Ghost Rider (12 page)

And where was John in the mural? She was sure he would have wanted to leave his mark, but she searched every inch of the mural and couldn’t find the headless horseman. Then, in a corner, up high in the sky, she found his mark. It wasn’t the headless horseman at all. It was the silvery stallion, sleek and beautiful, with a nick in his ear. He had no rider in the picture. There was no cape, no young lovers—just the horse, proud, wild, and free.

Although Stevie thought John was a pretty odd young man, she had to admit that he sure did know how to ride a horse, and he sure knew how to draw one!

“T
HAT
’
S THE LAST
bag of garbage,” Carole announced proudly, putting the black plastic bag outside the back of the high school.

“Then that’s the last bit of cleanup we have to do,” Stevie said. The deal had been that if they ran the fair, disassembled the horror house, and took out the garbage, other volunteers would do all the rest of the cleanup. They were done. What they had come to the West to accomplish was complete. Finished. Successful.

“What do we do now?” Lisa asked, aware that she felt a little let down.

“Well, that’s obvious, isn’t it?” Stevie asked. “It’s
Halloween night, we’re in costumes, we go trick or treating!”

Only Stevie would think of collecting candy after an exhausting day of running the Halloween Fair. And that was just one of the reasons her friends loved her.

“So what are we waiting for?” Christine asked.

“Can John come with us?” Lisa asked. The girls looked at her curiously. “He worked very hard at the fair. He ought to have some fun, too,” she said quickly.

Carole had the feeling there was more to it than that, but before she could ask, Kate answered the question. “I invited him, but he said he had to get back to the ranch. He wanted to check on the filly. I don’t know why his father can’t do that—”

Lisa knew. She almost spoke up, but that wouldn’t have been fair to John. He’d told her the story of his sister’s and his mother’s death and the effect it had on his father when they were alone. He surely wouldn’t want her to share the information with her friends.

“He just loves the filly,” she said. “She’s awfully cute, you know.”

Stevie clicked her tongue to get Stewball moving, and then when everybody else was at a comfortable walk, she said, “I’m sure he does love the filly, but I wouldn’t count on his going back to The Bar None.
He’s probably waiting for us somewhere on the stallion in his white costume, ready to give us another show.”

“What do you mean ‘another show’?” Lisa asked.

“Well, you know how he followed us when we went to Christine’s?” Kate said.

“It was pretty dark then,” Lisa reminded her friends. “We don’t know for sure that that was John on the stallion. We don’t even know for sure that there was anybody on the stallion. There just
seemed
to be a rider on the horse’s back.”

“Let’s try this house first,” Kate said, interrupting the conversation. “The woman has worked for Mom at the ranch. They have lots of kids, and look at the pumpkin on their porch. I bet the candy’s great!”

The girls rode up to the house and called “Trick or treat!” from their saddles.

The door soon opened. The three blind mice, the farmer’s wife, and White Eagle all accepted the offer of homemade caramel apples—and moist paper towels so they could clean their hands right after they finished eating!

“You’re the perfectly prepared Halloween host!” Kate said as thanks.

“Seems the least we can do for the group that made it possible to have an after-school program on the reservation. So thank
you
all. And have a good ride!”

The family waved a cheery good-bye and then closed the door.

“How did they know?” Stevie asked.

“It’s a small town,” Kate said. “Everybody knows everything.”

“Everything?”

“Everything,” Christine agreed.

The next house seemed to confirm the idea. The little girl who answered the door took one look at them and shrieked to her mother—“Mommy! It’s the mouse who taught me how to ride a pony!”

Carole laughed. She barely recognized the child out of costume, but obviously the child remembered her, and she had the nice warm feeling that she’d started this little girl on a long and happy journey as a devoted horseback rider.

Her friends were happy about that, too, because the net result was measurable in their candy bags. The little girl’s mother was
very
generous.

The house after that was the home of the panda who had won the dollhouse. It seemed that that child’s parents couldn’t say enough about how wonderful the party had been and how fabulous the dollhouse was. They knew the Lonetrees and gave Christine messages for her mother about what a great thing she’d done.

“Just wait until they see what it’s like to have
everybody in the class come over every day after school!” Stevie joked as they rode away. “It’s going to be like a feeding frenzy.”

“Like we’re going to have with all these goodies later on?” Kate asked, patting her candy bag.

“Exactly the same,” Stevie said. She was known for her sweet tooth. She was even looking forward to the inevitable stomachache.

Carole leaned forward and patted Berry on the neck. Then she took a moment to look around at her friends, decked out in Halloween costumes and riding horseback.

“You know, I’ve been trick or treating in a lot of different places. It’s always been fun, but it’s never been like this. Do you have any idea what we look like, walking our horses around Two Mile Creek, dressed up the way we are?”

“Pretty silly, I’m sure, but it seems to be working, doesn’t it?” Kate answered. “Actually, I’ve had some pretty unusual Halloweens. I remember one time I went as a robot. I couldn’t walk because I was wearing all these big cardboard boxes. That was funny.”

“Once I was a pirate,” Stevie recalled. “I decided I should have a wooden leg, so I folded one leg up in my jeans.”

“That must have been scary!” Lisa said.

“Sure was. My leg got so numb I couldn’t walk for an
hour after I got home. The worst part was that my candy bag was in the other room and my brothers wouldn’t bring it to me!”

