The Longest Ride

As the competition season approaches, Luke recalls the specifics of his head injury, his fractured skull, the cracked C1 vertebrae, and the tiny titanium plate precariously placed at the base of his skull. He knows he cannot continue to ride, but the bills from his lengthy rehab are pressing. He is a good enough rider that with a little luck he could settle the worst of the bills in a year. For now, he knows how to fix the problem: ride well. As he prepares to practice on the mechanical bull in the barn, he also knows that if he lands wrong, he might die. When the mechanical bull tosses him, although he lands on his feet, his “brain chimed like a thumbed guitar string” (280) from the impact and he unceremoniously vomits.

Before he leaves for a competition in Florida, he has the perfect opportunity to tell Sophia the full truth, but he can’t bring himself to do it. She knows something is wrong, that he is acting distant and moody, but Luke dismisses it as the pressure to win. They argue, and Luke abruptly leaves.

Sophia struggles to understand how everything that seemed so right has suddenly gone so wrong. Luke does not call and Sophia is uncertain where she stands with him. She thinks the only pressure that Luke is under is the fear of losing the family ranch. When Sophia seeks out Marcia for advice, she finds out in a moment of shocking revelation that Marcia is now seeing her ex, Brian. Suddenly Sophia feels very much alone. Without understanding entirely why, she drives to the ranch and tells Luke about Marcia and Brian. Luke comforts Sophia but still does not share what was really bothering him.

In Pensacola, Luke shakes off the headache and the jitters and revels in the familiar adrenaline rush of competition. When he walks into the arena, he feels confident, even calm. The crowd seems with him and he wins. When Luke arrives back at the ranch after the long drive, Sophia is there waiting. She is concerned because he doesn’t look well, but he says only that he won and that the money is good for the ranch.

After dinner, Sophia and Luke head to his cabin. Sophia notices him taking a number of pills. Finally, in a moment of unguarded honesty, he tells her about his concussion, spilling the entire story of his head injury and the advice his doctors gave him about giving up bull riding. When he says he cannot stop competing because the ranch needs the money, Sophia is shocked: “You’re doing it so that you won’t feel guilty! You think you’re being noble, but you’re really being selfish” (299). Sophia leaves in a “blur of her tears” (300). When she gets back to the sorority house, however, she Googles Luke’s name and sees a link to a YouTube video of his ride on Big Ugly Critter. She cringes in horror as she watches: “Up and down the enraged bull brought his hooves down with furious impact, crushing Luke beneath him. Smashing down on his back, his legs, his head” (305).

With the competition in Macon, Georgia, approaching, Luke tries to focus on preparation. He misses Sophia. He has not heard from her since she left the house in anger. He drives to the sorority house on impulse. When Sophia comes down to see him, he quietly apologizes for not telling her the truth, but Sophia, isn’t upset about him keeping secrets—she is worried for his safety. Sophia argues that the ranch and its financial problems can be solved another way and begs Luke to walk away from competition and stop risking his life: “You should have died, but you didn’t […] You were given a second chance. Somehow, it was ordained that you should have the chance to live a normal life” (308). Finally, Sophia gives Luke an ultimatum: “If you continue to ride, it’s over” (309). The ultimatum hangs over Luke, but the next day, he leaves for Macon.

While Luke is on the road, Sophia drives to the ranch to talk with Luke’s mother. Linda shares Sophia’s concerns over Luke’s safety—his skull is “like a stained-glass window […] everything barely holding together” (311). They both agree that if he continues to ride, “He had no chance of survival” (312). The two wait for a message from Luke; he texts them reassuring them that he is ok and that he is driving back home.

Luke does not win the Macon competition, but finishes high enough to guarantee a place in the lucrative big-league circuit for the summer if he does well in the last pre-season competition in Florence, South Carolina. The following week, Luke tries not to think about Sophia. He dutifully practices and heads to Florence. His nemesis Big Ugly Critter is in the arena, but Luke does his best to avoid thinking about that. The first two rides go smoothly. The headache is slight, and he feels confident gripping the leather straps before the chutes open. By evening’s end, Luke is positioned into the championship bracket. He has only a single ride left in the evening—and of course, he draws Big Ugly Critter, “just an animal, albeit the craziest, meanest one he’d ever come across” (318). He tries to calm himself and focus on the ride.

It is the first light of morning. Ira feels curiously dissociated from his body. He knows he is slipping away, but he has been waiting to die since Ruth’s death. He recalls the heavy silence in the house after Ruth’s funeral, the long empty weeks when he stopped caring about anything. Depressed, unable to handle his grief, Ira could find few reasons to go on. There was no meaning to days he had no one to share with. Going through Ruth’s things, he chanced upon the box containing all his anniversary letters to her, a “lifetime in a box” (326). He reads them aloud and relives the happiness of their long life together. Then, in the bottom of the box, he finds a letter from Ruth that she intended him to find after her death. In it, Ruth encourages him to handle his sadness and never forget how happy he had made her: “I am—and always have been—part of you” (329).

Then Ira received an unexpected visitor—the wife of Ruth’s former student Daniel McCallum, who found Ruth through a Google search. Because of Ruth’s confidence and love, Daniel survived his childhood, worked his way through the foster care system, and found happiness and fulfillment in years of service in the Peace Corps before dying suddenly from a brain aneurysm at age 33. Daniel’s wife brought a condolence gift—a wonderfully simple painting Daniel made in foster care of Ruth. On the back was an inscription: “She believes in me and I can be anything I want when I grow up” (335).

The gift of the painting touched Ira deeply and his depression began to lift. Ira decided to make arrangements for the disposition of their massive and quite valuable art collection. Daniel’s painting gave Ira an idea: Through his lawyer, he set up one of the most extraordinary art auctions ever staged in North Carolina.

In the present, in the car, Ira feels weak. “If there is a heaven,” he whispers to Ruth, “we will find each other again for there is no heaven without you” (341). Ira slowly closes his eyes, certain that this will be the very last time.