Secondhand Horses (7 page)

“And we were washing them, too. Other than Which Way, they might not have liked it, but they weren’t grumpy about it,” Vee said.

“Like I said, this has been the easiest rescue ever. Now we need to see what each animal is good at so we can tell people.” Esther set her fork down and pushed her not-quite-empty plate away. “That might help them find homes. After homework.”

The girls started on their homework at the big pine table as they had promised parents. Every time Sunny started to daydream, she’d receive a little kick on the left foot. Vee sat on her left. If she stared at her paper and book too long, a nudge from Esther jabbed her in the ribs. She wished the girls were staying every day; it sure made school faster. She didn’t mean to disappear into her head; it just kinda happened, so it helped to have reminder friends.

Soon after the last book snapped closed, Esther’s dad picked up the girls and Sunny was alone. She checked on Uncle Dave. He looked like he was going to sleep all night on the couch. Mom said he might for the first few nights and to let him. She took the tray back. Maybe a forkful or two of mac and cheese. The hot dog was untouched. Poor Uncle Dave.

“You and the ranch are going to be just fine. I’m so sorry I made you fall and break your ankle. You’ll see.
I’ll finish everything
,” she said, even though she knew he was dead asleep.

When she began yawning, it was time to put the zoo to bed. On her way to the barn, she saw the mini standing at the rails as though waiting just for her. And the goose perched on the little horse’s back! Funny.

“You looking for a free ride, Which Way?”

The tiny brown-and-white goat standing in the barn opening bleated softly. Which Way flapped off the mini and ducked under the lowest rail to follow her. As Sunny walked past the paddock into the barn, she noted the pig had already put himself to bed, wide side heaving up and down with each snuffly snore. One of his long ears flipped this way and that batting away a fly. The mini entered through the paddock door and headed to his stall. The pygmy goat joined him, even though he had a stall of his own.

“Good night, Piggles.” She breathed in deep, looking at the barn with pleasure. It was kind of fun putting the zoo to bed.

The barn smelled like dust, hay, horse, and other good smells. So much better than that tractor shed she was going to finish tomorrow. The goose followed her around as she went to the stall where the goat had joined the mini.

“Gonna sleep with your good buddy, Bob?” Sunny rubbed the goat behind the ears. “Don’t worry, I’ll remember to shut the barn door,” she told Which Way, who was unconvinced and kept following her. She snuggled her head onto the top of the platinum silver mane of the mini. “What
is
your name?”

The mini snorted, threw back his head, and sniffed her ear for treats. She let out her own snort.

“How ‘bout Wuffle for a name?” The mini looked away. “No, huh? I’ll give you a rocko-socko name; don’t worry.” She talked to herself as she closed the barn door. “I’m closing the barn door, guys. You all see me do it, right?”

She would be a finisher. Just wait and see.

W
ednesday seemed like two days glued together and each a hundred hours long. Sunny’s alarm went off—three times—until Uncle Dave’s hoarse voice yelled down the hall, “Turn that thing off or get up!”

In the living room, she spilled the water glass for his pain medicine and had to mop it up with a towel from the bathroom because she hadn’t unpacked the kitchen towels yet. When she opened the barn door, the zoo was already in the paddock through the paddock door—that she’d, um, forgotten to close the previous night.

“You’re doing a great job, Sunny.” Uncle Dave sat up on the couch, bleary eyed, as she brought him lunch.

Good thing you can’t walk right now. You might say something different
.

After schoolwork was done, Sunny brushed the mini and the goat, led them out to the corral behind the house, and twisted the spigot to fill the water trough. As soon as she unclipped the goat’s lead in the corral, he scooted on his knees under the rail, hightailing it to the front. When he stopped at the oval and started to graze, she walked back to the corral. Pulling an Esther pose, she placed her hands on her hips and addressed the pig and the goose that had waddled from the barn.

“You guys can come and go as you please. Just don’t make me chase you!”

With a couple of flaps, the goose was splashing and honking in the half-filled water trough. The pig found an old garden in the shade to the left of the corral and began to root a row in it.

