Starlight Christmas (6 page)

Carole made a note to herself that whenever she was in doubt, she’d call the vet. Then she realized that she was already doing that. After all, when Snowball had showed the slightest sign of being ill, she had called Judy. Snowball wasn’t as valuable as a show horse, but what a pet cost often didn’t have anything to do with how valuable it was to the owner. Snowball was very valuable to Carole.

The rest of the afternoon sped by. Carole could hardly believe the variety of illnesses and problems that Judy had to cope with. Would she ever learn to remember the difference in symptoms among all the kinds of lamenesses a horse could have? Any loving owner should have a good idea of these things, even without four years at veterinary school.

There were so many other things a vet had to know, too. When was it appropriate to increase a horse’s hay,
increase his water, change his grain, eliminate his sweets, decrease his mash, throw out the mash altogether? It seemed to Carole that about a thousand facts and ten thousand questions were whirling around in her head—and all that whirling was exhausting!

“Ready to quit for the day?” Judy asked.

“Oh, no, I could go on for hours!” Carole exclaimed. “Who is our next patient?”

“I think
you
are!” Judy teased. “And my prescription is a good night’s rest!”

Carole was sorry the day was over, but a little relieved, too. Judy was right; she
was
tired. “Okay, Doc,” Carole said. “But I’m going to get that rest at Stevie’s house. We’re having a sleepover. Can you drop me off there?”

“Sure thing,” Judy said. Carole slumped down in the comfortable seat and never even noticed her eyelids drooping closed. She was asleep before she knew it.

W
HILE
C
AROLE WAS
napping in the pickup truck, Stevie and Lisa were busy in Stevie’s kitchen, which was noisy, as usual. Lisa was greasing the baking dish while Stevie counted out forty marshmallows. It wasn’t easy to count forty marshmallows, either, because her little brother kept snitching them from the pan. Stevie threw one at him in exasperation. Michael caught it in his mouth.

“Hey, neat!” he said. “Do that again!”

Stevie opened the door to the dining room and threw a marshmallow as far as she could, through the dining room and across the family room. When he left the kitchen to track it down, she slammed the door behind him and secured it with the bolt lock.

“Alone at last!” Stevie heaved a sigh of relief and returned to her counting.

“I made the calls,” Lisa told her. “It’s all set now. I’m just waiting to hear from Colonel Hanson. He might call us here tonight to let us know.” She measured the Rice Krispies and set them aside to wait while Stevie melted the forty marshmallows in a saucepan. Stevie stirred the marshmallow goo carefully and tried to concentrate on what she was doing. It wasn’t easy, with all the racket going on on the other side of the kitchen door. First, Michael banged loudly, then he shouted. Then he yelled for Stevie’s mother to come to his rescue. Then he yelled at Stevie’s mother when she refused to help.

“Brothers!” Stevie said as she and Lisa mixed the marshmallows and cereal in a bowl. Lisa nodded. She knew just what Stevie meant, and even if she hadn’t known from her own experience, Michael was providing an excellent example of what could only be called typical brother behavior.

They were interrupted by knocking at the back door.

“It’s Carole,” Stevie guessed as Lisa dashed to answer it.

Carole walked into the kitchen, sniffing appreciatively. “What smells so good?” she asked.

“Rice Krispies Treats,” Lisa told her.

Carole grinned. “Will there be any left if your brothers find out about them?” she asked Stevie.

“Absolutely not,” Stevie replied. “Which is why we are going to guard them with our lives. They can make their own!” She completed shaping the batter in the
dish. “The only trick is, how are we going to get them upstairs?”

It took the girls only a few minutes to figure out a way. They took all of Carole’s clothes out of her bag and hid the dish there. They left the clothes in the kitchen for the time being, since Carole didn’t need them yet.

“Great!” Stevie said. “We get the Rice Krispies Treats upstairs disguised as tomorrow’s clothes! We are
so
clever!”

