The Shade Riders and the Dreadful Ghosts (18 page)

The woods would have been ablaze if it
weren't for the bubble guns. Leandra was doing some damage to Ned
too, as she stayed just inside the forest. His motorcycle kept
getting hit. He stamped around, threw his arms about, and screamed.
“Hey, damn it, it’s brand new.”

Then Nova’s watch buzzed. “Nova, this is
Leandra. I’m pretty sure that motorcycle is going to explode, so
take cover.”

“Right.”

Nova used her Walkie Talkie to call the boys
to get ready.

Suddenly, Ned’s hand climbed high into the
air. Nova thought his bandage flew off, but it happened so fast she
couldn’t tell. Ned grabbed his hand and winced as a burst of light
slammed out of his finger and flew into the sky. He brought his
hand down, and his finger bled freely.

Ned's monster body beneath his tattered
clothes had finally begun to shrink again. He was a dark gray color
from all the burns on his body. He had enough. He stomped, kicked
the gravel, and threw a fist in the air with a final rude gesture
to everyone. And finally, he took off down Leandra's driveway on
his badly charred bike with two flat tires. The Shade Riders
cheered. Leandra panted and grinned. "Okay, that concludes today’s
lesson. And I think you all earned A’s.

It was late afternoon
after dinner. Nova was in the hay fort alone, holding the watch to
her face. "Leandra, are you there? Leandra come in.”

“Arvo, mate. What’s up?”

“May I come to your house again today and age
Shade so we can work together?"

"Sure. I'm not going to be there, so be
careful. Ned might stop by again.”

“Thanks,… um, mate.” Nova watched as Leandra
winked at her

she thought it was a wink- and blinked out.
Nova crawled out of the hay fort and ran to get her horse with a
bucket of sweet feed.

When she brought Shade to the hitching post
and tied her

up, she realized she was going to have to
carry the saddle and bridle too. But then, it only took a moment to
come up with a solution. Shade skittered aside as Nova tried to
throw the saddle and blanket onto the small filly’s back. She was
successful and tightened the cinch around the horse’s ribs to hold
the saddle on. Shade tried to pull back from the tightening of the
cinch by jerking on the hitching post. Then she settled down when
Nova gave her some grain.

She heard the door creak open on the house.
Wilha poked her head out, then began to laugh. “Why don’t you try
that saddle on Belle while you’re at it?”

Nova stuck her tongue out and started walking
Shade up the driveway.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going over to Leandra’s house to work on
Shade.”

“Well, she’s not big enough to take a saddle
or bridle.”

“It’s just the weight I’m concerned with
right now.”

“Whatever.” Wilha stuck her head back inside
and closed the door. Nova raced over to Leandra's house with Shade
and sauntered her filly down the ley line path to make her bigger.
She loosened up the cinch just enough for growth. Nova climbed on
her back and let her walk around the yard, careful not to let her
in Leandra’s garden. Shade was a fast learner. She accepted the
western saddle with Nova’s weight and the bridle in no time. Nova
had packed a lunch sharing an apple core with Shade. She rode
around in the yard and the recently harvested cornfield nearby
until it was dusk. Shade began to shrink in size. Nova quickly
jumped off her back and took her up the trail again then back down
it just before she spouted her wings. At the very end of the trail,
Nova jumped back when her wings sprouted out of her body. Suddenly,
Shade ran down the long driveway with Nova running alongside. She
took off into the night sky. Nova clung on and pulled herself up
into the saddle.

It was October. The air above the trees felt
chilly, and Nova thought she could see her breath. The wind whipped
by and billowed out her clothing and hair. She watched leaves
blowing around on the ground and noticed some people had already
put out Halloween decorations.

She’d always thought that riding a flying
horse would be exhilarating, like a dream. But Shade’s back was
surging in strange ways as she flapped, and it was a long way to
the ground. The constant sound of the wings beating gave her a
small amount of comfort. The muscles around the wings where she had
her legs wrapped around rubbed roughly behind her knees. Nova found
she was hanging on to the saddle horn for dear life.

They flew over buildings, farms, and
telephone poles with no problems. Shade seemed to know what she was
doing.

