Caleb didn't force him.
He placed food nearby and walked away.
The next morning, the food was gone.
That became their routine.
For three weeks, Caleb did almost nothing.
He fed Ghost.
He cleaned his wounds.
He sat nearby.
He talked.
Slowly, the horse came closer.
Then Caleb discovered something.
Ghost was terrified of ropes.
Not mildly nervous.
Terrified.
The sight of a rope sent him into panic.
One afternoon, Caleb found an old scar around the horse's neck.
Another circled his hind legs.
He called a veterinarian.
The veterinarian examined Ghost carefully.
“This horse was restrained badly,” she said.
“How badly?”
She looked at Caleb.
“Bad enough that someone wanted him unable to fight back.”
Caleb's jaw tightened.
“Who?”
“Don't know.”
She pointed toward the cloudy eye.
“And this injury wasn't an accident.”
Caleb looked at Ghost.
“Someone hurt him.”
“Yes.”
Caleb walked into the pasture.
Ghost watched him.
Caleb sat in the grass.
“You don't have to tell me who.”
Ghost lowered his head.
“But I'll make sure nobody does it again.”
For the first time, the horse walked all the way to him.
He lowered his nose.
Caleb touched his forehead.
Ghost didn't move.
Weeks passed.
Then one morning, a teenage girl named Emma arrived at the ranch.
Emma was Caleb's neighbor's daughter.
She had recently lost her father and had stopped riding.
Caleb found her sitting on the fence.
“You don't ride anymore?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because horses remind me of him.”
Caleb nodded.
“Sometimes that's exactly why you should stay near them.”
Emma looked toward Ghost.
“Is he dangerous?”
“No.”
“He looks dangerous.”
“He looks scared.”
Emma stared at the horse.
“I know that feeling.”
Caleb looked at her.
Neither said anything else.
From that day forward, Emma began helping Caleb with Ghost.
Something remarkable happened.
Ghost trusted her almost immediately.
But Caleb noticed something strange.
Whenever Emma hummed a particular melody, Ghost raised his head.
It was an old western lullaby.
Emma said her father used to sing it.
Caleb didn't think much of it.
Until the day a stranger arrived.
He drove a black truck.
He wore a silver belt buckle.
And when he saw Ghost, he stopped dead.
“Where did you get that horse?”
Caleb stepped between him and the pasture.