"I have to get Karen! Ben's still with Joey at the hospital. And Ben said, `If anything worries you, GO GET KAREN."
"What worries you?" Lily demanded.
By now, I was fully awake and reaching for my pink hat.
"Tami Jo Jackson is saying mean things on TV! Right in front of Estrela's stall! Where Estrela can hear her!"
I scrambled to my feet. There is a classic scene in the second Alien film, which Joey and I had watched recently, one afternoon at the ranch. Sigourney Weaver, fighting to protect a small girl child from the giant, vicious, queen-of-the-alien beings, straps herself into an industrial-robot exo-skeleton, clumps her way up to the alien queen's snarling face, and says with steely maternal calm, "Get away from her, you bitch." Then Sigourney proceeds to pummel the giant alien queen into submission and jettison her crustaceous behind into the dark vacuum of Space.
I felt the same way.
Tami Jo had better get away from my mare.
"I just think people and horses should earn their place in the world," Tami Jo was saying to the World Sports Network camera. She stood about three feet in front of Estrela's stall. Clearly, this was the kind of spontaneous drama the network executive had encouraged.
Behind Tami Jo, the bright light of the video camera glared in Estrela's eyes. Estrela stomped the stall floor, shook her head, pawed, and nervously lipped the latch of her stall door. Cheech, Bigfoot, Roy and Dale stood nearby, wringing their hands as Lily, Mac and I hurried up. "Isn't this what America is all about?" Tami Jo went on, batting her eyes under a decorous, post-modern shag of streaked blonde locks. "I read Ann Coulter's last book well, I listened to it on my iPod, anyway, and she says, `Liberals hate America. They want everyone to be equal.' Or something like that. Me, too. Equal. But equal can mean separate, you know? I mean, we can't just let any horse come in here and race, can we?" She waved a long-nailed hand at Estrela. "But they're welcome to use the stalls. That's separate but equal."
"Only to a blithering idiot," I said loudly. I prodded the camera man on one arm. "You're upsetting my mare."
"We'll be done in a few seconds."
"No, you're done now. If you continue to agitate a helpless animal, I'll complain to the officials."
Tami Jo laughed. "Go ahead and complain, fatgirl. They're all friends of my daddy's."
Don't let her psych you out. Psych her out instead.
"Why don't you tell the nice cameraman how you and I met?" I asked. "When you parked in a handicapped spot at the Cold N'Creamy, refused to move your car, and referred to several Thocco ranch hands in terms that decent people consider extremely cruel."
"Turn off that camera," Tami Jo ordered.
"It's off," the guy lied. No idiot, he. This was prime footage.
She pouted. "The light's still on."
"My camera takes a minute to shut down."
Believing herself to be off-the-record, Tami Jo morphed back into her alien form and sneered at me. "There's nothing wrong with the word `retard.' I can't help it ifyour friends are retards." She smiled at Mac, Lily and the others. "Retards. Poor retards."
Lula, who had been at the food court buying snacks for Cheech and Bigfoot, shoved the food into their hands then grabbed me by the arm. "Come on. Let's take a walk."
Tami Jo laughed. "Retards," she repeated, and laughed louder. The laugh threw her a bit off balance and she took a step back. She was now within biting distance. Estrela flattened her ears.
I had misjudged the analogy. In this scenario, the Sigourney Weaver character was not me.
It was Estela.
The mare's lips curled. She arched her neck like a coiled, silver cobra, preparing to strike.
Lula gasped. "That'll get Estrela disqualified."
I lunged for Estrela's head.
Estrela lunged for Tami Jo's back.
I blocked Estrela's attack.
With my face.
Ben
Emergency
Miriam clicked her cell phone shut. Joey was napping. We sat on either side of his hospital bed. It was about six p.m. I had to leave soon for the arena. The first round of races started at seven.
I stared at Miriam. "What's wrong?"
Her eyes had gone so wide her false eyelashes looked like furry flower pedals. "Hon, you need to go see about Karen. She's okay, but she's, uh, not okay. There was a little accident. But she's okay."
I jumped up. "Where is she? At the arena or the motel?"
Miriam winced and aimed a red nail toward the floor. "She's downstairs. In the ER"
Blood soaked the front of Karen's pink shirt and spattered her jeans. Bloody cotton balls were wedged in both nostrils. A raw scrape mark ran from her hairline down to between her eyebrows. The bridge of her nose and everything on either side was swollen. Her eyes were starting to swell, too.
She sat on the end of a gurney. Lily clung to her left hand; Mac cupped her right hand in his big paws, patting it.
