Lucky Horse (5 page)

She found her father relaxing in a camping armchair in front of their tent. The tent was bright orange and looked so much like a giant mushroom that Carole could barely keep from laughing.

“Hi,” she called with a giggle. “Guess what I found?”

“A sunny spot for the solar panels?”

“Yes, but guess what else?”

“What?”

“Two Appaloosas. They’re over at the campsite past the next one. Their owners aren’t the friendliest people in the world, but the horses were great!”

Colonel Hanson shook his head and started to laugh. “Carole, you’re the only person on the planet who would go looking for a sunny clearing on the top of a mountain and find two horses instead!”

Carole shrugged. “I guess when your horse radar gets going, it’s hard to turn it off.”

Colonel Hanson stood up and stretched his arms over his head. “Well, I’m glad you made some new four-legged friends. But now that you’re back, I think I’ll go set up those panels, then dig out a latrine.”

“Good idea, Dad,” Carole said. “I knew we’d put some of your old Marine Corps habits to good use while we were up here. How about I start supper while you dig?”

“Deal!” said Colonel Hanson. “Do you think you can figure out how to use the solar oven? It’s already charged up.”

“I think so,” replied Carole. “If I can’t, I’ll just call my local solar expert, who happens to be close by.”

Colonel Hanson lifted a small shovel over his shoulder and walked several yards downhill from their camp. In the meantime, Carole began to cook supper. Her dad had piled all the other camping equipment behind the tent, so she had to search a minute before she found the solar refrigerator. She took some cold chicken they’d brought from home, put it inside the solar oven, and turned the dial to 325°F. The oven made a strange chirping sound, but then a red light
came on and the thing began to heat up. While the chicken was warming, she found their camp table and covered it with a cloth, then set up their chairs, adding two citronella candles to keep the bugs away. By the time her father returned from his digging, the candles were lit and the table was laden with a bowl of potato chips, two big glasses of fruit juice, and a plate of brownies for dessert.

“Hey, Carole, this looks great!” her father exclaimed.

“If the solar oven does what it’s supposed to do, then the chicken should be ready just about now.” Carol put on a mitt and opened the oven door. Amazingly, the chicken was hot and toasty brown, just as if she’d heated it up in their oven at home. Of course, they could have eaten it cold in half the time, but she didn’t guess that mattered. Her father was so proud of the solar oven that she was happy to use it.

She carried the chicken to the table, and they both sat down to eat.

“Mmmm,” Colonel Hanson said after he took his first bite. “This is wonderful. I guess that solar oven did okay, huh?”

“It was great, Dad.” Carole smiled. “It was lots of fun to use.”

“I think eating outside makes everything taste twice as good.”

“I think eating after you’ve hiked three miles, two
of them uphill, makes everything taste three times as good,” Carole added.

Her father laughed. “Maybe it’s a combination of both.”

They were both so hungry they finished all the chicken and potato chips, then half the plate of brownies. By the time they got the dishes cleaned up, the sun was just beginning to drop behind the tops of the tallest trees.

“Hey, how about heading up to Mount Stringfellow?” Colonel Hanson asked. He checked his watch. “We’ve still got another half hour before sunset.”

Carole pointed to a cluster of dark purple clouds in the northern sky. “Look at all those clouds. Do you think it might rain?”

“Well, let’s see.” Colonel Hanson went into the tent and came back out with a small instrument in a red leather case. He faced the setting sun and squinted at the dial. “According to this electronic barometer, we’ve got nothing but high pressure all around us.” He snapped the case shut and grinned at Carole. “Those clouds don’t mean rain. They just mean that we’ll have an even more beautiful sunset to enjoy.”

“That’s a relief,” said Carole.

“You grab a couple of flashlights and the map, and I’ll get the telescope. We’ll have to hurry if we want to get to the top of Mount Stringfellow by sunset.”

“How far is it?” Carole didn’t know if she was up for another hard climb, especially in the dark.

Her dad pointed to a high mountain that loomed behind her. “Oh, just over there. I think the trail’s about half a mile long, but the rangers keep the path clear.”

