That’s all I remember about what happened that night. They say Sally Red Dawn found me sitting under a cactus and that I was so covered with soot she almost missed me. It turns out she’s a nice lady after all, but I didn’t know that then, and it’s probably true I cursed her and wouldn’t come back and Rick had to come and fetch me in his truck.

That was a year ago. Since then they built a brand-new stable where the old one burned, and new corrals, and Mr. Jessup put another cross up on the bluff because he says he don’t care what anyone says, Joe Dilly was as good a man as any and better than most.

After a time I started going to school like Sally wanted, and wouldn’t you know it’s not so bad, even though I have trouble with my grammar, and I keep getting the words wrong.

I growed some, too, but not so much I can’t ride every day after school.

All in all, the days are going pretty good lately, here at the Bar None, where everybody is always welcome. Sally helped with the papers so I can stay on and make it legal and never have to go back to a foster home. And Lady Luck came through all her troubles in the fire and she’s stepping high and looking fine, and maybe we’ll race her again come summer, if she feels like it. Mr. Jessup, he likes to say he’s not getting any younger, but he’s the same as always, and he still rides up straight, like he’s walking in the saddle, and he still don’t say much but just enough.

And me, I’ll never ever forget all the things that happened, the good and the bad and the in-between, and how Joe Dilly tried so hard to fight the fire that burned inside him and kept making him do the wrong thing. And how he always came back to save me, for as long as he lived, and how he loved me like a brother and a father and a friend.