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Show FOR LUCK-43 a lot better. I call out to Tim to slow Easy, and he does. He's smiling because it's a kind of miracle the way a horse will do these things for a mere person. I feel it every time I visit her. Maybe it's power. I ride Easy, showing off the shoulder-in I've just taught her, where she moves obliquely along the rail, crossing her legs with each step. She is still resisting; I can feel it in the way she tenses her back, but I know Tim is admiring us. "Tailoring," I call to him, and he laughs. On the ride home, the hair is blowing back from his forehead and he has some color. "She didn't laugh at me this time." "You forgot to light your pipe." "Nah. It's because she's discovered the real me. About time, don't you think?" He reaches over and covers my left breast with his hand. "You know, I'm terribly jealous of your animals." "Animal." "You really think Oscar is dead?" "Of course. He was very old." He stops the car next to a fence by the the road. A large foal is trying to nurse, but the mother keeps walking away. "I miss Oscar, too," he says and moves his hand to my neck, scratches it lightly in a way he hasn't for a long time. "I wish I were different sometimes." "You're not afraid of Easy Living any more." "Poor l i t t le horse out there. Shouldn't they be separated?" "Oh no," I say. I feel afraid suddenly. He rubs the side of my neck with his thumb, in circles, harder. "Do you know why we haven't done much lately?" |