“Okay,” said Carole. “I’m game if you are. Mount Stringfellow, here we come!”

“H
ERE COMES DINNER
!”

Stevie’s voice floated up from the bottom of the ladder. A second later Lisa saw the edge of what looked like a tray come poking up through the trapdoor of the hayloft.

“Do you need some help, Stevie?” she called.

“Yes. Grab the end of this tray so these sandwiches won’t slide off.”

Lisa crawled across the soft hay and grasped the end of the long, skinny tray that Stevie was trying to push up the ladder. “Okay,” she called. “I’ve got it. Just let me pull it up from here.”

“Okay.”

Stevie let go of the tray and Lisa carefully pulled it through the trapdoor. She put it down against the
back wall of the hayloft, far away from where either of them might accidentally step on it. When she had it positioned safely, she looked at it and gasped. Under a thick layer of plastic wrap were about twenty sandwiches, all cut into fancy little triangles. Lisa could see ham and cheese, turkey and cheese, bologna and cheese, and peanut butter and jelly.

“Thanks!” Stevie’s head poked up through the trapdoor. “That was a real case of four hands being better than two.”

“Did your mom make all this food for us?” Lisa asked in amazement.

“Sure.” Stevie climbed the rest of the way up the ladder. “That’s our dinner.” She rattled a shoebox that she had tucked under one arm. “And this is our dessert. Two dozen chocolate coconut surprises.”

“Stevie, this is enough food to feed ten people.”

“Think so?” Stevie looked surprised. “I asked Mom to make extra. I figured we’d eat now, but we might get hungry again around midnight. Then we might need an early-morning snack at four
A.M
., then some emergency might happen that we’d need some extra nourishment for, and then we might want to eat some for breakfast in the morning.” She plopped down beside the sandwich tray. “If you multiply two people times five possible feedings, then I suppose it is like feeding ten people at once.”

Lisa tried to figure out Stevie’s logic, but as usual, it
eluded her. All she knew was that Stevie had brought more sandwiches up there than they could possibly eat.

“Shall we have dinner now?” Stevie asked.

Lisa nodded. “Actually, I’m pretty hungry.”

“Me too.” Stevie began to unwrap the sandwiches, then stopped. “Oh, rats!” she exclaimed. “I forgot to bring anything to drink.”

“I’ll go down to the refrigerator and get a couple of sodas,” Lisa said.

“Great,” said Stevie. “I’ll fix our plates.”

Lisa climbed down the ladder and hurried to the office, where she got two cold cans of soda and scribbled an IOU on the memo pad attached to the refrigerator door. By the time she got back to the hayloft, Stevie had their plates arranged—each with a sandwich, chips, and two chocolate coconut surprises.

“Here.” Stevie held out one plate to Lisa. “I gave you a turkey and cheese and bologna and cheese.”

“Thanks.” Lisa smiled. “Everything looks great.”

They relaxed in the hay and began to eat. Below them they could hear Belle munching on her hay, and next to her Starlight was noisily slurping water.

“Sounds like this is dinnertime for everybody at Pine Hollow, doesn’t it?” giggled Stevie, reaching for her second sandwich.

“I feel just like one of the horses,” said Lisa with a laugh. “Eating in the hay and sleeping in the hayloft.”
She took a sip of soda, then reached in her backpack for her pencil and paper. “I’m going to make a list of all the chores we need to do tomorrow. I’d hate to get so involved in one thing that we forget to do something else. We don’t want to disappoint Max.”

“That’s a good idea,” Stevie said as she retrieved another sandwich. “And don’t forget, we promised Carole we’d take extra-special care of Starlight.”

Lisa looked at Stevie and frowned. “Maybe we ought to tackle some of these chores tonight. That way we’ll have less to do tomorrow. Maybe we could even go for a ride in the afternoon.”

“Oh, they’ll wait,” Stevie said, her mouth full. “We don’t absolutely have to do anything right this second.” She crunched a potato chip and thought a minute. “Although I guess we could groom Starlight tonight. He would enjoy it, and we’ve got enough time before dark.”

Lisa smiled. “Why don’t we do that as soon as we finish eating?”

