Horseshoe (6 page)

Carole remembered some of the horses she had seen when she went on rounds with Dr. Judy Barker. One had caught tetanus from a filthy stall, and died. Carole thought she knew exactly how Lisa was feeling. “I’ve seen some awful things too,” she said.

“But this poor horse has everything wrong,” Lisa said. “Nothing’s right with him. And they’re doing everything they can to save him, but it might not be enough. Doc Tock said he might die.” She described Sal’s condition to them—his coat, his sores, his feet.
“Worst of all, he just looked so
hopeless
. Like he didn’t expect anything good ever to happen to him. Even when I gave him grass, he didn’t look happy. He could barely eat it.”

Carole sucked in her breath. Stevie pulled up a clump of grass and angrily threw it into the air. “It isn’t right,” she said.

“That’s why we have to think of a good Saddle Club project,” Lisa said. “Not just some wild idea to raise money. We need an idea that will really work. It’s critical—without our help, animals like Sal don’t have a future!”

They sat silently for a moment, thinking hard. “That’s it,” Lisa said softly.

“What?” asked Carole.

“The future. We can set up a fortune-telling booth on Founders’ Day. Everyone wants to know their future!”

“Not if it’s bad news,” objected Stevie.

“It won’t be bad news,” Lisa countered. “How could it be? We’ll be making the stuff up—we can make it only good news. We can even call the booth Horseshoe. What’s better luck than the Pine Hollow horseshoe?” She grinned at her friends.

“I like it,” Carole said slowly. “I really like it!”

Stevie nodded. “Me too. You know, Chad’s got an
old tent from Boy Scouts that we could use for the booth. We can get some silver stars and whaddyacallems—zodiac signs—and decorate the outside.”

“And a giant horseshoe,” said Lisa. “And a sign.”

“I’ve got this great purple scarf that looks just like a Gypsy scarf,” Carole said. “And I think my mom had some big dangling hoop earrings—like people wore in the seventies. They’d be perfect!”

“And my dad has a paperweight in his office that looks just like a crystal ball,” said Stevie. “I’m sure he won’t care if we use it—especially if we don’t tell him about it until after we’re done.”

“What else do fortune-tellers do?” asked Carole.

“They read tea leaves. We could get some tea,” suggested Lisa. “Not instant, or the stuff in bags—it needs to be loose tea, like I had in England. You get clumps of leaves left over in your cup, and you swirl them around—the swirls are supposed to mean something.”

“Like what?” asked Stevie.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Lisa replied impatiently. “It doesn’t matter.”

“We could get some books and try to find out. There must be books somewhere that explain this stuff.” Carole looked thoughtful.

“Not on your life,” replied Stevie. “Between getting
Belle ready for the drill and getting all of this Gypsy stuff together, I’m going to have quite enough to do this week. I certainly won’t have time to go to the library.”

“Anyway,” interjected Lisa before Carole could begin to argue, “if we needed any sort of books, they’d be on acting, not on fortune-telling. Everyone knows that fortune-telling is just for fun. What we need to do is make our fortunes sound believable, so everyone feels satisfied and we draw a big crowd. The important thing is raising money for CARL.”

Carole thought about this. “We’ll need cards,” she said finally.

“You mean tarot cards?” asked Lisa.

Carole grinned. “It doesn’t matter,” she said, “since none of us can read them anyway.”

“O
HH
-
HH
, M
ICHAEL
! I didn’t know I was going to be lucky enough to see you today! Have you joined my riding class?”

There were times, Lisa thought disgustedly, when Veronica diAngelo positively purred. She watched Veronica sidle Garnet up to Michael Grant’s side. Across the ring, Stevie took one hand from the reins and made gagging motions. Lisa nodded and made Delilah trot across the ring, away from the revolting pair.

As she passed them she could hear Michael say in a perfectly ordinary tone, “No, I haven’t joined your class. This is an extra Horse Wise practice.”

“You mean you’re doing that stupid drill—I mean, you’re practicing your drill exercise?” Veronica asked him, fluttering her eyelashes alluringly.

