Wagon Trail (2 page)

“Cut the music!” Lisa said, wide-eyed. “It’s scaring her to death!” She unbuckled Maxi from the chair swing and held her in her arms. Maxi’s face was red with rage, and she was hiccuping as well as crying. Lisa frowned at Stevie and Carole. “Don’t just stand there! Think of something we can do to calm her down!”

“I know!” Stevie cried. “Let’s show her a video!” She knelt down in front of the TV and rummaged through a stack of videotapes. “Here’s one!” she said. “Cartoons. That should work fine.”

Stevie slid the tape into the VCR, and with Lisa
holding Maxi, they all huddled in front of the TV to watch. Maxi quit crying as a pink elephant waltzed across the screen, but instead of growing sleepy, she started laughing and clapping her hands.

After a few minutes of the elephant’s dance, Stevie looked over at Maxi. The baby’s eyes were clear and bright. “This tape is great for cheering her up,” she said, “but it sure isn’t helping to put her to sleep.”

They were watching another video when the front door opened. Deborah appeared in the living room, little wisps of red hair escaping from the bun at the base of her neck. “Hi, everybody,” she called. “How’s it going?”

The Saddle Club and Maxi rose from in front of the TV.

“Deborah!” Stevie said as Maxi held out her arms to her mother. “We’re so glad you’re back.”

Deborah laughed and grinned at Maxi. “Are you having too much fun to take a nap, sugar?” she asked. She held Maxi close for a moment and smiled at her frazzled-looking baby-sitters. “Why don’t you girls get something to eat? There’s pizza in the freezer. Nuke it in the microwave while I take Maxi to her room and see if I can get her to sleep.”

Deborah whirled Maxi down the hall while The Saddle Club retreated to the kitchen. By the time they had microwaved the pizza, Deborah had returned. “There,” she said as she switched the baby monitor from the
living room to Maxi’s room. “She’s sleeping like the proverbial baby.”

“You’re kidding.” Stevie almost dropped the slice of pizza that was halfway to her mouth.

“No.” Deborah smiled. “She seemed glad to get into her little crib.”

“We tried to get her to sleep,” Lisa explained as Deborah opened a big bottle of soda for everyone, “but nothing seemed to help.”

“Right,” said Carole. “We tried the baby swing, the Beethoven CD, and finally cartoons. We were about to run out of stuff to try.”

“Since they’ve got electronic horse groomers, what they need to invent now is an electronic baby soother,” Stevie said. “Life is tough enough without having to deal with all that crying.”

Deborah shook her head and chuckled.

“What so funny?” cried Stevie. “I think a baby-soothing machine is a great idea!”

“Oh, it is, Stevie.” Deborah nodded. “It just reminded me of the meeting I was in.”

“Oh?” said Carole. “What was your meeting about?”

“About doing an article on the pioneers who crossed the prairies in covered wagons. If you think things are tough without a baby-soothing machine, you should have seen what traveling with a baby was like over a hundred years ago.”

“That’s true, but what’s the big deal?” said Stevie. “I mean, that’s the way people had to live back then. Today we’ve got computers and microwaves and televisions.”

Deborah took some pizza for herself. “Actually, we still do have covered wagons today. I just met with the travel editor of my paper. He wants me to fly out West and go on a wagon train reenactment, then write an article about it.”

“Neat,” said Carole.

Deborah chewed her pizza thoughtfully. “Somebody recommended me, because they figured Max Regnery’s wife must know a lot about horses. On the way home I decided that I should probably turn this assignment down, because my background isn’t in horses, but maybe I was too hasty. After all, it’s not important for me to be savvy about animals and the environment, as long as I’m with someone who is.”

“Yes,” Lisa said. “Max knows a lot about animals.”

Deborah grinned at the girls. “Actually, I wasn’t thinking about Max. He can’t take time away from the stable right now. I was thinking about you guys. How would The Saddle Club like to go West? You know all about horses. It’s a weeklong trip, and the newspaper will pay for a family of four. Maxi’s too young to go, but I’ve got plenty of time to line up a baby-sitter. Sound like anything you’d be interested in?”