“Okay,” said Stevie, turning back to the sandwich tray.

In a few minutes they were through. Lisa put their dirty paper plates in a bag she’d brought for garbage, then put the soda cans aside to be recycled. She was about to close up the chocolate coconut surprises when she caught a glimpse of the sandwich tray. It was almost empty.

“Stevie!” she cried, astonished. “Did we actually eat all these sandwiches?”

Stevie crawled over and looked at the tray. “Well, you ate two and I ate—uh, I guess I lost count after the third.” She grinned and patted her stomach. “It’s amazing how hungry taking care of twenty-five horses can make you.”

Lisa looked at her friend. “Would that be anything like ‘eating like a horse’?”

Stevie shrugged and laughed. “In this case it’s more like eating
for
a horse. Only it’s twenty-five horses instead of just one.”

“Oh, Stevie.” Lisa shook her head with a sigh.

“Well, now I’m ready to give Starlight the most energetic grooming he’s ever had!”

The girls covered their meager leftovers with plastic wrap and climbed down the ladder. Most of the horses were standing quietly in their stalls, either dozing on their feet or idly chewing small mouthfuls of hay. When the girls opened Starlight’s stall, they found him awake but wearing a heavy-lidded, sleepy look.

“I think he might have been drifting off to sleep,” Lisa whispered.

“That’s okay,” replied Stevie. “This will be just like a body massage. After this grooming he’ll probably fall asleep the minute we leave his stall.”

The girls got brushes and currycombs and each took one side of Starlight. He seemed surprised to have two
people grooming him at the same time, but he stood calmly and gave a little nicker of pleasure. Soon they had his deep mahogany coat shining and all the tangles worked out of his dark mane.

“Think we can skip the hoof polish, since all he’s going to do is go to sleep?” asked Lisa.

“I think so,” said Stevie. “But we’ll do that, too, before Carole gets back.”

Lisa gave Starlight a pat. “I wonder what Carole’s doing right now?”

“Probably roasting marshmallows with her dad.” Stevie wiped the front of Starlight’s nose with a soft cloth. “Starlight, your person is out with her father right now, but she’ll be back on Monday, so don’t worry.”

Lisa giggled at Starlight’s utterly passive expression. “He doesn’t look worried at all.”

“Well, you never know. I just wanted to reassure him that life would return to normal.”

“Then you should announce that on the PA system. All these horses are probably wondering why two people are suddenly sleeping in their hayloft.” Lisa glanced over at Starlight’s water bucket. “Look, he’s almost finished his water. I’ll go bring him some more and put some fresh hay in his crib while you finish up.”

Lisa went to get more hay and water while Stevie put the last touches on Starlight’s grooming. A few
moments later he stood there gleaming, with both his water bucket and hay crib full

“Good night, Starlight,” Stevie called.

“Sleep tight,” added Lisa with a giggle. “Don’t let the bedbugs bite!”

“Speaking of sleeping tight, how about we go back to the loft?” Stevie said with a yawn. “I know it’s early, but I guess when you sleep with horses, you feel like going to bed when they do.”

“Suits me,” said Lisa.

They climbed back into the loft and spread their sleeping bags out next to each other. Lisa read for a few minutes, and Stevie played one of her electronic games, but soon they found their own eyelids drooping.

“I think I’m going to sleep,” yawned Stevie. “We’ll have a hectic enough day tomorrow. We may as well be rested for it.”

“Right,” said Lisa, catching Stevie’s yawn. She closed her book and zipped up her sleeping bag. “Good night, Stevie.”

“Good night, Lisa,” Stevie replied. “Good night, Belle and Starlight,” she whispered through the cracks in the floor, just before she turned over and closed her eyes to sleep.

“C
OME ON
, D
AD
! If you hurry, we can make it!” Carole bounded ahead of her father to the top of Mount
Stringfellow, just in time to see the last rays of sunlight disappear behind a stunning pink-and-purple cloud bank. For a minute the whole mountaintop was bathed in a soft violet glow; then the sun slipped beneath the horizon and the light faded to dusk.