Beginner's Luck (4 page)

Shelby ran into the garage, grabbed a bucket and filled
it with water. She shuffled towards Blue with the
water slopping over the sides and saturating the legs
of her pants.

'My poor baby. You must be thirsty. They are so
mean.'

Blue sniffed at the water for a moment and then
resumed munching on the lawn.

Shelby left the bucket and marched into the house.
Angry tears were forming in her eyes. The front door
hit the wall with a thud.

Her father was sitting on the floor of the lounge
room with Connor and Blake. Her mother peeked
around the kitchen wall.

'Hi, honey, how was it?' she asked.

Shelby hands were bunched into fists at her sides.
She erupted. 'How long has he been there? There's no
shade. He had no water! I can't believe you would be
so cruel!'

'Keep your shirt on,' replied her father. 'He had
water earlier. We took it away because he kept tipping
the bucket up.'

Her tears spilled over, and she wiped them away.
'Your rope probably just about strangled him. You
don't know anything about horses! What if he caught
his leg, or poked his eye on that stick? What if he
pulled it too hard and it came out? He could get hit by
a truck or anything!'

'He's fine, Shelby. We've all been checking on him,'
her mother said.

'What if I came back and he was dead, huh? Did
you think about that?' She was breathing hard now,
trying to keep from sobbing. 'You don't care about
anything!'

Shelby's dad's face went red. He opened his mouth
and his voice came out loud and booming. 'My
bromeliads
are
dead! My father gave them to me from
his garden from sections that came from
his
father's
garden, and they're both dead too! You don't have the
patent on sentimental things, Shelby!'

Blake put his hands over his ears and started to
cry. His father rubbed the child's hair absently.

'Blue is a living animal with feelings!' Shelby
shouted.

Her father's voice went up a notch. 'You don't
think my bromeliads have a right to life?'

'It's not the same!' Shelby countered.

'No, it's not. It's
worse
!'

Shelby could feel the vein in her neck throbbing.
'I hate you!'

'Go to your room!'

'I was going anyway! I don't want to look at your
face!'

'Good! I don't want to look at you either!'

She stomped up the hall and slammed her bedroom
door as hard as she could. The picture frames clattered
against the wall and the window glass rattled.

Shelby lay on her bed and cried. It was so unfair.
None of her friends' parents would have put a few
dumb plants over the welfare of a horse – not Mrs
Crook, not Erin's mum, nor any of the parents at
pony club. Lindsey's mum especially planted things in
the fallow paddocks that she knew the horses liked
eating. Shelby wished she had been born into a different
family – with parents who understood. It wasn't
her fault that the stupid company wanted to build the
dumb Kensington, and now they were punishing her,
as though she was the one who'd done something
wrong.

There was a knock on Shelby's door. 'Honey, it's
me.' Her mother's voice was muffled through the
wood.

She rolled over on her bed to face the wall. 'Go
away!'

'Don't speak to me that way.'

Shelby could have a shouting match with Dad, but
her mum would never tolerate it. She sat up, wiping
her eyes with her arm while her mother came in and
sat on the edge of the bed.

'Blue's fine. We took water to him every hour, and
there was shade out there in the middle of the day, but
he chose to stand in the sun. It wasn't that hot anyway.'
She patted Shelby on the knee. 'He was perfectly happy.
I've been watching him out of the window all day.'

Shelby shook her head. 'It's not even that, Mum. I
didn't do anything wrong. Blue hasn't done anything
either. I know he broke Dad's plants, but he's not bad.
He's the sweetest horse ever, and now it's all different.
Dad's treating him like he's a pest. It's not fair!'

'I know, honey. These things happen. You have to
make the best of it.'

'But why, Mum? Why do they happen?' Another
tear leaked out of her eye.

'Oh, honey.' Shelby's mum put her arms around
her daughter's shoulders and squeezed. Shelby waited
for an answer, but her mother didn't offer one. Instead
she took a deep breath. 'I made some calls today. We
might have a solution. You probably won't like it at
first, but it could work for everybody.'

'What is it?' Shelby asked.

Her mum ran her hand across her forehead. 'I rang
Lindsey's mother at the stables and she said they'd
take Blue on for free.'

