Phantom Horse (2 page)

“The Torah is the Jewish Bible, right?” Lisa asked.

Phil took a sip of his punch and nodded. “It’s what Christians call the Pentateuch. That’s the first five books of the Old Testament.”

“You mean you’ll read Bible passages?” Stevie asked. “I mean, Torah passages?”

“Right,” Phil said. “The Torah service is kind of complicated if you’re not used to it, but I think it’s pretty interesting, too. You see, it’s an old tradition that seven different people have to read from the Torah in Hebrew for the service to be complete. A lot of synagogues these days have a professional reader do all the Torah reading: Even though members of the congregation are still called, the reader reads the verses for everyone. But the rabbi at my synagogue likes to do it the traditional way on days when someone is becoming a bar mitzvah. After the seven people have read, an eighth person goes up who’s called the
maftir.
That means
‘the one who will conclude.’ At my bar mitzvah, I’ll be the
maftir.
”

Carole picked up a stray piece of straw and twirled it between her fingers. “Wow,” she said. “That does sound kind of complicated. Is the reading hard?”

“Well, it’s not exactly easy, but I’ve been getting lots of practice in Hebrew school,” Phil said. The girls knew that Phil attended Jewish education classes several times a week after school and on weekends. “One of the hardest things to get used to is that the Torah is written without any vowels. And of course it’s in Hebrew, and you have to sing it in the traditional chants and everything. I’m sure I’ll be nervous when the day arrives, but right now I’m just excited. My parents are excited, too.”

“Even your dad?” Lisa asked. Then she blushed. “Sorry, that doesn’t sound very nice. But I mean, he isn’t Jewish, so …”

“It’s a fair question,” Phil said, smiling at her to show he wasn’t offended. “And the answer is that Dad is almost as excited as I am. When he and Mom got married they decided they would raise their kids to be Jewish—that was really important to Mom and her family. And since becoming bar mitzvahed—or bat mitzvahed for my sisters—is so important to the rest of the family, that means it’s important to my dad, too. In fact, he picked out my tallith, with a little help from Grandfather Friedman. He was so excited about it
he couldn’t even wait until my bar mitzvah to give it to me.”

“That’s great,” Lisa asked. “But I have one question. What’s a tallith?”

Phil laughed. “Sorry,” he said. “I’ve been so wrapped up in all this stuff lately that I keep forgetting that my non-Jewish friends don’t know all these words. The tallith is a prayer shawl worn by all Jewish men. A lot of kids get one from their parents as a bar mitzvah gift. Come on, I brought mine in to show it to you guys.” He got up.

“I’ve already seen it,” Stevie told her friends. “The tallith is really beautiful.”

Lisa and Carole stood up and followed Phil and Stevie out of the indoor ring and down the hall toward the student locker room. One wall of the room was lined with cubbies where the young riders could store extra clothes and boots, schoolbooks, and the like.

As they entered the room they saw two students sitting close together on the long bench in front of the cubbies. The couple jumped up quickly when they heard the group enter, and The Saddle Club recognized Joe Novick and his new girlfriend, a quiet girl named Shannon Brice. Most of the girls at Pine Hollow agreed he was the best-looking boy in their riding class. Shannon didn’t ride at Pine Hollow, but she went to Stevie’s school, Fenton Hall. Stevie didn’t know Shannon well, but she knew that the Brices were
extremely wealthy and lived in a house even bigger than Veronica’s.

“Oh, s-sorry,” Joe stammered. “Er, I mean, we didn’t know anyone would be coming in here.” Shannon didn’t say anything, but her face was turning red and she looked embarrassed. She stared down at her expensive-looking skirt and pretended to brush lint from it.

“No, we’re sorry,” Phil said. “We’re the ones who didn’t know anyone would be in here. But we’ll only be a minute.”

“That’s okay,” Shannon said softly. She turned to Joe. “I’m a little thirsty. Can we get some punch?”

“Sure thing,” Joe said. He took her hand and led her toward the door. “Catch you guys later,” he said, glancing back at The Saddle Club. Shannon didn’t look around.

