Chapter XIII

The morning of the rodeo's first round competition was a hectic one. Some of the competitors were practicing (ropers were lasoing dummy steers, or each other, barrel racers were putting their mounts through some basic reining exercizes, bull doggers were practicing their throw downs and the bronc and bull riders, that had finished their draw to see what hoirse or bull they were going to try and ride for eight seconds were working out in a roped off area that had been set up with weight benches, while others were grooming their horses, making last monute tack repairs or standing in line to pay entry fees or draw for their bronc or bull. And some were simply lounging around their or their neighbor's "camp sites".

Kelly sat alone outside of Kevin and Toni's motor home. Kevin was waiting to draw for the bull riding event and Toni was helping a friend set up for the Grand Entry Parade. There was still four hours before everyone involved with the opening ceremonies had to be in their places and ready to go. Kelly tried to read a book she had bought at the last gas station they had stopped at, but she was having difficulty concentrating. Her thoughts kept nreturning to the dream she had had the night before. Frustrated she put the book down, got up and walked to the temporary paddock Patches shared with four other horses.

As she approached the aluminum railing that served as fences, Patches raised his head from the clump of hay he was munching. He tossed his head a couple of times, snorted and walked toweard the fence. He arrived at the fence before Kelly did and he stretched his neck across the fence toward her, cocked his head sideways and curled hi upper lip so his teeth showed in what looked like a grin. He snorted and straightened his head and shook it.

Kelly walked up to Patches smiling and reached up and placed her hand on his forehead and gently scratched him between the ears.

"Hi there, big fella," she said softly. Patches laid the side of his head on her shoulder. Kelly took her other hand and rubbed him under his throat and leaned her head against his. They looked like they had known each other for years instead of just a few months.

Patches had become her confidant. Only he knew that she had gotten to where she didn't know who she was or where she came from. Only Patches knew that she was being haunted by what appeared to be memories that were not her own and that she couldn't explain. Only Patches knew that she had started to question her own instincts regarding certain situations. And only Patches knew that there were certain events from her past that she was forgetting, that she couldn't even remember her wedding to Paul or whjat he and her stepchildren loked like anymore. Only Patches knew that not a night went by that Kelly didn't have some sort of dream or nightmare in which she saw, even if for a second, the face of a very handsome man with long dark hair, expressive...almost hypnotic brown eyes that she did not recognize but stirred some feelings deep inside of her that she couldn't describe and that made her very uncomfortable and unsure and that she had decided that, even though she couldn't be sure what she was feeling was fear, she was going to listen to the inner alarms it was setting off and should her path ever cross the mysterious man, she would treat him as she had any of those in the Organization's database and eliminate the problem post haste.

Kelly dug in her jeans pocket and pulled out two sugar cubes which she fed, one by one to Patches with one hand while she stroked his neck with the other. She looked into his eyes and he looked back at her as if he were looking into her soul. When he finished the second cube he tossed his head then lowered it so that he and Kelly were looking eye to eye.

"Yeah, I had another nightmare," Kelly said softly and reached out and gently rubbed his muzzle with her fingertips. She proceeded to tell him about her dream and how she woke up and was not only uinable to get back to sleep but afraid if she did it would repeat itself.

"I just wish I knew why some of these dreams seem so real," she went on. "It's as if they are my memories. They're that vivid and some seem to bring about some rather intense feelings. But I can't expain why because awake they mean nothing to me. They're not familiar at all." She stopped and walked up to the fense, turned around with her back to it and leaned against it and stared up at a whispy white cloud that moved slowly across the blue sky, changing shape as it went along its journey.

"Oh, Patches. I just don't know. I'm not sure about anything anymore. I'm just so confused." She turned to look at the horse that remained nearby as if enthralled in her words. "Like that guy we met yesterday. Remember? The one who watched our practice run?" Patches tossed his head up and down as if nodding that he remembered. "I swear I have never seen him before in my life but...I don't know...I felt something when I looked in his eyes. I don't know what it was but it was something. And the way he looked at me. I felt like he was searching my soul for something he'd lost. Does that make any sense? That's the only way I can explain it." Patches moved closer to Kelly and she rested her head against his neck. "I felt something like that a couple of months ago when I went into that arena owner's office and saw that old poster of a French Circus troop. It was the picture of the high wire act, the blond chick I told you about. I felt something pulling me to the poster." She turned her back to the fence again. "God Patches. Am I losing my mind?" She asked.

Patches laid his head across her shoulder from behind her and rested it there. He gave a short snuffle as if in answer to her question.

"I don't know. I think I might be. Besides," she said as she reached up and hugged his face, "what do you know? You're no shrink. You're just a horse."

Patches raised his head up and grabbed the back brim of her couwboy hat with his teeth and lifted it off of her head.

"Hey!" She said and turned around. She tried to grab it but he stepped back and out of her reach. "Give me that back!" She tried reaching over the fence but Patches stepped backward agaoin. He tossed his head with Kelly's hat still in his mouth.

Kelly climbed through the rungs of the fence and stepped closer to the Paint, but Patches turned and loped off playfully. Kelly chased him for awhile and finally gave up.

"Fine. You keep it. It'll look better on you anyway," she laughed and turned to walk away. She had almost reached the fence when Patches snuck up behind her and set the hat on her head (crooked but the idea was right). Kelly straightened her hat and without looking back said, "Thanks, Brat."

Patches stepped up and nudged her with his nose just hard enough to cause her to lose her balance and she tripped over a stone in the ground and went sprawling face first into a mud puddle. As she pushed herself up she turned and looked up at Patches who appeared to be laughing.

"Oh yeah. Real funny," she said and threw a handful of mud at the horse who stepped back avoiding the flying mud. Kelly began scraping mud off of her face and out of her eyes. Suddenly a picture ran through her mind. It was of her, dressed in a pair of shorts and a tank top...something she never would have worn...and she was scraping mud off of herself. Sitting on the ground next to her was the man she kept seeing in her dreams, also covered in mud. He was laughing and holding a garden hose which he proceeded to squirt her with. Then just as suddenly as the picture had appeared in her mind it disappeared and she sat, frozen in place. After a few minutes she realized she was trembling. She struggled to her feet and walked slowly to the fence, crawled through it and headed for Kevin and Toni's motor home.

Kelly showered and changed clothes. When she was presentable, she went outside and sat in the hammock and stared up at the sky. She had a couple of hours left before having to get ready fior the rodeo so she laid back in the hammock and tried to sleep but her miond kept reviewing the nightmares and dreams and the vision she experienced in the paddock earlier.

"There's got to be a logical explanation," she thought to herself. "I just wish I could figure it all out."

TO BE CONTINUED