North Oak 5- Far Turn

by Ann Hunter

  Hillary turned to North, her posture and voice telling him to give the kid a break. “She saved his life.”

  Alex stared into Promenade’s dark eyes. “No,” she said, recalling the first time she’d ever seen him. “He saved mine.”

  She unclipped the cross ties, and lead Promenade away from the quarantine barn to the training stable where he belonged, vowing never to look back.

  When Hillary and Alex came in for dinner, it was already on the table. Laura had run into town to pick up the order, taking Brooke along with her. They were unpacking the burgers, fries, and drinks.

  At the smell of cheese, beef, and cola, Alex practically drooled. She pulled out a chair, not waiting to say grace before digging into a fistful of salty fries. She didn’t need a prayer to send her gratitude into the universe, but as she reached for the styrofoam cup of chili to pour over her fries, North’s comment about her diet set in.

  She clenched her teeth, closing her eyes to savor the food and not his words. For a minute it worked. Then she bit into her burger, and it was nothing but empty greed and greasy resent.

  Suddenly, she wasn’t very hungry.

  She pushed her burger aside, folding her hands on the table.

  “You okay, Sport?” Cade asked as he sat down.

  This all would have been fine any other night, but North had to go and ruin it. A nagging pit told her he was probably right. She hadn’t been working toward her jockey goals.

  Slowly she pushed back her chair, and went upstairs to her room. She pulled her knees to her chest on her window seat, and stared outside at the setting sun. The rays splintered through the dream catcher Carol had given her for Christmas one year.

  Alex stared at it. No more nightmares would plague her. Only potential. Potential she wasn’t earning up to. She let out a long breathy groan.

  The crackle of a wrapper made her look toward her door. A hand offered her burger. “Hungry you are,” it said in a Yoda voice. “Eat you must.”

  Alex leaned her cheek on her knees, cracking a smile. Brooke peeked through the opening of her door. She was so weird sometimes.

  She smiled back at Alex, letting herself in, carrying the once-bitten burger and coke. “I dunno what’s eating you, but it’s not the food.” Brooke placed them at the end of the window seat, across from Alex, whispering, “I’mma just gonna leave these here, kay?”

  She stepped back slowly, leaving Alex with the painfully delicious smelling dinner.

  Alex watched her go, but still couldn’t bring herself to eat. She turned her head, staring at the empty paddock across the lane that belonged to Promenade. Soon he’d be racing around again, gaining back the rest of his strength and vitality. And he would need her to be there with him.

  She glimpsed her old, red chucks on the porch, and was overcome with the urge to jump into them. Alex glanced back at the door, opened her window, and scaled her way down. The kitchen window was on the other side of the porch, so no one would see her go. She would carry her shoes one last time, as they had carried her.

  While on the 3-mile walk to Boyd’s Branch, Alex focused on the six month game plan she was forming. In October, she would turn sixteen and be able to test for her apprentice jockey license.

  When she reached the beach, she piled in driftwood and leaves to the bonfire barrel kept nearby. Waves rolled in and drummed the shore. In a last burst of light, the sun sank behind the horizon, coloring the sky a wild blush of pink and tangerine. A small flock of birds scattered to the treetops nearby, just as she struck the match.

  Alex watched the fire grow, clutching her old shoes the same way the deepest part of her was clinging to her past. These shoes were the first thing she’d ever owned. They had been with her through so much, they weren’t really red anymore. From the first time she saw a racehorse as a means to run away from her problems, to this very moment; realizing it was the only way to run toward her goals, and face them head on.

  Alex tossed her tattered chucks into the bonfire barrel. Digging her toes into the sand, she tipped her head back, closed her eyes, and inhaled the lake air. The virus was dead, and so was the girl she was before.

  ROMP

  “I just got off the phone with the state vet. We’re clear to resume shipping horses. Quarantine is officially lifted from North Oak,” Hillary announced as she walked into the kitchen.

  Brooke and Laura high fived eachother.