“Bye,” Carole and Stevie said in one voice, and Lisa gave a little wave. As soon as Joe and Shannon had left the room, the three girls burst into giggles.

“Oops,” Carole said. “I guess we ruined their plans to be alone.”

“No kidding,” said Phil with a grin. He headed for Stevie’s cubby, but the three girls continued to stand by the door and talk.

Lisa nodded. “I feel bad. She looked awfully embarrassed.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Stevie said. “She always looks that way at school, too. She’s really shy.”

“I wonder why,” Carole said. “She’s incredibly rich,
right?” Carole and Lisa went to the public school across town from Fenton Hall, so they knew even less about Shannon than Stevie did.

“That’s for sure,” Stevie said. “Her family makes the diAngelos look like paupers. But at least Shannon doesn’t brag about her money all the time like Veronica does. I’m just surprised she and Joe are a couple. He’s so nice and friendly, and she’s so quiet and boring.”

“Just because she’s quiet doesn’t mean she’s boring,” Lisa pointed out.

“True,” Carole agreed with a smile. “She could have some wild, exciting secret life we don’t know about.”

“I hope so, for her sake,” Stevie said with a shrug. “But somehow I doubt it. Going out with Joe is probably the most exciting thing she’s done in her whole life.”

Meanwhile Phil had pulled his backpack out of Stevie’s cubby and set it on the bench. He called the girls over, and they came and watched as he carefully took out a black velvet bag with colorful embroidery along the edges.

“This is the bag I keep the tallith in when I’m not using it,” he explained. He opened the top and pulled out a bundle of fabric. When he unfolded it the girls saw that it was a large square of white silk with blue stripes woven into it. Tassels hung from each of the four corners, and embroidery decorated the edges.

“It really is beautiful,” Lisa said, reaching out to touch the soft fabric. Carole nodded in agreement.

Then Phil reached into his backpack again and took out a small black skullcap. When he held it up the girls could see that it was embroidered as well. In the center of the cap was a picture of a lion standing on its hind legs. Phil’s name was embroidered along the edge in golden thread. “This was another gift,” he explained. “My aunt and uncle sent it from Israel. They live there, but they’re flying over for my bar mitzvah.”

“That’s a yarmulke, right?” Lisa asked.

“Right,” Phil said. “It’s also called a
kippah.
That’s the Hebrew word;
yarmulke
is the Yiddish word.”

“So what other presents did you get?” Stevie asked, peering into Phil’s backpack.

“Mostly money,” Phil said matter-of-factly. “All my relatives and my parents’ friends have been sending checks. I’ll probably get a lot more on the day of the bar mitzvah. My sisters will probably chip in together to get me something.”

“Wow,” Stevie said. “It sounds like you’ll be rich when it’s all over.”

“Don’t start hitting me up for loans yet, Stevie,” Phil teased. “Most of the money I get will go straight into my college fund.” He grinned. “Although I may have just enough left to take my three favorite Saddle Club members out for ice cream—my treat.”

“It’s a deal,” Stevie said quickly, and her friends laughed.

Phil showed them how he put on the prayer shawl and let them each examine his yarmulke.

“Your bar mitzvah sounds like it will be great, Phil,” Lisa said, watching Phil put the tallith away in its bag and tuck the yarmulke on top of it. “I’m glad you invited us.”

“Me too,” Stevie said. But as the four friends got up and headed back toward the party, she couldn’t help feeling a little jealous. The bar mitzvah sounded to her like a bigger and better version of a birthday party. And afterward Phil was going to be practically as rich as Shannon Brice. Stevie usually got some birthday money from her relatives, but her parents always made her put most of it in the bank. The amount they let her spend was barely enough to cover a few weeks’ worth of bills at TD’s, The Saddle Club’s favorite ice cream parlor. Even if Phil had to put most of his money away for college, too, it didn’t seem fair that because he was Jewish he got a huge celebration just for turning thirteen.

At that moment Phil turned to her with a smile, then reached over and took her hand in his. Stevie smiled back, feeling a little guilty about her thoughts. Fair or not, she was glad Phil liked her enough to invite her and her friends to share his special day. She squeezed his hand and felt him squeeze back. She wouldn’t miss this bar mitzvah for the world.

