The Longest Ride

As she prepares to ride the horse, Sophia tells herself that she really likes this man. She marvels at the remoteness of the ranch and its sweeping open landscapes, surprised that such rural beauty is so close to the Wake Forest campus. She drinks Luke in with her eyes. As he bends over to secure the saddle, she feels “heat rise in her cheeks” (98). She calmly swings herself up into the saddle and, after a bit of coaxing, gets the horse to fall in step next to Luke’s. As they saunter toward the lake where Luke goes to be alone, he tells her about the riding circuit and his aspirations, given his wins on the “little tour” of local competitions (100), to someday ride in the national professional circuit. He dismisses her concern over injuries, and he says nothing about his head injury.

When the two return from the lake, Sophia is beside herself: “She felt the first twinges of soreness in her legs but not caring in the slightest. She’s ridden a horse!” (107). As they head to the house, Luke pauses and tells Sophia, “I think you’re just about the most interesting girl I’ve ever met” (109). Swept up in the moment, they kiss, and Sophia knew “with sudden certainty” that “nothing had ever felt so easy and so right” (109).

Ira wakes up groggy. It is Sunday morning. He is cold and thirsty. The sticky patches of blood on his forehead remind him of being wounded in 1942. He was wounded flying a combat mission to take out a munition factory near Emden, in Germany.

When the Germans strafed his plane, Ira took shrapnel. Bleeding profusely as his crippled plane headed back to base in southern England, he was certain he would die. Miraculously, he survived after being hospitalized for nearly three months. What kept him going, however, was the thought of Ruth. His recovery was complicated first by a bout of peritonitis and then by an outbreak of mumps in the hospital wards. His particularly virulent case left Ira sterile. Devastated by the reality that he could never have children, Ira broke off his engagement to Ruth without telling her why and stopped all communication with her.

After he served out his hitch as a pilot trainer in southern California, Ira returned to North Carolina. In an emotional reunion, Ruth demanded an explanation, assuming Ira broke off the relationship because he thinks so little of himself: “You think you are not interesting or smart enough, but you are those things and that you are not aware of your best qualities is part of your charm” (123). Moved to tears, Ira at last shared the news of his infertility.

Back at the sorority, Sophia assures her roommate Marcia that she is very taken by the cowboy and that she is definitely done with Brian. When Luke picks her up for their dinner date on Thursday, the sorority women are impressed by his rugged good looks, his quiet demeanor, his boots and jeans, his cowboy hat, and his “shiny, oversize silver buckle” (128). At dinner, Sophia introduces Luke to sushi, which he compares to fried Twinkies. Over dinner, Sophia explains sorority life and the challenges of college, and Luke explains the routine on the ranch of raising animals for slaughter. The two enjoy their conversation and Sophia compliments Luke: “I just want you to know, that I have never, ever met anyone like you before” (136).

Stilling mulling over the experience of eating raw fish, Luke drives back to the ranch with Sophia. Luke knows he needs to be upfront with his mother about leaving for Knoxville for this weekend’s bull riding competition. He is also troubled by what he cannot share with Sophia: the reality of his injury and the dire financial straits he is in. Luke understands the risks of competing, but he also understands the financial bind his mother is in because of his medical bills and the ranch. He cautions himself not to get involved with Sophia, since he is not good with relationships and since the two of them have so little in common. The problem is that he knows he is falling in love with her. “I feel like I want to know everything about you” (151), he admits before they kiss. In that moment, Luke understands he will never stop loving Sophia.

More than 12 hours have passed. Ira is hanging on heroically. Drifting in and out of awareness, he recalls a special on The Weather Channel that recounted a man who survived being trapped in a car for more than 60 hours. Fiercely thirsty, Ira loses consciousness. When he comes to, his vision of Ruth is wearing the summer dress she wore back in 1946 when the two of them rekindled their love even as Ruth struggled to understand the implications of Ira’s medical condition.

When Ruth’s father accepted a teaching post in the art history department at Duke University, Ira and Ruth spent long, happy hours strolling through the university’s art exhibits. For weeks, Ruth stayed oddly quiet about his news about his sterility. But when Ira drove out to join Ruth’s family for the last few days of their vacation on the Outer Banks, Ruth at last told Ira what he longed to hear: “What I do know is that when I was sitting with you that night, I felt God was telling me that I was doing the right thing” (161). At that moment, a shooting star blazed across the night sky. That night, Ruth came to Ira’s room and they had furtive, loving sex: “We knew enough not to make a sound, the silence making everything even more exciting” (163).

At the Knoxville competition, Luke struggles against his body, too aware of its liabilities and its vulnerabilities to focus on the bull even as he grips the reins to ride the massive creature: “Luke was in the chute […] only vaguely could he hear the announcer laying out the highs and lows of his career even as the crowd grew silent” (165). The competition is a blur and the ride is frantic. Luke stays on the bull long enough to be ranked in the top four; he is thrown, but lands safely. He returns to home banged up, but determined to make one last run at nationals and earn enough to settle the ranch’s mortgage.

The next day is special—Sophia will join them for Sunday dinner and, at last, meet his mother. As dinnertime approaches, Luke “knew really for certain was that he wanted to spend time with her and that dinner couldn’t come fast enough” (170).