A Unicorn in the Back 40? (550 words)

 

Over at https://moreoddsthanends.home.blog/2020/12/30/week-53-of-odd-prompts/
AC Jones prompted

Perhaps asking the vet to give the pet unicorn a check-up was a bad idea.

Let’s see. The odd prompt this week was... ah, asking the vet to give the pet unicorn a check up wasn’t a good idea? Hum... I have a piece somewhere about the Hollywood vet, working with made to order pets. But this could be the other way around, letting the vet be surprised by a unicorn. 

Let's see. Genetic mod unicorn? Surprising the vet with a unicorn. Oh, what if the child believes that this is a unicorn, and the vet insists on disabusing her of the falsehood? Or, what if the vet turns out to need the belief? Hum... lots of possible directions to go with this... Okay, let's give one of them a shot...

A Unicorn in the Back 40? (550 words)

By Mike Barker

Helen shook her head. The Wendel family insisted that she come out to their farm to check out their new family pet? Well... they were regular customers, with their rabbits, cats, dogs, and all the other pets. And she did enjoy visiting their farm. It was well kept, even the chickens got cleaned up nicely and fed. So...

She enjoyed driving out to their farm. The cows in the fields, corn towering in another field, sun shining nice and warm over all. The kind of afternoon when you think you can almost hear the world humming at peace with itself.

Then she turned into their drive. It was winding, with a nice little grove of trees, and she almost felt as if she was somehow driving out of the everyday world into another one.

The barn sat on the right side of the parking space, their farmhouse, an old whitewashed rambling house on the left. That left them a space in the middle that was fenced in. As soon as she parked, two kids ran out of the house.

"Oh, you're here! Great! Fred really needs a checkup, because mom says we can only keep him if you say it's okay."

Helen laughed.

"Okay. So... where is this Fred? And where did you find him? You've had skunks, even that weasel, and your mom isn't sure about this one? What, did you find a snake?"

The kids laughed.

"No, Fred isn't a snake. Come on, he's in the barn."

She followed them into the barn. And stopped dead in her tracks, looking at what was standing in the stall, posed in a beam of sunlight slanting down from the hayloft overhead.

Shining white, like a young pony, with... a silver horn thrusting up. The mane over the horn curled nicely around its base. It blinked big, blue eyes at her.

She finally got her voice working again.

"That... That's a unicorn."

Both of the kids nodded. The unicorn nodded.

The boy said, "That's Fred."

She started laughing.

"You got me. That's really a horse dressed up, right? You bleached its hair, stuck a fake horn on its head, and..."

All three of them shook their heads.

The unicorn pranced forward, and lowered its head.

She walked closer, and looked at how the horn was attached. She reached out, and pushed the mane back. Darn, that was a real horn, with its base solidly growing out of the skull. There was even a buttressing growth of the skull to support it.

"Okay, I'll bite. Where did you find it? Who have you told about it?"

Now the three heads shook again.

"Oh, we can tell you where we found it," the girl said. Edna, that was her name. She continued, "I was out in the back 40, where that little stand of willows is. I go back there, and draw. Usually unicorns, actually. So I was sketching one, and... he stepped out of the shadow, and posed."

The boy said, "But we haven't told anyone outside the family about it. In fact, you're the first person we've told."

She grinned. "And I'm going to tell everyone! Newspapers, TV..."

The unicorn lifted its head and snorted.

The boy said, "Nope. If we start telling people about Fred, he's gone."

The unicorn nodded, once. 

[bleep... got to go do some work, but this is coming along nicely... maybe more later...]