On Saturday we all went to watch Dally race. It was barrel racing, cross-country and show jumping. This was the final competition. Before this each rider competed in a smaller competition and the winner from each of those competitions was competing today in the final round. There were twelve of them all together.
Dally's been talking about it for weeks. We were cheering and laughing the whole time. Johnny got up from his seat and was cheering loudly, his wife smiling at him. He was still shy and timid Johnny that I was used to, but from time to time he opened up and felt free and it was really nice to see that.
Dally was fierce - his horse jumping over the obstacles and galloping towards the next one. I could see how Dally really liked doing this. It was an adventure, an adrenaline rush, and that was so Dally.
Finally it was intermission and Soda and I went to get snacks for everyone.
"Here," I said to Jenna, handing her the food.
"No I shouldn't. I'm getting fatter by the day." She replied smiling awkwardly. I chuckled, - "you are beautiful," and gave her a quick peck on the lips.
"I'll take it," Two- bit piped in, stretching out his arm to get the food while balancing the food I already gave him on his knee.
"You are getting fatter by the minute," I said swatting his arm, but then gave him the food anyway.
The whole thing lasted two and a half hours, and Dally won. We were all whooping and clapping like crazy. Dally got a trophy and a small cash prize. He walked up to us all happy and still panting, out of breath.
"Wanna go with me to the back check out the horses?" he asked casually, wiping the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. We nodded.
We followed Dally to the area where the horses were kept. Soda walked up to the horse and started petting her. He looked sad.
"What's the matter?" I asked walking up closer to him.
"Oh, it's nothing," he replied quietly and averting his gaze, "I just remembered my horse Mickey Mouse. I'd like to know where he is now. To just know that he's in good hands. You were still little then, you probably don't even remember."
"I wasn't that little and I remember plenty. I remember how you bawled every night for a week after they took him away. Do you know I was trying to save money for you to get him back?"
"Really?" Soda asked surprised, "I didn't know that."
"Well, I did," I swallowed hard.
"Thanks," Soda said, "You've always been a good brother and you still are. Maybe I…" he paused, shifting from foot to foot uncomfortably and looking down, then cleared his throat and continued, "Maybe I don't tell you often enough how proud of you I am. You rose from nothing and you achieved so much already. It was so tempting to rebel, to get on the wrong path but you kept your eyes on the prize and kept working on getting out."
"We are all proud of you," Darry, who was standing next to Soda and heard the whole conversation, said. "We are proud that you chose giving back as your career. You could've done anything and you'd succeed you could've turned into a super soc, have a lot o money, nice cars, live on the West side, but you chose a job with a modest pay and still live on our side of town. You did good little buddy," he slapped me on the shoulder affectionately. He still called me 'little buddy' after all those years. I was feeling embarrassed from all the attention I was getting. "I just 'member how we hated our social worker. I just felt like nobody really cared so I needed to fill that void." I mumbled. "Like I said, you did good," Darry repeated looking me right in the eyes.
While we were talking Johnny kept petting the horse, and she put her head on his shoulder and started nibbling on the collar of his jacket.
"Can I ride?" Johnny asked hesitantly, running his fingers through the horse's hair.
"Do ya know how?" Dally smirked.
"No, I've never been on a horse before," Johnny admitted and then added timidly, "but maybe I can manage. It looks like a lot of fun."
"You bet it is," Dally said lighting his cigarette, "Ok, you can ride just not this one. She's too wild for you. Try this one," he pointed to another horse – "this is Misty. She's a little quieter kind of like you," he chuckled.
Johnny got on the horse with Dally's help. At first the horse was stumbling, and Johnny looked like he didn't know what he was doing, his wife laughing at him, but then he pulled the reins and the horse took off. Johnny made a small noise, and we all laughed.
Soda was also petting a horse and tried riding. He was crazy about horses. Then he got his girlfriend to ride with him.
"They look really good together," I noted.
"They sure do," Steve replied. Then I got on a horse too and asked Jenna to ride with me. She was sitting behind me, her hands around my waist, her head on my shoulder. It was really nice out – the sun was shining and a nice breeze was playing with my and Jenna's hair. Overall I had a really nice time first watching Dally and then riding, but I was already thinking about tomorrow. Tomorrow was the big day – I was going to propose to Jenna.
The next day Soda's girlfriend, who knew that I was going to propose, asked Jenna to go shopping with her to help her pick out an outfit for a party at work. I wasted no time and started on dinner. I was cooking spaghetti and steak. The most important part was the sauce. I used my mom's recipe. She had this book where she wrote down all her signature dishes. It was in her handwriting and everything. I felt a little chocked up as I took the book into my hands. Here I was going to propose, going to get married and my mom was not there to witness any of it. I willed myself not to feel sad and I was determined to do my mom's recipe justice.
When I was finished I set the food in a nice bowl on the table and lit up a few candles. I put a bottle of Champaign in a bowl in an ice bath. Then I put a bouquet of roses in a vase on the table and sprinkled rose petals from the door area and the hallway all the way into the living room.
Next I opened the drawer and took out the photo album. I had an idea to hang the pictures all around the house. I picked out the best pictures and got to work. There was a picture of Jenna and me at the beach, I was carrying her bridal style, there was the one from her birthday she was blowing out the candles, there was the one from 4th of July when we were watching the fireworks, there was the one in the club dancing.
Finally I was done. I looked around evaluating my work. I did good, I thought and now I was feeling antsy waiting for Jenna to get home. Finally, I heard the key turn in the lock. She walked in. "Oh, I'm exhausted…" she started to say then stopped in the doorway baffled, looking at the rose petals on the floor. "Pony, what's all this?" she started to say. I walked up to her and took her hand. I walked her into the living room. She was looking at the rose petals on the floor.
When we walked into the living room and she saw all the pictures hanging around she looked shocked. That's the effect I was going for so I was glad it worked. I got on my knee and she covered her mouth with her hands. I took out the ring – "Jenna Samuel will you marry me?" I said, my voice quivering slightly. She burst into tears, "Yes," she said barely audible, choking up. I took her hand and put the ring on her finger. "I don't deserve this," she mumbled through her sobs.
"You deserve so much more than this," I said and kissed her gently.
Then we had dinner. "What's your favorite picture?" I asked her taking a bite of my steak.
"That one," she pointed to the one where I was on a motorcycle and she was sitting behind me, hands wrapped around my waist.
"Mine too," I said smiling.
