Broken Horse (9 page)

“What position do you play?” asked Michael.

“Forward,” David replied.

“He’s practically the star of the team,” Chad added around a mouthful of salad. “The coach says he could have a future in soccer if he wants to.”

“That’s very impressive, David,” Mr. Lake said.

David shrugged. “I guess it’s cool. But I already know what I want to do when I grow up. I’m a musician.”

“Tell them about Rotting Meat,” Stevie urged. She turned to her parents. “They played at the last school dance, and they’re really fantastic.”

“Thanks, Stevie,” David said with a grin. “It’s nice to have fans.”

Paige looked up. “Did you say you’re in Rotting Meat?”

“It speaks,” Stevie said under her breath so that only Carole and Lisa could hear her.

“That’s right,” David told Paige. “I’m the lead singer, and I play bass guitar.”

“I thought I recognized you,” Paige said, although Stevie would have sworn she hadn’t even glanced at David until now.

“Hey, Paige,” Alex broke in. He speared a piece of cucumber on the end of his fork and held it up. “I found another piece of cucumber for my little cucumber. Ready?”

“Of course,” Paige replied. She opened her mouth, and Alex popped the fork into it.

Stevie rolled her eyes and turned back to David. “How come you guys aren’t playing at the Christmas dance?” she
asked. “I’m kind of glad you’re not, since I’m not going. I mean I’d hate to miss it. But I’m surprised they didn’t ask you back after the last dance.”

“They did ask us,” David said. “But we’d already booked a gig at a bowling alley over in Hazelton for the same night, so we had to pass.”

“You guys must be awfully popular if you have to turn down jobs,” Carole commented.

“Well, it’s not like we’re getting dozens of offers every weekend or anything,” David said with a grin. “But I guess we’re doing all right.”

“He’s just being modest,” Paige put in. “Rotting Meat is the most popular band in town.”

“Hey, Alex, would you please pass the pepper?” Stevie said. “I mean, would my little pepper please pass the pepper?”

Alex didn’t seem to have heard her, so Michael reached around him and shoved the pepper mill toward Stevie.

Lisa helped herself to another piece of lasagna. “How long have you been in, uh, Rotting Meat?” she asked David.

“We got together last summer,” he replied. “But it took a while for people to get to know us. Now we’re finally starting to get some regular gigs.”

“Where else do you play besides bowling alleys, David?” Mr. Lake asked.

“You played at the harvest festival over at the mall, didn’t you?” Paige put in suddenly.

Stevie glanced at her, surprised that she was actually paying attention to the conversation.

Alex seemed surprised, too. “Hey, what are you guys talking about?” he asked.

“Your brother’s friend is the lead singer of Rotting Meat,” Paige explained.

“Are you a fan? Paige, isn’t it?” David asked, smiling at her.

She nodded, smiling back shyly. “Totally. You guys are the coolest.”

“You go to Fenton Hall, too, don’t you?” David asked Paige. She nodded, still smiling.

Alex glanced from his girlfriend to David and back again. “Yeah, she’s in my class,” he said. He grabbed Paige’s hand. “That dance where his band played was where we first got together, remember?”

Paige shrugged. “Well, we danced together a few times. But we really didn’t get together until much later,” she corrected him. She pulled her hand away and reached for her water glass.

Stevie kicked Lisa under the table. Then she kicked Carole. Something was going on here, and it was looking very interesting to Stevie. “So you’re a huge fan of David’s band, huh, Paige?” she asked innocently.

Paige blushed a little. “Well, I wouldn’t say that,” she said quickly, glancing at Alex. “But they’re pretty good.”

“Just pretty good?” Stevie said. “Or
really
good?”

“Shut up, Stevie,” Alex said testily. “What difference does it make how good she thinks they are?”

“Oh, none at all,” Stevie replied. “Not to me, anyway.” She took a large mouthful of lasagna and chewed busily.

“That’s enough, Stevie,” Mr. Lake said warningly.

