They Shoot Horses, Don't They? by Horace McCoy Read Free Book Online

keep your shoulders and arms properly timed. I had no trouble at all in figuring that. It seemed to come to me naturally. It was so simple, I thought for a moment I must have done some heel and toe walking before. I couldn’t remember it, so evidently I hadn’t. I’ve got a marvellous memory.
    We had been going about five minutes and were well up towards the front when I felt Gloria stop propelling herself; that is, she stopped traveling under her own power. I was dragging her. I felt as if she were trying to pull the belt through my stomach.
    ‘Too fast?’ I asked, slowing down.
    ‘Yes,’ she replied, almost out of breath.
    One of the nurses slammed a wet bath towel around my neck, almost knocking me off balance. ‘Rub your face with it,’ I said to Gloria …Just then Couple No. 35 cut in front of us, trying to get into the turn first. The spurt was too much for the girl. She began to stagger, loosening her hold on his belt.
    ‘Stand by No. 35,’ yelled Rocky Gravo, but before a nurse or trainer could reach her she had fallen on her face, sliding a couple of feet across the floor. If I had been alone I could have sidestepped the body, but with Gloria hanging on me I was afraid if I dodged I would sling her off. (Making these turns with a girl hanging on you was like playing pop-the-whip.)
    ‘Look out!’ I yelled, but the warning was too late to do any good. Gloria stumbled over the body, pulling me down with her, and the next thing I knew four or five couples were piled together on the floor, struggling to get up. Rocky said something into the microphone and the crowd gasped.
    I picked myself up. I wasn’t hurt, only I knew from the way my knees were burning that all the skin was rubbed off. The nurses and trainers rushed over and began tugging at the girls, carrying Gloria and Ruby to the cots in the pit.
    ‘Nothing serious, ladies and gentlemen,’ Rocky said. ‘Just a little spill … something happens every minute in the derbies … while the girls are in the pit the boys have to make two laps to count as one full lap for the team. All right, kids, give those solos the inside track.’
    I began walking very fast so as not to lose our position in the race. Now that Gloria wasn’t hanging on to the strap any more I felt light as a feather. A nurse and a trainer began working over her while the doctor listened to her heart with his stethoscope. The nurse was holding smelling salts at her nose and the trainer was massaging her legs. Another trainer and nurse were doing the same thing to Ruby. I made four laps before Gloria came back to the floor. She was very pale.
    ‘Can you hold out?’ I asked, slowing down. She said yes with her head. The people were applauding and stamping their feet and Rocky was speaking words into the microphone. Ruby came back into the race, looking all in too.
    ‘Take it easy,’ Rollo said, moving beside me. ‘You’re in no danger—’
    Then I felt a sharp pain in my left leg that shot up through my body and almost blew off the top of my head. ‘My God,’ I told myself: ‘I’m paralysed!’
    ‘Kick it out, kick it out,’ Rollo said.
    I couldn’t bend my leg. It simply wouldn’t work. It was stiff as a board. Every time I took a step the pain went through the top of my head.
    ‘There’s a charley horse on Couple 22,’ Rocky said into the microphone. ‘Stand by there, trainers—’
    ‘Kick it out, kick it out,’ Rollo said.
    I kicked my leg against the floor but that was more painful than ever.
    ‘Kick it out, kick it out—’
    ‘You son of a bitch,’ I said; ‘my leg hurts—’
    Two of the trainers grabbed me by the arms and helped me to the pit.
    ‘There goes the brave little girl of No. 22,’ Rocky announced, ‘little Gloria Beatty. What a brave kid she is! She’s soloing while her partner is in the pit with a charley horse look at her burn up that track! Give her the inside, kids—’
    One of the trainers held my shoulders down while the other one