My son is dead.

Calvin has been begging all summer for me to bring him out into the woods behind Shane's mom's house. After hearing stories about my childhood summer days spent in the woods by our home, making forts and finding treasure, he has a fantasy of finding fossils and spending time with his mother out in the elements. So his day arrived. We all put on our jeans, hoodies and tennis shoes and all five of us headed towards the back pasture and the river with high hopes of treasure and fun. We approached the barbed wire debating who should go in first. The five horses quickly approached expecting treats. Colton snuck between the barbed wires first. A few seconds later he was flying through the air like a rag doll, and landed on the ground with a thud. I was frozen, so much so that I didn't even notice Shane leap over the fence to pick up Colton. All I remember after the thud was thinking "My son is dead" followed by Shane lifting him over the fence into my arms. He was sobbing. I never heard such a beautiful sound in my life. My son was sobbing, which meant one thing to me: "He is alive." Still in shock, I slowly carried him back up to the house. We laid him down on the couch and examined him. Sure enough, we could see two perfect mud hoof prints on the back of his shirt.

The next morning I examined Colton again... no bruises, no marks, except for on my heart.