Water Lily (9 page)

“We'll let you know,” Megan promised.

“Just show up,” Cricket said.

At that moment, Aunty Cathy came down the aisle and joined them.

“Did I see Cade's mom working at the front counter?” she asked Cricket.

“Yep. We put a ‘help wanted' sign in the window yesterday, and I hired her this morning,” Cricket confirmed.

Darby looked at Megan. Dee sure hadn't wasted any time in getting a job.

“What?” Cricket asked.

Darby knew Cricket had noticed their shocked expressions. Still, she said, “Nothing.”

Telling Megan about Cade's deal with his mother was one thing, but Darby prided herself on not being a gossip. It would be wrong to tell Cade's business, or to prejudice Cricket against Dee.

Besides, Cricket knew all about Manny. She'd been there when he was arrested. Kit had even hinted that Cricket was the one who'd called Mr. Nomi and made sure he was there to slap handcuffs on Manny as soon as it was safe to drive down the hill that ended at his taro patch.

So, Cricket knew Dee's background.

Darby heard a slapping sound and saw Megan plucking at the blue plastic twine around a bale of hay.

Megan looked confused. She liked Cade. She didn't want to spread rumors about his mother, either. But just then, she gave the twine an extra hard twang, as if she'd made a decision.

“Did you notice if she was smoking?” Megan asked her mother, but it was Cricket who gasped.

“She'd better not be. We've got a warehouse full of hay and other flammable stuff.” Cricket hustled off
to the front of the store. “I'd better let her know that there's absolutely no smoking allowed. See you later, yeah?”

“Listen, girls,” Aunty Cathy said. “If we're going to stop by school, let's get going. It's about to rain again.” She nodded toward the front of the store. “I found a parking place on the street.”

“Bye, Cricket,” Darby said as the young woman walked back over to them.

Cricket made an “okay” sign with her fingers.

“Thanks for the heads-up on the cigarettes,” she said quietly. Her eyes took in all three of them as she rewound her black hair and skewered it with a pencil. “And, Cathy, please tell them
yes
when they ask to work at the barn with me, yeah?”

They hurried up to the front door of the store.

Feeling guilty because Dee had to know they'd told Cricket about her smoking habit, Darby tried not to make eye contact with Dee at the cash register.

Darby thought she'd made it. Then, as she neared the door, Dee called to her—loudly.

“H
ey there, Miss Horse Charmer Junior!” Dee's voice sounded cheerful, and no one could have missed hearing it.

“I think that's for you,” Megan said.

Darby's cheeks burned as two men looking at the silver-mounted headstalls turned to stare.

Since she couldn't ignore Cade's mother, Darby forced a smile before she even turned around. And she was glad she had.

Dee beamed proudly. She held out her arms as if she'd conquered this piece of Hawaii.

“Tell Cade to come see me at my new job!”

“I will,” Darby promised.

“One down and two to go!” Dee crowed. Then
she punched a button on the cash register and when it beeped, she added, “Cha-ching!”

 

Megan must have told her mother the details of Cade's bargain with Dee, too, because even when they were back in the Land Rover, Aunty Cathy didn't ask what the woman was talking about.

With no pleading whatsoever, she drove toward Lehua High School, parked, and pulled a magazine out of the glove compartment.

“Thanks, Aunty Cathy,” Darby said. “We won't be long.”

“No more than twenty minutes,” Aunty Cathy cautioned as they climbed out of the car.

“Yes, Mom.” Megan drew out the words to sound long-suffering and pitiful.

“And girls?” Aunty Cathy inquired with such scary slowness, they both froze. “When you get back, we'll be having a talk about why Darby is on detention.”

 

They ran most of the way to the football field only to see the wild herd had been moved to the
baseball
field.

The Cyclone fences formed a corral for Black Lava's herd, but they must be grazing behind the bleachers, because Darby didn't see them.

The humid air crowded into her lungs, and she slowed to a jog when she saw Mr. Klaus standing at the gate with his arms crossed. He made a megaphone of his hands and shouted, “Sorry, girls! No one's allowed
near the wild horses.”

Megan rolled her eyes and slowed to a walk.

“He likes Black Lava,” Darby reminded them both.

“He's just not a people person.” Megan tried to sound sympathetic, but when she repeated Cricket's assessment of Mr. Klaus, she couldn't contain a giggle.

Darby walked with her hands on her hips, still trying to catch her breath.

“What do you think the chances are that he'll let me go on the horse drive, if I'm nice to him?”

“Zero,” Megan said, “and even if he does, Kit won't, and even if Kit does, Jonah won't, and—”

By then, Darby had a deep-enough breath for a loud sigh.

“Sorry, sis,” Megan told Darby as she hugged her shoulders, “but my mom's already passed out a bunch of rules about me going.”

Darby's hands slipped off her hips. She surrendered to reality, but she didn't like it.

“I can't ride Tango, for instance,” Megan said. “She wants me to ride Navigator, since, you know.”

Which meant that even if Jonah lost his mind and forgot his promises to her mother, Aunty Cathy would take a stand to keep her from going.

