No Horse Wanted (20 page)

She was as perfect as her name when we headed
behind Mr. Wilkerson toward one of the huge barns. No matter who
was on the road, she never spooked. She wasn’t afraid of the horse
trailers moving around the parking lot or the tractors hauling
carts of shavings. Once a little kid raced by, a red balloon
bouncing behind her on a string. Lady stopped and waited until the
traffic died down, then walked beside me again.

Mr. Wilkerson stopped and talked to a barn
official, then went down one of the wide aisles to an empty stall.
“Well, what do you think of her?”

“She’s amazing,” I said. “I hope Twaziem acts
like her someday.”

“You’ll have to share that with Rocky. She’s
the one who trained Lady. And Rocky can make that happen.”

* * * *

Saturday, September
28
^th
, 5:45 p.m.

As we headed home that night, memories
jumbled my mind. I’d never known there was so much grooming that
could be done with a horse. Lady looked like a beauty queen when
she went into halter class. Her mane and tail floated in the
breeze. Dani told me afterwards that the class was judged on
cleanliness and manners. Well, Lady showed both. And she scored a
first place.

Dani said it was because of the grooming that
her dad and I did, but her mom said that Dani contributed, too.
After all, Lady couldn’t have gone in the ring without her. I still
had trouble believing the manners that the horses exhibited. And
the audience had been different too. There wasn’t any whistling or
yelling like I heard at rodeos or gaming events.

Even when the horses galloped in the show
ring, they did it very slowly. The emphasis had been on control and
discipline. If I closed my eyes, I could see the way Lady loped, as
if she was recorded moving in slow motion. It was beautiful. Maybe
one day Twaziem would do that same gait. It hadn’t looked
frightening. I might be able to ride it.

Dani poked me. “What did you think of your
first show?”

“I loved watching the two of you gallop. It
was like dancing in an old movie,” I said. “They should have had
music.”

“Wait till Rocky teaches you to ride a slow
lope,” Dani said. “She plays waltzes until you learn to let the
horse flow from one step to the next. It’s always the slower, the
better in traditional Western riding. Is that how your family’s
horses run?”

“No way,” I said. “They go like they’re
exploding from a gate on a racetrack. Jack wants to get his time
down to less than fifteen seconds when he barrel races or pole
bends. And Buster goes from zero to zoom when he’s after a calf for
roping. Felicia does three day eventing. She and Vinnie can jump
anything, and she really whines when she has to do a day of
dressage and slow down. Endurance is another kind of racing.”

“I guess what I was doing looked boring,”
Dani said.

“Are you kidding? I never ride with them, not
since Nitro bolted across the highway with me. I love my family,
but they’re total speed demons and it freaks me out.”

“Then it makes it even more amazing that you
rescued Twaziem,” Dani said. “I’d be so scared if a horse ran away
with me that I’d never ride again.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Sunday, September 29
^th
, 4:30 p.m.

Nobody showed up to run with me, and I was
glad. I needed time to think and running always cleared my head. I
jogged down the driveway, turned right and let everything that
happened during the past week flow through my mind. Lunch with
Harry when he came and joined me on his own, Vicky’s problems with
her family, the visit to Mrs. Bartlett’s, leading the cross-country
team—the list went on and on and on.

When I returned home, I didn’t have any
solutions, but I felt more at peace with myself and the world. I
could handle whatever life threw at me. I always managed somehow.
Even if I didn’t know what to do about Bill or how to teach Twaziem
how to trust guys, an answer would come. I changed to my boots and
went down to the barn to help with night chores. I took my horse
out to the closest paddock to graze so we could do his stall.

Jack was already mucking when I returned, so
I cleaned out the manger. Twaz didn’t need another bale of grass
hay. He had about six flakes left, so I added four more. “Dr. Larry
says to cut back now and start feeding him more like the other
horses.”

“Works for me,” Jack said, pitching manure
into the wheelbarrow. “How did your internship go?”

“All right. I learned to stock the truck with
medical supplies, and we only had two emergency calls. One was for
a colicked horse up past Arlington, and the second was for a colt
that gashed his leg on a barbed wire fence. Both horses are going
to be fine. Dr. Larry says next time I’ll get to stitch.”

