No Time for Horses (13 page)

We built up to the trot and then the canter.
Halts, backing, and side-passaging. Now, he was ready for driving
practice. I hooked the reins to his halter rings, ran the long
lines back through the stirrup irons, and sent him forward. More
walking and trotting, then we halted and went through backing,
side-steps, circles, reverses, and turns. I did figure eights and
serpentines, teaching him everything on the ground that I would
want him to do when I rode him.

When I stopped him after forty minutes, Rocky
was still there. She slowly started to applaud. “You are an amazing
trainer, Vicky. I never expected him to be able to do any of those
things. What’s next?”

“Sierra and I are going to pony him from
Summertime and I’ll ride him while she leads him.” I glanced at my
watch. “That’s going to have to wait until after we do the next
trail ride. I don’t want to rush him and break the anti-splat
rule.”

Rocky nodded. “Well, be sure to give him lots
of carrots when you put him away.”

“I will,” I said. “Is it okay if I leave him
saddled up?”

“Yes. Let him get used to holding up the
saddle and wearing the bridle. Take off the reins so he doesn’t
hurt himself.”

“Okay.” I followed her directions and put
away Aladdin. I fed him three more carrots. Then, I went up to the
office to grab a drink of water before I went to help Sierra with
the trail ride.

The ride went smoothly and when we checked
the tip jar, we’d made eighty bucks. Woohoo, that meant seventy
dollars for each of us. I got some money from my mom, but not much
since she was always complaining about how broke she was and how
expensive we were.

Lincoln High paid a stipend for me to do my
internship at the barn, but I didn’t see a penny of it. I’d made
tips working at Shamrock over the summer when I helped with camp
and now I was earning more. That was another reason why I wanted a
job. I barely had enough to cover my cell, and when Mom or Rick
called all the time, they totally used up my minutes. Not that the
two of them admitted it. No, they just said I was a teenager and
wasted time texting. As if I had the chance.

I took a deep breath. I wasn’t going to think
about them. I’d get a drink of water and go put Aladdin together. I
needed to warm him up, and he couldn’t focus on the work at hand if
I was stressed out. It’d just upset him. I sure didn’t want to take
flying lessons. I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge outside
the office door. It was carrot time and finally I headed down to
the arena for Aladdin. He stuck his brown head over the stall door,
tossing his black mane.

“Yes, I’m back. Come on, handsome. We’re
going places together.” I fed him a piece of carrot. “Let’s go do
some work in the indoor arena.”

It was almost four-thirty, and that meant
it’d be dark in an hour. We did fifteen minutes on the longe for
discipline and then Sierra arrived. She led out Summertime and
joined us in the arena. Aladdin looked happy to see his best
bud.

“We’re running out of time,” I said. “Let’s
stay inside today. Like Rocky says, “The fastest way to train a
horse is slow.’”

“You’re probably right. Do you have a
competition next Saturday?”

“No, it’s a holiday weekend.” I began to
smile. “And that means I can come both days to make up some hours.
I’ll ride him outside then.”

“Sounds good. Let’s get you in the saddle
now. After that, I’ll mount up and pony you and him.”

I belly-flopped into the saddle. Sierra
guided my left foot into the stirrup, and I slowly swung into
position. I gathered up the two sets of reins. One set was attached
to the bit, and I’d barely use those. I’d hooked the gaming set
onto the halter. If I needed to, I’d be able to pull firmly on
those lines. Aladdin was accustomed to the pressure from a lead
rope, and I had one of those too. He wouldn’t freak if I signaled
him for a stop the usual way.

Sierra swung into her saddle and rode over to
me. I passed her the rope. She turned Summertime so Aladdin was on
his right side. She tightened the tension on the lead until Aladdin
had his nose up by her knee, and he walked next to Summertime as we
began to circle the arena.

Again, it was the way I generally began our
lessons, and this way, he’d stay calm. I remembered watching the
Clinton Anderson video about how and why leading a young horse from
an older one was an effective training method. He’d said that
ponying taught green mounts about cueing, yielding to pressure, and
moving forward. It would also desensitize Aladdin to having another
rider and horse nearby.

I reached down and scratched his neck in
front of the saddle. “Good job, big boy. You’ll be a ‘real’ horse
before long. If this keeps up, we’ll really be able to go to the
Shamrock Stable Holiday Party on horseback in three weeks.”

