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his drink. He leaned back and closed his eyes. "Every minute of the day. I just don't know Cin. Everything that's been happening lately, everything that's happened in the last couple of years. All these thoughts in my head and not a one makes any sense."
    He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. "My  mother-in-law had a dream that the horse had come to save Dannie. What do you think?"
    Cindy wanted to tell him why she thought the horse had come to The Rising Sun. She wanted to tell him her theory about Morning Star. She would wait for another time. She couldn't afford to be wrong and she wasn't sure. So she kept to herself her thought that mirrored Margaret's dream. Morning Star had come here to save Dannie. 
    "This morning when Dannie petted him I saw shooting stars in his eyes."
    "Morning Star?"
    "Yes, Morning Star."
    "I wish I knew what is going on here," he said. "A mysterious horse comes from who knows where and makes himself at home. This horse can jump higher than any horse I've ever seen and he seems to have a special bond with Dannie. Do you know why she named him Morning Star?" He didn't wait for an answer. "He told her in a dream that's the name he wanted to be called."
    Dreams. So many dreams. She had one last night. It had been forgotten until now. Now she recalled it vividly. She was a little girl walking barefoot through a starlit sky in a field of beautiful flowers. She had lost her parents, ran fast and left them behind. She needed to be alone for a while in this wondrous place. She hummed to herself as she walked, thinking she could walk forever and never find the garden's end.
    One star, one of many in the sky, brightened. It glowed with such intensity that it lit the garden in a brilliant whiteness. She had wandered into a field of blue flowers. They looked like roses, only larger and stretched as far as the eye could see. The light from the star grew brighter and the ground began to shake. She wanted the shaking to stop. It might wake her up and she didn't want to wake up because she knew something was going to happen. A miracle, and she wanted to see. She remembered this in her dream, that she wanted to stay in the field of blue flowers and she remembered that right before the dream ended, right before she woke up, the flowers blossomed, every one of them.
    Cindy turned to Nate. But his eyes remained shut and she thought that maybe he was trying to figure things out on his own. She turned her eyes back to the corral and didn't say a word. 

15
----
    Nurse Edmonton spoke up as soon as Nate and Cindy entered the bedroom.
    "She wants to walk and I want her to rest."
    Dannie sat up in bed. Her still warm breakfast tray,  its contents uneaten, lay in front of her.
    "She needs to eat," the nurse added.
    "Tell you what. You eat your breakfast, and I mean every bit of it, and you can walk for a while." Nate looked over at the nurse. Her permanent scowl had deepened.
    "Deal," Dannie said and began shoveling food into her mouth. 
    The nurse sighed in a I can't win manner. 
    "I'm sorry, I seem to have forgotten your first name," Cindy said. She was being polite. The nurse had yet to divulge that information. 
    "It's Martha," Dannie said between mouthfuls. "She doesn't like me calling her that though."
    The nurse's face bloomed a deep red. "Nurse seems more appropriate under the circumstances."
    "Dannie must consider you more a friend than a hospital employee, under the circumstances," Nate said. "Wouldn't you agree Martha?"
    The nurse stared down at the child. Dannie stuffed more food in her mouth and winked at her.
    "I would agree it does seem more appropriate." She smiled at her patient. "And a healthy appetite. My word."
    "Care to join us for a walk Martha?" Cindy asked the nurse who had now regained her natural pale white complexion.
    "I believe I will," the nurse replied at the exact same moment Dannie gulped down the last of her egg.

    As before, Nate and Cindy gripped her tightly as they made for