  Alex leaned back in her chair, folding her hands behind her head. The news felt like sweet victory.

  Brooke’s phone rattled on the tabletop. She looked down at the number. “It’s Pop.”

  She answered, and after a few short words with her grandfather, she handed the phone to Hillary. “He wants to talk to you.”

  Alex listened, trying to decipher what Joe Hendricks wanted, but it was a lot of yesses, and uh-huhs. Hillary passed the phone back to Brooke.

  “What did he say?” Alex hissed to Hillary as Brooke finished up her conversation.

  Hillary smiled so widely, her nose wrinkled.

  Brooke looked between her and Alex. “Go on,” Brooke said. “Tell her.”

  “I’ve been keeping Joe updated on Promenade’s recovery,” Hillary said. “He wants to aim for the Belmont.”

  Alex didn’t know whether to cry or whoop. She dropped forward onto the table, hiding her face in her arms.

  Hillary patted her on the back.

  “Now that Promenade’s well, you should look after Venus Nights again.”

  Alex lifted her head. “I dunno. She’s probably forgotten about me.”

  “Who could forget you?” Laura teased.

  Alex wandered into the yearling barn where grooms were preparing to lead their charges down to the paddocks to be let out for the day. As Alex approached Venus Nights, she watched the filly grab the halter and lead hanging by her stall and toss it on the floor. The groom who had been looking after her in Alex’s absence picked it up, and hung it back on the hook while he worked with another horse.

  Venus watched him turn his back, then dropped the set on the floor again. Alex smirked. There was a horse after her heart. She marched over to her, letting her groom know she was back.

  “I’ll take it from here.”

  She took the halter and lead over her shoulder, walked down to the tack room to grab a treat for the filly, and headed back. “Hey Venus baby.”

  The filly pricked her ears and nickered. Alex laid her hand flat, offering the treat which Venus gobbled down. “Remember me?” Alex asked.

  Venus lipped Alex’s bangs. It wasn’t the first time she’d tried to nibble her hair. She’d done it to Alex as a baby. Alex hoped that meant she hadn’t been forgotten. She caressed the filly’s muzzle and blew softly on her nose. Venus’s nostrils expanded, taking in Alex’s scent, and tried to get at her hair again.

  Alex went into her stall to halter her, and lead her down to the paddock with her stablemates. Brooke had once told her it was good for the young horses to spend as much time as they could in the sunshine prior to becoming racehorses. It made them stronger, and smarter, by competing with one another.

  Alex turned Venus loose in the paddock and watched her go. The filly took off across the bluegrass, an amazing image of midnight streaking through sunshine. She lifted her head, issuing a call to the other yearlings, flagging her tail behind her. Alex thought she looked like an Arabian.

  Brooke wandered up the fence line, hands jammed into her pockets and shoulders sunken. Alex turned to her.

  “You okay?”

  “I thought I’d go for a walk,” Brooke mumbled.

  “You don’t sound happy.”

  Brooke shrugged. “I’m still under a lot of stress.”

  “What about?”

  “School, Mags, getting my license.”

  “But Mags is better.”

  Brooke sighed. “The guy that administers the testing for my license is coming this weekend. He decides whether I’m worthy or not.”

  “Of course you
’re worthy, Brooke, you’ve been doing it your whole life. You’re probably more qualified than anyone else on this whole farm.” Alex had seen how different the morning routine was without Brooke around. This girl was practically a heartbeat of the farm.

  “Except Pop.”

  “Well, yeah,” Alex conceded. That man was a force to be reckoned with, which is where Brooke probably got it from.

  Brooke blew out a breath. “Happy birthday to me.”

  “Don’t sound too excited. I mean, eighteen’s a big deal, right? You gonna have a party?”

  “I dunno.” Brooke shrugged. “Dejado said he’d buy us a pizza and watch Phar Lap with me.”

  Alex put her hands up. “All hail tradition.”

  Venus Nights stood at the far end of the paddock and whinnied, drawing the girls’ attention.

  “She’s such a looker,” Brooke commented.

