dust. She wanted one clean run before the lanterns burned low, but the starting gate had jammed with a wooden groan. Other riders grumbled and tightened their reins. Jessa only rubbed Cricket’s warm neck and listened to the barrel at the first turn make a small tick…tick…tick in the wind.
“Wait with me,” she whispered. When the gate still would not lift, Jessa slid down and checked the nearest barrel, because secrets often choose the noisiest hiding places. Under its rusty cap—not inside the barrel, not behind it, but under the flat little lid nobody noticed—lay a tin star, bright as a wink. She pressed it to the barrel’s side, and the stuck gate sprang open with a happy clang.
Jessa and Cricket rounded that barrel so neatly the crowd forgot to cheer for one breath. Ever since, barrel racing barrels have worn stars, to remind racers that the fastest turn may begin with patient tick…tick…tick; next time you see the star on this one, you’ll know who waited long enough to find it.
