Thursday, March 7, 2013

Pony Express


Author's note: For this piece I was trying to reach my goal of getting an 8.5 or higher for word choice. 



Staring at his slender smooth face, as his big soft hands reach down to grab his old leather bag filled with thin tissue paper. They were letters from family members going to the men in California.  As he starts approaching the sturdy, fierce full, black horse he turns and takes a glance at me, our eyes meet it felt like I was just watching the stunning sun set for a moment. Our eyes said everything.  Suddenly his eyes drop from mine and I could tell he started to look at the unbreakable silver chain with a heart locket that he gave me.  As the horse draws his attention by kicking and neighing louder than a freight train, he decided to head off. Gently a breezed rolled by and made me notice that the sun was playing hide and seek with the clouds. As they faded in the distance, I decided I should go inside because I felt like a giant ice cube.

It’s been 15 days but feels like a hundred years. Every day I fear that he is going to get attacked by the Native Americans since they said most of the men that worked for the pony express would die from these surprising attacks (1). Even though most of the men were suppose to be 19 years old, John was only 18 years old (3). Typically the rides took 10 days, and the letters were mail from the East going to the West (4).  Supposedly I only had to wait 5 more days but it may take longer. In this time period of not seeing him I wonder if he became just skin and bones. The men that delivered the mail were usually under 120 pounds, and John just made it (3). Hopefully he returns on time and still healthy.

At last I see the black horse quickly trotting into our small village with John on his back. My heart was racing so quick that I felt like it was going to fall out of my chest. As he noticed that I was waiting patiently for him his eyes seemed to brighten. Finally, he hopped off his horse and hugged me. It felt so great to see him and I wanted to know all about his trip. He started off by showing me  the money that he made; the mail was $10 an ounce (2). Then he starting to go off about how he traveled a total of 100 miles but the average riders traveled between 60- 120 miles (5). Riding at an average of 7 miles per hour he was able to give the mail to the families in 10 days (4). Many things had went on when he was traveling but he said that he wouldn’t do it again if he had the choice. Also he stated that they were working on something called the telegram and that it should be completed around October 24, 1861 (1). I was delighted to have him come back safely and hopefully I won’t have to experience this much time away from him again. 

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