Flamethrower - Maggie Estep [17]
“Yes I am!” Alicia protested.
“Oh yeah?
“Yeah.”
“Okay,” Ruby said.
She led Captain over to the paddock behind Coleman’s barn.
Alicia’s face clouded. “I can’t go fast in here!”
“Trust me,” Ruby said. Ruby let go of Captain, and the gelding dutifully walked ahead. Alicia looked happier.
“How do I get him to go?” she asked.
“Sit up straight and just think about trotting,” Ruby said.
“Just think about it?”
“Yup.”
“I’m thinking about it,” the girl said.
“Now very gently squeeze his sides with your legs,” Ruby said. “Gently.”
The girl’s legs didn’t even reach halfway down the horse’s sides, but Captain knew what Alicia wanted and obliged with a short choppy trot. The girl bounced all over the place and let out a little squeal. Captain took that as his cue to stop trotting.
“That’s it?” the girl said.
“He knew you were nervous.”
“I’m not nervous.”
“Okay, so do it again. Try to relax. Make your body part of his.”
This time Captain trotted around the entire periphery of the paddock before pulling himself up and looking at Ruby with that Can I go home now? expression.
Ruby patted the old gelding. Captain let out a sigh but Alicia wanted more. Ruby spent another half hour teaching the girl how to ask the horse to stop, start, back up, and walk in figure eights. Captain, gentleman horse that he was, took care of the little girl. Ruby was starting to wonder if Alicia would ever get tired when finally the girl announced she was thirsty.
Ruby walked over, took hold of Captain’s bridle, and helped the girl down.
Alicia raced ahead into the barn, and Ruby expected that would be the last she’d see of her. But as she led Captain into the barn, she saw Alicia standing there, clutching a can of Coke and beaming.
“Now what?” the girl asked.
The other kids were all long gone by the time Ruby had shown Alicia how to groom the horse, clean the tack, and pick the droppings out of Captain’s straw. Ruby suspected the girl would have stayed there and slept in Captain’s stall if they’d let her, but it was close to 6 P.M. and Coleman announced it was time for him to give Alicia a ride home.
“I can come back tomorrow?” Alicia asked, her mouth forming a hopeful O.
Ruby realized she’d just helped create another victim of Horse Fever.
NIGHT WAS FALLING by the time Ruby finished her chores and went into Jack Valentine’s stall to canoodle with her horse for a few minutes. She’d already turned the lights off and could barely see her inky gelding in the shadows. The dim light was soothing. She fed Jack a mint and watched him roll it over his tongue. He even closed his eyes, giving it the ultimate taste test before finally biting down into it.
A slice of yellow moon was rising as Ruby closed up the barn and started walking down the dirt road, heading toward the subway. Triple Harrison was out on his sagging front stoop, smoking a cigarette and staring into space.
“Hey, Triple,” Ruby said.
“Where you going?”
“Home.”
“Need a ride?”
“Sure, I’d love a ride to the train.”
“I’ll do one better and give you a ride home. I wouldn’t mind some Nathan’s fries.”
“Really?”
“Really. Let me get my keys.”
Triple got up and disappeared inside his house for a few seconds, emerging with a mysteriously overstuffed backpack.
“You gonna camp out at Nathan’s?”
“Nah, just needed a few things,” he said cryptically.
Ruby didn’t press it.
Triple’s Chevy Caprice Classic had once been blue but was now dirt-colored. Inside there were empty soda cans, candy wrappers, and, on the floor of the passenger side, a pair of women’s panties.
“Triple, you’ve got panties on your floor.”
“She meant nothing to me,” he said, smiling. “You’re the only one.”
“Be that as it may, would you mind putting those somewhere else?” Ruby wrinkled up her nose.
Triple reached down, plucked the panties from the floor, and stuffed them in his front pocket.
“Greta,” he said as he turned the key in the ignition.
“Greta?”
“Owner of the panties. Lives in Brighton, hence the backpack. I might stop in and see her. She’s an animal psychic.” He nosed the car forward, up the little