'Free?' Shelby's eyes brightened. For the first time
since the visit to the saddlery she felt a weight lift
from her.

'She said they're always looking for quiet horses
for the riding school. They would only use him on
weekends.'

'No!' Shelby shouted. She rolled back on the bed.

'Hear me out, Shel. I talked to Jill Crook too, and
she said that you could help them show their ponies.
If you do that you'll be busy on weekends anyway.
You've always wanted to get into showing. Think
about it, Shel. It works for everybody.'

Shelby felt tight across her chest. She had a vision
of Blue's face as some big dumb beginner pulled and
tugged at him. 'It doesn't work for Blue! It will be
awful
for him!'

'I'm sure that Lindsey and her mum won't let that
happen. They asked if you could ride him up there
next Sunday. That way he'll have a week to settle in
before his first shift.'

Shelby tried to think of an excuse. She needed
more time. There had to be another way.

'You can get a lift with Erin after school every day
to visit Blue,' added her mum. 'You and Erin and
Lindsey will have a great time together. There are
other girls up at the riding school that you can become
friends with too. I think it will be nice for you to have
some company.'

'But it's only temporary, isn't it? What about
getting a job?' She looked hopefully at her mother's
face, but she wasn't reassured by what she saw there.

'I've decided to start by enrolling in a part-time
course. We'll see what happens after that.'

'No!' Shelby cried again. She put her pillow over
her face. 'It's not
fair
! It's not my fault! Why is this
happening to me?'

Her mother frowned with irritation. 'What's the
problem, Shelby? You wanted to keep him up at the
stables for free and now you can! All this has happened
with very little inconvenience to you. Everyone is going
out of their way for you. Can't you see that?'

Shelby sighed. She bit her lip trying to think of a
comparison. 'What's the most precious thing in your
life?'

'My children.'

'What else?' Shelby asked.

Her mother looked up at the ceiling, thinking. 'I
suppose a roof for my family is important too, so
maybe this house.'

'Can you imagine if you had to leave this house
every weekend and some other family – a different
family every time – came and lived here and went
through all our stuff and broke things, and they didn't
care because they were never coming back again? Can
you imagine how it would be every Monday when you
found what had been wrecked this time?'

Her mother pondered it for a moment. 'Yes, I
think I understand, Shelby. I imagine it would be
terrible – but Blue can't stay on the front lawn forever.
If you can think of another way around it, then I'm
happy to hear it.'

Shelby sat up again. 'The competition next
Saturday! I can win a thousand dollars! That will pay
for Blue's agistment for a little while, just until you get
a job.'

'What's this competition?'

'The Matchstick Town. It's a riding competition.
Nobody's ever won before, but
I
can.'

Her mother shrugged. She didn't look very confident.
'You can try, honey, but if you don't win then
you'll have to consider this as an alternative.'

Shelby knew when her mother said 'consider' she
actually meant 'accept'. She pursed her lips. 'Well, I'll
just have to win, then.'

At school on Monday, Erin was overtired and
remorseful. Shelby met her at their spot near the
weather-sheds before lessons started.

'Do you think people had a good time? I had fun,
and I thought everybody else did, but now I'm not
sure. Nobody rang after to say it was good, but they
didn't ring and say it sucked either. Was the magician
dumb?'

'No, I thought he was great,' Shelby reassured her.

One of the boys walked past on his way to the
canteen. He had his hands thrust deep into his
pockets. 'Cool party, Erin,' he said.

She shaded her eyes with her hand. 'Thanks.' As
soon as he was out of earshot she whispered to Shelby,
'Do you think he was being sarcastic?'

'Stop panicking, will you? It was fine.'

'Just fine?' Erin had an expression of quiet desperation
on her face and Shelby wondered why she cared
so much what other people thought, especially since
she seemed to pay so little attention to what came out
of her mouth most of the time.

'It was the most excellent ever.'

'Really?'

'Yes!'

Shelby told Erin about her mother's plan for Blue.

'It's not all bad, you know,' Erin said. 'If Blue's up
at the stables we can ride together more often. At the
moment you have to ride halfway across the Gully
first.'

