Chapter 1

As we were drifting off, I asked, “What’s his name?”

Suzy stiffened, “What did you say?”

“I asked, what’s his name. You can call him anything you want, horse, bob, or breaking wind. But he needs some kind of name.”

Suzy sat up and glared at me. “You did this deliberately, didn’t you? Waiting until the last minute and then bringing this up.”

I looked up at her, all innocent. “Why, whatever do you mean? I’ve been waiting patiently since you signed the bill of sale, to announce his name. I was expecting some glorious and majestic moniker, harkening to majestic steeds and deeds of the past. Instead, you’ve been all wrapped up in owning your first horse, you have forgotten the best part, what’s his name?”

Suzy stared at me, open-mouthed. I smiled up at her and said “Wake me when you think of something.” I rolled over and closed my eyes. For a couple of minutes, nothing happened. Then Suzy flopped down next to me.

My original plan was to let her stew for a while, and then she would drop off to sleep. Then, in the morning, she would have thought of the appropriate name. Oh, how wrong I was. Most of the night involved her under breath muttering and tossing and turning, which, deliberately or not, resulted in poking me in various body parts with her elbows and knees, usually just as I was drifting off.

Finally, just as false dawn was breaking, she got up and started coffee. Then she took Shadow out for his morning routine. Taking care of her own business at the same time. Then she checked on the stock. In particular, her unnamed child.

I got up after she closed the door and got dressed. I knew that Suzy had a mad on with me. But I also knew that she wouldn’t hold a grudge and that she saw my teasing for what it was. I watched her while the coffee was brewing.

When it was ready, I fixed her a cup just like she liked it, and one for me. I then joined her at the corral.

We were quiet for a minute or two. “Guunar,” she said.

This was important to her. I knew it. It’s one of the reasons that I did it this way. She needed to put some emotion into this horse. In some ways, their connection was going to be closer than ours. “What’s that, honey?”

She turned to me, a challenge in her eyes. “Guunar, his name is Guunar.”

I avoided smiling. This was serious business. “Ok, that’s a little unusual, but it’s your choice. Does it mean something?”

She went back to looking at the pasture and the stock. Her eyes got a faraway look. “Well, when I was in Iraq, right after the ambush, my gunny started calling me Guunar. At first, I thought he was teasing me, calling me gunny or gunner. And when I asked him, well, he got a little pissed.”

“I can hear him now,”

“Lance Corporal Williams, it’ll be a cold day in this man’s Corps when a foul-up like you can rate being called gunny. And, while you have shown an ability to cause pain, misery, and destruction among our adversaries utilizing the squad automatic weapon, you have yet to qualify on that weapon to the satisfaction of my beloved Corps and, more importantly, myself, to allow the job title of gunner be awarded to you.”