Stevie unlocked the kitchen door while Carole held her bag as nonchalantly as she could manage. Michael, Alex, and Chad burst into the kitchen as soon as the lock was undone. The girls scurried up the stairs. They weren’t going to be able to fool Stevie’s brothers for long, but they were able to fool them long enough to get to Stevie’s room and slam the door.

“Whew!” Stevie said, collapsing on her bed. “Now I know what it means to run a gauntlet!”

The girls took off their shoes and got comfortable. It was time to talk. It was time for a Saddle Club meeting.

“I had the most wonderful day!” Carole said. “You won’t believe all the things I saw and did. I got to hold horses and help while Judy examined them, and you should have seen me at the first horse we examined.”

“Don’t you love the ‘we’?” Stevie teased. “She left us this morning just an ordinary horse crazy girl and came back to us this afternoon a veterinarian!”

Carole smiled. She didn’t mind the teasing. After all,
she
had
helped with the examination. She began to tell her friends all the highlights of the day.

“… and then, there was this foal we looked at,” Carole said. “He was so cute you couldn’t believe it. He is only three days old and he’s prancing around the foaling box, swishing his tail. It’s only about six inches long. His mother never lets him out of her sight. She’s the most attentive mother I ever saw. Anyway, Judy wasn’t there when he was born, so this was the first time she was seeing him. She had to examine him and give him some shots. He didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he didn’t seem to notice as long as he was nursing. The tricky part was keeping his mother from being overprotective. I got to pat her. She didn’t pay much attention to me. She was much more concerned with what Judy was doing to her baby.” Carole was about to explain exactly what inoculations Judy had given the foal, and why, when the phone on Stevie’s bedside table rang. Stevie picked it up.

“It’s for you,” she told Lisa.

Lisa took the phone from her and said, “Hello?” Although Lisa lived down the block from Stevie, and although she was very sensible—in many ways much more sensible than either Stevie or Carole—Lisa’s mother was always calling her wherever she was for one reason or another. Carole suspected this was one of those calls.

“Do you think Mrs. Atwood wants her to remember her vitamins this time?” Carole whispered to Stevie. “Or maybe remind her to floss?” She laughed at her own joke
and was a little surprised when Stevie looked puzzled. “That is Lisa’s mother calling, isn’t it?” Carole asked.

“Huh? Oh,
yes
,” Stevie said in a way that sounded a little strange. “Probably wants to tell her about bedtime or something like that,” Stevie joked.

“Uh-hmmm, yeah, um-hmmmm, right. Uh, pretty, right, yes. That’s it. I think so … sometime next week, okay? Sure, Wednesday afternoon is fine, Colonel, of course. Bye for now.”

Stevie glared at Lisa as she hung up the phone. Lisa instantly realized her mistake. The caller wasn’t Lisa’s mother at all, but Carole’s father. Lisa had slipped badly by calling him Colonel.
How are we going to cover that?
Stevie wondered.

“You call your mother
Colonel?
” Carole asked, now definitely suspicious.

“Oh, not my mother,” Lisa said quickly.

“Stevie said it was your mother who called. What’s going on here?” Carole wanted to know.

“Oh, of course it was my mother who called,” Lisa said, trying to sound as logical as possible. “But she called me because there was this Salvation Army colonel at our house and she wanted me to talk to him. I’m going to be doing some volunteer work for them over vacation, so we had to make arrangements. It’s this new thing she’s gotten me into. I’ll tell you about it some other time. It’s pretty boring, though. So why don’t you tell us more about the foal?”

“Oh, right, the foal,” Carole said, trying to remember where she had left off. “So, anyway, there I am, holding the mother, who wasn’t paying any attention to me, when the owner asked Judy if it would be all right to let the two of them out into a little paddock right off the foaling box. Judy said sure, as soon as she was finished. We got to wait and watch. The owner opened the door up and the mare led the way. That three-day-old just gaped at the open door at first. It was like he couldn’t have imagined something so wonderful and so frightening. He sniffed and cocked his head to listen. He took a couple of steps toward the light. I think he would have stood and looked forever if it hadn’t been for his mother. She stepped into the warm sunshine outside and then began calling to him. He took slow, careful steps, sniffing, looking, and listening every step of the way. Then, of course, once he got outside, he was at home. After fifteen minutes, when it was time to bring them back in, he started acting like he’d found his new home and he didn’t want all that indoor stuff! His mother was ready to go back in, though. She gave him a piece of her mind and a nudge with her nose. He got back into the foaling box, took a sip or two or milk from her, and then practically collapsed to take his nap. He was so cute. He was almost snoring!”

