Jessica didn’t want to move. Things being as they were, however, she was only nine and so the big decisions in her life were often made not by her, but by her mother and father. They loved her, and understood that she didn’t want to leave behind her best friends from Cotton Road in the city. They knew she would miss being in the Cotton Road Club, and playing in the clubhouse at Usef’s house, and getting ice cream at Morton’s Corner Store, but her mother had a new job. It was an important job as a doctor in a small town a few hours north of the city. Her mother was going to be helping people who otherwise wouldn’t get any help, and Jessica was proud of her mother, but it didn’t stop her from being sad. On top of all that, it was Halloween, and for the first time in her life she wouldn’t be trick-or-treating with her friends from Cotton Road. In fact, she wasn’t sure if she would be able to trick-or-treat at all.

The new house was on an old farm, fifteen minutes outside the town of Hollowell, and even the bright fireworks of the leaves changing colours couldn’t cheer her as the family car made its way up the long, tree-lined driveway, followed by the moving van. They pulled up in front of a two story house that looked to Jessica as if it had been built in the early 1900's. It was peeling-paint white with battered green shutters, and dark windows that looked like eyes. The door was big, and heavy wood, with a tarnished brass knocker in the shape of a horse’s head. Jessica climbed out of the car, and, looking up at the house, wondered if it was maybe haunted. Behind the house, off to the left, Jessica could see a big, old barn. Just then her mother came and stood beside her, and looked up at the house.

“I know it needs some work, but soon it will feel like a home, I promise.”

Jessica nodded, remembering the fresh paint that brightened her house… correction, her old house, on Cotton Road.

“Mom, what about Halloween?” she asked, “Today’s Halloween, and we don’t live near anyone. What am I supposed to do?”

Her mother knelt down in front of her and fussed with her long, dark blonde hair.

“I’m sorry, hon, but today was the only day we could move. We’ll do something special later. Maybe we’ll carve a jack-o-lantern and watch spooky shows on TV”, she smiled and gave Jessica a hug. “Now why don’t you go investigate while your father and I help the movers, okay.”

“Sure, Mom.” Jessica pulled herself out of her mother’s arms and looked towards the barn.

Her mother stood up, ruffled Jessica’s hair, and headed for the front door of the house. Jessica took one last look at the windows and shivered, then made her way around the side of the house. The barn was easily taller than the farm house, and seemed just as old, if not older. The old timbers, grey now from the weather and age, creaked and groaned in the October wind. There were two large doors at the front, and a third door high above them. Jessica had been to a farm once, and remembered seeing hay bales lifted up through a similar door with a special winch. The grass all around the structure had grown very tall over the summer and hissed like snakes in the breeze. It seemed like the loneliest barn she’d ever seen.

Jessica hesitated for a moment, thinking that maybe she’d like to walk down the long driveway to the road instead. Maybe there was another farm within walking distance, someone with kids. She stood and swayed, watching the barn. She was just about to turn away when she thought she heard something from behind the big wooden doors. It was an animal sound, shrill and short, and a little like a blast from a trumpet. Jessica knew at once what it was… it was a horse!