"Her nose is fractured," the ER doc told me. "It's not serious, just very painful."
She looked at me over her swelling cheeks and bloody nose plugs. "I'm sure I'm quite attractive, yes." She winced.
"Not your fault, baby."
"Not Estrela's, certainly."
"She punched you? Rammed you with her head?"
Karen nodded. Lily looked at me tearfully. "Estrela didn't mean to. She was trying to bite that mean girl. Karen had to stop her."
"`C-Cause that would get us kicked out of the sh-show," Mac put in.
I sighed. "The why and the how don't matter right now." I palmed a gentle hand on the top of Karen's head. "You're outta commission. I'll call the race people. Tell `em you can't compete tonight."
Her eyes flashed. "You will not." With her nose plugged up, it came out more like, "Ooh wull nawt."
"Baby, you can't ride three rounds like this. Your face is gonna hurt like hell every time you so much as twitch your little finger."
"This is the moment for which modern pharmaceuticals were invented."
"There ain't enough pain pills in the world to get you through three fast rounds on horseback."
"Then I'll fall off in the ring and spew blood from my nose and create such a lurid spectacle that Madame TV Executive will be praised for producing `realty' television and move one step closer to getting her corner office. I'll take that chance. Ben, tell these nice people to clean me up, drug me into a happy daze, and let me out of here. I'm not quitting."
Ahm nawt qwetteng.
I looked from her to Mac and Lily. They clamped their lips together. They held her hands harder. They weren't quitting, either. "What do I see here?" I growled gently. "Three against one?"
They nodded.
Three against the world.
"Well, count me in and make it four," I said.
Kara
Blood. It is the river of life, of destiny. It flows through us from birth to death, carrying everyone who came before us, and everyone will come after. Sii, sex, heritage. Everything begins and ends with the fluid symbolism of that profound red stream.
I did not feel profound. I hurt.
I had blood all over me. I watched in blurry fascination as a droplet hit the towel a nurse had placed on my lap.
Blood everywhere-my blood and even Estrela's. She'd scraped her muzzle on my forehead. A pink smear cascaded across my hand.
If this were a blood-kinship ceremony, I was now part horse.
Ben
"We disagree," the official said, back at the arena. "Karen Johnson's not fit to ride. We've had our doctor examine her and he says there's a chance the pain medication will put her at risk of further injury on horseback."
I crossed my arms over my chest. "There ain't no rule that says she can't ride while high on doctor-prescribed pain pills. For horses, there's no dopin' allowed. But for riders? No rules."
"We've making this call. She's disqualified. Sorry."
"Sorry, indeed, but I'm overruling you," a tall, elegant, old man said. He spoke with an
English accent. What the hell? He walked up outta nowhere, with an elegant younger old man at his elbow. "I'm one of the new board members with a major sponsor of this event-Sun Farm Bank-and I've spoken to the producers from World Sports Network."
The younger man held out a piece of paper. "Here's their decision."
J.T. Jackson's toadies scowled and grunted. "We'll just see about this."
"I wouldn't `see about it' any further, if I were you," the old man warned. "I understand there's videotape of Ms. Jackson provoking the incident in the stables and uttering slurs about Mr. Thocco's ranch hands. I'm sure none of us want such an embarrassing video to reach the public. Do we?"
Short hairs, meet tweezers.
After the officials stomped off, I frowned at the stranger. "Friend, I'm assuming you're part of the crowd that bought up my barn loan at Sun Farm?"
"Why, yes. I was involved in the transaction to acquire a package of agricultural loans."
"I know buying up mortgages is just business to you, but thank ya for what you did then, and what you did just now."
"Just business, hrnmm. Yes. But I'm a great believer in equality and fair treatment. And ... I'm an admirer of Ms. Johnson's accomplishments. Do you thick this is the right thing for her to do, tonight, in her condition?"
"Nope. But I can't talk her out of it, so I'm gonna be there for her every way I can."
He smiled. "Well, then, I'm reassured. The best of luck to you, her, and Estrela." He turned to go.
"Sir, what'd you say your name is?"
"Sedge." He nodded to me. "Sedge will do."
Chapter 28
Kara
The roar of the crowd made a distant sound, like the ocean's surf through a heavy door. I felt no pain, no anxiety, just a curious interest in the glow of the arena lights overhead. What lovely halos they had.
. I shouldn't be riding. The pain medication had worked far too well I felt drunk.
"Howyou doin' up there?" Ben said, watching closely as I rode Estrela around the warm-up ring.
"I'm fine. Watching the aurora borealis. I didn't realize one could see the Northern Lights in Orlando."
