4. Lady Godiva

I was having lunch at the school cafeteria with Louis who was one of the few freshmen from Hong Kong that year.  We were sitting at the end of a table against a full height glass window through which we could see an open field stretching far and wide below us.  There was tall grass as far as we could see with only a few farmhouses and trees dotting the landscape.  Kentucky is famous for its Blue Grass that is of a deep green color in the wet summer.  But as it was the beginning of fall, the grass was of a light green hue with large patches of yellow where the ground was below the water table.  Soon it would turn all yellow.  For us from Hong Kong, this was a far cry from the concrete jungle that we used to live in. 

We were enjoying the view as we finished our lunch.  Suddenly I spotted something moving at a fair distance from us.  I had to strained my eyes, but I definitely made out it was a white horse being led by a girl.  I wiped my spectacles and strained my eyes a bit more.  It was a girl with long blonde hair wearing blue jeans and a white sweater.  It was interesting how far you could see if you put your mind to it.  I had never come close to a horse while I was in Hong Kong.  I felt a sudden urge, and I pointed out to Louis what I saw.

“Louis, let’s go and take a closer look.  Maybe the girl can let us ride her horse!”

“I doubt it, Bob,” Louis was the kind who didn’t get excited easily.  “And I’m still eating my lunch.”  He kept on chewing.

“Well, you’ve eaten enough. We’re not going to miss our chance of riding a horse because you wanted to stuff yourself!”  Louis was kind of chubby. 

“Alright, but let’s not rush ourselves.  It’s not good to rush after a full meal.”  He stood up slowly, reluctantly leaving the rest of his lunch on the table.  I was already halfway to the exit door.  Once we got outside, I started to run and tried to cheer Louis on.

“C’mon, Louis, hurry up!”

“Bob, I am not going to run right after a meal.  I’ll get appendicitis!”

It took only a few minutes before Mr. Appendicitis and I reached the spot, but it felt like eternity to me.  And there they were: a young girl leading a white, handsome horse strolling on a narrow path.  We waited for them to get closer, then we waved and we made our move, well synchronized.

“Hi there!” we called out, putting on our best smiling faces.

“Hi!” she replied with a smile, surprised to see the two Chinese boys with toothy smiles.

“Wow, what a handsome horse you have!” I tried to hide my excitement.

“Thank you.  It’s a show horse.  My dad gave him to me for my birthday a few years ago.”  She stopped.  She had to because we were blocking her way.

“Why don’t you ride your horse?”  I felt silly to ask because there was clearly no saddle on the horse.

“Not today.  Today, we’re taking a walk.”  She smiled again.

“Then I suppose you wouldn’t let us ride it?”  I tried to sound disappointed.

“No way, no one rides him except me.”  She made that very clear.  There was a quick flash in my mind: I read about Lady Godiva riding a white horse…she was naked with long blonde hair.

“Can we at least touch it, please?”  I looked at Lady Godiva with my puppy eyes.

“OK.  Here, you can touch it here.”  She stroked the horse along its side. 

Louis and I took turn to stroke the animal.  Its hair was smooth to the touch but rather prickly.  It was obvious that he was well groomed and well taken care of, but I don’t think I would like to ride it without a saddle and thick, thick pants, not ever.  I wondered how Lady Godiva could ride a horse without a saddle and wearing only her blonde hair.  It must be a very irritating thing to do.

“You two must love horses a lot!”

“Yes, we LOVE horses.”

“And this is the first time we ever touched one,” I added, stroking her horse again, gently.

“Bob – we need to go.  We have classes!” Louis said, pointing to his watch.

“When can we see you…ugh, I mean your horse again?”  I blurted.

“I’ll be riding in the parade this Sunday morning.  You can see us there.”

“What parade?”  I asked as Louis was dragging me away.

“The high school parade on Main Street!”

“What’s your name?”  I shouted. 

“Jane….Miller!” she shouted back.

I was going to tell her my name, but we were really getting late for class so we started running towards campus.  I figured I could always introduce myself when I saw her again.  When I got to the class, I opened my class diary and under the “Sunday” slot, wrote: “Morning Parade Jane Miller * * *”   The “three stars” was the highest rating on my scoring scheme and she was the first one receiving this top score.