Stevie obeyed and kept quiet, but the warning was completely lost on Paige. She was gazing at David with the same look she had so recently directed at Alex. And he was gazing right back, smiling as he chewed his garlic bread.

Chad glanced from one to the other, looking dismayed. It was clear that he saw what was going on, too, and that he didn’t like it. He turned to Carole. “So what’s new at that stable of yours these days?” he asked loudly. “Any new horses or anything?”

Stevie could hardly keep herself from laughing out loud. When one of her brothers actually asked about Pine Hollow, she knew that something strange was going on. She was about to change the topic back to David’s band, but Carole was quicker.

“Actually, there is one new horse there right now,” she told Chad, shooting a look at Stevie. Alex looked so upset about what was happening between Paige and David that Carole felt a little sorry for him. She was glad Chad had decided to change the subject, and she was more than willing to help. “She’s a gray mare we found who had been abused.” She went on to tell them all about the sick mare.

For the rest of the meal the group discussed the mare,
Pine Hollow, and other topics. Stevie and her friends noticed that Alex kept shooting Paige sullen looks. They also noticed that Paige was ignoring the looks—if she noticed them at all. The only thing she was definitely noticing at the moment was David.

All in all, as Stevie told her friends later, it had been a very interesting meal—even more interesting than she could have hoped.

“Y
OU
’
LL
NEVER
GUESS
what happened in school today,” Stevie exclaimed when she found her friends at the mare’s stall the next afternoon.

“What?” Carole asked, sounding distracted. She and Lisa had been checking on the mare and discussing the fact that she didn’t look any better.

But Stevie had barely noticed the mare yet. She was too eager to share her news. “It’s Alex and Paige,” she announced. “They’re Splitsville!”

“Oh, that’s too bad,” Lisa said, leaning against the pitchfork she had brought to muck out the mare’s stall.

“Too bad, nothing,” Stevie said. “This is great. It’s exactly what Alex deserves for being such an annoying sap about the whole thing.”

Carole didn’t think that was a very nice thing for Stevie to say, but she decided not to mention it right then. Stevie had that look on her face that meant she was already dreaming up new ways to torture her brother. “What happened?” she asked instead.

“Paige dumped him like a load of old bricks,” Stevie said gleefully. “She was so impressed with Chad’s friend David last night that she’s skipping the dance tomorrow so she can go to the Rotting Meat show at the bowling alley.”

“Oh, poor Alex,” Lisa said softly. “He was looking forward to it so much.”

“Well, I guess he should have found a girlfriend who doesn’t have a thing for older men,” Stevie said.

“How is he taking it?” Carole asked.

“Let me put it to you this way,” Stevie said. “I ran into him outside of school today when I was getting ready to come over here, and I offered to let him come with me. You know, I thought he might find someone to replace Paige at Pine Hollow. After all, Penny is pretty cute, and everyone knows Delilah is a real beauty, and then there’s Prancer—athletic yet feminine.”

Carole rolled her eyes. Penny, Delilah, and Prancer were all Pine Hollow mares. “Very funny,” she commented.

“Well, I guess Alex didn’t get the joke,” Stevie said. “I don’t think he even heard me talk about the mares. Because I would swear he was about to accept my offer and come here with me. Can you believe that?”

Her friends had to admit that that was more than a little bit strange. They knew that Pine Hollow was the last place any of Stevie’s brothers would want to go.

“That just shows how upset he is,” Lisa said.

“I know,” Stevie said with a grin. “Can you believe it? Who would have thought my very own twin would turn out to be such a fool for love?”

Finally Stevie seemed to realize where they were. She glanced in at the mare. “Oh. How is she?”

“Not so good,” Carole admitted. “I don’t see much difference in her condition, although she did look at us when we arrived today. I think she recognizes us, even if she doesn’t always show it.”

“That’s a good sign,” Lisa said. She looked at the mare and sighed. The mare wasn’t looking back at them now. “But it’s a small one. She still doesn’t seem to care much whether we’re around or not.”