"Oh, shit." He climbed into the ring. Estrela snorted and sidestepped. He held up both hands in a soothing gesture. "Karen. Look down at me. Look down."
I dropped my gaze to him. "Lovely. You're lovely."
"Yeah, well."
"I'm all right, Ben. I can handle this. Do you think anyone can tell I've been injured?"
I had tiny cotton plugs in my nose, and at last glance in a mirror, my swollen face had seemed vaguely frog-like. Someone had procured a pink broadcloth dress shirt for me, to replace the bloodied western shirt.
"Naw," Ben said. "You're the most beautiful sight I've ever seen."
"Clearly, you don't get out much."
"I mean it." He eased closer. Estrela eyed him but stood still. He laid a hand on my knee. "I do mean it."
"Ben Thocco, I adore you. I'm not so incapacitated that words have no meaning to me. I know exactly what I'm saying. I adore you."
An event official walked up. "You're on deck, Ms. Johnson." To Ben he said, "How is she?"
"She's just fine," Ben lied. After the official left he looked up at me warily. "What color is my halo?"
"Blue and magenta, with exquisite, lime-green accents."
"That's what I figured," he said.
"Fifteen-nine- three," the announcer yelled. They'll have to do better than that in the next two rounds, I'm afraid! You have to wonder how Karen Johnson can even see with her face swollen that badly!
Ben grabbed me as I slid off Estrela's back. "Easy, baby, easy."
I was dimly aware of Lily stroking my hair and Mac patting my booted foot. Lula and the others followed, leading Estrela, as Ben carried me outside for some fresh air. "Tell Joey sure, yeah, she's feein' great!" I heard Lula yelling to Miriam over a cell phone. "No, she doesn't look that bad up close! It's just the way they did her make-up!"
Ben sat down on the grass by the horse trailers, cradling me on his lap. I gazed up at fuzzy, swirling stars in the hot summer sky. "I suppose it's too early in the evening to be seeing the fireworks display from Disney World."
"Afraid so," Ben said gruffly.
I blinked. A small fire began to burn under the muscles of my face. I sat up between his knees, wincing. "The pain mods are wearing off Good."
"Baby, you can't ride again. It's not just that you're stoned on the pain pills. It's the swelling. If your face swells any worse we'll have to prop your eyes open with some of Miriam's toothpicks."
"I'll be fine. Get me an ice pack. But no more pills. I've got to be able to think clearly, if Estrela and I are going to win."
Lula grunted. "You've got to be able to see."
"Maybe we can help with that," someone said.
We looked up. A shaggy, middle-aged man in jeans and a Goat Power t-shirt stood beside a young Seminole woman in a tank top and patchwork miniskirt. Ben frowned. "Well, howdy, Keeber. Karen left tickets for you at the chamber of commerce, but we didn't know if you'd make it."
Keeber Jentson. Mr. Will Trade Goat Cheese for Saw Palmetto Berries.
"You kidding, man? This barrel race is the karmic smackdown of the year. We couldn't miss it." He grinned at the woman beside him. "This is my lady, Sammie Eagle."
"Hi, y'all," she said.
"She ova-is the Mother Nature's Helper stores. Health food and natural supplements. And goat cheese."
"Ten units in the greater Gainesville area," Sammie Eagle supplied, "and we're expanding to Tallahassee, Jacksonville and Kissimmee next year." She held out a big, macrame tote. It rattled and clinked, the sound like dried beans in glass jars. "I think I have some herbs that might take the swelling down. All natural. Karen, would you like to give natural remedies a try?"
Ben didn't even have to look at me to know the answer. He arched a brow. "Does a duck like water?"
"Ssssh, Ben," Lily whispered. "Karen's still wearing honeysuckle grease on her face."
I lay on my back in an empty stall.
"Elderberry," I corrected from beneath a hot, wet towel that was molded to my forehead, nose and eyes. The towel had been steeped in an oily paste made from Sammie Eagle's capsules. "It's a member of the honeysuckle family, that is, Caprifoliaceae. It's also known as taboci by the Seminole."
"I don't like the sound of this," Ben said dryly. "You're speakin' in tongues."
"Oh, no," Lily moaned. "Something's wrong with her tongue?"
"Lily, he's just kidding."
"I'm sorry," Ben whispered, "but we got to get you up for the next round. Baby? Take the towel off and let's see if it helped."
I sat up slowly and peeled the hot compress from my face. Ben and Lily studied me. Lily's mouth popped open. "I can see your eyelashes, again!"
I tested the effect with a sideways glance at Ben. "I have peripheral vision."
"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. "B
ecause 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."