this is my first foray into the world of flash fiction (a piece of fiction typically 1000 words or less). Hope you enjoy it…
The Tourist
On each side of the deserted motorway, the high banks blinkered her. Taking a deep breath, she swung up through the roundabout, and there it was.
The mist hung low over the early morning plains. Later the day would be warm and bright but for now, the watery sun could do nothing but add to the unreality of the dawn.
Pulling onto the grass verge, she flung open her car door and filled her lungs with the cold, damp air, her eyes wildly, greedily drinking in the sight before her. In every direction the Curragh rolled flat, green, familiar, already dotted with the sight of early morning strings of horses. She glanced at her watch. She’d better hurry, he mightn’t wait.
***
He’d wait alright, even though he wasn’t sure she’d turn up. It was a strange one, young Elaine ringing him up like that.
He lit another cigarette and sighed. He’d thought for a long time about who to give her, nothing too green, whilst knowing only too well that she wouldn’t be pawned off with any old dud.
Taking another drag from his cigarette he chuckled, just when he thought things were getting dull….
***
‘Oh Charlie, it’s been so long!’
‘Too long, love, too long,’
‘I can’t believe it. Isn’t this unbelievable?’
‘Don’t have to tell me.’
He looked at her curiously. She hadn’t changed much. Fancy highlights, and maybe not as whippet-thin as before, but still the same sparkling eyes and jaunty look.
‘Just promise me you won’t get yourself killed. Because if you do, I’m warning you, I’ll be throwing your body in the nearest furze and making like I never saw you!’
‘Oh stop, I’m nervous enough! Come on, let’s unload them.’
The horses backed down nosily from the box, their feet scrabbling to keep balance on the ramp. The chestnut filly looked warily at Elaine as she approached.
‘Oh Charlie, she’s perfect!’
‘See what you think by the end of the Old Vic,’ he answered gruffly, secretly pleased with her approval.
But she wasn’t listening, her face buried in the fillies neck.
‘Right so, have you got your gear?’ Charlie was anxious to get this over with.
‘Yes, took a while to find, mind you.’
‘Hope you brought gloves.’ He looked pointedly at her long fingernails and she blushed.
‘Yes boss.’
‘Ok, one, two HUP!’
Once up, the filly skittered sideways from beneath her, but Elaine just laughed and automatically began the process of tightening the girths and adjusting her stirrups.
‘You be careful now, no messing, keep her nice and steady.’ Charlie called after her, but she was gone, her eyes already on the mouth of the gallop, tracing its course off into the distance.
The filly too had seen where they were going, and was by now bouncing and skipping on the spot. Elaine had remembered some tricks though and managed to keep her in check until her hooves were safely on the brink of the chippings track.
Then in three huge, bounding strides they were off.
‘Shit!’ she gasped, her reins in muddle, ‘easy girl, easy!’
Through her gloves she felt three nails snap with the strain of holding the horse back, but she didn’t care. This was it. The power, the surge…
The filly started to steady but Elaine was ready for her now.
‘Right ho lady, let’s see what you can do.’ She slipped her reins an inch and let the horse have two clips on her flank with her whip, but there was no need, they were off.
The gear change was instantaneous, the wind by now whipping the tears from her eyes as she crouched further forward. She could see two other riders ahead and as she steamed past them she called, ‘Sorry lads, can’t hold her!’
‘Stop bleedin’ hittin’ her then!’ one of them shouted back, but the filly was long gone. Every muscle strained, foam spilling back from her mouth onto her neck, her hooves barely clipping the all-weather surface. With every stride the ground flashed beneath them but Elaine was in another place, another time. Crouched so low that the chestnut mane stung her cheeks, she urged her on and on like someone possessed.
And then they were nearing the end. Just as she worried about how she was going to pull her up, the poor filly started to slow in long, grateful strides, her slick sides heaving. Elaine tried to catch her breath.
It took five minutes for Charlie to gambol up alongside them.
‘Sorry Cha, she got away from me,’ Elaine called over her shoulder, afraid to look at him.
‘I could see that,’ he answered drily, ‘good job she was due a work out. You ok?’
She nodded, but he knew she wasn’t.
‘So when are you off then?’
‘Tomorrow,’ she answered.
‘Oh,’ he nodded, ‘China did you say?’
‘No Charlie, Hong Kong.’
‘Oh, same thing isn’t it?’
She had to laugh, thinking that to Charlie and all the lads she used to work with, it might as well be ‘all the same’. Just as the Curragh might well be a different country to all the people she worked with now.
‘How long are you going for?’
She shrugged.
‘But you’ll be back won’t you?’
There was silence, so he continued,
‘Right. We’re taking it easy on the way back, I mean it now, stay upsides of me, no monkey business!’
‘I will, I promise – and Charlie – thanks, thanks a million for this.’
‘Ah sure don’t I owe you, after getting me out of a hole with the Revenue that time. Who’d have thought, our little Elaine, an accountant in China!’ he laughed.
Elaine stayed three strides behind as they cantered slowly home, tears streaming down her cheeks again, only this time, they weren’t caused by the wind.