Once Upon a Misty Bluegrass Hill (14 page)

But often times it was the Guinea that ganged up on the raccoons and foxes.  The
y
circled and pecked their victim.  Foxes and raccoons might get away…snakes and mice rarely ever did.

On the arbor
her father built behind the garden
her
mother
'
s wisteria draped in purple
splendor
.  Th
e morning glory
with flowers
just the color of
Patrick
'
s eyes
,
waived its branches over the
garden
fence.

She had lived there
just
ten months
but it seemed like a lifetime
now. 

I
t was
spring again
.  She saw
Patrick
nearly every day.  He invited her up to the big house for meals.  She went most times and had started looking at the cooking channel so
she could cook
his funny meals
for him when Mat
a his housekeeper was gone on weekends. 
She loved to cook and bake
but her mother had mostly taught her southern cooking and
Patrick
liked a lot of food she had never heard of before. 
It was pretty good sometimes. 

He made her laugh with his tales of Ireland and his family growing up.  It was clear he loved his younger sisters Mora and Geri.  And there was his
younger brother
Shannon
who had been his partner in mischief
. 

Patrick
was super-busy because he
had started a special organic feed business for animals and it was growing worldwide. 
He was also inventing all sorts of things for organic farming…and even had his own beer. 
Bourbon Trail Beer
. 
Jolene remembered that
Aunt Paula liked that beer a lot but it was too expensive for her to buy all the time. 

All was right in Jolene
'
s world.  Or at least as right as it could be without her
mamma
and daddy. 

So, t
oday was the perfect day to ask
Patrick
. 

She
'
d been practicing with Storm.  She knew exactly what to do….except for the gate part.  Her father had taught her
everything but that
and he had been a trainer most of his life
. 

Jolene now
raced
and timed
Storm
n
early every day
. 
Patrick
didn
'
t think there was
any
purpose in her racing as fast as she could with Storm on his track…but she did have a very important purpose.

Storm was three years old
now
and he was ready to run the Derby.
  If he didn't run it this year, he would never be able to run it because the horses had to be three years old.
   

Patrick
road up
on the outside of the fence on the big black stallion called Coal Minor perched in a
perfect English saddle just the way he had learned in Ireland…but he
if you asked him
would argue that the English learned to ride from the Irish.

"
What are you and Storm doing out here
Red
…just enjoying the spring day?
"

Jolene
'
s heart beat
as
fast as hummingbird wings, just like it always did when she saw
Patrick
.  Only today her heart beat even faster because it was time to talk to him about
running
Storm in
the Derby.  She only had two months
to get everything ready
.  He had to qualify in other races and only if he did very well
in those
would he qualify.  She knew he could win.

She walked over to the fence
on
shaking jello-
legs.
  She picked up a lock of hair and started twisting it around her finger.

Patrick
got off the horse and tied him to the fence
post
. 
"
Now I know that look
, with those brows all drawn
up and your eyes filling up yer
face with worry
.  W
hat is it Jolene
that has you twisting up yer hair
?
"

She held his gaze. 
"
I want to enter Storm in the Derby.
"

Patrick
blinked a few times as if he had not heard her correctly. 
"
Surely yur
joking!  H
ere it is March already…you know he has to win at big races to even be considered, as if even entertaining the idea can be discussed.
"

Jolene got up on the fence and sa
t
down next to where
Patrick
stood leaning on the post. 
"
We can qualify him at Keeneland first.
"

He shook his head, his eyes cornering her in blue glory. 
"
Jolene, it is a ridiculous idea in the first place.
"

"
No, no it
'
s not
Patrick
.  You know he is fast enough.
"

"
Timing isn
'
t everything.  He is not a race horse
Little
Red
, no matter how much you plead and coerce me.
"

Jolene grabbed
Patrick
'
s arm
feeling her dreams slip away before they ever had a chance to bud
. 
"
Please
Patrick
, what would it hurt to try?
"

"
Well, let us
consider
first off that you a
re the only one he
'
ll carry on h
is back.
"

"
I will ride him
of course
.
  But he will take others.
"

Patrick
laughed hard. 
"
Now that is really something to call absurd little lady.  You
canno
'
ride that h
orse in a race, you are not a jockey.
"

Jolene scowled. 
"
I can learn and I already race him and well you know it.
"
 

"
You have no experience as a jockey.
"

"
Yes I do.  My daddy taught me and you know it
'
cause you see me riding every day.
"

"
Riding here by yu
rs
e
lf
is one thing,
but riding in a race like that, especially
in
the
big race is quite another.
"

She went stubborn. 
"
What I don
'
t know
I
'
ll learn from
a
jockey.
"

"
Jolene, you have
already
talked
me into
too many
schemes, like letting ye
r ride him
at all
in the first place.  Could o
'
broken your neck
,
by the by
,
a hundred times
.
"

"
Patrick
, please.
"

"
Storm is too jittery to run the D
e
rby.  He
'
s too jittery to run anything.  I grant you
he is a
fast one, but we
h
aven
'
t been able to get him tamed down enough to get into the gate.
"

A terrible scene darted across her heart. 
"
My
mamma
called the rain
'
tears from Heaven
'
, b
ut the rain that night was not the gentle tears from Heaven.
"

"
Now
Little
Red
, it isn
'
t good
for yer to remember the
bad.
"

She
turned
away from
Patrick
and looked across the field to where the barn once stood.  She could see her
parents pulling Storm
'
s
mamma
into the barn
as clear as if it had happened yesterday
. 

"
Storm
'
s mother
'
s name
was
Dancer
'
s Dream.
"
  Jolene whispered from
that
distant place
where the memories always took her
.  Tears, hot and prickly
,
hurt her eyes. 
"
Storm was prancing around.  H
e
never listened to his mother or my
daddy
either one.  Almost as soon as my
daddy
got Dancer
'
s Dream into the barn, it collapsed
on my parents….on all of them
.
"
  Her tears ran as hard as the terrible tornado did that night.

Patrick
reached out
and
touch
ed
her shoulder in comfort. 
"
Don
'
t talk about it
Little
Red
.
"

But comfort could not
find
Jolene because she was
already too far into the scene that had
pursued
her
dreams
a sundry of nights
. 
"
Storm just stood the
r
e
looking, crying like I never heard a horse cry.  Me and Storm were out there for hours
in the rain
trying to figure out how to get
all
them out a
'
fore anyone came.
"

Patrick
closed her into h
is warm comfort. 
"
Blessed Mary -
Jolene
.  I
'
m so sorry.
"

Jolene looked up, her eyes
going
dry and her heart aching for something she couldn
'
t touch anymore. 

But
that thing
lived in Storm. 

They had taken the terrible journey together long ago. 
But she knew t
here was
a
pilgrimage
out of the nightmare with a new ending…a different ending. 
Storm
was Dancer
'
s Dream
'
s son after all. 
Her father said he would be a Derby winner
…that he
'
d dance on Derby day
. 
And he had yet to
d
ance.

Now was their time.

She turned to
Patrick
determined to make him see. 
"
He has to dance
Patrick
….
even
though
I know he is
tough
to work with
. 
Remember that the great
Man o'War was hard to train too.  Storm
is just scared of going inside the gate
;
he
'
ll be fast getting out.  He remembers the barn
falling with his mother inside
. 
That is why he doesn
'
t want to go inside the gate.  It is like going into the dark barn in the rain.  His mother
went inside and it collapsed.  He was just outside
the barn and saw everything.  D
on
'
t you see?  It all works out just fine
when you know the reasons he is like that
.
"