Once Upon a Misty Bluegrass Hill (16 page)

They won in Keeneland
.
T
wice
.  B
y several lengths. O
n opening day at the Spring Meet at Churchill Downs
Big Storm
won again by an even larger margin
to
Patrick
's utter disbelief. 
So that sealed the deal. 
Patrick
and Bernie had
gone and
paid the fees and sorted through all that needed to be done to qualify Big Storm for the Derby. 

Patrick
had
insisted on hiring a retired jockey, Herbert Connelly
,
to teach her about being a jockey. 
Jolene had resisted at first, insulted that
Patrick
would believe anyone was a better teacher than her father….

But that wasn't half as bad as
Patrick
hiring
Calvin Brock, the famous jockey
,
to come by
periodically
and take a few turns with Big Storm..."as a backup."

Jolene never talked to Calvin deciding to ignore him out of
utter
jealousy
and possessiveness
when he rode Big Storm since she was the only one who had been able to ride him until Calvin showed up.

While she ignore
d
Calvin
for his infrequent visits
it was hard to
oppose
Herbert who insisted he knew her father
. 
They had
"
served in Nam together.
"

A crusty man with flowing gray hair that he tied back like an aging California hippie
,
Herbert
was filled with laughter and Jolene suspected a bit of bourbon nearly every day
. 

He rode up
each day
on his shiny Harley
sending Storm into a bolt
across the field
. 
Herbert would wink
at
her and rev the engine every time.
"
He needs to get use
d
to loud noises.
"
 

J
olene
was not sure
Storm ran because he
was excited
to see
Herbert
or because the sound
terrified him
.
It was as if he enjoyed the danger on some level.

What was obvious was that
Storm did love to race so he had grown rather fond of Herbert.
As a result, despite
the motorcycle revving,
ev
entually Storm would calm down and come back to the gate
to greet Herbert
.

She taught Bernie how to deal with Storm and soon Bernie was Storm's friend too.  Jolene spent hours talking to Bernie and hearing his stories about Iraq.  Those stories often ended with tears in both of their eyes.  It seemed to help Bernie feel better to talk about everything that happened and especially about how he lost his leg.  He said that Isha got too upset to talk about it.  Storm liked to hear the stories too and became quite sympathetic to Bernie's prosthetic leg.

They timed
Storm
and raced him against the best horses
they had
, but Storm could not be beat, and second was
never even close to him
. 
He was too arrogant to allow himself to lose.  Just like the legend Man o'War.

The Derby
was getting close. 
The air crackled with expectation.  It whispered around them
as
the magic of Kentucky this time of year. 
Kentucky was the Derby and the Derby was Kentucky.  There was nothing like it in the world. 

They were driving along Highway 68 or
"
Paris Pike
"
to the locals
,
flying by all the big houses and horse farms on their way back from putting in the final paperwork
for the Derby
and picking up the saddle that needed a new strap.

The horse carriages pulled away from wrought iron gates that held the mysteries of the finest horses in
all
of
the world and the closely held training secrets behind those gates
.  The mystic knowledge behind them was
passed from generation to generation
through whispers along
the rolling hills of Kentucky. 

Patrick
turned to her with
staid
violet eyes.  How she loved his
eyes
.  S
he could
get lost in
them
,
forever testing the
ir
color.
  His arm rested on the top of the open window.  The spring breeze held hints of roses and lavender growing along the roadside.

"
Little
Red
, I
want Calvin to
ride Storm.
"

The wind blew her hair into her face and she grabbed the curls and held them in her hand.
"
No! 
Are you insane? 
Why?
"

He looked back at the road and sighed. 
"
Because I want you wearing a fancy hat, drinking
sparkling wine
and seeing the Derby the way it was meant to be seen.
  I
am anxious
that you cannot hold onto the horse.  You
don
'
t have a lot of experience.
Being honest, i
t was a mistake to
agree to
let y
e
r do this.
"

Jolene
turned down the radio and
stared at him, panic
rattling
through her. 
"
I can
'
t believe this…after all the training
...
and what about the promise to go to school?  We had a deal!
"
  Jolene grabbed his
arm that held the steering wheel.
 
