"	Gene's Story or How I Gained a Cousin A novel by Karen Lockhart Copyright 2016

Chapter 20

The day dawned bright and crisp. It was about 48 degrees, perfect for riding. I hustled about, grabbing a quick shower. I dried my hair pulling it back in a pony tail then sat down and did the minimum of making me look acceptable to the horses. I knocked on Ginny's door and reminded her that we needed to be in Georgetown by 11am for my riding lesson.

“I'm almost ready,” she yelled. “Should I wear a skirt or jeans?”

“Jeans and those boots I gave you, I still want to give you a pony ride, I think you would love it.”

We grabbed a quick breakfast of a English muffin and orange juice. On the way up Route 1 we stopped at a Dunkin Donuts for coffee to drink while we drove.

We arrived at the stable at 10:30, plenty of time. As I was getting my saddle and brushes out of the back of the Explorer, another SUV pulled in. It was my friend Kevin.

“Hey Ellen, what are you doing here on a Saturday, aren't your lessons on Sunday?”

“I've been promoted, I'm riding with the horse show riders today. Hopefully, I'll be on the show circuit like you are,” I said proudly.

“That's great, you will love it. Of course, it's expensive, but worth it. Who's the pretty girl hiding behind you?” Kevin asked. ”and where have you been keeping her?”

“Kevin let me introduce my cousin Virginia, she's staying with me in the condo. Ginny this is Kevin, he has a driving horse that he shows.”

Ginny mumbled something that sounded like a cross between a owl and a gopher that meant 'hello'.

Kevin laughed and while holding her elbow, escorted us into the barn. Cathy Taurisi met us in the tack room.

“Oh good, you're here early Ellen, get ready and bring Freddy into the arena as soon as he's tacked up.” She had a last sip of coffee then said, “Ginny why don't you go to the viewing room, the heats on, it'll be nice and warm.”

“Let me show you the way,” Kevin said. “I can sit with you a little bit until I have to get Doc ready.”

“Who's Doc?” Ginny asked. “Is he your horse?”

“Yes, his real name is Manhattan Design, MD, Doc get it?”

“I get it, cute, 'Doc', will you be riding him today also?” she asked.

“No, I haven't ridden for years, I drive them, er, the horse wears a harness and pulls a two wheeled cart that I sit in. Hopefully things go ok, and I am still in the cart at the end.”

“Don't let him kid you miss,” a deep voice said. “Those two were at the World Championships last year, and he's had the same cart for years. I'm Jim Brady, that's my daughter in the red jacket.”

“Are you any relation to Steve Brady?” Ginny asked. “I just got a job as a secretary working for him.”

“Steve's my brother, watch out for him, he likes a nicely turned ankle, as my grandmother would say.”

I was put through my paces, trot, canter, walk, trot again in both directions. Then Cathy had all of us perform equitation maneuvers to get us to meld with our horses better, I suppose it looked kind of mystifying to Ginny. I looked into the viewing room, she had Kevin chewing on her ear about something. Well, she wasn't bored anyway.

I brushed and put Freddy back in his stall. Ginny surprised me, she actually wanted to pat him, so I held his halter, and showed Ginny where to scratch him; they both loved it.

“Do you think we can stay long enough to watch Kevin drive Doc?” she asked.

“Sure, I wanted to watch the two of them too,” I said. “Lets go back to the viewing room and get a chair, if you want, you can get a cold Coke from the machine.”

We watched them go around the ring changing gaits constantly, but we couldn't see Kevin giving signals to do this. Then Doc started doing figure eights, with the smoothness of the equitation horses. They stopped in the centre of the ring and posed, after a minute Doc slowly backed up three steps, stopped, and walked forward.

Cathy walked up and held Doc's head while Kevin got out of the cart and started to undo buckles and straps. He put the harness in the cart then took the horse from Cathy and led him back into the barn.

Ginny was almost speechless, “Wow, that was something, is it always that smooth?”

“He was showing off a little for you I think,” I teased. “You've made a conquest.”

We went back to the tack room so I could schedule next week's lesson. Kevin walked in about then and asked Ginny if she'd be here next week, and if so, he would hitch the cart with room for two and give her a ride after his training lesson.

Ginny looked at me, I nodded, and said, “Of course you will be here. You might love riding in the cart, it's a different experience. I don't know how Kevin does it, how they all do it, I'd be scared stiff in the cart by myself.”

We made our goodbyes and headed south on Route 1 toward home. As we pulled out of the driveway, I thought I recognized Morales coming in with two young girls in a Cadillac SUV. Wouldn't that be something if his daughters took riding lessons at the barn where I did. Well it was possible, this was the first time I was here on a Saturday.

I started to say something about it to Virginia, but thought better of it, and instead asked if she was hungry.

“I could eat a horse.” she said with a giggle, “Any place we can get one grilled?”

I laughed with her, “No, but here's a place that has great sirloin tips, why don't we eat there?”

We returned home about 4pm, kicked off our boots, had a cold beer and turned on the figure skating on tv. All the rest of the day, I had a nagging thought of that face in the car window.

Sunday started with showers and a cold wind from the North-east, perfect for the Patriots game at 1pm. I never missed a game; too bad Gisele is around, that Brady I really liked. The Patriots won 34 – 17.

I was still worried, thinking about Morales. I thought he stared right at me, and was glad we were in Lynn now.

In bed I tossed and turned all night, all I could see were his eyes looking at me.

To be continued

Many thanks to Bronwen Welsh for fixing the typos and grammar.