  Alex agreed, watching the filly prance along the fence line. So far the other yearlings were only interested in grazing. Watching her seemed to lift Brooke’s mood.

  “Well now that both of our horses are better, it’s high time we start teaching her how to be a racehorse. Don’t you think?”

  “Yeah. That sounds awesome.” Alex nodded.

  “North told me he wants to keep her, so I think we can go a little slower with her than we did with the yearlings we prepped together last time.”

  “Hopefully not too slow. I think she could be pretty amazing.”

  “You know, the champion Zenyatta didn’t start racing until she was an older mare. I think it would be cool if we let Venus Nights tell us when she’s ready to do stuff.”

  Alex sighed. “Okay.”

  Experience had taught her that listening to a horse was better than fighting them. So sue her if she was eager to get her license and have a chance at racing both Promenade and Venus Nights.

  ***

  As Promenade resumed training, he was allowed plenty of sunshine too. Alex normally took him out to the paddock by the Showmans house before school, but with going back to riding morning workouts, she didn’t have time today.

  She was seriously worried when she got home from school, and the colt was nowhere to be seen. That is until she squinted into the distance. What was he doing in the mare paddock? Venus Galaxies’s no less.

  And then she saw it happen. Promenade swept Venus Galaxies’s aside, all studly and charming, and did the thing that Alex hoped never to see again.

  All she could recall was Black Knight’s turn with the mare, and the way Cade had laughed that the fastest two minutes in sports wasn’t the Kentucky Derby.

  “Promenade.” Alex yelled. “Promenade, no. Bad horse!”

  She surged forward just as the colt dismounted. This was bad. This was really bad. These things had to be documented, and filmed, like some porno.

  Promenade looked at her, arching his neck and peeling back his lips in that naughty, cheesy grin he did. He took off toward his paddock, soaring over a fence on the way. He’d make a half decent steeplechaser if he wasn’t such a butthead.

  And though he may have been out of the racing picture during the Derby, billions of his DNA were winning a big race now. Venus Galaxies blinked innocently at Alex and resumed grazing as if nothing had happened.

  Alex rubbed her face as Promenade streaked by her back to his paddock. That did not just happen. She was hallucinating. She knew North shelled out hundreds of thousands of dollars in breeding fees for his mares each year. What did this mean for Promenade and Venus Galaxies?

  Should she tell someone? Would it force Promenade into early retirement? Did she just ruin his chances at the Belmont?

  She started toward home when Cade caught her on the way in.

  “Hey, Sport,” he said cheerfully as ever. “I’m glad I ran into you. North wants to see you in his office.”

  Alex groaned. Busted.

  Alex stared at the pictures of her mother all over North’s office. She wasn’t sure she’d ever get over knowing she was related to him, and he hadn’t wanted to tell her. Related to a champion jockey, too. Sometimes she was frustrated that those bloodlines flowed through her veins.

  “Sit down.”

  Oh no. He knew. Why else would she be here?

  “I know there’s something you haven’t told me.”

  She sank slowly into a seat across from him.

  “A lot of things have changed around here. We’ve been through a rough month or two, haven’t we?”

  Alex nodded. What did he want?

  “But we came out on top…”

  Alex couldn’t erase the image of Promenade and Venus Galaxies together in the mare’s ultimate deflowering. After everything Promenade had been through, the last thing Alex wanted was a career-ending incident like that. She was going to be in major trouble.

  North continued, “I want to show my gratitude.”

  Wait. Alex blinked. Gratitude? Was he talking about the virus?

  “You should be thanking Hills,” Alex said. “She busted her butt around the clock. I think she saved more horses than we lost.”

  North folded his hands over his desk. “She also nearly cost this farm a great deal because of her initial neglect.” He closed his eyes as if to recompose himself.

  Alex glared at him. Hillary deserved more credit than that.

  “Second chances aside, I want to thank you for your part in saving one of North Oak’s greatest assets.” He opened a folder, and spun a paper toward her with a lot of legal-looking jargon on it.

