Illustration by Paul Bunch

Once upon a time there was a wooden set of race horses at a retirement home that I would go to watch every time they would race — about once a month or two.

They had the race downstairs on a felt “run” marked off in squares, so when the watchers would roll the dice to see how far they could be placed on the squares, whoever had the most points would make it to the end, to win the race.

The No. 2 horse, which was orange, had lost half of his tail sometime back, and in 6 months, had not been fixed. 

I noticed this after a while, and asked at a residents meeting whether Orange No. 2 could be fixed, so it could win like the other seven horses. They said they would try, as his tail was in the drawer of the craft room. Another few months went by — I asked the attendants if Orange No. 2 had his tail glued on yet, and “No, the maintenance did not have the glue.”

I asked the attendant if she had cared for the tail, and she was busy with other things. I offered to fix the tail and paint No. 2, but the staff didn’t want the residents to mess with the jobs of the attendants. I thought the least Orange No. 2 deserved was a silver streak on his side, but thought all the other horses would be jealous if he had something they didn’t.

So, time went on.

Then, I thought of Mother Goose taking Orange No. 2 from the “Barn” under her wing, to the craft room, in the dark, to get Orange No. 2’s tail in the drawer and glue it on herself.

She sneaked in the craft room, fumbled around in the drawer, and felt a tail, but it was soft. There was only one tail, so she took it out, found the glue gun, and in the dark, glued Orange No. 2’s tail back on. She sneaked back to the barn, where she left Orange No. 2 to sleep for the night, and went to her bed.

The next morning, there was a huge commotion in the barn. She went to see what all the noise was about, and found all seven horses around Orange No. 2, talking about the long silver tail No. 2 had. It seems, as long as the tail was in the drawer, in the dark, it grew. Mother Goose  knew something was different, but because it was dark, didn’t notice at night. All the horses wondered where the long tail came from, and why it was silver.

The staff said, “Do you see all the residents out there? They worked very hard in their lives. They suffered lots of problems, but overcame them. Now they can come here to live and be happy, and they all have silver heads of hair!”

Orange No. 2 suffered lots of months without part of his tail, but now the residents noticed how long and pretty his tail was, and knew how long he waited until someone found it and fixed it for him. The residents cheered when Orange No. 2 crossed the finish line first, knowing that they helped him by rolling the correct dice now, as he looked just like them! Orange No. 2, with patience, peace and someone caring, made him whole and happy again.

Bobbie Meyer lives in Medford.

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Body Copy: 18 inches

Kicker: READERS WHO WRITE

Headline: Whole and happy: The story of Orange No. 2

By BOBBIE MEYER

for the Rogue Valley Times

 

Once upon a time there was a wooden set of race horses at a retirement home that I would go to watch every time they would race — about once a month or two.

They had the race downstairs on a felt “run” marked off in squares, so when the watchers would roll the dice to see how far they could be placed on the squares, whoever had the most points would make it to the end, to win the race.

The No. 2 horse, which was orange, had lost half of his tail sometime back, and in 6 months, had not been fixed. 

I noticed this after a while, and asked at a residents meeting whether Orange No. 2 could be fixed, so it could win like the other seven horses. They said they would try, as his tail was in the drawer of the craft room. Another few months went by — I asked the attendants if Orange No. 2 had his tail glued on yet, and “No, the maintenance did not have the glue.”

I asked the attendant if she had cared for the tail, and she was busy with other things. I offered to fix the tail and paint No. 2, but the staff didn’t want the residents to mess with the jobs of the attendants. I thought the least Orange No. 2 deserved was a silver streak on his side, but thought all the other horses would be jealous if he had something they didn’t.

So, time went on.

Then, I thought of Mother Goose taking Orange No. 2 from the “Barn” under her wing, to the craft room, in the dark, to get Orange No. 2’s tail in the drawer and glue it on herself.

She sneaked in the craft room, fumbled around in the drawer, and felt a tail, but it was soft. There was only one tail, so she took it out, found the glue gun, and in the dark, glued Orange No. 2’s tail back on. She sneaked back to the barn, where she left Orange No. 2 to sleep for the night, and went to her bed.

The next morning, there was a huge commotion in the barn. She went to see what all the noise was about, and found all seven horses around Orange No. 2, talking about the long silver tail No. 2 had. It seems, as long as the tail was in the drawer, in the dark, it grew. Mother Goose  knew something was different, but because it was dark, didn’t notice at night. All the horses wondered where the long tail came from, and why it was silver.

The staff said, “Do you see all the residents out there? They worked very hard in their lives. They suffered lots of problems, but overcame them. Now they can come here to live and be happy, and they all have silver heads of hair!”

Orange No. 2 suffered lots of months without part of his tail, but now the residents noticed how long and pretty his tail was, and knew how long he waited until someone found it and fixed it for him. The residents cheered when Orange No. 2 crossed the finish line first, knowing that they helped him by rolling the correct dice now, as he looked just like them! Orange No. 2, with patience, peace and someone caring, made him whole and happy again.

Bobbie Meyer lives in Medford.

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