'Would you want Bandit to be a riding school
pony?' Shelby asked.

'Not at most places, but Lindsey and her mum are
really good. All their riding school ponies are rugged
and fed twice a day. They don't stand around in their
saddles all the time like at some places. Blue's pretty
small so you're not going to get any big, stupid
grown-ups who think they know what they're doing.
Besides, Lindsey watches the whole time and she looks
after each of those riding school ponies as if they were
her own . . . which they are, if you think about it.' Erin
grinned. 'And you'd get to show with the Crooks.
They win everything. You could go to the Royal.' She
tilted her head to the side. 'It's kind of the best of both
worlds, Shel.'

Shelby sighed. She had thought that Erin would
understand. 'I just want everything to go back to
normal.'

Erin looked out into the playground. 'I don't think
what you had before was normal. It's a bit like a
mobile phone plan. When you first sign up you get all
this free stuff, and then for the rest of the contract you
have to pay heaps, but because you're used to using
it like crazy for nothing, you think they're ripping
you off.'

Shelby didn't have a mobile, but most of her
friends did, and she'd seen the plans advertised on
television, so she got the gist of what Erin was talking
about. 'But I didn't sign up for anything,' she
protested.

'No, you took it without asking. It's a little bit like
stealing.'

Shelby's mouth dropped open. 'No, it's not!'

Erin shrugged. 'Whatever.'

Shelby frowned. It was fine for Erin to make
judgements. Her mum and dad paid for her agistment.
She didn't even have to think about it.

The bell rang and they headed towards class. As
they were jostling in the crowd of students in the
hallway, Shelby told Erin about the Matchstick Town
Challenge. She decided not to tell Erin that she already
knew where it was.

'So if I find it I will win the money and I can pay
for Blue to stay in one of the spelling paddocks for
almost six months, and hopefully by then Mum will
have a job.'

'Sounds like fun. When is it?' Erin asked.

'This Saturday.'

'Cool,' said Erin, smiling. 'We should all go in it
together. Hayley won't come but we can ask Lindsey.'

Hayley wasn't allowed to go trail riding with the
other girls. Mrs Crook had let her go a few times, but
she was always worried that their horses would get
scratched or injured, and then they wouldn't be any
good for showing.

Shelby stopped walking. 'But I'm doing it for the
money, Erin. If I win then I need to use all the money.
I can't share it with you and Lindsey.'

'I tell you what,' suggested Erin. 'If you see this
Matchstick Town first then you can have it all, and if
I see it first then I'll split it three ways. When we see
Lindsey we'll make a deal with her too.'

Shelby frowned.

Erin grabbed her by the sleeve and dragged her
along the corridor. 'Come on, Shel. We're not going to
find it anyway. It probably isn't even real. Don't you
think we would have found it before?'

'I suppose.' Shelby didn't like lying to her friend. It
made her feel yucky in the stomach, and worried too.
Telling lies was hard work. Shelby spent every day at
school with Erin, and now she would have to concentrate
every time she opened her mouth.

On Wednesday it rained all day. A whole bunch of
students from her year had been playing touch
football on the oval. After lunch the classroom smelt
like a dirty laundry basket and everyone was quiet –
even Erin.

Shelby decided to take Blue for a ride when she
arrived home. She wanted to check the route to The
Pocket and see if there was a place on the trail where
she could ditch Erin and Lindsey if she had to.

'You want to go
now
?' asked her mother as Shelby
pulled on her boots in the lounge room. 'It's pouring!'

'He's been tied up all day.'
To that stupid peg
, she
thought. 'He needs to stretch out.'

'OK, but don't go for long. I don't want either of
you to catch a cold.'

Shelby saddled up. All the leather straps were
slippery and sticky with the wet. The rain dripped
down Blue's paint sides, making his white patches a
grey-brown colour with dirt. While she was tightening
the girth, Blue peered at her over his shoulder, his
expression rephrasing her mother's words.
You want
to go out in this weather?

Once they reached the trails Blue plodded along
with his ears out to the sides. Every now and then he
would shake all over like a dog. Rainwater ran along
the corrugations in the track, like little streams, and
the air smelt strongly of eucalypt. Shelby could hear
the drops of rain hitting the top of her helmet, and
when she looked down the rain trickled off the peak
and onto her hands.