“Everybody needs goals, but remember there’s
no rush. If you two don’t make the Christmas party, there’s always
the one at Easter,” Sierra said.

“Yeah, but all I want is for Santa to bring
Aladdin a good horsy future.”

Chapter
Thirteen

Sunday,
November 24th, 6:00 p.m.

It wasn’t much of a surprise to see Rick’s
Jeep in the driveway when Jack pulled up. I grimaced. “How much do
you want to bet he hasn’t fed them supper?”

“Not at all. How do you feel about the
Colonel tonight?”

“That he’s my second favorite guy.” I leaned
over and kissed him. “Thanks, Jack.”

“For what?”

“For not being a jerk about my family and my
responsibilities.”

“You have enough jerks in your life. You
don’t need one more.” He stroked my hair. “Go save the day, Gunga
Din. I’ll be back as quick as I can.”

Another kiss and I was out of his old truck,
walking up the drive. Kevin jumped out as I approached. “Hey, dude.
How was your weekend?”

“Awful, and we’ve been waiting forever. Dad’s
ticked again.”

“Why? He’s supposed to bring you home in two
hours, not now.” I put a hand on Kevin’s shoulder. “Have you guys
had supper already?”

“Nope. Tessa’s sick again, and guys don’t
cook at Dad’s house.”

“Well, he needs to get over himself if he
wants to eat.” I opened the door and began to unbuckle Chrissy from
the car seat. “Come on, kids. Let’s go.”

“I don’t appreciate always having to wait for
you, Vicky.” Rick turned his head to give me his best martyr look.
“You need to be here when I arrive. I have things to do.”

“Well, when you’re early, it creates a
problem,” I said. “It’d be better if you stayed on schedule. I’m
not dropping out of high school for you.”

That got his attention. “What are you talking
about? Nobody says you have to drop out.”

“If Vicky don’t do her internship, she’ll
flunk all her classes. Mr. Diaz says she’ll get kicked out of her
school,” Cathy said. “And if Vicky gets kicked out, she can’t go to
college. And Mr. Diaz says it’s our job to help her go to college
so she can help us when it’s our turn. And we need to go to college
to get good jobs when we’re all grown up like her.”

“Who is this Diaz guy?” Rick demanded. “Your
mom’s new boyfriend?”

“No, Daddy.” Linda giggled, climbing out of
her seat. “Mr. Diaz is our teacher. Don’t you ‘member?”

“How could he?” Lance grabbed their
backpacks. “He didn’t come to our open house. Vicky did.”

“That’s enough,” Rick snapped. “You know
better than to be rude to me.”

Silence from the twins, and Kevin picked up
the diaper bag. “Where did Jack go? Is he getting us pizza
again?”

“Not tonight, cowboy.” I boosted Chrissy onto
my hip. “What time will you be here on Thanksgiving, Rick? I’ll
tell Mom so she has everything ready.”

“Late,” Rick said. “We’re going to Tessa’s
family up in Bellingham for dinner.”

“Okay.” I handed Cathy my keys and closed the
Jeep door. “Let us in, sweetie.”

Kevin waited until the other kids ran ahead
of us. “He’s not going to show up, Vicky. Tessa was having a big
fit about coming back early. She wants to go shopping with her mom
and sisters on Black Friday.”

“Well, if he doesn’t make it, you guys will
have to go to daycare,” I said. “I’m going shopping with a bunch of
my friends too.”

“What is it with girls and shopping?” Kevin
demanded. “It’s stupid.”

“Not if you want Christmas, it’s not. How do
you think you get all those cool presents? Mom and I always budget
out what we can spend. She goes to work, and I go hit all the
doorbuster sales starting at four in the morning.”

“Guess I gotta jump in and help.” Kevin
groaned. “It means getting everybody up to go to daycare, huh?”

“Only if your dad doesn’t show up.” I paused
to untangle Chrissy’s sticky fingers from my hair. “Do I want to
know what you kids had for snacks today?”

“Peanut butter and jam on crackers. It was
all they had.” Kevin told me. “Tessa told Dad that he had to go
grocery shopping, and he got all nasty about it. He said it was a
girl job and she totally screamed at him. That was amazing.”

“What was?” I climbed the steps to the front
porch. “Her losing it?”

“You and Mom never tell Dad not to be a
jerk,” Kevin said. “And Jack says he takes you to the store and
helps buy groceries so you don’t get stuck with all the work. He
says when the house is a disaster area, he helps muck it like he
does the barn. That’s what real men do. They help clean up the
mess. They don’t just make it and leave it.”

