The Longest Ride

Night is coming, and Ira panics. For the first time, he realizes he might die in his car. Ruth—always “stronger and smarter and better at everything” (187)—calms him. She tells him to close his eyes and imagine they are on a beach and that she is offering him a glass of cool water. It works. Ira relishes the slow pull of the imaginary gulps he takes. He remembers the summer of 1946 when he and Ruth decided to marry before Ruth started her teaching position at Greensboro.

They married in a traditional Jewish ceremony in August. For their honeymoon, they explored the foothills of the Blue Mountains around Asheville. Ruth suggested they visit the campus of Black Mountain College, which she knew from her father was renowned for its cutting-edge art department and its support of new artists. Ruth conducted a baffled Ira through the college’s art exhibits. The early Picassos and Pollocks seemed to him little more than “random colors and squiggly lines” (194). Lovingly, she shared with Ira what she knew about contemporary art. They stayed on the campus for several days, and when it came time to return to Greensboro, Ira surprised Ruth with six paintings he had purchased from the exhibit, among them an early de Kooning and a Picasso. Ira was not sure what they were or what they meant, but he loved how happy they made Ruth. It was not the art, but the shared experience. The purchase marked the beginning of what would be a vast collection—more than a thousand pieces, including important early works by Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and Mark Rothko.

Sophia will head home to New Jersey for the approaching holiday break. At the ranch, Luke cannot stop thinking about her. He is uncertain how he feels so deeply about a girl he really barely knows—how she could have come to mean so much to him so quickly. He drives to the campus every weekend.

One Sunday as they prepare to part for the week, Luke asks Sophia to spend a weekend with him at a small resort by a lake where his family used to vacation. She eagerly agrees. They load two horses in a trailer and drive two hours to the lake. After checking into their cabin, they take the horses out for a slow walk, “their vision wandering from one mountaintop to the next” (207). Sophia is awestruck by the panoramic vista.

When they return to their cabin from horseback riding, Sophia considers how drawn she is to Luke. He is the first real grown up she has dated, and she is over Brian’s frat boy charms: “It wasn’t until she met Luke that she realized how little she had really learned at school” (210). At a time when she is uncertain over where her life was going, time with Luke makes her feel as if she was “finally, truly moving forward somehow” (210). She knows in her heart that this feeling is love.

As the two share a bottle of Chardonnay over dinner, Luke awkwardly opens up about his traumatic experience riding Big Ugly Critter and the months of painful rehabilitation. He had no medical insurance, so he and his mother went deeply in debt to cover the bills. When Sophia asks about why Linda was so adamant about his not returning to competition, Luke stammers, refraining from sharing the grim medical prognosis and the risk he took returning to riding. For her part, Sophia shares the pain of Brian’s serial betrayals and how deeply hurt she was by him. In a moment of passion, Luke and Sophia exchange kisses and “I love yous,” and then Sophia takes Luke’s hand and leads him to the bedroom.

With the fast approach of darkness, Ira figures it has been an entire day “cocooned in silence, interred by the white hard cold of winter” (222). He is desperately thirsty. Ruth is quiet, but that quiet “was a passionate silence, one that had its roots in comfort and desire” (223).

He remembers returning from their honeymoon to set up their house in Greensboro, buying the furnishings, and attending to the necessary renovations to make “a house filled with love” (226). Ruth began teaching with trepidation. She feared her third-grade students might not accept her given her heavy Austrian accent. But after a few awkward days, they understood her approachability and responded to her sense of caring. Ira and Ruth continued to collect art even after Black Mountain College closed in the late 1950s. In 1956, Ira began a tradition he kept until Ruth’s death: Every year on their anniversary in August he would write her a letter telling her how much she meant to him and how much in love he was with her. In all, he wrote her 45 letters. Even after she died, he continued to write a letter every year on their anniversary to let her know that he “can’t live without her” (230).

As he sits in the wrecked truck, Ira acknowledges the sad fact that since Ruth’s death he has become “inconsequential” (231), an old man easy to ignore filling a shopping basket or pumping gas. He struggles against the weight of sadness. At that moment, Ruth tells him gently that he need not be so thirsty: There is snow on the windows—enough to keep him alive. Ira’s mouth “comes alive” (233) as he drinks the melted snow. Still tired and weak, he whispers that he loves Ruth. As he thinks about the art that he and Ruth collected over more than 40 years, valuable works by artist who went on to become major figures, he knows why despite repeated queries about selling all or parts of the collection he has kept it intact: The collection is the family they never had, the living manifestation of their love. “In those oils and pigments, I stored my memories of Ruth; in every painting I recall a chapter of our lives” (237).

For the first time since she arrived in Wake Forest, Sophia is genuinely happy. She has put out promising feelers to Denver and to New York for positions in art museums. Despite the winter break and the looming separation from Luke, she knows the “passion they felt for each other was intoxicating, something entirely different from what she’d felt with Brian” (239).

Her roommate again cautions Sophia that she and Luke have nothing in common; after graduation she will have to decide between a career as a museum curator and a ranch in the middle of nowhere: “I’m saying that you could be making a mistake. And that if you’re not careful, you could end up getting hurt” (242). These words hang over Sophia’s last visit with Luke before she leaves for New Jersey. Luke senses her unease. Sophia is not sure where the two of them are heading or what will happen when she graduates. Luke calmly reassures her that the two of them “will find a way to make it work” (245). Before she departs, he promises to drive to Trenton to meet her family on New Year’s Eve. Luke gives Sophia a Christmas present, an authentic cowboy hat decorated especially for her.

With the start of bull riding competition season only weeks away, Luke dedicates himself to training. He increases his exercise regimen and works out daily on the mechanical bull in the barn. He misses Sophia but focuses on the importance of winning to save the ranch. The eight-hour drive to Trenton gives Luke a chance to sort through his mixed feelings about returning to competition. He worries that if he rides hesitantly, too worried about falling, that lack of focus might cost him much more than the prize money. He feels guilty that he has not been entirely honest with Sophia and that his mother is upset over his decision to compete in one last season.

Meeting Sophia’s parents goes well. Luke begs Sophia to spend the night with him in his hotel, but Sophia thinks this would be inappropriate. When Luke returns to North Carolina, he doubles his practice sessions. He has a heartbreaking talk with his mother who begs him again to give up riding, but understands that, like his father, Luke is obsessed with riding and that he burns “with the desire to be the best” (254). In the end, however, Linda bluntly advises him to be honest with Sophia about the risks he is taking: “You should tell her that if you keep riding, you’ll most likely be dead in less than a year” (255).