The water rushed quickly across the causeway at
the bottom of the Gully and Blue stepped across it
cautiously, as if he was worried about being washed
away. They cantered up the hill on the other side,
although Blue moved more slowly than usual.

Shelby rode past the back gate of the stables and
on towards where she remembered the storm water
tunnel to be. Along this part of the trail there was a
fence between the bridle path and Gully Way, and
she was pleased because Blue seemed anxious. If
something spooked him and he skipped about, at
least the fence would stop him from shying onto the
road.

He looked around with his ears pricked, and every
now and then he would swivel his head around to
look at her, as though asking for reassurance. She
gripped tighter with her knees in case he shied.

'It's OK, little man,' she said, patting him on the
neck.

They stopped at the mouth of the storm water
tunnel. A steady flow of grey-coloured water spilled
down the slope from the road, and all around the
entrance of the tunnel the water had swollen into a
murky pool with sticks and leaves floating and
spinning along the surface.

The water inside the tunnel was moving swiftly.
She could hear the heavy rushing sound as it poured
down the slope on the other side.

She pressed her heels to Blue's side. He halted,
snorting, and staring at the water with his eyes wide,
as if he was thinking,
'You've got to be kidding! I'm
not going in there!'

'Come on, Blue. We've done this before. We don't
have to go all the way. I just want to see what's on the
other side.'

He took one step into the stream and then another.
They were half in and half out of the tunnel now, and
then he stopped. She squeezed harder. 'Get up! It's not
like you to be a scaredy cat.'

He took another tiny step and stopped again,
snorting. His feet were planted wide apart. Shelby had
sometimes seen horses stand like that at pony club,
refusing to budge, but her Blue had never been so bad-mannered.

'Oh, for heaven's sake!' she said, swinging her leg
over his back. As she stepped down she immediately
lost her footing in the water and the soles of her boots
slipped from under her. She hit the concrete bottom
with a thump and a pain flashed up her side. Suddenly
she felt herself being carried forward further into the
tunnel. She threw her arms out, trying to find something
to keep her from being swept away.

Blue thrust his head down and she had just enough
time to grab one of his reins. She heard him grunt as
his head took the full weight of her body. He stood
with his legs splayed, leaning backwards. She could
see now that the water was much deeper than she had
thought. It was over Blue's knee, and sweeping along.
It could carry them both over the edge. How far was
that drop at the end of the tunnel? She tried to
remember. Five metres at least – maybe even ten.

Shelby took a breath and some of the water filled
her mouth. It tasted dirty and gritty. She spat and
coughed.

'Back,' she called to him. The word came out like
a bark, and it reverberated off the tunnel walls. She
could see the whites of Blue's eyes and his dilated
nostrils. He kept his head very still and, ever so
slowly, he lifted up his hind leg and shifted backwards.
As he moved, his bridle started to slip halfway
over his ear. If it came off she would be washed away.
How deep was that pool underneath?
I'll never
survive. I'll hit my head and drown.

'Whoa,' she grunted. A stick whisked past on the
surface of the water, scratching her face. She grunted,
flailing her other arm, trying to grasp hold of something
– anything. Blue stopped. He was looking her
right in the eye and there was such concern there that
she felt a wave of emotion rush over her.

I love you too, little man. I don't know what to do.

Ever so slowly, centimetre by centimetre, Blue
raised his head up and to the side, drawing her closer
to him. Shelby reached for the side wall of the tunnel
with her other hand and her foot and she pushed
against it.

'Just a little more,' she gasped. She grabbed for
Blue's leg and found it. Her weight shifted his foot off
the ground, and for a moment he slipped forward, but
then he leaned backwards and stood still – a rock in
the stream. Shelby used his leg like a climbing rope,
hand over hand, until she was upright. She put one
hand on the tunnel wall and gripped the stirrup
leather with the other hand, trying to get her breath
back. She could feel the water tugging at her, trying to
wash her legs away.

'All right. We're going to be OK,' she panted.

