More on Characters at the Park.....The Discovery

Part 1

I see lots of people come and go in the park when I ride. Some of those people turn out to be regulars. I get to know their faces, their patterns as they pass through my field of vision. Sometimes I say "hello" to those folks and sometimes they say "hello" to me. Others, it might be a nod of a head but with the regulars always it grows into some kind of acknowledgement "I see you each day."

After a while it feels like those people are friends when I don't even know their names. Funny how that happens. Just seeing the same faces over time leads to a comfort, a familiarity that takes down barriers. Maybe for me it's a reassurance I'm not alone in this world. All I know is that it gets to be there with those faces I see on a regular basis.

The weather was finally clearing up around here last week so I was actually getting some time to ride in the arena. I'd been riding in the arena Monday through Friday for a couple of weeks now. With that riding in the same place I was beginning to see some regulars to the park I hadn't really noticed before. They were those people who seem to congregate near the arena instead of those that roam the park I normally see on my trek back to the trails.

Among them was a middle age red-headed woman sitting up on the hill. I had seen her there several times over the last week or so. She seemed to be near the little snack trailer that's between the viewing stands. With the day camp going on, I thought maybe she was connected to that little shed even though I hadn't seen it open. I thought maybe it just opened up for lunch for the kids which was after I'd gone home.

Later, I learned the kids were gone before lunch time. Still it was my thought process on that day. I guess that goes to show how we can perceive something very far off base from what it really is. On this day, I thought maybe the red haired woman must be there with the little snack stand. Why else would she be in the park in that location for several days in a row?

The main arena at the park is absolutely huge. It's so big that for the 4-H horse shows it gets divided into half and they run it like it's really two rings. On sunny days in the mornings I like to ride at the far end from where I park my horse trailer. There's some shade there so I utilize it as much as I can. That way I don't get too hot, neither does my horse. Riding on that end put me down where I usually saw this woman.

With the problem I have with vision, I don't really see features all that well. For me to recognize someone from a distance is more to recognize size, shape, gender, sometimes coloring and over all mannerisms that set one person apart from another for me. Mostly it's a perception of what I think I'm looking at, if that makes any sense. So while I'd seen this person, I didn't really know what she looked like up close. I had seen enough of her to know that I was seeing the same person over and over but there is where my recognition ended.

It was on Wednesday that I noticed this woman moving her chair closer so she could watch me school my horse. As usual when I see people are particularly interested in what I am doing with a horse, I moved closer too and spoke to the woman. The woman moved from her chair to down by the rail so we could have a conversation. From there we ended up in a pretty lengthy discussion.

We started off talking about the weather and how we both have issues with the sun. From there it was on to me working Legs at the park. I guess it's only a natural progression when talking about horses for me to mention how many I have at home, all the usual stuff.

Since Legs is the only horse I've been working for a while now because of the legal work I have to deal with at home, I guess it only makes sense our conversation managed to make it's way to that subject too .Being without a lawyer is so much on my mind as I try to navigate my way through the legal system, pretty much flying by the seat of my pants. The words come falling out of my mouth before I even realize they're coming. Once out, they're a bit hard to ignore.

It turned out this woman was a paralegal so she began asking me all kinds of questions. Some I could answer and others I didn't have a clue. She invited me to bring my court documents down for her to take a look . She offered to help me sort through my mess so I could be sure I wasn't missing anything I needed to know.

I explained it's the deadlines that worry me. I know I'm not supposed to miss them but finding out what they actually are sometimes can be difficult. Then the procedures are next on my list of worries. Some are obvious, others, not so much. I think I get all the parts but understanding how they actually go together sometimes just isn't all that clear. The result, of course, is more added stress.

During the course of this conversation, the woman's red headed teenage daughter joined us on the rail. As the girl made her way towards us, the woman called her by name. As I heard the name flowing from the woman's lips, I recognized it instantly. This was the young girl whose name I had on a business card in my file. This was the daughter of the sad tall thin gentleman I'd met earlier in the year. But how could that be? Is the world really that small?

To be continued........................

The Revelation

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