The image of Stevie separated from her goodies by a numb leg got all five girls laughing.

“Well, all I can say is that there’s never been another Halloween like this for me,” Carole concluded. “And since it’s highly unlikely that another Halloween will ever be this good, I think this will be my last year trick or treating. What a way to go out!”

“Definitely in glory,” Stevie agreed. “And speaking of fabulous Halloweens, I haven’t even had a chance yet to tell you all what happened to me when I was on the way to get the dollhouse at Christine’s.”

“Yeah, tell us!” Christine said. “Dad told me your horse showed up before you did. I forgot to ask what that was all about!”

“Well, settle back in the saddle, take a bite out of your caramel apple, and listen to my tale, because every word of it is true,” Stevie said. Then she told them what happened—down to the tiniest, scariest detail.

“At first I was afraid,” she began. She didn’t mention that she was also scared at the middle and the end. For most of the adventure she’d been alone, and nobody was going to contradict her.

As her tale progressed, she elaborated elegantly
about the owl she’d seen. In the retelling his feathered wings had brushed her cheeks!

“Oooh!” Lisa said, frightened by the thought.

Then the branch that grabbed her hair had seemed to dig in and pull relentlessly. It wasn’t exactly true, but it was more or less what Stevie had
thought
was happening at the time. Finally, when she got to the part about the coyote howling, Stewball bolting, and the rattlesnake threatening, she found that she didn’t have to embellish at all. The entire story was simply terrifying.

“You mean you could hear him, but you had no idea where he was?” Christine asked.

“That’s right. I was petrified. I did the only possible rational thing.”

“You froze,” Kate said, knowing that was the right thing to do.

“Well, that, but I also did something else. I screamed my head off.”

“You did?” Christine said, horrified. That seemed like a very bad idea to her.

“Yes, and it’s a good thing I did. Because John was there on the stallion. I guess he knew I’d gone out, and he was just waiting to make a mysterious appearance. But when I screamed, he came to my rescue.”

She told them then how he’d swept by, lifted her off her feet onto the horse behind him, and had ridden
her to the Lonetrees’, dropping her off without a word.

“I was a little annoyed that he was still doing his phony Indian routine to try to convince us that the story was real, but I certainly wasn’t annoyed that he was there to help me when I needed him the most.”

“Wow,” Kate said. “I’m impressed.”

“How can you thank him!” Carole said.

“What a coincidence!” Kate said.

“No way,” said Lisa.

“Huh?”

“No way,” Lisa repeated.

“What do you mean ‘no way’?” Stevie asked. “I’m here. I’m alive. I definitely got saved. It happened.”

“Oh, I’m sure it happened,” said Lisa. “Just the way you said. Except for one thing. It wasn’t John.”

“Of course it was,” Stevie said. “Who else could it be? I mean, at first I even thought he was wearing Christine’s cloak until I realized that I was wearing it. I don’t know where he got his costume or when he changed, but he was definitely there.”

“It’s not possible,” said Lisa. “I know where John Brightstar was all afternoon because he never left the horror house.”

“Are you sure?” Stevie asked.

Lisa thought before she answered. She didn’t want to tell her friends what she was feeling about John, and letting them know how carefully she had watched
would reveal more than she wanted. Still, she was sure, and she could tell them that.

“I’m sure,” she said. “Somebody saved Stevie out here this evening, but it wasn’t John. I’m sure of that.”

“Then who was it?” Stevie asked.

The question hung in the air. Five girls were wondering the same thing. Five girls considered the fact that it was Halloween, a night when strange things were supposed to happen.

“O
KAY, PASS THE
popcorn and I’ll tell,” Lisa said.

“Keep the popcorn from her and she’ll tell faster,” Stevie teased.

Carole wasn’t sure what to do. The three of them were in her bedroom having their first Saddle Club meeting since returning from The Bar None a week ago, and Lisa seemed to be on the verge of telling her friends some very interesting news about a certain wrangler’s son from the dude ranch.

“You mean you and John Brightstar …?” Stevie asked.

Lisa blushed.

“That’s enough of an answer for me,” Carole said.
She handed the bowl to Lisa, who took a handful and then gave the bowl to Stevie.

“He’s really nice,” Lisa said.

“We know that,” Stevie said. “Although he appears to me to be a bit mysterious. But the question is just
how
nice?”

“Really nice,” Lisa confirmed.

“How did you get to be so friendly?” Carole asked. She just wanted to know how these things happened.

“I held the ladder for him an awful lot, as you’ll recall,” Lisa said.

“Is that what you were doing when I got you to help me look at the entry slips?” Stevie asked.

Lisa remembered the moment. How could she forget? “Yes, that’s what we were doing. At first I was just holding the ladder, then I was, well, uh, kind of holding his hand.”

“You were?”

“Yeah,” Lisa said. “Until one of my best friends interrupted me.”

It was Stevie’s turn to blush. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I had no idea.”

“I didn’t think you did,” Lisa said. “Otherwise I would have wrung your neck—just the same as you would do to me.”

“You bet I would,” Stevie agreed. “Anyway, did you get to see him again before we left?”

“Yes,” Lisa said. “I saw him in the barn on Sunday morning—you know, just to say good-bye. It was kind of nice.”

Her friends knew what she meant. They didn’t have to ask, and they were very happy for her.