W
HEN
T
HE
S
ADDLE
C
LUB
and Phil returned to the party, they saw a group of people gathered around Max and Red O’Malley.

“I wonder what’s going on?” Stevie said. Without waiting for a response from her friends, she hurried forward to find out.

Max looked up and saw her. “Ah, Stevie, you’re just in time. Red and I were just saying that it wouldn’t be Halloween without some good ghost stories. What do you say?”

“I say count me in,” Stevie said as her friends joined the group. “Can I start? I have a good one.”

Max nodded, and Stevie sat down and waited for the
partygoers to gather around her on the floor. When everyone was comfortable, Max lowered the overhead lights so that the strings of orange-reddish bulbs were the only illumination in the room.

When a silence fell over the group, Stevie began.

“It was a dark and stormy night,” she intoned in a low, serious voice. “A night much like this one.”

“It’s not stormy tonight,” a rider named Betsy Cavanaugh pointed out.

Stevie glared at her. “Quiet,” she commanded. “The spirits don’t like it when you interrupt me.”

“Sorry,” Betsy said with a giggle.

Stevie cleared her throat and continued. “As I was saying, it was a dark and stormy night—a night much like this one, at a stable much like this one. A rider was there taking care of her horse, and she was all alone in the night. Not another human was in the place. She had just finished cleaning the horse’s water bucket when she suddenly heard it.” Stevie paused for effect. “
Thump! Thump! Thump!
The noise was coming from the hayloft overhead.”

“Rats?” Phil guessed with a grin.

“
Big
rats,” Meg Durham added.

Stevie frowned at them but ignored their comments. “It sounded like something big, something … inhuman. She was scared, and she thought about running away. But she knew she couldn’t leave the horses in danger. She had to
find out what it was. So she walked slowly toward the ladder leading up to the loft. She walked step … by step … by step … by step …”

Stevie glanced around at her audience to see if her story was having the intended effect. Everyone looked attentive, if not particularly scared.

“At last she reached the ladder,” Stevie went on. “And now she knew she couldn’t turn back. She had to climb it. So she did … step … by step … by step … by step … by step …”

“We get the picture, Stevie,” Adam Levine called from the back of the group. “Step it up, okay?”

“All right, all right,” Stevie said. “The girl was quivering with fear by the time she reached the top of the ladder. It was dark in the hayloft, so she had to wait until her eyes adjusted before she could see. And when she could, she saw a huge … black … shadowy shape in the corner of the loft. It wasn’t moving. Quietly and slowly, she climbed up into the loft and started moving
verrry
slowly toward the shape. Step—”

“By step, by step, by step,” chanted the audience.

Stevie couldn’t help grinning. “That’s right,” she said. “By this time she was shaking and quivering and quaking. She tiptoed over to the big dark shape, and when she was only a couple of feet away she realized what it was. It was nothing more than a big stack of hay bales piled against the
wall. She heaved a sigh of relief and began to relax. But then, suddenly, a swarm of vampire bats flew out from behind the hay and attacked her. And from that day on she was never heard from again.”

Phil snorted. “Is that it? I’m quaking in my boots,” he said sarcastically. “I mean, I’m shaking and quivering and quaking.”

“Yeah,” Joe said. “I may never be able to go up in the loft again.”

“So Stevie, if it was just bats up there, what were the thumps?” asked Betsy.

Carole grinned as she watched Stevie defend her story against its critics. Then she glanced around and noticed that a few people weren’t paying much attention to the storytelling. One was Veronica, who had managed to slide over so that she was sitting next to Troy. She was leaning close to him, glancing at him adoringly as she whispered into his ear. He wasn’t looking back; in fact, he was frowning and looking as though he would rather be anyplace else. Carole’s grin widened. Then it faded as she noticed Shannon Brice. She was sitting beside Joe, but she didn’t seem to be having much fun. Her face was pale, and she kept glancing around anxiously at the dark corners of the ring. If Carole hadn’t known better, she would have sworn that Stevie’s silly story had actually scared Shannon.