“Well, someone could adopt Piggles and he can root up their garden in the spring,” Sunny said to the mini. She turned to the other animals. “What are you all good at?” It looked like Bob was going to be good at mowing.

Her question reflected her own problem. She’d been good at Great Ideas.
Been
good at them.

No matter. She’d get used to not having Great Ideas. She would simply have to find something else she was good at.

Back to school stuff. She caught up on the assignments she was behind in and video chatted with her mother and told her everything was going fine. She talked to Uncle Dave until he fell asleep.

Then she counted the hours until the Squad would arrive. She thought of the tractor shed a few times while she opened the endless boxes and put things away. Uncle Dave groggily said he did not care where things went as long as kitchen stuff landed in the kitchen, bathroom stuff in the bathroom, and so on. It seemed the pile of boxes would never go down. Some boxes were marked S
HED
. She groaned. Like the shed needed more stuff in it.

Taking a break in the afternoon, she wandered toward the corral. The water trough was running over and, from the looks of the mucky mini, the goopy goose, and the oh-so-happy pig in mud, it had been on since—

“Ughness!” Sunny slogged through the mud and turned off the spigot. “Great, just great.” No point in taking off her sneakers to save them; they were toast. She led the muddy trio back to the tractor shed for another hosing. Bob the goat was making great progress on the oval.

Finally, finally, after hosing off her own sneakers, going into the house, seeing the track of barefoot mud she’d left, wiping up the tracks, and sighing
mightily
, she heard a vehicle pull into the circular driveway. Getting a good hold on the front door, she yanked on it and pushed open the screen with both hands.

The Squad had arrived!

They unpacked a few more boxes and did their homework. Too soon the girls had to leave, and Sunny began a new countdown to the next day after school.

That’s when Esther would be staying overnight!

T
he zoo was out of the barn and running in every direction except the same. Sunny darted one way and then another, yet every time she nearly touched one of them, they squirted out of her hand. Then the pig began to fly, and the mini horse said, “Come here so I can stomp on your foot!”

Sunny sat up, her heart pounding in her throat, sleep as well as the dream vibrating in her brain. Where was she? Right. She was in her bed at Uncle Dave’s. Thursday night; Esther lay curled up on the inflatable mattress. Through the open window, the dark sky above the corral and meadow said nighttime. A chilly breeze blew, but it wasn’t as cold as Sunny felt when she saw a shape outlined through the window.

She burrowed back under the covers. She did not see something at the window. What a crazy dream. She must still be dreaming. A sweaty moment later, she peeked out. No doubt about it. Something was looking at her from the open window.

“Esther! Esther, wake up!” Loud enough for her friend to hear, low enough that—that—thing couldn’t.

Esther stirred.

The shadowy figure snorted. Just like—

Sunny bounded out of bed. Now she could see the ears. It was the mini. She leaned through the window. There, below the view of the window was Piggles, Bob, and Which Way. Which Way looked very pleased with himself.

“How did you—?”

The zoo had been safely in the barn with the door shut. She’d shut it right after dinner while Esther did the dishes. Honest. They were safe.

No, they were looking in her window.

But she
had
shut the barn door, hadn’t she? She’d gone through Vee’s checklist and actually checked everything off and—

She smacked her forehead with her hand. She’d left the list and the pen in the barn. It had all the instructions for Uncle Dave Mom had left that Vee had written in her perfect handwriting. She needed that notebook ‘cause it also included all
her
lists on how to care for the animals and how to split up the chores.

She’d better go get it and check the door, just to make sure. She would also check to see how the zoo got out. No way did she want to mess up her chance to prove to her family that she could finish things.

“Okay, guys, lemme get dressed and I’ll be out.”

Yawning, she checked the bedside clock. With the ranch away from city lights, night was really
night
. A flashlight would be handy, but that would have been something Esther or Vee would have remembered, she reflected, slipping her feet into a pair of flip-flops and pulling on a sweatshirt. A sigh over leaving the handy-dandy list in the barn. Reinventing herself as Vee wasn’t going to work.

“The trouble with a list is you have to remember where you put the list,” she muttered, opening the bedroom door.