Jack stopped scooping. “Really? He didn’t let
me sew anything until I’d been riding along for a year.”

I pulled out the water tub to dump and scrub
it. “I’m not looking forward to it. What if I mess up and the horse
tears out the sutures?”

“Then, you go back with him and redo it,”
Jack said. “That happened at Rocky’s. Sierra’s stepdad decided he
knew more than the vet, and Dr. Larry’s associate hadn’t
specifically said to keep the horse in a stall while his leg
healed. So, we sewed it up again and Dr. L. ripped into Sierra. She
told him it was a good lecture and for him to repeat it to her
folks.”

I laughed, leaning on the tub. “I can just
hear her. She doesn’t take crap from anybody. Today, we bandaged
the colt after we sewed him up. Then he couldn’t chew on the
stitches when he got bored. Dr. Larry said he couldn’t wear a cone
like what you put on a dog, so his owners just have to pay
attention.”

“That’s part of having animals.” Jack picked
up the last forkful of wet shavings. “You could have Mom teach you
to crewel. She uses a lot of the same stitches that Dr. Larry does.
Of course, he’s sewing up skin and she sews on cloth when she makes
those decorator wall-hangings.”

“And I wouldn’t have to worry about hurting
anything. Thanks, Jack.”

He moved on to the next stall. I pulled the
tub to the yard and dumped the extra water on the grass. I glanced
at the pasture and saw Twaziem stop grazing. He threw his head up,
whinnied, and trotted toward the white board fence. I heard an
answering neigh and spotted Mom riding Singer across the back
pasture from Linda’s place.

Twaziem ran up and down along the fence, but
he didn’t seem too agitated. It was more like he just wanted to
greet the other horse. I went to meet Mom. “Hi. How was it?”

“Good.” Mom swung out of the saddle and
parked her horse near the paddock gate so she could nuzzle Twaziem.
“Help me untack her, and then she can go in with him for a little
bit while we do her stall.”

“It’s all done. I did it last night during
chores.”

Mom hugged me. “Wonderful. Have I ever told
you that you’re my favorite?”

I laughed. She got that from some sitcom on
TV, and I didn’t believe her for more than a heartbeat. “You told
Felicia that when she did your laundry and Jack when he changed the
oil in your truck.”

“Well, to be honest, you’re all my
favorites.” She stepped to Singer’s left side and began undoing the
latigo. “Tell me about the horse show. Did you like it? Was it fun?
What did you learn to do? How was your first day with Dr.
Larry?”

Before I started chattering, I eyed her. When
was the last time I’d asked her about what she and Singer did on a
race? Never, I thought. I was a kid and her world revolved around
me. Instead, I said, “You first. How was the race? What was the
terrain like? Did you see any rattlesnakes?”

* * * *

Monday, September
30
^th
, 7:10 a.m.

It was back to the usual routine the next
day. I sat in the Commons with my mocha and a latte for Vicky, and
she was late. I sighed and shook my head. The more things changed,
the more they stayed the same. I just hoped she made it before the
bell rang and she was dead meat in Weaver’s class. Porter and Gwen
showed up next, and Vicky hustled across the room just as the
warning bell rang.

I passed her the latte. “Chug it,” I said.
“Weaver will make you toss it if you try to take it in her class.
What happened?”

“Oh, the usual,” Vicky said, peeling off the
cap. “Dad returned the kids with backpacks of dirty clothes. Mom
didn’t wash them, and I about had to take them to day care naked. I
ran into Safeway and grabbed a big box of disposable diapers on the
way for the baby.”

“Good for you,” Porter said.

Vicky took a big swallow of coffee and shook
her head. “Not really. I caught hell for destroying the planet from
the day care bitch because it takes a million years for the diapers
to die in a landfill. I told her they weren’t my kids, and if she
wanted to wash the bag full of crappy diapers, I’d bring it
tomorrow. And right now, I had to get to school.”

Gwen laughed so hard that I had to grab her
so she didn’t fall on the floor. “Won’t she be calling your mom?” I
asked.

