Silver Opportunity

Chapter Twenty-Nine

* a few weeks later *

"Today?" I asked, wedging my phone between my shoulder and ear as I undid Dub's girth. "That's so exciting! Can I come over tonight or is that too soon?"

"Of course you can come over," Molly said through the other end of the line. "We're having leftover Chinese food for dinner. We can go over after we work with Titan today."

"That sounds perfect," I said as I lifted my saddle off and placed it on the rack. "Okay, we can talk more when you get here. I'll have Titan ready, just let me know what time you're planning on coming."

"I'll be there in twenty minutes, I'm leaving in a few."

"Awesome, I'll go grab him now. See you soon!" With that, I hung up the call and led Dublin with me. After I turned him out, I went and got Titan and brought him back into the barn. After a good grooming session, I tacked him up in all his gear and put his bridle on. Just as I was finishing the last latch, Molly waltzed in.

"Ready to go?" I asked. I looped T's reins back over his head so I could lead him into the arena.

"As always," she grinned. I handed her my horse and the three of us walked over to the arena. As Molly mounted, I set up everything we needed to do our usual warmup. It consisted of one walk lap each direction, before trotting a few laps in each direction, then cantering both ways. All blindfolded. Then we ride through cones to practice steering, over poles to engage all parts of the pony, and we've even done trot 'barrel races' to try another way of finding obstacles in the dark.

Molly was a much better blindfolded rider than I was. I was an eventer. My sport consists of finding distances and judging fences and counting strides. I relied on my sight to ride much more than Molly, who rode through the feel of the horse in dressage. While we were both able to ride blind, she picked it up much quicker and was a bit more comfortable with it.

As I watched Molly do the warmup, my mind drifted back to Leo. I didn't know the details, but I knew he was going home tonight. He's been feeling a lot better, but his vision improvement has hit a plateau and hasn't gotten any better.

Last week, the doctor told him the chances of him regaining his vision were less than five percent.

Hearing that news was difficult for everyone, but no one was surprised. I think we all knew it was true, but having Dr. Kelley confirm our worst fear just reminded us all that this was real.

Even with his negative prognosis, Leo was happier than I had seen him in a while. He smiled more and even though he couldn't see out of them, his eyes were brighter. It had been a few weeks since his breakdown about us, but we were closer than ever. I made sure to spend at least an hour alone with him a day. His favorite thing to do was ask me what it looked like outside that day. I tapped into my weak creative side and tried to show him what the day looked like.