Endurance Ride (12 page)

“So do we get three wishes?” Stevie asked, breaking the emotional atmosphere.

“Three wishes?” Max asked.

“Sure,” said Stevie. “Isn’t that the way it always happens in movies? Three wishes for saving your life?” Carole and Lisa burst out laughing. Chloe looked startled but amused.

“I don’t think so,” Max said. “I think you’ve got me confused with one of those genies living in bottles. I might see my way clear to grant you all one wish, but that’s positively it.”

“A trail ride,” Carole said promptly.

“With a picnic lunch,” Lisa added.

“No,” Stevie said. “I’ve got a better idea. A round of sundaes at TD’s—Chloe included. I promised her we’d take her if we ever finished that ride.”

Chloe grinned. “I’d forgotten about that. I don’t live too far from Willow Creek—my mom goes there to shop sometimes.”

“It’s a deal,” Max said. “The next time you come to town, Chloe, call, and we’ll all go drown ourselves in hot fudge.”

“That would be wonderful,” Lisa said with a sigh. Maxine tugged at her hair, and she gently pulled the baby’s hand away. She felt wonderful. She had to admit that even sitting down on a chair, instead of on a moving horse, was a treat. She had her boots off and her tennis shoes on, her stomach full of pizza, a sweet-smelling baby in her lap, and, best of all, Max wide awake and looking nearly normal.

“You wouldn’t believe how fantastic all the people who were running the ride were to us, Max,” Stevie said. “Right now Belle and Starlight, and all our horses, are resting in nice cozy stalls at the house of one of the stewards—”

“She’s the woman who took us out for pizza—” Lisa explained.

“But not Whitey,” cut in Chloe. “I mean, he didn’t go for pizza, of course, but he’s not at the steward’s, either. He’s in the parking lot.”

“In a horse trailer,” Lisa added quickly.

“Well, of course. He’s waiting for me. With my mom and dad.” She smiled softly at Max. “I probably should go. I promised them I wouldn’t stay long. I just wanted to be sure you were really okay.”

“Yep, I am,” Max said.

“Thanks for being my sponsor. The ride counted, you know,” Chloe continued. She lifted the edge of her sweatshirt to show off her new belt buckle. “See? We made it under the maximum time allowed, by something like three minutes.”

“Good thing you weren’t worried about going fast,” Max said with a wry smile.

Chloe laughed. “Yeah. Well, we were doing pretty well for the first forty-five miles. Walking Barq out took the longest. I don’t care—you know that—but it’s nice to have finished, anyway. So, bye.” She suddenly looked a little shy.

“Call us about that sundae,” Stevie reminded her.

“I will.”

Carole stood up and gave Chloe a quick hug. “Thanks so much for all your help,” she said.

“You’re welcome.” Chloe flushed, looking pleased. Stevie and Lisa gave her quick hugs, too, and then she left, closing the door softly behind her.

“So you really finished, huh?” Max said. “That’s pretty good, considering all the delays.”

The Saddle Club smiled at each other. “The best part was that even Prancer passed the last vet check,” Lisa said. Her voice swelled with pride as she thought of the magnificent mare. “Mrs. Reg, Mr. Baker, Phil, and the Pony Tails took care of her while I went back to you. I don’t know how they got her cooled down so well and so quickly, but they did. She looks fine now, Max. Even Chloe was impressed—she said she was going to have to rethink her opinion of Thoroughbreds. Prancer looks almost as good as Belle and Starlight. And she ran so hard for you.”

Lisa couldn’t help smiling as she said the last few words. Prancer couldn’t have understood that Max was in danger.
She ran so hard because I asked her to
, she thought.
She ran so hard for
me.

“Mr. Baker took the Pony Tails home with him and Phil,” Carole continued. “That was after we went for pizza, which was after, of course, we made sure the horses were comfortable. We’ll go get the horses next and drive home.”

