Ray Sutcliffe then left the stables, but Robert called after him. “Paul can’t ride your horse—”
“He’ll ride!” declared Ray Sutcliffe, not breaking his stride and not turning around. “He’ll ride!”
He walked on, and Robert headed for the stalls. I watched him coming, and I was angry that he was interfering in what was my business. When he reached me, he said, “Paul, what do you think you’re doing?”
“Obviously,” I said coldly, “you heard what I was doing.” Then I turned my back on him and started brushing the gelding.
“You know what I mean.”
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“What?”
I looked at Robert again. “What do you think you’re doing?” He gazed at me blankly. “Just what are you doing in my business?”
“You know our daddy said you’re not to ride that grey.”
“It’s my business.”
Robert shook his head. “You can’t ride him, Paul. I’ve seen that grey. He could throw you.”
“If he does, he does. Like I said, it’s my business.”
“I won’t let you do it.”
“How’re you going to stop me?”
He looked right at me and said, “I’ll tell our daddy.”
I looked right at him too. “I’d expect you to do that.”
“I mean it,” said Robert, unapologetic. “I mean it, Paul. I’ll find our daddy, and I’ll get him to stop you.”
I started to turn away. He grabbed at my arm. I stopped and looked hard at him, and I said, “I remember the last time you did that.” Those were my last words to Robert. My eyes said everything else. Robert flushed, then let me go, and I went back to brushing the gelding. Mitchell looked my way without uttering a word. Robert turned and left the stables.
When Mitchell and I finished all the work we were supposed to do for my daddy, we didn’t go immediately to Ray Sutcliffe’s grey. I figured I needed to know something about that horse before I even saw him, so we headed out to find Ray Sutcliffe’s rider, the one that was laid up sick. The man was known by the name of Eddie Hawks, and we found him in a livery on a dirty pile of hay where a number of the colored riders were bunked. He looked to be in a bad way, and was suspicious of talking to me at first, but finally he did. “You fool ’nough t’ try and ride that horse?” he asked from where he lay.
“I suppose I am,” I said.
“You tryin’ t’ take my job?”
“Just for this ride. You can’t ride, I can. Got no interest in the job after this day.”
“So what you come t’ me ’bout?”
“I want to know how to ride that grey.”
“Thought you done said you knowed that already.”
“Maybe I should’ve said I wanted to know how to ride him and win.”
Eddie Hawks breathed in short spurts. “Maybe I told you that, I be givin’ up my job.”
“Told you I don’t want it. You can trust me on that.” Eddie Hawks closed his eyes like he was thinking on whether to help me or not, on whether to trust me or not. “Thing is,” I went on while he was deciding, “your boss came to me. Seems to me he needs this race won, and seems to me if you tell me how to win it, once you’re better, you’ll have a job to go back to.”
Eddie Hawks slowly opened his eyes. “How old you, boy?” “Fourteen.”
“Umph,” he grunted. “Say you know horses, huh?”
“Some.”
“Well, you don’t know none like that ole grey. Ole grey, he got mule in him.”
“How’s that?”
“Don’t know, but he gots it, way he act. He got his own way t’ thinkin’. Now, you let that ole horse get out front first, he likely t’ rare back and let every other hoss runnin’ get ’head-a him. You keep him back some, other horses ’head-a him, and he gets his dander up ’cause he can’t stand that! He gotta pass each one. That ole grey, he’ll race ’til his heart burst t’ git ’head-a somethin’ in front-a him already. After that, once he out front, he don’t care if they go on and pass or not, ’cause he done figured he done proved hisself. He done passed ’em, done proved hisself already, and he ain’t got nothin’ else t’ prove. You can hold him when he need holdin’ and know when t’ let him loose when the time come, then you done got that race won.”
I thanked Eddie Hawks for his help. Then Mitchell and I went to check out the grey. He was a tremendous-looking horse. “So, you really gonna ride this monster?” asked Mitchell as we took our first closeup look at the stallion.