"
Besides
I don
'
t want to see
the Derby in a fancy dress. 
I want to see it for real.  I want to be see
'
in it with the dirt in my face, rid
'
in hard and helping Storm
to win
.

He shook his head
with a smile
. 
"
And you claim you don
'
t have any Irish in yur.
"

"
Please
Patrick
,
please
.
  You cannot back out now, you
made
a promise.
  Even my weight is perfect
. 
I made sure I didn
'
t eat chips
for weeks now
!
"

Patrick
sighed and looked out at the distant pastures
ahead of him that ran on either side of the road
. 
"
Y
er might get hurt
Red
, then what w
ould
I do?
"

She leaned closer to him with urgent purpose. 
"
I
'
ll hang on tight.  Storm and me have a journey
to take
. 
That quest
started
that awful day
.  We couldn
'
t run fast enough.  Neither one of us could outrun that storm.
"

Jolene felt the lump rising in her throat but gulped it away. 
"
But come Derby day, we
'
ll
be chasing
away those ghosts.  Dad
dy
always said we had a Derby horse.  We do have him.  He is Storm.  Me and Storm lost everything that night. 
Tomorrow
we gonna get it back
when we ride in the
Derby.
"
  Her voice dropped to a whisper. 
"
All the dreams of my parents, all the dreams of his parents
and beyond, t
hey go
nna come together right there a
t the finish line of the Derby.
"

He shook his head
and sighed hard
. 
"
All right then.  I guess I did make
a
promise didn
'
t I?
"

"
Yes, yes you did!
"
 

He leveled her a
sharp
glance before his eyes returned to the road. 
"
You remember to hang on tight, no matter what.
  Win
or
lose…you stay on that horse.
"

She leaned toward him
and grabbed his head and kissed his cheek hard
. 
"
Oh, I will
Patrick
, I promise I will.
"

Patrick
chuckled
. 
"
Let go of me so I can drive!
"

Jolene plopped back into her seat and adjusted her seat belt, letting the wind
again
kick her hair. 
"
I can
'
t believe you
considered
not let
ting
me ride after all this.
"

Laughing,
Patrick
shook his head. 
"
Just so long as you
remember your other promise, about g
oing to the school I pick out fe
r y
er
?  You promise me yo
u
'
ll not be trying to back out on our bargain once ye
r done with the Derby?
"

"
I promise
Patrick
, I promise…cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.
"

Patrick
turned onto their road where the Indian Creek sign stood.  There was a
red
tobacco barn that
rose from the
corner
pasture.  I
n
the field
roamed
two draft horses. 
"
Arah girl, th
ere
is no need to be poke
'
in
yer
eyes
out
, just keep yur promise to me.
"

"
I promise,
Patrick
.
"

*****

The moon ran full across the black sky with the same eyes as the pagan worshipers of days gone by. 
The fog gathered under the moon glowing in
devotion
,
floating
along
the green grass. 

Finnegan sat
with his white-merle coat
glowing under the moon next to his brother Oliver who watched the night with earnest attention.  Both
herding
dogs
had
hailed from Scotland and like her ancestors brought
something of what they were when they came across the sea.

And like the Celts, the
"
Scotch-Irish
"
her mother would say, she gathered her rose buds softly in the quiet waiting night.  She plucked one red, for
Patrick
….
Oh how she loved him, e
ven if he did vex her to no end.  H
e was so beautiful, so smart and he had made her dream
of riding in
the Derby on Big Storm come true.

Next was yellow for friendship….for her dogs who were her best friends for life.

Pink was for prosperity and a long life.

And the last big red
rose
was for winning the Derby. 

Run for the roses….

She went out i
nto the field to stand next to S
torm who
waited
in
silent reference to the moonlit night.