by JD Isom

Created on: June 01, 2008

The four jockeys sat rigid, filled with nervous anticipation. They knew that victory depended on their performance and they could only hope that the hours of work leading up to this moment would be enough.

The all knew the newly promoted announcer, and smiled as they heard him yell, "On your mark!"

The jockeys stared at their competition, silently conveying their belief that their racer was one to be reckoned with and that they had the utmost confidence in their own abilities as jockey.

"Get set!"

One of the jockeys cracked his knuckles (a trick he had only recently learned). After a moment of surprise, each jockey turned back towards their racer and slowly tightened their hands on their rein.

"Go!"

A joyous roar of giggles arose as the sock racers darted towards their jockeys.

As the announcer watched these majestic racers, he was sent tumbling back through time to a point in the not too distant past, a time when the sock racers sat unused and unwanted in their dark and dreary drawers and the announcer was just a poor stable hand.

Each of these jockeys had been brave enough to rescue their racer from their life of neglect and they weren't happy just bringing their racer into the light. With the stable hand's help, they filled them with newspaper or toilet paper. They made them colorful with markers or paint. They gave them eyes with string and buttons and then made them sparkle with glitter and stickers. Then finally, they gave them the ability to run, using a long length of twine or yarn through the tip (or toe) of their nose.

After the racers were created, the training had begun. Amazingly enough, the announcer had recently been promoted from stable hand to trainer and helped the jockeys find a long track. He showed them the basics of sock raising like where the starting line was. He showed them that the jockeys were to sit across the track, a couple of feet behind the finish line. These jockeys and their racers were dedicated if not always disciplined (all good jockey/racer tandems display a certain childish recklessness) and after a few false starts, they were ready to run.

The announcer snapped back to the present as the racers crossed the finish line. It was an amazing race, and the announcer was happy to yell, "Tie!"

Later on, after the announcer had congratulated each jockey and racer. He placed the racers in a position of honor until they could race once more. Those racers looked down from the air conditioning vent and took a moment to enjoy their new found place in the light as the announcer turned and left.

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