It was not only Spindletop that scared me from competing. Before I even went there I was having bad dreams where I fell in front of people and Fiery Girl fell too, and broke her leg. And there was something else; I don’t know what it was, but it made me turn away from competition thoughts fast like a horse turns from a sound or sight. And it was not only Pat’s words that changed my mind. When I was riding my horse in the field, there was no nightmare or daymare, nothing but her huge heart with thorns holding me up. Ginger and her strange eyes fell away. Dominic and Brianna’s girls were there but floating off the left side of me like a made-up island. When we went for the jump, all of them disappeared.
Then I jumped for Ginger and Paul, and Ginger went back to being her old self, and we went to eat at the pizza place and it was like I was eleven again, and I wished for just a minute that I could stay that way forever before I even knew who Dominic was.
All the way home on the train, I pictured myself at EQUAL on Fiery Girl, running in the practice ring with those beautiful horses. I thought about it so much it was like it already happened. When I got off the train I felt so good I was happy to see my mom, and she saw it because she rubbed my hair and said, “Mi niña” for Ginger to hear. I knew better than to talk about Fiery Girl and the way I rode her. I just leaned against my mom and wrote it on my heart over and over while we went home on the subway.
When we got home I went out because I was in the mood to see people, but I didn’t piss my mom off, I just sat on the stoop so as not to miss dinner. I was only there a minute when the Haitian lady passed by with a pink comb in her hair and real shoes, high-tops, on her feet this time. It had been so long, and I didn’t know if she’d recognize me, but she right away smiled and said, “Hello, my baby!” I stood up and hugged her and she said how funny to see me because she was thinking about me, she had a dream about me that she didn’t remember, but it was something good. She said, “I think something good’s coming your way, but don’t miss it!”
I was shy to ask her name, but she told me, “I’m Gaby, Gaby Alabre, and I live in the project on the Albany Street side. My name’s on the buzzer outside if you want to come see me sometime.”
I told her my name too. I wanted to ask her more about why she thought something good was coming, but my mom shouted down and I didn’t want her to see me speaking with Gaby so I said I would come sometime and went in.