“Looks like she’s got a twitch,” Stevie said to Lisa.

“Well!” Everyone could hear Veronica’s reply to Michael’s murmured assent. “I’m not sure why I wasn’t told! After all, this is supposed to be my riding lesson!”

Lisa knew exactly why Veronica hadn’t been told—because of her earlier tantrum, she’d left Horse Wise too soon to hear Max announce the extra drill practice. Max, however, was conciliatory.

“I should have called to tell you the schedule changed,” he said to Veronica. “Since you’re already in the saddle, why don’t you just ride around the ring? You know the drill well enough to stay out of everyone’s way. Afterward, I’ll set up some cavalletti for you and Garnet to work through.”

That, thought Lisa, was more than fair. Veronica, however, didn’t seem to agree. With her nose held high, she began riding Garnet in circles around the ring—regardless of where the other Pony Clubbers were riding.

“Hey!” shouted May, pulling Macaroni to a halt as Veronica cut directly in front of her. “You’re in my way!”

“Sorry,” Veronica said sarcastically. “Max, this just isn’t fair. I don’t have room.”

“You need to make room for the drill, Veronica, not the other way around.” Max sounded measurably less agreeable than he had the first time, Lisa thought.

“Excuse me, Stevie.” Veronica next swung Garnet’s hindquarters around in front of Belle.

“I wouldn’t do that again if I were you,” Stevie warned her. She transferred her crop from her outside to her inside hand and gave Veronica a meaningful glare. A crop was a mild type of whip used to get a horse’s attention when it misbehaved or wasn’t listening. Crops were short, but long enough, Lisa guessed, for Stevie to whack Veronica with hers if she tried. Lisa grinned in admiration. Sometimes she wished she could be as bold as Stevie.

She had her chance a few minutes later, when Veronica cut in front of her. Imitating Stevie, she said not a word in reply to Veronica’s insincere apology—she merely held her crop up, and glared. After that Veronica left The Saddle Club alone, but she continued to get in the way of the other riders.

The worst part was that every time someone had to yank their horse to a halt to avoid hitting Veronica, it messed up the precise patterns of the drill. Several times they had to start over, and they hadn’t tried to
set it to music yet. Lisa could feel the frustration mounting among the members of Horse Wise. If they didn’t relax and concentrate, they’d never be able to get it right.

Finally, with only a few minor interruptions, they managed to get to the part where they crossed through the center. Carole, remembering her earlier conversations with Jessica Adler, felt very concerned that Jessica get it right. Jessica needed to feel that she could do it, Carole thought. As soon as she herself had crossed the center and changed directions, she turned in the saddle to watch Jessica cross.

Penny was feeling more cooperative, and Jessica was trying hard. Carole saw her use her legs to urge, not kick, Penny, and at the same time loosen her hold on Penny’s mouth. She’s learning fast, Carole thought in admiration. She’s really getting it. Penny began to respond just as she should, lengthening her strides and covering more ground without really picking up speed—when Veronica cut through the center.

Jessica, panicked, hauled Penny to an abrupt halt. Veronica looked down at her coolly, trotting past with perfect ease. “Haven’t you gotten this figured out yet?” she asked the little girl. Jessica, her face white, began to cry. Veronica, Carole saw with utter fury, didn’t even notice—she just swept Garnet around the
corner of the ring and looked for more riders to annoy.

Carole broke out of the drill pattern and rode Starlight to Jessica’s side. “I’ve had enough of Veronica,” she whispered fiercely. “I can’t believe what she just did to you. I’m going to ask Max to make her leave right now.”

Jessica looked horror-struck. “No!” she cried.

“It’s not your fault. She’s being ridiculous, and she shouldn’t be allowed to upset everyone like this.”

“No,” Jessica begged. “Please, Carole, I don’t want Veronica to leave.” She looked even more upset.

“Okay,” Carole said unwillingly. “If you really want her to stay, I won’t say anything to Max.” Not that Max needs me to say something, she thought. He has eyes, and surely he can see what a distraction Veronica is being.