“I already checked on Starlight, so I’ll help you with the stall if you want,” Carole offered. With that, the girls got to work.

Carole and Stevie worked hard, but Lisa worked even harder. She was such a whirlwind of activity that it made Carole and Stevie tired just to watch her. First she turned the mare out in the paddock and helped Carole muck out the stall. Then she cleaned out the water bucket and the hayrack and refilled them. Then she brought the mare back in, changed all her bandages, and repacked her feet with the
thrush medicine. After that she gave her a complete grooming from head to toe until the silvery gray coat was more clean than dirty and the mare’s mane and tail were smooth and tangle free.

“She must have been really pretty before all this happened to her,” Stevie commented later as she and Carole leaned over the stall door and watched Lisa fix a bandage that had come loose during the grooming.

Lisa nodded. “I still can’t believe someone could be so cruel to any animal, let alone such a gorgeous little horse,” she said. “I mean, I know it happens. Just look at poor Sal. But it shouldn’t.”

“It’s not right,” Carole agreed. “That’s why it’s important for the police to catch that man and see that he’s properly punished.”

“I called the police this morning before school,” Lisa said. “They still hadn’t found him, but they said they were going to try to send someone out to the farm again today.”

“Let’s call now and see if they got him,” Stevie suggested.

The other girls agreed. Lisa gave the mare a pat and let herself out of the stall, then led the way to the pay phone in the hallway. Carole fished a quarter out of her jeans pocket and dropped it into the phone, and Lisa dialed the number for the Willow Creek police station. By now she knew it by heart.

The sergeant who answered was the same one Lisa had spoken to that morning.

“Sorry,” he said when he found out why the girls were calling. “We were hoping to get out there today, like I told you earlier. But we’ve been so busy around here we didn’t have the chance. People tend to go a little crazy around the holidays—it’s usually our busiest time. Today we had three car accidents, a bar brawl, and half a dozen shoplifters to deal with. And since we have no way of knowing when that fellow will be at home, it’s a waste of time and manpower to keep sending officers out there when we need them here in town.”

“But you’ve got to catch him,” Lisa protested.

“Oh, we will,” the sergeant reassured her. “Don’t you worry about that. But it may have to wait until after Christmas when things quiet down a little.”

Lisa thanked the officer for the update and hung up. She told her friends what he had said. “After Christmas?” she said as the girls drifted back toward the mare’s stall. “That’s weeks away.”

Stevie nodded. “I hate to think of that jerk walking around like nothing happened after what he did. It will be hard to enjoy Christmas as much just knowing that he’s out there.”

“I just hope he remembers to keep feeding his dog,” Carole put in.

Lisa nodded. “I know. I was thinking about that last night. We heard the dog barking when we were there, remember? For all we know, he could have a whole bunch of
other animals that he’s treating just as badly as he treated the mare. What a horrible thought!”

They had reached the stall by now, and they leaned on the half door and looked in. The mare stood dejectedly at the back of the stall, looking much cleaner than when they had first found her, but not much happier.

Finally Stevie stood up straight and looked at her friends. “We can’t wait until after Christmas.”

“I was just about to say the exact same thing,” Lisa said.

“But what can we do?” Carole asked. “The police already told us they don’t have time to go out there.”

“That’s because they don’t know whether he’ll be at home or not,” Stevie pointed out. “I’m sure they wouldn’t mind going out right away if they knew he was there, would they?”

“I guess not,” Carole admitted. She looked at her watch. “But if you’re suggesting we go over there ourselves and see if he’s home, you’re crazy.”

Stevie looked hurt. “What do you mean?”

“I mean look at the time,” Carole said, for a moment sounding almost as sensible as Lisa usually did. “We’d have to take the bus from the shopping center over to the park, and then hike along the highway—in the dark, I might add—for a couple of miles.” She shrugged. “We can’t do it.”