The Long Journey Home (Completed)

Chapter 2 (Edited)

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall

be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. there shall be no more pain,

for the form things have passed away. Revelation 21:4

"Miss Castille, how is it to be the youngest female to win this race?" one announcer asked. "Miss Castille, how long have you been riding Night?" another asked. "Miss Castille, I heard from someone that your father had just died. Do you want to say any words about it?"

"Please, no more questions at this time," Matthew said. "We have to get going and do not have enough time. I'm sure all of you will be writing nice things about Mr. Joshua Castille and his fiery red head, Miss Ember Castille. If ye don't want an angry Leprechaun jumping on ye," Matthew said, grinning.

A smile flickered on my face as the announcers backed up with a nervous laughter. I knew that he wasn't going to do anything. even if they did write nasty things about me or my father. However, I shot him a grateful look, because I didn't want to talk to them. I backed into the dressing room wanting to get changed out of my muddy clothes.

***

I walked into the female changing room and looked around. There were only nine girls that rode the whole day, but they usually rode in the first races, unlike me and another girl named, Mia Henson.

I looked around and saw a brown haired, gray eyed female, cleaning her boots. "Hey, Mia," I said as I went to where I had set my bag down, before the race.

Mia looked up and smiled at me, sadly. "Hey, how are you doing?" she asked as I took off my riding shirt that had my farm's colors on it.

"Doing fine," I replied as I looked at the colors of the blue and black on it. The whole thing was blue, with some black on it. My dad had helped me pick it out, so that it kind of looked like my stallion, Night.

Mia studied me, while I changed into some jeans and an oversized sweatshirt. "You know, I like your hair," Mia said, while she came over to me, as I took my hair out of my ponytail.

I shook my head, making my dark, auburn hair bounce before, it settled back in it's place. "I don't," I replied, as I took one of my curls and made it bounce. "It's so bouncy, that my two year old sister likes to play with it. I like your straight hair better."

"Come on, Em, tell me the truth about my straight and boring, brown hair," Mia said, grinning at me teasingly.

"I like straight hair, though," I replied, pulling one of my curls and making it bounce, again. "Or wavy," I added.

Mia rolled her eyes and looked at me, closely as if she could see my soul or how I felt deep down.

I shifted on my feet, feeling my face turn red, making me look like a tomato. I didn't know what she was looking at by the intensity of her gaze.

"You know that you can cry. Right?" she asked, softly, turning the subject to the matter at hand.

I looked down, breaking eye contact, as I placed my outfit into my duffel. "I-I know," I said, softly, after a minute of trying to think of what to say. "I just want to be strong for the family. I know that if I do cry then... I wouldn't stop. No matter how hard I'll try, I won't be able to."

Mia nodded her head. She went to her purse and shuffled around, looking for something. It took a minute of shuffling through stuff, before she came back to me. "Here," she said, handing me a business card. "This has my number on it. If you need to talk to anyone, about what had happened, then I'm just a phone call away."

I placed it in my pocket and smiled, gratefully. "Thanks," I said. "I'll keep that in mind."

Mia smiled at me and then looked at her watch. "Well, I have to go. I have college in about two hours, and I need to take a nap before then." She rolled her eyes, while she went to get her stuff.

I pulled my hair into a ponytail, making sure that my all my hair was in it. "Yes, I have to go, also. Jason'll kick my butt if I take to long. I think he'll text me in about-" my phone buzzed "- there it goes." I pulled my phone out of my pocket and pulled up his message.

"What'd he say?" Mia asked, curiously, because I had busted out laughing. "If that is all right, I mean," she added.

"It's fine," I said, as I shook my head. "My brother is just being my brother. He wrote 'If you don't come out in a minute, then I'm going to come in the women's locker room doing the Chicken Dance and the Hokey Pokey, making you look like an idiot or a fool. Wait... making myself look like an idiot or a fool, but you the sister of an idiot or a fool. Moral of the story... get the hell out of the bathroom, before I make you come out. Love ya, Jason'. I do want him to do this and then place it on Youtube. That'll teach him to go into the woman's locker room "uninvited"."

Mia smiled, showing her pearly whites. "Then, we should get going," she said, as she went to get her duffel and her purse.

"So, why do you have a purse?" I asked, as I picked up my duffel. The words Spring View Ranch was written on it, in light blue words on a black casing.

"'Cause girls carry one, Darling," Mia said, in her New Jersey accent, as she moved to the door.

"I don't," I replied. I reached into my back pocket and pulled out a leather wallet. "This," I said, wagging my wallet close to her face, "is my life. Anything I can't fit in here, then I don't take with me."

"If you wave that thing in my face, again, then I'm going to take it," Mia said, reaching out to grab the wallet from me.

I held out my other hand to stop her. With the one that held the wallet, I placed it close to my body. "Swiper, no swiping. Swiper, no swiping. Swiper, no swiping."

Mia snapped her fingers and frowned. "Aw, man," she said, mimicking Swiper from Dora the Explorer.

"¿Miras Dora? (Do you watch Dora?)" I asked in Spanish.

"Si! ¿Y tu? (Yes, and you?)" Mia asked.

"Si, miro Dora con Lily. (Yes, I watch Dora with Lily.)" Lily was my two year old sister. She was the youngest one of us, and she would be the one that didn't know our father. I couldn't help the small frown on my face, before covering it up.

"Good, I'm not the only one that watches Dora," Mia said, not taking notice to my sudden mood change, as she switched back to English. "And, I passed the amount of Spanish that I know."

I rolled my eyes and grinned a little. "Vamos, let's go." I started to walk out of the building.

Mia laughed and caught up with me. "You know, I did let you win," she said. "Foxy was burning to jump ahead."

Foxy the Fox Trotter was a Strawberry Roan Arabian Quarter Horse mix, with ears that look as if they were a fox. She was a bit smaller than Night, but was a little faster for her small size. However, Night was still faster than her.

"You keep saying that, Mia," I said with a smirk. "But, we both know that Night can go faster than Foxy."

Mia shrugged her shoulder. "Next year, when it's not muddy, we'll see about that."

I just smiled a little sadly, as I pushed on the door, letting us go out into the open world. Ya,if I still do races then, I thought.

A deep hole seemed to open in my heart. I knew that it had opened, because I'm going to miss my father.

A small spark of anger made me shiver. I blamed the Lord, my God, for the death of my father.

My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?! I thought, gritting my teeth together. I could feel my anger spurting as well as grief and hatred.

"Em? Are you alright?" Mia asked, seeing the pain and anger that flashed through my eyes.

"I'm fine," I said, keeping my face blank. "Let's go. I see my brother waiting for me by his truck."

Mia dropped the subject, but the looks that she kept giving me, told me that she was concerned about my well being. However, she didn't need to, because I would be fine. I had to be, for my family.