“I know that much,” Max said. “Mom’s going to go with you, and Deborah and the baby are staying here tonight.
One of the nurses said she’d find Deb a cot to sleep on. With any luck, I’ll see you all at Pine Hollow tomorrow afternoon.” He leaned his head back against the pillows, and suddenly he looked very tired. “I keep remembering just one thing. It sounds crazy, but it was something about strings. That rude waitress at TD’s wouldn’t serve them. She asked one if it was a string, but I can’t remember what the string said.…”

Stevie grinned from ear to ear. “You remember the joke, Max, I just never got to the punch line. The string said, ‘No, I’m a frayed knot!’ ”

“Afraid not,” Max mumbled sleepily. “That’s awful.”

Carole shook her head. “Of all the things to remember!”

The door of the room opened, and Deborah and Mrs. Reg came in, Deborah carrying some food on a cafeteria tray. “I couldn’t make her stay downstairs to eat it,” Mrs. Reg said, smiling. “Are you almost ready to go, girls?”

“Sure,” they said. Lisa nestled Maxi into her baby carrier.

“Thanks again,” Deborah said to The Saddle Club.

“One last thing,” Max said as they were leaving. “What happened between you and Chloe? Suddenly you guys all seem to be getting along pretty well.”

“Why wouldn’t we be getting along?” Stevie asked. “You’ve no idea how helpful she was after your accident.
All that stuff she carries with her really came in handy.” Stevie paused, thinking. “I guess she didn’t make the best first impression on me, but first impressions can be awfully deceiving. Chloe’s great.”

“She let Lisa ride Whitey,” Carole added. “She really cared about whether you and Barq were okay. Plus, she knows a ton about horses. We have a lot in common.”

Max grinned. “I’m glad you discovered that. The, um, first part of the ride, it didn’t look like you were going to.”

Lisa remembered that after the second check, she had started to like Chloe, but Carole and Stevie still hadn’t. She remembered how uncomfortable she’d felt. Maybe Max had felt that way the entire ride. She caught his eye and grinned. She didn’t remind her friends that “the first part of the ride” was actually the first forty-five miles or so.

“G
IRLS
! G
IRLS, WAKE UP
!” Stevie felt a light but insistent hand shaking her shoulder. “Stevie!”

“Um.” Stevie opened one eye. “Oh, hi, Mrs. Reg. Are we home?” She had been asleep in the backseat of Max’s truck. Lisa, also asleep, was leaning against her shoulder.

“We’ve got to see to the horses,” Mrs. Reg said.

“Right.” Stevie yawned and stepped outside. She nudged Lisa awake. In the front seat, Carole stretched and yawned. Stevie looked around. Pine Hollow Stables was a lovely, welcome sight; even the outline of the trees against the dark sky was familiar. Stevie knew she wouldn’t get lost on
the trails around here. She shook her head. “What time is it?”

“Nearly midnight,” Mrs. Reg replied. She opened the back door of the horse trailer, and Stevie helped her let down the ramp. Carole and Lisa opened the side doors to untie the horses’ heads.

Stevie shook her head again. “That’s amazing. It’s still the same day.”

“It’s been a long one, hasn’t it?” Mrs. Reg agreed.

T
HEY LED THE
tired horses into their stalls. Red had anticipated their homecoming and had bedded each stall extra thickly with fresh sawdust. Fresh grain, hay, and water were waiting.

While Prancer dove her head into her bucket of grain, Lisa got a curry and a brush and went over her one more time. She could hardly believe how well Prancer looked. The mare seemed a little thinner across the rib cage—horses could lose a lot of weight even in a single day—but she would quickly regain that. Lisa groomed Prancer from the tips of her ears to the end of her tail and didn’t find any cuts or injuries to worry about. She carefully examined Prancer’s feet. The shoe that the ride farrier had nailed back on was holding firm. Lisa dropped the foot with a
sigh. “You beautiful darling,” she said to her favorite horse. “Thank you so much for everything.”

Carole rubbed Starlight’s nose softly. He had had the easiest time of all their horses—he hadn’t gotten lost like Belle, galloped for help like Prancer, or crashed down a mountainside like Barq. Still, Carole thought, laughing gently, he doesn’t have to do any of those things to prove how wonderful he is. Starlight had been great, just as he always was, and Carole was very proud of him.

Stevie leaned her head against Belle’s shoulder and languidly brushed her back. Stevie wondered what Phil was doing—sleeping, if he had any sense. Good thing Teddy was okay. She patted Belle one last time before shutting the stall door.

