Yearning to Live

Trying Again

" And they're off in the Arkansas Derby." I rushed out of the flying gates. A rush of adrenaline went through me, this felt amazing. I tried to get the lead, but settled for third. I bounded along the rail, gaining distance as we went into the clubhouse turn. I felt no encouragement from Anna, but I still pressed on. She gave me a but of rein and I pressed through the turn. We hit the backstretch and I sped up. I ran past second place, who was fading. I charged for the last horse in my way. Into the last turn, I slowed a bit, my foot was starting to throb. Then hitting the home stretch, I took the rest of the rein that Anna gave me. I rushed up to the pacemaker. Without thinking, I veered wide to get around the other horse. Something clicked. Anna suddenly urged me forward, finding our rhythm, we flew past the lead horse and took our position along the rail. Together, we bounded to the finish line, but Anna didn't cheer or anything, she simply started to pull me up. I looked around and Tom came out to lead me off the track. Mady and Jasmine came up to us and questioned Anna. She said something and waved off their questions. I wondered, Anna was always willing to answer questions, what happened? We were led to the winners circle where I was blanketed with flowers.

Ten minutes later, I was cooled off and led to my stall. The cats were sleeping when I entered. Then I saw Anna, Joey, and Jenny approach my stall. Jenny walked in and looked at my leg. My leg was sore when she touched it and I tried to shuffle away from her. Joey, Anna, and now Mady were all by my stall door. Jenny walked over to Mady. "She is definitely swollen. Be that was to be expected, otherwise, she looks good." Mady nodded in agreement. Anna had a blank stare at me. Others started to notice it to. Joey was first, " Anna, are you okay?" Anna took a moment before replying, " Sure." That was met with dead silence. " No. Something happened on the track. In the gate. I froze, I could run this race, I only ran our accident to the accident, even on a different track. Except I fixed my mistake of letting out too much rein. Only when we pasted what would've been where we crashed, did my vision cease and I could run this race. " Anna went silent and put on her stare at me. " You might need to see Rachel or something. Hallucinating shouldn't be happening. You should've been able to run the Arkansas Derby, not the last one at Belmont." Mady suggested this and was met with nods. Maybe the fairy tale ending I've dreamt of, is a pipe dream after all.