“Oh, boy!” cried Stevie. “Would we ever!”

“Count me in,” Carole added with a grin. “I’d love to see if I’m as tough as the old trailblazers.”

“I’d love to go, too,” said Lisa. “But the toughest trail I’ll have to blaze will be convincing my mother to let me be a modern-day pioneer.”

“T
HIS SHOULD BE IT
!” Stevie cried as she lunged across her bed to answer the phone for the fifteenth time that night. After The Saddle Club had left Deborah and Maxi, each girl had scurried home to ask her parents’ permission to go on the wagon train reenactment. There had been flurries of phone calls among Deborah, the Hansons, the Atwoods, and the Lakes. Slowly, the details were explained and the permissions were granted. Carole could go. Stevie could go. But they were still waiting to hear from the last holdout, Mrs. Atwood.

“Oh, please say she said yes,” Stevie said into the phone without bothering to say hello.

“She said yes!” Lisa’s voice came through the receiver. “It took some real convincing, but she finally said okay.”

“All right!” cried Stevie. “Now The Saddle Club can go on the Oregon Trail!”

“Won’t it be fun?” replied Lisa. “I can hardly wait. I’ve got so much to do I’d better get off the phone. It seems like I’ve been talking all night.”

“I know what you mean.” Stevie massaged her left ear. “I’ve got lots to do, too. I’ll call you first thing tomorrow.”

Stevie hung up the phone, tired of talking but glad that both her best friends were going out West with her. It would be their best vacation ever. She leaped off her bed. A trip down the Oregon Trail was something she could really gloat about in front of Chad. She had just opened her bedroom door to go find him when the phone rang again.

“Oh, please!” she said as she leaped onto the bed again. “Hello?” she answered hurriedly.

A husky, nonfemale voice came over the phone. “Hi, Stevie. This is Phil.”

“Oh, hi, Phil,” Stevie replied more softly. “How are you?”

“I’m good. What on earth is going on? Your line’s been busy for hours.”

“Oh, just some Saddle Club plans to work out.”
Stevie twisted the telephone cord around her finger. “What’s up with you?”

“Well, something great just happened. About a month ago my dad made reservations for the whole family to go on a white-water rafting trip down the Colorado River. We were all set to go until yesterday, when my sister got this summer job that she’s been dying to have. Now she wants to stay here with friends and work while we go on our trip. That leaves one space that’s been reserved and will have to be paid for. I was wondering if you’d like to come with us. My mom and dad said it would be okay.”

“That sounds wonderful!” Visions of paddling through rapids of foamy white water flashed through Stevie’s mind. “I’d love to! But I’ll have to ask my parents.”

“I know. Get a pencil and I’ll give you all the details.”

“Okay. Hang on.” Stevie searched frantically around her room for a pencil, finally finding a short, stubby one under her bed. A wadded-up piece of notebook paper was under the bed as well, so she smoothed it out and used it to scribble down Phil’s information.

“This sounds really neat, Phil. I’m so glad you invited me. As soon as I get some kind of semiofficial answer from my parents, I’ll call you back.”

“I sure hope they say yes, Stevie,” Phil said.

“Oh, I do, too. I’ll talk to you soon!”

Stevie hung up the phone and looked at the notes she’d scrawled on the paper. Something seemed vaguely familiar about the dates, but she couldn’t quite place it. Finally it hit her. Phil was going rafting at exactly the same time she had just promised to go on the Oregon Trail!

“Oh no,” she said, her fingers automatically dialing Carole’s number. “This is terrible.”

“You’ll never guess what just happened,” Stevie blurted out as soon as Carole answered the phone.

“Your parents took back their permission for the Oregon Trail because you did something awful to Chad.” Carole had known Stevie to get in trouble like this on more than one occasion.

“No, nothing like that. Phil just called and invited me to go with his family on a white-water rafting trip on exactly the same dates as the wagon train.”

“Oh no!” said Carole. “That’s terrible. Are you positive the dates are the same?”

