Chapter 17 - Titan's Last Ride
Titan was twenty-one when Lena Park recommended no more riding.
Arthritis.
Nothing dramatic.
Age.
June was fifteen.
She had grown tall enough that people no longer laughed when she walked toward a horse.
She almost missed that.
Not the cruelty.
The surprise.
Titan lived in the retirement pasture at Mesa Dawn.
June visited after school.
She sat on the fence and read him chemistry notes he did not appreciate.
Robert visited less often but still came.
Caleb had become senior trainer at the center.
Not director.
He preferred horses to budgets.
Emily managed a catering team and no longer worked temporary events unless she wanted to.
The trust gave June security, not a fantasy life.
She still complained about gas money.
One afternoon, Titan did not come when June whistled.
She climbed down from the fence.
Caleb said, "Leave him."
"He's standing weird."
Lena examined him.
Pain flare.
Medication.
Rest.
He recovered enough to remain comfortable.
No final heroic ride.
June had once imagined one.
Sunset.
Bareback.
Everybody watching.
Instead Titan spent his last years eating grass and bullying a gray gelding away from the best shade tree.
June decided that was better.
Grant was released when June was sixteen.
He did not return to Hayes Crown.
Robert arranged no job.
Grant found work with a construction supplier through a reentry program.
He attended therapy.
Paid restitution.
Stayed away from horses by court condition for a period, then by personal choice afterward.
One day he asked Robert whether Caleb would ever meet him again.
Robert said, "Ask Caleb."
Not his decision.
Caleb eventually agreed to coffee.
No reunion scene.
No friendship.
Two men talked for forty minutes.
Then left.
Grant later told Robert, "He still doesn't forgive me."
Robert said, "Then don't make that his job."
Grant nodded.
That was progress.
When Titan died at twenty-three, June was seventeen.
He was euthanized after a severe colic episode with poor surgical prognosis.
June held his halter.
Caleb stood beside her.
Robert stood farther away.
The last word Titan heard from June was not Bluebird.
It was:
"Thank you."
Afterward, June removed the old blue ribbon she had tied to his halter years earlier.
She placed it in her pocket.
Nothing else.
No million-dollar sign.
No trophy.
The horse had carried enough symbols.
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