“Yeah, probably. And with any luck at all,
I’ll be sent to the dungeon.” Vicky drained her coffee. “Come on.
If we don’t get to Weaver’s in two minutes, we’ll all be in the
office for tardy slips.”

She and Porter hurried down the hall ahead of
us, and Gwen walked quickly beside me. “So, what’s the
dungeon?”

“The daylight apartment in the basement,” I
said. “Vicky’s dad redid it as a studio so he could get away from
the kids every once in a while. And when her mom gets pissed, Vick
is sent there as a punishment.”

“Well, she’d better not let her mom know that
she likes being thrown in that particular briar patch,” Gwen said,
as we slid into English class, “or she’ll be locked out of it.”

At lunch, Vicky was the first to arrive at my
table. “I had a question that I’m supposed to ask you, but there
wasn’t time before school.”

“What is it?” I looked around for Harry, then
spotted him in the line at the sub-station talking to Dani while
they waited for their sandwiches. “Do you want me to babysit for
you again?”

“Not yet,” Vicky said. “Are you trying to
give my mom heart failure? No, it’s about this Friday’s game. Jack
wants you to go with us for something to eat after the game.”

“Jack and I live in the same house. Why
didn’t he ask me?”

“Because fixing up his little sister on a
date with his buddy just feels creepy.” Vicky opened her carton of
milk. “And Bill will be coming along. So, do you want to join us or
not?”

I unwrapped my sandwich, trying to figure out
how I felt. It had really surprised me when Bill showed up to feed
Twaziem apples last week. I hadn’t known that he liked me, and I
wasn’t sure how I felt about him.

“It’s not that hard of a question, Robin. Do
you want to come or not?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I’ve never thought
of Bill that way.”

“What way?” Vicky asked. “Sure, he acts like
a comedian, but he’s okay. And you two actually have a lot in
common. You try to hide who you are behind a mask, too.”

“I know that.” I looked across the cafeteria,
wondering what was taking Harry and Dani so long. Then, I saw
it—saw them choose a table and sit down together. “Oh, no.”

Vicky followed my gaze. “It doesn’t mean
anything. Dani changes boys like she does earrings. You have to let
Harry learn that on his own. And the best way for him to realize
you’re a girl is for him to see you with a different guy. Yes or no
for Friday?”

I blinked hard. I wouldn’t cry. Not here and
not now. “I don’t want to hurt Bill’s feelings.”

“How could you?” Vicky asked. “You don’t even
know him like a real guy yet, just as a friend of your older
brother’s. Come with us. You might decide you prefer him. He
actually sees you as a person and that makes him much more
appealing to me.”

I bit hard into my ham sandwich and chewed.
“You only want me going out with someone that you and Jack like.
Okay, I’ll do it, but only once. If I don’t like Bill that way,
then I’ll let him down easy. No hard feelings either way.”

“All right! Way to go!” Vicky grinned at me.
“And think positive. Dani won’t be out with Harry on Friday night.
She’ll probably be babysitting for me since my dad won’t show up
two weekends in a row.”

Vicky had a point, I thought, as I led the
team up Golf Course Hill that afternoon. Her dad probably would
bail this time around. I should be mad at Dani for taking Harry,
but it wasn’t totally her fault. She didn’t know how I felt about
him, but he did. Only a dimwit wouldn’t figure out a girl liked him
when she showed up to eat lunch with him every day since school
started, and Harry wasn’t stupid. He knew how I felt, but he didn’t
care.

My eyes burned with unshed tears. I jogged at
the crosswalk while I waited for the light to change. Then I led
the way across the street and started down the winding road through
the development.

Lew puffed up beside me. “How far are we
going?”

“At least six miles,” I said. “I don’t want
to run again when I get home tonight.”

“Works for me,” Gwen said from my other side.
“It was great winning last week. We’re kicking butt this time,
too.”

Lew dropped back behind us. If he’d had more
air, I knew he’d be whining at Steve and the other guys. I shook my
head. Lew should just be happy that he hadn’t puked on the way up
the steep part of the last hill.

* * * *

Monday, September
30
^th
, 7:30 p.m.

I’d barely finished rinsing the plates and
loading the dishwasher that night when the phone rang. I went to
answer the kitchen extension and heard my sister’s cheery
greeting.