The Saddle Club met at Barq’s stall, where Mrs. Reg was carefully and tenderly applying a salve to the gelding’s injuries. “Is he okay?” Carole asked.

“He’ll be as good as new,” Mrs. Reg assured her. “I’ll take care of him, girls. I got your sleeping bags out of the truck and put them in the office. Go to sleep now. Good night.”

When they had picked up the horses for the trip home, Mrs. Reg had realized how late they would be getting in. She’d called their parents and said that the girls could sleep at the barn. Lisa was very grateful for this as she trudged up
the stairs to the hayloft, sleeping bag in hand. The sooner she could get to sleep, the better. That little nap in the truck hardly counted.

Carole flicked her sleeping bag open with an expert motion. “This has been the strangest day of my life,” she said. She sat down and took off her shoes, wincing as she did so. The blisters on her calves were unreal.

“The best part—the only important part—is that Max is okay,” Stevie said. She tried to lie stomach-down, but her sunburned cheeks hurt too much when she pressed them against her pillow. She flopped onto her back. Much better.

“And that Barq and our horses are okay,” Carole reminded her.

“And Teddy,” Stevie said, remembering. “Poor Phil.”

“I hate to say this,” Lisa said, “but Phil sort of had it coming. I mean, he wasn’t taking the ride seriously at all.”

“I know,” Stevie said. “But remember what everyone said. Teddy just might not have been a very good horse for endurance riding.”

“Right,” Carole said sleepily. “If Phil had learned more about endurance riding, he might have known that. He could have been extra-careful getting Teddy ready, or he could have borrowed one of Mr. Baker’s school horses for the ride.”

“He’s learned his lesson,” Lisa said. “I’m sure he wishes he learned it another way.”

“Yeah,” Stevie agreed. “He’s learned that Belle is superior to Teddy in every single way.”

Lisa reached above her head, grabbed a handful of loose hay, and whacked Stevie on top of the head with it. “Stop that,” she said. “I hope this ride taught us all a little humility. I mean, when terrible accidents can happen even to Max, you know they can happen to anyone, no matter how good the person is with horses.”

“I know,” Stevie said, grinning abashedly. “And Carole, I’ve got to tell you, I was so impressed with the way you took care of Max today. You really kept your head, and you remembered what to do far better than I would have.”

Carole shuddered. “I felt so
panicked
,” she said. “I just knew that panic wasn’t going to help Max. I was thinking that you did a great job of getting Barq back onto the trail,” she added.

“And then there’s Lisa,” Stevie said. “That last part of the trail was
hard
. After we’d finished the ride, I couldn’t believe you’d gotten help so fast. You really did a great job.”

“Not me,” Lisa said sleepily. “Prancer.” Downstairs, Mrs. Reg clicked off the stable lights. The glow from the
stairwell vanished, and the loft went dark. Outside the open window, a crescent moon shone.

“Remember the first show you went to, with Prancer?” Stevie asked.

“Be quiet,” Lisa replied. The show had been a disaster. Prancer had kicked a judge and had been disqualified from competing.

“I’m only bringing it up to remind you how far you’ve come. You and Prancer both.”

“And then there’s Chloe,” Carole said with a laugh. “I was thinking about her on the way home, before I fell asleep, and I don’t think I liked her until after Max was hurt. Before that, all her helpfulness just seemed like showing off. Afterward, whether or not she was showing off didn’t matter. We just needed her help.”

“Think about all the ways she was helpful,” Lisa said, agreeing. “The water, the sunscreen, the bug spray, Prancer’s shoe—everything.”

“Think about how annoying she was,” Stevie countered. “She was always giving us advice. We’re not total riding novices. We know a lot about horses.”

There was a moment of quiet while each girl thought. “We must have looked like total novices to
her
,” Lisa said at last. “Just the way she looked like a total space alien to
us. It wasn’t her fault. She was trying to be helpful. And I think none of us wanted to admit how little we really knew about endurance riding. Chloe knew a
lot
more than us.”

“I disagree,” Carole said. “I don’t think we didn’t want to admit how little we knew. I think we had no idea how little we knew. We thought since we’d trained hard, we had endurance riding all figured out, but we didn’t have the first clue how hard that ride was going to be.”