“Really?” I’d wondered why my brother had
started becoming human. Now, I knew. Somebody was teaching him
about choices. It should have been me. What had I been thinking?
Not about his future. “You’re a good kid, Kevin.”

“And I’m gonna be a good guy like Jack and
his dad.”

“Yes, you are.” I stepped into the hall,
glanced at the backpacks tossed on the floor and let out a roar.
“You guys get back here and clean up your stuff. Dirty laundry in
the pantry. Move it, move it, move it! Kevin, give me that diaper
bag and watch for Jack. He’ll be back with fried chicken real soon
for supper. Please help him get everything inside and set up for us
to eat.”

“I knew we’d have something great for
dinner,” Kevin said. “I told them when Dad said he didn’t have time
to stop at McDonald’s and Linda started to cry ‘cuz she was hungry.
I said, ‘Don’t worry. Vicky will feed us soon as we get home.’”

“And Jack.” I glanced through the open door
when the neighbor’s dog started barking. I saw a guy on the
sidewalk. It looked like Adam Chambers, but what would he be doing
in my neighborhood? It didn’t make sense. “Let’s get organized.
Right?”

“Right?” Kevin passed a Spiderman backpack to
Lance. “You gotta get your stuff in our room. We’re having K.F.C.
soon as Jack gets here.”

“K.F.C. K.F.C.” Lance charged back down the
hall to his room, chanting. “I love K.F.C. Love it, love it, love
it! K.F.C.”

I laughed. “I’m so signing him up for cheer
when he gets to middle school.”

* * * *

Monday, November 25th, 7:10 a.m.

Robin and I met at the front doors of Lincoln
High. She passed me my latte. I peeled off the cap and tossed it
before I sipped. “You should have seen Aladdin yesterday. Sierra
ponied him while I rode him for a half hour and he did great.”

“Sounds like he’s turning into a horse in
spite of himself, and you’re becoming a trainer. You’ll be able to
help Rocky ride Twaziem next spring.”

“Yes, but you have to do more ground school
with him.” After a quick stop by our lockers, we walked toward the
Commons. “It’s really made a difference with Aladdin.”

We could have talked horses all morning, but
we didn’t get the chance. Evie and Tom waved to me, and I led the
way over to their table. “What’s up?”

“We need to tally up the donations and
deliver the food to Marysville Helping Hands tomorrow,” Evie said.
“Ms. Walker says we’ll cut cheer practice to do it. I wanted to
give you a ‘heads up’ so you can be there.”

“No problem,” I said. “I have to see the
counselor and get my head adjusted so my mom picks up the
kids.”

“You sound like Sierra when she says therapy
helps her escape from the barn,” Tom gave me a long look then
asked, “Have you ever thought about filing for emancipation?”

“What’s that?” I swallowed more of my latte.
“The only time I’ve heard about it is in Mr. B’s history class when
he’s going off about the Civil War.”

“You’ve turned sixteen, right? Ask Ingrid
about going for emancipation. She can help you get out on your own.
If you need some place to live, you can bunk on my couch until you
have enough money to rent an apartment.”

“She doesn’t need to move out, Tom.” Evie
glowered at him. “She just needs to tell her mom to back off and
let her have a life.”

“Well, one way to get her mother’s attention
is to threaten to apply for her freedom. It isn’t like Vicky
couldn’t take care of herself. She could get a job in a heartbeat.
And she wouldn’t have to wait until she turns eighteen to flee the
family nest.”

“This is all news to me,” I said. “What about
you, Robin? Have you ever heard of anyone leaving home before their
eighteenth birthday?”

She shook her head. “No. I bet we could find
out about it on the Internet. Want to go to the library and see
what comes up? We have fifteen minutes before class.”

“Why not? It sounds interesting.” I frowned
when I spotted Adam sitting nearby. Had he been listening to our
conversation? No, he couldn’t have been. He had his nose buried in
his math book. Robin and I strolled toward the stairs, finishing
off our coffees on the way.

Upstairs, the computer lab off the library
was open. We grabbed two chairs and sat down at one of the
stations. I logged on and hit the Internet to do some quick
investigating. Teen emancipation popped up right away. Robin and I
stared at the screen.
The article began by defining
emancipation, stating that it was a legal process that granted
teenagers independence from their parents or guardians.