Listening to Carole was almost like being there, Lisa thought. She could see the newborn trying out his independence
for the first time. She could even understand how he felt.

“It’s a little bit like the first day of school, isn’t it?” Lisa mused. “Going off on the school bus by yourself, just terrified. Then, by the time the second day of school comes around, you’re a pro at it. You wave good-bye to your mother and that’s that.”

“That’s just what it was like,” Carole agreed. “For one second, he’s too scared to move. Then, the next minute, he knows all the ropes!”

Stevie cut up the Rice Krispies Treats, now cool enough to eat, and passed them around to her friends. “Lisa and I had an eventful day, too,” she said. “After you left, we managed to overhear a very interesting conversation Veronica diAngelo had with Diana and Elaine.”

“Veronica actually said something interesting?” Carole asked.

“Very interesting,” Lisa assured her. She and Stevie filled Carole in on the events planned in their honor for the Starlight Ride.

“Why, of all the …!” Carole sputtered. “I can’t believe … How could she even dare …?”

“Don’t worry,” Lisa said. “Stevie’s got a plan that will get her but good.”

“You do?” Carole asked.

“Not quite. But I will,” Stevie said firmly. “Trust me.”

There were things Lisa and Carole knew they could trust Stevie to do. Getting back at Veronica was one of them.

The phone rang again. This time it was Phil calling Stevie. Carole and Lisa knew it immediately by the sweet tone of Stevie’s voice.

Stevie was glad he called. She’d been anxious to tell him what Max had said about having guests along on the Starlight Ride. She told him he was invited—without mentioning that she’d left almost everybody there with the impression that her friends were girls, not boys. Phil and A.J. had their own horses and would bring them to Pine Hollow in the same van that Phil had used to bring his horse to Moose Hill.

“Oh, great!” Stevie said happily. “Then I don’t have to wait until New Year’s Eve to see you. I’ll see you next week on Saturday!”

“You’ll see me before that if I have anything to say about it,” Phil declared. “Tuesday is the first night of Hanukkah. My parents said I could invite some friends over. Would you and Lisa and Carole like to come?”

“I’d love to,” Stevie said. “But let me check with the others. Lisa and Carole are right here.” She put her hand on the phone and told her friends about the invitation.

“No problem,” Lisa said. “As long as my mother—”

“I know,” Stevie said. “I’ll tell him yes. You handle your mother. Carole?”

Carole shook her head. “Can’t do it,” she said. “It’s
the night that Judy has her small-animal clinic open and I promised I’d help her out. Maybe next year.”

“You get two yeses,” Stevie told Phil. “Lisa and I will be there. Carole can’t come. She’s working with our vet that day. Wait until you hear her stories!”

Carole was sorry to be missing the party at Phil’s. She liked Phil and she thought it would be fun. Still, she wouldn’t trade anything for the time she was spending with Judy.

Stevie finished her phone call and then got an okay from her parents about going to Phil’s, bringing Carole’s clothes up from the kitchen with her. Lisa would have liked to have checked with her parents as well, but she was afraid the phone conversation might remind Carole about her earlier conversation with her “mother” and the “Salvation Army colonel.” The sooner Carole forgot about that, the better.

The girls finished the last of their Rice Krispies Treats and put on their pajamas. They weren’t ready to sleep yet, but it was time to get comfortable.

Stevie’s room was set up with two twin beds and a futon for the third sleepover guest. The girls drew straws. Carole won the futon and she was glad about it. She snuggled down into the covers and looked up at the ceiling.