Slowly, Nova got used to the way her horse
was moving, and she found that, if she concentrated on Shade’s ears
in the moonlight, she was less afraid of falling. It began to feel
like fun. She thought of spurring Shade to go faster, but she
didn’t think Shade was ready.

Presently, Nova looked at her watch. She had
been up in the sky for two hours. It was time to get off before
they crashed to the ground.

By this time, Nova hated to stop. It was too
much fun. But she pressed down on the top of Shade's neck to see if
she would go down and land. At first Shade pushed her head and neck
up so she wouldn’t have to go down. “I know you love to fly, but we
need to go down before you fall.” Nova became persistent and
continued to press down. Shade began to glide down. Just before her
hooves touched the ground, Nova stopped applying pressure, and she
surged back into the sky.

Finally, Nova held the pressure on her neck
until Shade obeyed and landed in a neighbor’s cornfield. Nova
breathed a sigh of relief and gave her horse a big hug. Then she
began walking her back home. Shade grew smaller as they ambled.
When they got back to the barn, Nova took the saddle and bridle off
and put them into the tack room. Then she brushed her horse down
and gave her grain. She was going to let Shade loose to go to the
other horses when something cold poked her in the back. It was a
handgun.

"Give me your horse, man," a lady said.

The first thing Nova thought was, couldn’t
anyone see she was a female? Nova slowly turned around. One of
Takeesha’s street friends was holding the small handgun. Takeesha
was standing behind her smiling. Nova didn't know what to say, or
do, so she looked at her horse and thought about the memories she
had with Shade. Then she looked at the gun-carrying street woman.
The street lady froze. Simply stopped moving, didn’t even blink.
Takeesha ran up to her friend and waved a hand in front of her
friend’s open eyes. Takeesha even stomped on her friend’s foot.

"Dang! What have you done?" Takeesha
yelled.

"I don't know, looks like I froze her." Nova
stared as she padded around the street woman.

"Unfreeze her, now."

Nova folded her arms in front of her chest.
“Why? So the two of you can steal my horse?”

"We can't just leave her here." Takeesha
pleaded, wringing her hands.

Nova pushed a button on her watch and brought
it up to her lips. "Leandra come in; I froze a street lady, who was
trying to take Shade by gunpoint."

"Where are you?"

"Home. Outside, just beyond the barn."

"I'll be right there."

Suddenly there was a bright green light, and
Leandra appeared with three other people. She ran over to Nova and
looked over the street woman.

"You did this, Nova?"

"Yeah. Is she going to be all right?"

"Oh, yeah, she'll be fine. It's just I
underestimated your powers.”

At that, Leandra motioned for one of the
three others to

come over. As he lumbered out of the shadow
of the barn, it was clear he was a Neanderthal. Big, shaggy and
hulking, with a sloping brow. But his eyes were oddly gentle. He
threw the frozen lady over his shoulder and ambled back to the area
where the flash of light happened. The green light flickered again,
and they were gone.

Nova saw circles in her eyes for a brief
minute.

"Leandra, may I talk to you in private?" Nova
said, “and Takeesha don't go anywhere. I need to talk to you
too."

Takeesha kicked the ground."I can't leave
anyway. You just made my ride disappear. I have to use your phone
now to call my ma."

Nova and Leandra lead Shade down to the catch
pen gate.

“Leandra, I don't know what to do with
Takeesha. I thought she could keep a secret, but she obviously
can't." Nova opened the gate and let Shade go.

"The only thing for you to do is talk to
her.” Leandra patted Shade on her rump to encourage her to go into
the catch pen. “Maybe the problem is something you can work
out.”

"Are you sure I shouldn't freeze her too?”
Nova said and laughed.

"I suspect she will look up to you now and
want to be a better friend."

"Don't you mean you think she will fear me
now?" Nova watched Shade roll in the dirt, get up and shake. She
neighed, and ran to the other horses. “It’s not friendship if they
are afraid.”

"No, she'll still be your friend." Leandra
put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

“Ralf, your father, is going to try to get
rid of the controlling ghost in his body using some calcium tablets
Captain Palherd- he’s helping me, too- secretly gave him.”

“I hope they work. Are we going to rescue
him?”

“Not yet. You’re not ready with the
cart.”

“The cart?”

“Ask Benny.”

