Horse Heaven Read Online Free PDF

There’s an owl in that tree, and I’m going to take these surgical instruments I got in my golf bag, and I’m going to remove that owl’s tonsils without waking him up.’
    “ ‘Nah,’ says the other surgeon.
    “But the guy goes down there, leans into the knothole, and comes back ten minutes later. He’s got these two tiny little pink things in his hand, and sure enough, they look like tonsils.
    “So they each take another shot, and the surgeon from Kentucky says, ‘Gimme those instruments. I’m such a good surgeon that I’m gonna go down there and remove that owl’s balls without him waking up.’ So he heads downto the tree, leans in, comes back ten minutes later. He’s got two tiny red things in his hand, and he says, ‘Sleeping like a baby.’ So the California guy says, ‘You win,’ and they finish their round.
    “Well, around dusk the owl wakes up, and he goes out flying around for a while, and he comes over to a friend’s tree, and lands, and they’re sitting there talking, and he says, ‘You know, there’s something funny going on over there on the third hole. Stay away from there is my advice. I woke up tonight, and I can’t hoot worth a fuck or fuck worth a hoot.’ ”
    Everyone laughed and, after a while, headed back to the barns, except Farley and Henry. Henry looked up at Farley. He said, “So—Buddy Crawford says you broke that horse of his down.”
    “I did hear that colt of his broke down Saturday, but all I did was—”
    “Shouldn’ta done even that.”
    “Even what?”
    “Even make a suggestion, or a comment, or whatever.”
    “The horse was moving just like a filly I had. I knew for sure—”
    “Shoulda kept your mouth shut. Buddy says you jinxed it for him.”
    “Henry, that’s ridi—”
    “You may think so, Farley, and I may think so. I
may.
I’m not saying I do. But this is a racetrack, Farley. Jinxes, curses, luck, superstitions, evil eyes—this is where they
live.
”
    “Breakdowns have causes, like stress fractures and toegrabs and bad conditioning.”
    “They do. But you tangled yourself in this one.”
    “I was right, is all.”
    “That’s an even worse mistake, to be right about another man’s horse.” Henry shook his head, then he said, “I know something’s up with you, boy. You haven’t had such a good year this year. Those come and go.”
    “I know that. That’s not—”
    “Listen to me, I’ll tell you something. I’ve worked all over California, here and up north and at the fairs. You know I saw Phar Lap? Down at Agua Caliente. Right there is what I’m getting at. The things I’ve seen men do to horses made me believe in sin, original and every other kind. And when I die, and that isn’t so far away now, I expect to be punished for the sins I looked upon but didn’t stop. But what I’m telling you is, that’s the wages of a life at the track. You don’t say everything you know.”
    Farley knew that this was true. Henry shook his head, then turned and walked away.
3 / IF WISHES WERE HORSES
    T HE REASON Tiffany Morse left her purse on the bench in front of the clothes dryer in the Spankee Yankee Laundromat in Lowell, Massachusetts, was that she had to run out the door into the dank November cold to catch her niece Iona, and in the panic of that, she forgot where her purse was. Then she had to make Iona look at her and understand that she was not to ever ever ever go outside without Tiffany ever again, but of course, Iona was too young to understand that—she was only three. Fast, though. Anyway, when she came back to dryer number four (“John Adams”—all the dryers were named after famous Massachusetts politicians, right down to “Michael Dukakis,” number sixteen), her purse was open and her money was gone. The Laundromat was empty, too. The worst thing was that she hadn’t fed any quarters into the dryer yet, and her wet clothes were sitting inside in a lump with the door open. It actually would have been easier if the