A Gentle Rain (47 page)

"It's another miracle," he said gruffly.

Ben

"Fourteen-eight-four," the announcer yelled. That puts Karen Johnson and Estrela back in the game! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we've still got ourselves a showdown, but it'll take a perfect third round for the little gray Cracker mare to win the big prize! This is an amazing night, ladies and gentlemen. Just a few months ago Estrela was on the auction block for dog food! But thanks to a good-hearted Native American rancher, Ben Thocco, and his crew of very special ranch hands, tonight she's one run away from being a million-dollar star!"

"Ben, did you know you're a `Native American? "' Bigfoot asked. "Is that good?"

"Of c-course it's good for Ben to be a Native American," Mac whispered to Bigfoot. "They s-said he's `good-hearted.' If they say it on TV, it's a good thing."

"It's an Indian," Cheech told Bigfoot.

"Oh. Then why didn't they just say so?"

"Because you're not supposed to say Indian on TV," Roy said.

CCVVh ?"

Possum, who scurried along beside me, heaved a large sigh of disgust. "Because it's like calling us retarded. Or calling Roy and Dale `colored."'

"Well, Roy and Dale are colored. They're black."

"You're tanned," Dale retorted. "Does that mean you're colored?"

"Well, yeah."

"No, you're not!"

"What color is Jesus, then?"

"Any color He 'wants to be."

"Quiet, everybody," I ordered. "You're sucking up Karen's air."

That put the pox on `em. Silence ruled.

Everyone followed me like puppies. Lily led Estrela. I carried Karen back outside for more fresh air. Her eyes were squinted shut in pain. Blood dappled her chin and shirt front. She'd done great, but her nose hadn't. "I'll get her a fresh shirt," Lula said. "I bought spares."

"Bring another towel with that goo in it. We'll plaster her face, again."

"Will do."

I sat down on the grass with Karen between my knees. She took a deep breath and slowly opened her eyes. Earlier, when she was seeing haloes and fireworks, her pupils had been so dilated she'd looked like an owl. Now they were back to normal. But the pain was so bad she could barely blink.

"We can stop this competition right now," I told her. "Nobody'd blame you."

"I'd blame me." She looked at me with tears in her eyes, but managed a smile. "Just get me more honeysuckle grease."

"Hi, bro, how you doing?" I asked on the phone. I stood in an alley behind the food court. In the arena, the band that played between rounds was finishing a Toby Keith song, one of my favorites. The audience stomped in rhythm. The walls of the alley throbbed with every beat. Back in a stall, Karen was resting with the elderberry compress on her face. In a few minutes she'd have to mount up again and run the last round.

"Benji! I got more ice cream from the Cold N'Creamy tonight!" Joey said. "And a cheese pizza! And two doctors asked me for my autograph!"

"That's good, bro. How you feeling?"

"Fine. I can watch my heartbeat on TV."

"On TV? You mean the screens next to your bed?"

"Yeah! And sometimes my heart speeds up, and the nurses come in real fast, and they put more medicine in my tube."

"Your arm tube?" He meant the I.V.

"Yeah."

"But you're having a good time watching Estrela and Karen on the TV?"

"The best!"

"Good. I'll see you later tonight."

"Brig Karen."

"I will."

When Miriam got on the phone she said, "He's fine, hon."

"Had some trouble?"

"A little. Heart racing. But he didn't notice. He's too busy watching the show. How's Karen?"

"Hanging in there."

"All the nurses and doctors keep sneakin' in here to meet Joey. It's a party. Ben, don't worry about him. He's got about a dozen doctors and CCU nurses right beside him, right now, watching the TV. He's the center of attention. He's eating ice cream and his eyes are lit up. Ben, he says this is the most exciting night of his life."

I bent my head to a wall. "Take care of him, okay? I'll call back right after the last run. Good, bad or indifferent."

"Ben, you don't get it, do you? He's happy to be alive, no matter what happens next. He's way ahead of the rest of us in the wisdom department."

"I wish I were."

"Good luck, hon. Your mama and daddy are watching over you and Joey, tonight. I can feel `em."

I shut my eyes. "I hope so. Sometimes I can almost hear `em tallun' "

"They're speaking to you from your heart, hon."

"I wish they'd speak up a little louder."

I put my phone away and walked back to the stables.

Karen leaned back in a lounge chair beside Estrela's stall. The top half of her face was covered with the elderberry compress. She smelled like a berry pie. Estrela nibbled her braided hair like she was trying to taste her.

Lily and Mac sat on either side of Karen, holding her hands. "How do you feel?" a World Sports network reporter asked, thrusting a microphone near Karen's mouth.

"Delicious."

"What will you do if you win?"

"Add ice cream and a slice of soy cheese to my head."

"We're going to Disney World," Lily put in.

"Why?" the reporter asked.

She shrank back. "Because that's what everybody says."

The woman reporter put her microphone in Mac's face. "Mr. Tolbert, are you proud of your mare?"

Mac ducked his head shyly. Karen, her face still covered, sensed his nerves. She lifted his big hand and slowly moved it in the shape of a triangle. Concentrate. Follow the rhythm. Mac stared hard at the pattern. "I'm proud ... of Estrela and proud ... of Karen."

He didn't stutter, even once. He beamed. Lily beamed. Karen squeezed his hand.

After the reporter left I squatted beside Karen and laid a hand on her bluejeaned knee. "Joey's rootin' for you," I said gruffly. "Win or lose."

She lifted the towel off her face and eyed me like she knew she had to walk the plank on the pirate ship, ready or not. The berry goo left a wet, brown, greasy scum. It made a weird mask around her puffy eyes and swollen nose. She looked like a raccoon that's been in a bar fight.