“Um… all right. But as soon as we are, I say
we go.”

They strolled back up to where Takeesha was
waiting.

"Hello, Takeesha,” Nova said. “Long time no
see.”

Takeesha didn't say anything at first. She
just watched her feet kick the driveway gravel. "Can I call my ma
now?"

"Okay, but first I want to talk to you about
hanging around those gun-carrying street kids."

"I'll leave you two to hash things out." With
that Leandra strolled over to where the green light flashed, and
she and the light were gone.

"I guess if you blink you miss her," Nova
said.

"Yeah," Takeesha said, lighting up a bit.

"Takeesha, look, you're either part of this
group or you're not. I’m going to give you another chance to be my
friend."

"O…kay. Okay. What do you want me to do?"
Takeesha was not able to meet Nova’s eyes.

“The Shade Riders need your skills.” Nova put
a hand on Takeesha’s left shoulder.

“For starters, we need a person to sew the
letters TSR on a T-shirt and sweatshirt for our group. Are you
ready to become one of us now?”

“I don’t know. The Hooligans- that’s what
they call themselves- won’t let me leave their gang. They’ve
threatened to kill me if I do, you know. I only wanted to be a part
of a gang that would go after the gang that killed my father in
Milwaukee, but they don’t want to tick them off. They said he was
killed accidently. Now, I don’t want to be a part of that
gang.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure we can think of
something.” Nova put her arm around her shoulder, and they strode
into the house to discuss it.

Late the following afternoon, Benny and Max
Kim came over, bringing a red, two-wheel horse cart that they
recently purchased from an estate auction. Benny’s mom and her van
with her four-wheeled trailer drove up the driveway and away.

The two boys stayed behind and sawed off the
left seat of the cart so that Benny’s wheelchair could be clamped
on. Benny’s wheelchair wheels would be used for landing on that
side, giving the cart a total of five wheels. Once landed, Benny
could disengage his wheelchair from the cart and roam away to
wherever the adventure was.

Nova and Takeesha came out of the house and
examined the blueprints-- they were designing it without the help
of an engineer and wanted to make sure they hadn’t missed anything.
The cart would have to go through many tests to see if it could
withstand a beating, and it must not come apart.

“How’s it going?” Nova said.

“If this doesn’t work, its eight hundred
bucks down the drain.” Benny threw a monkey wrench into the tool
box making a clanging sound. Max Kim stopped sawing to wipe sweat
from his brow and grinned up at the girls.

Nova and Takeesha skip into the milk house
with the yipping puppies for a bucket of some sweet, delicious
feed. Then they strolled out the gate to the catch pen and shook
the bucket for the horses to hear. Meanwhile, Nova whistled to get
Shade to come. None of the horses appeared. Nova couldn’t
understand that- they almost always come to the bucket.

With Belle bounding along beside them, they
skip back into the far pasture, keeping in the woody area next to
the tractor trail. Nova glanced up the big grassy hill to her
right. No horses in sight. Next, they came to some pastures on the
left, but Belle didn’t show an interest.

They kept shaking the bucket and once and a
while whistling. Belle’s ears rotated around listening to every
sound. Finally, the dog led them to the other side of the creek. As
they hopped across the stepping stones, they heard the eager filly
neigh and mumble as she trotted closer and munched on the handout.
Takeesha and Nova laughed. “This is too easy,” Takeesha said. The
young women grabbed Shade’s red halter and took her back to the
house.

As they meandered, Shade kept forcing the
bucket of grain to the ground. Nova had a hard time keeping it up.
Takeesha laughed at the silly horse.

“How are you feeling, Takeesha?”

“I’m pretty nervous. How are you doing?”

“I’m not sure.” Nova gave a small grin. When
they finally came to the barn, Shade had finished the grain. Nova
put the bucket away.

The girls kicked up gravel struggling with an
eager Shade as they left the driveway and headed toward Barnacle
Road. Nova played the scene with the gangsters in her head as they
walked and hoped she wasn’t wrong with the plan. Soon they were at
Leandra’s house. It was dark. They found the path and walk down it
to make Shade fill out into a mare. Shade danced around and pulled
and pushed with her head, stepped on Nova’s foot and pranced some
more.