Esther slowly sat up, stretching. After a quick look out the window, she whispered, “I see ears. Is that the mini? It’s not morning yet. What are you doing?”

“I’m going to see how they got out. I’m sure I closed the door.” Her voice lowered. “I also forgot the list in the barn. I’m going to get it.”

In seconds, Esther had rolled off the bed. “Let me get my flashlight out of my backpack. Then we can go.”

I knew it
.

Dressing quickly and digging out her big-ended flashlight, Esther was ready to go. Crossing to the window and sitting on her rear and rolling out, a twinge of guilt zinged Sunny. It would be longer now for Uncle Dave to screen the windows and everything else on his “I’ve got to look at that” list.

As soon as Sunny was out the window, the mini moved in for an ear wuffle. “Maybe your name should be Magician,” Sunny said, rubbing him behind the ears. He drew back his head and shook it. “Okay. I’ll keep trying.”

The two girls stood for a moment in the cool-but-not-cold air with their heads thrown back, marveling at the stars. So many more than she saw at home. Sunny spun from sheer joy. Here she was, free and outdoors in the freaky weather of November. The zoo must be magicians because she was
sure
she’d shut the barn door. She skipped toward the corner of the house, throwing in a little spin every few skips. Okay, so being Vee wasn’t going to work, being helpful like Aneta hadn’t worked. Esther jogged next to her.

Rounding the corner and crunching as quietly as possible, so as not to awaken Uncle Dave, the two approached the nighttime hulk of the barn.

“I bet you did close the door,” Esther said. “They must have found another way out.”

Esther was a good friend.

Right after Esther finished speaking, the back of Sunny’s neck began to prickle like it did when she knew her brothers were sneaking around to jump out and scare her. Sunny didn’t scare easily, but not
seeing
the danger and just
feeling
the danger was, well, creepy. Looking around on full alert, she slowed to careful steps so her flip-flops wouldn’t crunch the gravel.
Neck still prickling here
.

Esther walked so close she might as well have been in Sunny’s pocket. In a low mutter, she said, “Do you feel like someone is watching us?”

“Yes.” Sunny mumbled the word out of the corner of her mouth. “Maybe it’s because it’s so dark?”

Arriving at the barn door, Sunny’s heart sank.

The barn door was open.

Not a lot, but definitely not closed with the long bolt shot down through the two iron rings.

Ughness
.

And worse, the tingly feeling intensified.

“Is—is—anybody there?” Esther tried to sound tough and loud.

Sunny thumped her on the arm. “You don’t say that!” Her voice rasped with fear. “What if somebody
is
there?”

Esther hunched her shoulder to the ear where Sunny’s whisper had been more like a shriek. “Ow. Okay.” She looked around, too. “I don’t see anyone.” She shivered. “I—I just feel like we’re being watched.”

Sunny blew out a bubbling breath of relief and hysteria. “We are.”

Esther gasped. “Where?”

Sunny pointed back from where they’d come. In a straggly line the zoo stood silhouetted against the dark of the meadow. “But you know, I
know
I closed the door. Tight. I told Which Way I was closing the door. He saw me. I mean, I forgot the list and pen, but I did finish closing up the barn.”

Esther turned in a slow circle, eyes squinting, checking the outbuildings and the field that extended beyond the back corral. She surveyed the driveway in front of the house. “Bob’s almost finished the oval,” she observed. “I don’t see anybody.”

Sunny ducked into the barn thinking about the zoo. Piggles excelled at digging gardens. Bob mowed weeds. What about Which Way and the mini?
What about
me
now that I don’t have Great Ideas
? She must keep trying. She had one Squader left to imitate. It would involve being bossy and getting people to finish things.

The list was right where she thought it would be. As she walked out, Piggles, Bob, Which Way, and the mini—what
was
that horse’s name?—walked into the barn as though someone were leading them with invisible leashes.

“So do you think we were imagining things?” Esther asked as the two girls walked quietly back to the window.

Sunny’s neck had ceased to prickle. “Yeah.” Once Esther had tumbled herself into the bedroom, Sunny placed both hands on the sill, bounced, and tipped over the edge. She wriggled a bit more and fell onto the floor with a clunk.