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seconds we were bounding across the meadow after Cassie and Jenna, whose flying hair and callipygian rear had suddenly become the focus of all my energies and desires. My mind was blank, the past was gone.
    It is very difficult to think while you are galloping, especially over rough terrain. Why was I chasing her? I didn't know. What did I expect to achieve? I didn't care. I was just a crazy centaur chasing another crazy centaur across the crags of the timeless past.
    I chased her across the meadow, but she disappeared down another trail. I chased her down the trail and saw her plunge into the trees. I chased her through the trees, and when she splashed across a stream I splashed after her. Now we were back at the meadow, and I chased her in the opposite direction. We were both wet from the stream and whiplashed from the branches. Was she planning to go streaking through the auction?
    No, she veered onto the trail toward the waterfall, and suddenly I was gripped with fear. It was not a good place to be reckless. The trail there turned into a twisty and steep dirt road that switchbacked down through a narrow canyon to the bridge in front of the waterfall. I knew it well, for it had made a hair-raising course for a Flexible Flyer when the snow was deep. On a galloping horse it would be suicide.
    "Jenna, don't! Jenna, no!" I knew it was too late. At the top of the grade, I reined in sharply and looked down. Her horse was out of control. It was too steep to stop, and she would never make the last turn before the road curved down to the bridge. Far below were the big boulders of the streambed.
    Someone was screaming now. Was it me? No, it was Jenna screaming at her horse, screaming Cassie up to top speed, lashing the animal with her voice. She was lying low on the withers, one hand tangled tight in Cassie's mane, the other arm gripping the horse's neck. Suddenly I saw what she had in mind.
    On the other side of the canyon the road jutted out from the hill. Jenna was going to try to make it across the gorge. It was all up to the horse now. I saw Cassie break a quarter stride as she measured the distance. She knew what she had to do to survive.
    Please God give that horse wings, please God don't let her fall, please God, oh please God, please!
The horse was in midair now, straining every nerve, the forelegs reaching out, the hind legs tucking up, all time compressed into one second, one beat of my heart. Now a rasp of rocks spun out into the gorge as the hooves found a few inches of purchase on the other side. Cassie was stumbling, went almost to her knees, caught herself and stood up straight, stamping in the road. Jenna was still lying flat against the horse's spine, her hand tangled in its mane.
    Slowly she sat up, slowly she rolled a leg over and slid to the ground. Dropping to the grass, she wrapped her head up in her arms.
    When my heart stopped pounding so desperately, I rode the short way back to the meadow and retrieved Jenna's clothes. Then I picked my way along the road past the bridge, and tied Pollux up near Cassie. Jenna accepted the clothes and pulled them on without comment or coyness.
    "I'm sorry if I frightened you," she said finally. She seemed annoyed with herself.
    "I'm glad you're all right, Jenna."
    "I have to do things like that. I can't help it."
    "You did that on purpose?"
    "Well, no, of course not. But throwing my clothes off, behaving wildly . . . It's just that life gets so boring sometimes, don't you think? And when you try to liven it up, things often end badly. Why is that?"
    "I don't know, Jenna. I don't know anything about life, except that it's easy to get it all screwed up, even with the best intentions."
    "Do you think I'm crazy?"
    "Oh, yes."
    It was not the answer she was expecting. "Oh? Well, I'm sorry I asked."
    "I think everybody's crazy. I don't see any way around it."
    "But you don't think badly of me?"
    "I think you're a hell of a rider."
    "Would you like to kiss me now?"
    "Where do you fit