Leroy Ninker went into the kitchen of Unit 12. He opened the refrigerator and looked inside.

Leroy had viewed many, many Westerns at the Bijou Drive-In Theater. He had seen a great deal of purple mountains and wide-open plains. He had watched cowboys battling injustices and crossing rivers and eating beans.

But he could not recall one movie where a cowboy said aloud exactly what it was that he was feeding to his horse.

“Hay?” said Leroy. He lifted up his hat and scratched his head. “Oats?”

But he didn’t have hay. And he didn’t have oats.

“Dag flibber it,” said Leroy Ninker.

Outside of Unit 12, Maybelline let out a long, loud whinny that had a question mark on the end of it.

“Okay!” Leroy shouted to the horse. “I am making you some grub! Yippie-i-oh.”

Leroy grabbed a big pot and filled it with water. He turned the heat on high. He filled another pot with tomato sauce.

Patty LeMarque had said nothing about whether or not Maybelline liked spaghetti, but didn’t everyone like spaghetti?

After Leroy Ninker added the noodles to the pot, he went outside and leaned up against his horse. Her flank was very warm. She was an extremely comforting horse to lean against.

Maybelline turned her head and looked at Leroy, and then she put her nose up in the air and sniffed.

“That’s right,” said Leroy. “I am cooking you some grub.”

Maybelline whinnied.

“It’s spaghetti,” said Leroy. “I hope you like spaghetti.”

It turned out that Maybelline did like spaghetti.

She liked a lot of spaghetti.

The horse ate the first pot of noodles in a single gigantic gulp. As far as Leroy could tell, she didn’t even bother to chew.

When she was done, Maybelline lifted her head from the pot and looked at Leroy in a meaningful way. Leroy said, “Yippie-i-oh,” and he went running back into Unit 12 with the empty pot and started boiling more water. He opened another jar of tomato sauce. He made a second pot of spaghetti.

After that, he made a third pot of spaghetti.

By the time Maybelline was done eating, the stars were shining in the sky and the moon was looking down and there was not one noodle of spaghetti left in Unit 12.

Leroy Ninker was very tired. He leaned against his horse and looked up at the stars. But when he closed his eyes, what he saw was Patty LeMarque. Her face was as big as the moon, and her mouth was opening and closing, and opening and closing.

Leroy knew exactly what she was saying.

Patty LeMarque was reciting item three.

“Maybelline?” said Leroy.

Maybelline turned and put her nose in Leroy’s face.

“I have remembered item three,” said Leroy Ninker. “Item three is that you are the kind of horse who gets lonesome quick.”

Maybelline nickered.

“But you cannot fit inside Unit 12,” said Leroy.

Maybelline shook her head.

“Okay, then,” said Leroy. “I will stay here with you.”

He took off his boots. He removed his lasso. He loosened his belt. And then he lay down at Maybelline’s feet. He put his hat over his eyes. He sighed a happy sigh.

“I have made a lot of mistakes in my life,” said Leroy Ninker from underneath his hat. “I have done some things that I wish I had not done. I have taken some wrong turns.”

There was a long silence. Leroy moved his hat and looked up at Maybelline. The horse looked down at him. She was listening.

“There was a time in my life when I was a thief,” said Leroy. “I am now reformed. I hope you don’t judge me, Maybelline, because I truly am a changed man.”

Maybelline let out a small chuff of air.

“Oh, Maybelline,” said Leroy. “You are my horse. For me, you shine brighter than every star and every planet. You shine brighter than all the universe’s moons and suns. There are not enough yippie-i-ohs to describe you, Maybelline. I love you.”

Leroy Ninker had never imagined that he could string so many words together at once. It was the longest speech of his life.

He looked up at Maybelline, and she looked down at him. Leroy’s cheeks felt hot. He lowered his hat so that it covered his face. “Good night, Maybelline,” he whispered.

Leroy closed his eyes. He thought very hard.

Had his heart been waiting for Maybelline to come along so that it could open wide and he could speak all the beautiful words that had been hiding inside of him?

It was an amazing concept to consider, and the cowboy fell asleep considering it.