Very slowly, with six legs between them and only
one raised at a time, they moved step by tiny step
backwards and out. When they got to the shallows,
Shelby threw her arms around his neck. 'You are the
best and smartest pony in the whole world. I'll listen
to you next time, I promise.'

Blue lifted his head up, as if shaking her off. 'What
is it?' she asked.

He snorted, and she could see he was looking
away down the trail. She righted his bridle and then
led him back to the trail. She was about to climb into
the saddle when she saw Lindsey jogging around the
corner on one of the riding school palominos.

'What are you doing here?' Lindsey asked, looking
Shelby up and down. 'Did you come off?'

Shelby looked down at her clothes. She was soaked
through and one side was splattered with silty mud.

Lindsey looked at the mouth of the tunnel and
back at Shelby again. 'You didn't try to go in there,
did you?'

'No!' Shelby said. 'Do you think I'm crazy? No, I
just fell off. He shied. It was stupid really. I haven't
fallen for ages.' She brushed her hands on the thighs
of her jodhpurs. She wondered why she'd lied to
Lindsey. It might have been because she was embarrassed,
but it was more than that – she didn't want
Lindsey to know where she was really going.

Lindsey nodded, but Shelby could tell that Lindsey
knew she was lying.

Shelby noticed a coil of wire strapped to the side
of Lindsey's stock saddle.

'What's that?' she asked, pointing.

Lindsey looked down at the wire as though she
was seeing it for the first time. 'Oh. I found it in the
middle of the trail back there. It looked dangerous, so
I picked it up.' She looked back at the tunnel again
and frowned for a moment.

Shelby had been along that trail not so long ago
and she hadn't seen any wire. Usually if the girls found
something dangerous on a trail they dismounted and
moved it, but Shelby had never taken anything with
her. If she'd found a roll of wire like that she probably
would have hung it on a branch of a tree, out of
harm's way. Lindsey had a strap on her stock saddle
for that kind of thing, but Shelby still thought it was
odd. She thought Lindsey was lying too.

'You know you shouldn't go in storm water drains,
don't you?' asked Lindsey. 'It's really dangerous.'

Shelby snorted. 'Yeah!' She put her foot in the
stirrup and threw her leg over Blue's back.

'Even when it's dry,' Lindsey added. 'It might be
raining somewhere else, and the water will flood along
here before you know it.'

'Do you want to go back together?' Shelby asked,
changing the subject.

Lindsey's eyes flicked back to the tunnel for just a
second. It was so fleeting that Shelby wondered if
she'd imagined it. 'OK. I don't know why I'm out in
this weather anyway.'

They rode side by side along the trail towards the
back paddock of the stables.

'Erin said you're thinking about doing the Matchstick
Challenge this weekend,' Lindsey said.

Shelby nodded. 'Are you?'

'It starts from our back gate. I usually take a group
from the riding school, but we haven't had any
bookings this year, so I get to go by myself. I'm glad.
The beginners can get kind of boring after a while.
Erin said we could all ride together.'

Shelby looked down at her hands. She wanted to
bring up the issue of the money, but she didn't know
how to begin.

'Mum said Blue's moving in with us,' Lindsey said.

Shelby grunted.

'I didn't think you'd be too happy about that.'
Lindsey grimaced. 'I know what it's like. I have my
favourites too. Sometimes I see some cowboy turn up
and I don't want to let him near any of my babies.
You get used to it. At times it can be nice. You see
some little girl who's never ridden before having the
time of her life. It's easy to forget how fun riding can
be when you do it all the time.'

They reached the gate and Lindsey slowed, letting
go of the reins to unfasten the latch and steering the
palomino through the gate using only her legs.
Lindsey rode naturally, as though it was just as comfortable
as walking.

'How many horses do you have?'

'Eighteen,' Lindsey replied. 'At the moment. We
don't use them all yet. Some have come from bad
places. They're in pony rehab.'

Shelby nodded. 'You know what you're doing,
don't you?'

Lindsey looked back at her solemnly. 'I've been
doing it all my life.'

If Shelby had to trust Blue to anyone in the world
it would be Lindsey. The trouble was, it wasn't going
to be Lindsey doing the riding.