Issue Eight - February 2005

Good Bad Good

By Eski Benson

When I was five I had a small bike named The Green Monster. I fell down a lot. I went to the Lopez School track. Patience was whipping around and around. Risto had a dirt bike. I wobbled but I stayed up! I did eight victory laps. Then I went home.

My mom was pregnant. I wanted a brother more because boys don’t cry as much, but my mom was having a girl. I wanted my sister. We were thinking about naming her Siri. We once had a dog named Siri that died when she ate peanut butter rat poison. My sister died before she was born. I felt sad, but not as sad as my mom.

Nick Nack is my riding teacher Rose’s horse. She has had him for her whole life. Unless he is eating he comes right up to her. He loves her. When I arrive the first thing I do is brush Nick Nack. There is a lot of dust. Then I pick the mud and rocks out of his hooves. When I get on he starts walking.

Once I took him on the road up to the forest. When we were heading back we met another horse. Nick Nack raised his front leg and struck at the horse. I got a jolt and I was afraid I would fall off, but I didn’t fall. Back at the corral I did a few circles and cleaned him up. I went home happy.

©2005 by Eski Benson

Eski Benson wrote Good Bad Good when he was 10 years old. He was born in Los Angeles in 1994 and understood Spanish before he learned to speak English. Eski moved to Lopez Island in 1999 when he was 5. Since then he has started riding horses and studying French.

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