Winter came and went and so did Spring. Andrews birthday came and went. Since he is now Seven years old and barely talking still, his parents decided take him to a speech therapist but nothing changed so they gave that up until next year. For now they decided to let him have his new horse and see if he starts to talk more.

July
Andrew spends his days sitting in the pasture playing with his stuffed doll. His dolls name is Buttons, Mary has heard stories about these dolls coming to life if your child plays with them enough and she fears this will happen with Andrew since all he does is play with the doll. One sunny afternoon towards the end of July Andrew is sitting behind the water through playing. Smoke was fed so Andrew didn't see a problem with hiding. When Smoke came wondering around the side of the barn Andrew got up from his spot and walked him across the pasture.

Andrew decides that he is going to give Smoke some one on one training so that Smoke can become friendlier with him. Smoke has been shy with everyone in the household and has just started to warm up to the other horses on the lot, but he is still missing his mother.

"Come on Smokey" Andrew whispers under his breath, "Let's walk around the pasture for a little bit."

The two of them take a few laps around the lot all the while Andrew is actually talking to him. Granted it isn't the entire time but it's more than he talks to anyone else. Mary stands up from her pool lounger where she was sun bathing to look around, she knew Andrew was with Smoke, but she could no longer see him. As she frantically looked around their ranch, she suddenly hears her son speaking. It's just little things here and there, but she heard it.

Mary tip toes to the corner of the house where she could hear the noise and slowly peaks around the edge, a smile spreads across her face as she sees her darling son sitting at the corner of the Pasture talking to smoke. He has the horse brush near him, so she knows he was taking care of his horse the way he should. Mary gathers her things from the pool and races down to the basement to tell her husband about what she just witnessed.