"Win or lose, how awful do I look?" she asked.

"Beautiful, either way," I said.

Kara

Pain. It throbbed inside my skull, it stuck needles into my skin. The elderberry compress had only reduced the pounding from the thud of a bass drum to the delicate reverb of tympani.

Estrela circled slowly in the warm-up ring, parsing her steps, as if trying not to jostle me. Perhaps she sensed my need to meditate. I rode with my eyes shut, trying to think the pain away.

"And there goes Sue Rhoane," the announcer yelled. "Another great score! Ladies and gentlemen, next up is Becky Ray, and then Tami Jo Jackson and Karen Johnson. With scores like these, it's going to be the million dollar showdown of the century!"

The distant cheering ofthe crowd felt like fists squeezing my temples. I took a deep breath. I can't do this. I can't. I'll never make it. I'll let everyone down.

Hello, my darling.

Mother? A pain-induced fantasy. A small hallucination. Harmless. All right.

Dad's here, too.

Dad! I miss you both, so much.

We know, darling. That's part of life. We're sorry you have to suffer through it. But you have all these wonderful people around you. You have Mac and Lily and Ben. Now you'll never be alone, again. Never.

"Karen?" Ben asked loudly. "Karen? Come back to earth."

I opened my eyes. Ben, Mac, Lily, and everyone else from the ranch watched me worriedly from the rails. Ben opened the gate and walked toward Estrela with even more care than usual. Estrela looked over his head as the crowd roared, again.

Her ears zoomed forward. She snorted. Suddenly she shimmied, alert, ready like a ballet dancer rising on point. I moved along with her, poised, amazed.

The pain was gone. I had a small window of reprieve. A clear head. Hope. Confidence. And most of all, peace.

"You okay up there?" Ben asked quietly. "It's now or never. You got nothing to prove. You're a sure-enough barrel racer and a damned fine cowgirl. Just say the word and I'll carry you out of here. Now or never."

I smiled first at Mac and Lily, then down at him. A damned fine cowgirl. We had a race to run. "I'm ready, now."

"Fourteen-two-nine," the announcer yelled. "Tami Jo Jackson has just run the best time of the night!"

"Beat that, you fat, freckled bitch."

Tami Jo's taunt. She flung it at me as she trotted her gelding past Estrela and me. We were on our way to the entrance chute.

I dipped the brim of my pink hat to her and rode on without a backward glance.

Trash talk isn't the cowgirl way.

Ben

"Beat that, El Diablo."

Tami Jo sure knew how to heave a pithy word or two. I couldn't hear what she said to Karen, but I sure heard what she said to me as she breezed by. I dipped my hat to her and kept walking.

I'd sent Mac and Lily to the stands with Lula and the others. "We need a cheering squad out there," I told `em. Truth was, whatever happened next, I wanted to take care of Karen-tears, disappointment, whatever-in private.

Well, as much as you could call it "private," when a camera team was hovering near the chute taping everything.

I took a spot beside the chute's fence. There was even a TV screen backstage. I looked up to see Karen's face on it, in close-up, all swollen up. But her eyes were clear and calm as she backed Estrela into place. "Look at that face, ladies and gentlemen," the announcer boomed. "She must be in so much pain. Can you even imagine?"

Karen looked over at me, and I pulled my gaze from the TV version to the real woman. Whatever peace she'd made with herself in the warmup ring, there was no kind of pain in her at the moment. Maybe later, but not now. Just grit and can-do spirit.

She tipped her hat to me.

I tipped my hat to her.

Now or never.

"Karen Johnson and Estrela the Wonder Horse, come on in," the announcer yelled.

And they were off

First barrel. Four-six-two.

Second barrel. Eight-seven-one.

Third barrel. Eleven-nine-two.

Twenty thousand people were on their feet. A close-up of my ranch crew showed Mac and Lily clutching each other while the rest leapt up and down. Even Possum. A close-up of J.T. Jackson showed him scowling. A close-up of Tami Jo showed her face going pale under her tan.

The Gate.

The Gate.

"Fourteen-one-nine!" The announcer screamed. "Karen and Estrela from the Thocco Ranch have done it! They win! They win!"

Estrela zoomed into the chute. Karen sat back in the saddle, and the mare slid to a perfect stop. Then she pivoted neatly and tried to snap the head off the cameraman who was poking his video cam at her.

He backed away in a hurry. Estrela wasn't ready for no close-ups.

I climbed over the fence and got to Karen's side. She slid off with me grabbing her around the waist. "You won, baby."

"No, we won." She stroked Estrela's neck. Estrela shimmied about, glaring at the camera man but settling down to let Karen pet her. Then Karen threw her arms around my neck and kissed me. I kissed her back, being careful not to hit her nose.

We both lost our hats.

Through the cheers and the excitement I looked up at the TV screen. They were showing J.T. and Tami Jo. She looked like somebody had pickled her from the inside out. J. T. Jackson looked like Jabba the Hut when Princess Leah strangled him aboard his sail barge.

Then the camera scene switched to a split screen; them on one side, me and Karen on the other. I grinned and raised my hand for the whole world to see. Palm forward.

I cranked up a finger.

A forefinger.

"We're number one," I mouthed.

Karen gave a little wave to the TV world, kind of a queenly wave, swish, swish, with her hand cupped just so. "Mac, Lily," she called. "Joey! Roy! Dale! Possum! Cheech! Bigfoot! Miriam! Lula! You won!"

Later we'd hear that Joey nearly split his face grinning when she said his name on TV. Miriam and all the doctors and nurses watching World Sports Network with him almost strangled themselves trying not to whoop so loud they scared their other heart patients.