“Yes,” Stevie replied miserably, studying her scribbled notes. “I’m looking at them right here in black and white. They fly out West on Monday, then start rafting on Tuesday. Just think, Carole, it would be rafting with Phil and camping along the way and having a great time!”

Carole sighed. “That’s a tough call, Stevie. Phil’s trip
sounds wonderful, but don’t forget that you did promise to do the wagon train trip, and Deborah is counting on all three of us.”

“I know,” replied Stevie.

“Plus, the newspaper is paying for the Oregon Trail trip. Wouldn’t your parents have to pay for your part of Phil’s trip?”

“Yes, they would.”

“Well, Stevie, there’s your answer. No parent would pay for an expensive rafting trip when you have another equally fabulous trip waiting for you for free.”

“I hadn’t thought of it that way, but you’re right.” Stevie knew her parents were generous, but she also knew that money was always tight in a family of four children.

“Anyway,” Carole continued, “who says it might not be a good thing for you and Phil to be apart for a while?”

“What do you mean?” asked Stevie.

“You know that old saying ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’? You’ll have plenty to do on the wagon train trip, but if all Phil’s doing is paddling down a river, he might begin to think about you a lot.”

“Think so?” Stevie pictured Phil pulling a paddle through the Colorado River, all the while seeing her face on the sunlit boulders, in the foamy white water, in the blue sky above.

“Yes,” said Carole. “He might come back a totally different person.”

“Well, I don’t know that I want him to be totally different, but a little different might be okay,” Stevie said with a smile. “I think you’re right, Carole. I think it would be crazy for me not to go on a totally free, totally neat trip. Plus it might be the best thing in the world for Phil and me. I’m going to call him back right now and tell him!”

Stevie hung up the phone and dialed Phil’s number. His sister answered; then Phil came on the line.

“Hi, Phil, this is Stevie.”

“Hi, Stevie. Did you ask your parents about the trip?”

“Well, no. Actually, after we hung up I realized that your trip is scheduled at exactly the same time as a trip I promised to go on with The Saddle Club.”

“What kind of trip?”

“It’s a wagon train reenactment along the Oregon Trail. Max’s wife, Deborah, is writing an article about it for the paper, and since Max can’t go and we know all about horses, the paper is paying our way to go along with her.”

“Didn’t you know about this trip when I called before?” Phil sounded annoyed.

“Yes, but I didn’t realize the dates were the same. I’m sorry. I’ve talked to so many people on the phone tonight, I just got mixed up.”

“That’s too bad, Stevie. I was really looking forward to you coming along. Now my little sister will get to invite her best friend, Sarah Groom.”

Stevie frowned. “So what’s wrong with Sarah Groom? She’s a neat little kid.”

“Yeah. Well, she’s a neat little kid who’s got this weird crush on me. Every time I say anything to her she just turns red and starts sighing.”

Stevie laughed. “Gee, Phil, it must be pretty tough to have all these younger women throwing themselves at you.”

“Stevie, you know that’s not what I mean,” Phil said.

“I know. I was just teasing. I really wish I could go on this trip with you, but I promised Deborah that I would go with her first, and a promise is a promise.” Stevie smiled and coiled the telephone cord around her finger again. “Anyway, it might be good for us to take separate vacations.”

“What do you mean?” Phil sounded surprised.

“I mean, you know how sometimes when you’re away from a person you really like, you can begin to see them differently and it makes you realize how much you like them all over again? In fact, it makes you like them even better?”

“Yeah, I suppose,” Phil admitted.

“Well, just think. By the time we both get back from
our vacations, we’ll really have missed each other and we’ll like each other all the more!”

Phil sighed. “I guess you’re right, Stevie. But I still wish you were coming with us instead of Sarah.”

“I do, too, Phil. But think of how great it’ll be when we finally get back together!”

On that they said good-bye; then Stevie immediately dialed Carole and Lisa on three-way calling.

“I solved my Phil problem,” Stevie announced proudly.

“How?” Lisa asked. “Carole just called and told me that he had asked you to go rafting at the same time as our wagon train trip.”