“I really want her to stay,” Jessica said. “I do.”

“You’re doing fine.” Carole switched the subject and tried to reassure her. “Don’t worry—you were riding just right before Veronica got in your way.” She rode Starlight back to the rail, wishing there were more she could do for Jessica.

Carole was correct in thinking that Max had noticed Veronica. She saw him looking straight at the office window, and then give a funny jerk of his head.
What was that all about? she wondered. She had her answer a moment later, when Mrs. Reg, Max’s mother and Pine Hollow’s stable manager, came out of the office looking grim.

“Veronica,” she called sharply, “come here.”

Veronica tossed her head and rode Garnet to the side of the ring. No one ever disobeyed Mrs. Reg.

“I have something that needs doing in the stable,” she said, “and since you’re not part of the drill, I want you to do it. Come inside. You can rejoin the lesson when drill practice is over.”

Veronica dismounted and sulkily led Garnet inside. The drill team members looked at one another with undisguised relief. Stevie, bending down over Belle’s neck, got a good look inside the stable door. Mrs. Reg was handing Veronica a pitchfork and pointing inexorably toward a row of stalls.

“She’s going to clean stalls!” Stevie cried with glee. Muffled laughter went around the group—except, Carole noticed, for Jessica, who still seemed too upset to laugh.

“All right, Miss Lake,” Max said, but didn’t bother to hide his smile. “All of you, let’s try it once more from the top. And concentrate!”

With Veronica gone, practice went much more smoothly. After two times through without music,
Max turned on the tape recorder. With music, the drill went even better. Max had selected different music to accompany each section of the drill, and since the music always matched the movement, it made the drill easier to remember. It also, thought Stevie, made it easier to ride smoothly—the music seemed to inspire both the riders and the horses to move in a rhythm, as if they were dancing. I’m dancing with my horse, she thought, and giggled.

Carole was concerned. Though there was no denying that practice went much better without Veronica, she was worried about the effect Veronica had had on Jessica.

Carole was sure that Jessica had been about to correctly lengthen Penny’s stride when Veronica got in her way. Now Jessica didn’t seem able to do it again—Carole could see her trying, but her rhythm was always off. Either she kicked Penny the way she used to and Penny shortened her stride, or she threw her hands forward too much and Penny cantered, or she didn’t give with her hands at all and Penny’s trot didn’t change.

No matter what, Jessica managed to cross over in the right order, but the differences in pace or gait were noticeable—and would be noticeable, Carole realized, even to people who didn’t ride, like the people
who would be watching the drill. Carole knew that this was a very small flaw in a complicated drill, but she also knew that Jessica would feel bad if she didn’t get it right.

After class Carole hurried to settle Starlight so that she could talk to Jessica. “Can I help you?” she asked, going into Penny’s stall. This time, she noticed, Jessica had Penny tied securely in the corner.

“Okay,” said Jessica. “If you want to.” Carole helped her lift the saddle from Penny’s back. “I don’t know why you want to,” she continued. “If I had a horse as beautiful as Starlight, I’d spend all of my time taking care of
him
.”

Carole set the saddle down outside the stall and brought the grooming bucket in. She handed Jessica a brush and they began working on opposite sides of Penny. “You’re right, I love taking care of Starlight,” she said. “But I didn’t come down here to help you take care of Penny. I came down here to see how you were.”

“Oh.”

“You looked really upset today, and I didn’t think you should be,” Carole continued. “It was wrong of Veronica to pull out in front of you like that, but you shouldn’t take it personally. She’s like that toward everyone.”

“No,” Jessica replied. “She’s mad at me. I know why.”

“You do?” Carole felt confused. “Why?”

“Because I messed up so much on Saturday. I wasn’t listening well enough, and Veronica was trying to tell me what to do, and I couldn’t do it. It’s my fault Veronica fell off and it’s my fault she’s not in the drill anymore, and now she hates me. I’d hate me too if I couldn’t be in the drill.” Jessica’s lower lip quivered. She obviously meant every word she said.