And We All Fall Down

Just as it does for all parents, life continued to whizz by Evaline and Nikolai until it seemed that everywhere they looked, there was a child growing up or a foal being born.

Nikolai continued to dominate the racing circuits, winning International Equestrian competitions almost as often as he changed his underpants, thanks to Pharoah.

Although Pharoah was winning on the racing circuit, he was losing out where it mattered. Sweet Domino’s affections had turned elsewhere. Namely towards a gorgeous Palamino stallion, aptly called Palo.

 

The tension was horrible back at the Ranch, so when Nikolai was offered an obscene sum for Pharoah by one of his fellow ranchers, he couldn’t refuse. The sadness in poor Pharoah’s eyes haunted Nikolai something fierce.

It took awhile for him to shake the emotions he felt selling Pharoah, but he birth of a new foal, Alize, certainly brought some brightness back into his eyes.

The last of the shadows were chased from his eyes by Hunter’s amazing ability to smile and laugh at anything, his kindness and penchant for down-on-their-luck animals reminded Nikolai so much of himself.

Even as he grew into his too-large teenage feet, Hunter kept his honest smile and sweet animal lover ways.

Which meant that the house became a magnet for any stray animal within a five mile radius.

It drove Evaline mad but Nikolai loved nothing better than seeing his son shower a forgotten pet with love and kindness.

Alize was no different to any of the strays, following Hunter around the ranch every time he left the house. Many an escape attempt was made in an effort to follow him out of the ranch, but Nikolai somehow managed to foil them all. His constant watching was a bone of contention for Alize, especially once adulthood was upon her.

That bone of contention grew even greater when Hunter left his childhood behind.

His eagerness to discover the world and all of its creatures gave him a youthful restlessness that could only be satisfied by taking a monumental step.

No, not that one!

Running’s fun but it’s not a monumental step anywhere.

No, no, no. Not that one either!

I mean, graduation’s important, but this is a bigger step.

Yep, that’s it!

With a jump in his step and excitement in his heart, Hunter left his childhood home behind – not to mention all of the devastated hearts of Alize and the strays.

Poor Nikolai had a battle on his hands over the next few weeks. Alize couldn’t be trusted to walk five feet without making a break for the boundary of the ranch. The poor man was like a walking zombie, especially with the biggest International Equestrian Jumping competition of the year coming up.

Weariness came with a decidedly dangerous lack of focus, but Nikolai was determined to perfect the flame jump before the competition, no matter how many falls rattled his bones.

And there were a lot.

Evaline worried incessantly about Nikolai’s dangerous antics, insisting that the prize wasn’t worth putting his life at risk. Nikolai shrugged her worries off, his thoughts running through the dollars that raising so many children was taking – almost as soon as the money came in, it went out again. After school activities, excursions, basic necessities. The bills ran into the thousands, depending on how many babies and toddlers were around at the time.

Nikolai loved his family more than anything in this world.

 And he would never let his wife and children go without.

Or so he thought.

It took only one distracted jump for Nikolai to take away the one thing his wife and children needed more than anything in the world

Him.

The pyrotechnics went horribly wrong and even Evaline’s desperate grab for the fire extinguisher could not stop Nikolai succumbing to the horror of the flames.

No amount of bargaining could bring Nikolai back, no matter how hard Evaline tried.

He was gone.

Grief consumed Evaline as she tried to be strong for the children. The older ones brought food and helped out where they could, but the younger ones still couldn’t understand why Daddy wasn’t coming home.

The only thing that kept Evaline going was her parting gift from her beloved husband.

When the doctors told her that she was expecting twins, Evaline’s protective instinct finally seemed to kick into gear. She knew that if she was going to do her husband’s memory proud she would have to look after herself, and these babies, better than she had been so far.

So on Doctors orders, Evaline’s priority became just one thing – rest!

Which she did rather well, considering it’s something remarkably foreign to her after six children. The good news was, that by the day that those horrific contractions came, Evaline almost felt prepared for the whirlwind that twins would bring.

Determined to be independent – or perhaps the oxytocin had just killed off some brain cells – Evaline drove herself to the local hospital, only pulling over when the contractions hit harder than she could handle.

The labour was fierce, but Evaline’s determination to see her beautiful husband’s babies was fiercer. Soon enough they came into the world, filling a hole in their mother’s heart like no other children before them. After a couple of days, they sent the newly single widowed mother home with her two cooing newborns.

Say hello to Babies No. 7 & 8 …

Baby No 7 – Hope

Baby No 8 – Valor

Cute button noses and sweet rosy cheeks brightened Evaline’s smile just enough to let her see that her life hadn’t ended with Nikolai’s.