  “What’s this?” she asked hesitantly.

  “I was going to save this for your sixteenth birthday, but now seems as good a time as any. These are Venus Nights’s papers. Sign, and I’ll give her to you upon her retirement from racing.”

  Alex’s jaw dropped. “Are you kidding me?”

  North handed her a pen. “I have you to thank that Promenade has a chance at the Belmont. The only thing you have to figure out is who’s going to train your filly?”

  ***

  Alex sat in the kitchen, finishing up her homework. Someone banged on the front door. She scooted her chair back from the table. Whoever was at the door was kicking it now. She opened it, only to have Brooke barrel into her.

  “I got it!”

  Alex started choking on a piece of apple.

  Brooke grabbed her and swung around. “It’s here. It’s official. I’m a trainer!”

  They knocked over Alex’s chair in a tumble together. Brooke rolled onto her back laughing, and holding the paper in the air. She kissed it repeatedly.

  Alex coughed up the masticated apple bits.

  Brooke rolled her head toward her. “Do you know what this means? This is my ticket out of North Oak. I can move to Churchill or Oaklawn… or… anywhere I want!” She brandished the paper in Alex’s face. “I’m employable.”

  Alex blinked. Leave? Why would Brooke want to leave? Alex couldn’t think of a North Oak without her. It wouldn’t be the same.

  “Are you really going to move?”

  “I’ve wanted to for years.”

  “But…” Alex swallowed. “You belong here.”

  “Give me one good reason to stay.”

  “Morning Glory,” Alex said matter of factly.

  Brooke shook her head. “I’ll take her with me. Now that I’ve got my license, I can be listed officially as her trainer.” She looked back at Alex. “And with a few more wins, I’ll buy the remaining share in her back from North.”

  “You seem optimistic.”

  “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  Alex blinked. “Who are you, and what have you done with Brooke?”

  Brooke laughed again and got up. She righted the chair, then offered her hand down to Alex.

  “Seriously though,” Alex said as she got up. “Be realistic.”

  Brooke rolled her eyes. “Yeah, sure, Pop.”

  Alex rubbed her hip where she had fallen over the chair. “I’m serious. I don’t want you to go.”

 
Had she really said that? After years of their off-and-on frienemy relationship? “I need a trainer for Venus Nights.”

  “Pop’s as good as any. He loves a good filly.”

  Alex shook her head. “I don’t want your old man.” She leveled her gaze on Brooke’s. “I want my friend. I know you will always put Venus and I first.”

  “Are you for reals?”

  “Who else is going to give you this caliber filly to start your career off with? She’s got the pedigree, the looks. She’s the whole package. I dare you to leave North Oak and find that anywhere else in the world.”

  Alex watched Brooke’s expression change. She hoped she had her interest. “We’ve always made a good team,” Alex continued. “Now we have a chance to make a great one. I’ll have my jockey license in a few months. By this time next year, her entry in the racing form will have our names supporting her.”

  Brooke raised a hand to Alex’s face.

  “Dream team supreme,” Alex said, muffled. Brooke kept her hand there. Alex warned, “I’m going to lick you.”

  Brooke shook her hand away before Alex could, wiping it on her back pocket as if she had. “I’ll do it.”

  Alex grinned, clapping Brooke in the shoulder. “See ya in the morning, greenie.”

  GUN SHY

  Alex stood at the top of the stairs watching Johnathan North and Laura argue.

  “All you ever do is spend time with her. We never do anything together anymore!” John complained.

  “What do you expect me to do, John? Leave my best friend in the cold.”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “Her filly was sick. She needed my help.”

  “If you choose her over me, we have a problem.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “Maybe… Maybe we should take a break for a while.”

  “Are you dumping me?”

  “You ditched me first.”

  “Why can’t you be like a normal boy? Can’t I have a boyfriend and a best friend?”

  “Seems like you’ve got a girlfriend instead.”

  Laura smacked him, then slammed the door. She rounded on her heel, and Alex was the first person in her eyesight.