Kentucky derby day

Kentucky derby day

fiction
edward w pritchard

Bob and Betty had met for the first time at a party for the Kentucky Derby. There were both in their forties and divorced and both were in their own ways suspicious and cautious concerning romance.

Bob was big, broad shouldered and not overly tall, and also quiet and his friends had brought him to the party to get him out into the world. Betty was an expert on horses and had came to the party because she enjoyed anything concerning horses.

A local chiropractor had arranged the party and had wanted to share his wealth and success with the community. Dr. Mullins, the chiropractor introduced Bob and Betty and Betty helped Bob pick horses and Bob's friend Tul who was a little drunk had sat Betty on Bob's lap as a joke. At the end of the party Bob had kissed Betty as he walked her to her car.

Thirty three years later Betty and Bob were driving to the race track on Kentucky derby day. Betty wanted to celebrate their meeting anniversary. Both had on their best clothes. Betty had made reservations at the race track up near Cleveland and they had good seats up in the private dining area and she had paid twenty five dollars extra so they could sit at the windows.

Betty had baked cod and Bob had alfredo noodles. Betty picked the horses. Betty won a prize for having four of the top six finishers in the simulcast Kentucky derby line-up.

When Betty got up to get her prize, Nancy who was a nurse, and with her husband Carl, a car dealer, whispered to Carl that she thought that old man, sitting at the prize winner's table, had Alzheimer's disease.

Bob wasn't sure who the woman he was with going down the stairs at the race track was but, he wasn't going to let her carry the heavy box [ containing her prize]. After he put the box in her car he even got in when she asked him to.

Betty drove Bob home, happy she had won a TV as a door prize.