“So, if it's hopeless, why should I be nice to him?” Darby grumbled when they'd nearly reached Mr. Klaus.

“Because you're a lovely young lady?” Megan wid
ened her eyes dramatically, and Darby was about to give her a shove when she noticed Mr. Klaus was very nearly
smiling
at them.

Until he realized who they were.

“I should've guessed,” he said.

“Hi, Mr. Klaus,” Megan said.

“Hi,” Darby echoed.

If she was going to apologize for yesterday's behavior, now was the time. But what if he got the wrong idea about the helicopters? She'd back down from being a brat but not from protecting the horses.

He was already watching her suspiciously.

“Cricket told us you were keeping watch over the horses,” Darby said, “and we wanted to see if we could help out.”

He must have realized it was true, because he uncrossed his arms, opened the gate, and let them join him inside the fenced field.

“They're over behind the bleachers, taking shelter from that wind,” he said.

The wind wasn't cold, but it smelled stormy, Darby thought. Along with Mr. Klaus and Megan, she glanced up at a sky that had turned from morning's bright blue to the sullen color of a bruise.

“More rain's coming,” Mr. Klaus observed. “And the horses need it, but the troughs I ordered from Honolulu aren't here yet, and we'll be moving the horses out tomorrow.” He looked at Darby. When she stayed still and silent, he went on, “Until then, we've
just got those plastic buckets and they're drinking from water in the low places—over there by home plate, especially,” he said, pointing. “I wish the school—”

“Oh! I've got it!” Megan yelled. “Ever since Cricket mentioned they were out of troughs, I've been seeing this weird picture in my head, but now I know what it is! The bathtubs. They'll be perfect!”

“Excuse me?” Mr. Klaus looked confused.

“Last year our school had bathtub races in the ocean. Each class had a team—you know, the freshmen, the sophomores—and we all had to make our own tubs,” Megan said.

“How do you do that?” Darby asked.

“They weren't real bathtubs,” Megan explained. “More like little boats that
looked
like bathtubs, but they had to be able to float and hold a crew of at least four. Every year local companies compete down at Hapuna harbor, but this was our school version of it.”

“And they're kept—?”

“In the old ball shed,” Megan said. “The new shed, where we keep soccer balls and cones and stuff like that, is locked, but the old one isn't.”

 

The colorful tub boats were unwieldy, but not too heavy, and they got them out just as it began to rain.

“The horses probably wouldn't come near this one,” Megan said, yanking at a tub painted with colorful scales. A plywood dragon's head was attached to the front.

As soon as it was fully out of the shed, a command
ing neigh blasted from behind the bleachers.

Neck arched, the black stallion emerged snorting, ready for battle.

“I don't think he likes the look of it,” Darby said. “Should we leave it inside the shed?”

“I guess,” Megan said.

Even as they pushed it back inside the shed, Black Lava stood watch.

Soon the field boasted four tubs collecting rainwater.

Darby heard Aunty Cathy honk the Land Rover's horn.

“We've got to go,” Megan apologized.

“This is wonderful,” Mr. Klaus said, rain dripping off his nose as he walked the girls back to the gate. “Thank you, ladies, so much. Would you like to come into the school and dry off?”

“No thanks,” Megan declined. “My mom's waiting for us.”

“Well, thank you once again,” Mr. Klaus said.

Darby found herself waiting for him to say something like “I'm sorry for having misjudged you,” or “You are the two most capable young people I've ever met,” but it didn't happen.

While Darby was waiting for Megan to climb into the Land Rover ahead of her, she glanced back at the field.

Black Lava strode around the old ball shed, stopping every few steps to sniff for trouble.

A guy can't be too careful,
Darby thought, and the stallion's vigilance made her feel a little better about his upcoming move to Sky Mountain.

“Sorry to interrupt your good deed,” Aunty Cathy said as they fastened their seat belts for the trip home. She gestured with her cell phone. “Jonah called, and Kimo came back to work before he should have, and he says Tutu's coming to the ranch, but he'd like me to see what I can do for Kimo in the meantime. It doesn't sound like an emergency, but I guess Kimo refuses to stay in the bunkhouse to rest, so we get to be his jailers.”

 

As soon as they pulled up in front of Sun House, they saw a familiar, sturdily built figure walking toward them from the direction of the bunkhouse.

“Jonah was right.” Aunty Cathy shook her head as she parked the car and pulled on the emergency brake.

“Kimo!” Darby cried, nearly jumping out of the car. “How are you feeling?”

“Better,” Kimo said, but there was a wash of paleness over his tanned face and his eyes looked tired. “I'm on my way out to Pearl Pasture, but I just needed to sit a minute.”

There was no horse saddled and waiting for him by the tack shed, but Darby didn't offer to catch one. Kimo didn't look healthy enough to be out of bed, let alone riding and working in the rain.

“Tutu was at my place,” Kimo said, “and I tried to
give her a lift over here, but someone told her about some sick horse, and she's out looking for it on Prettypaint. Lady doesn't know when to slow down.”

Megan cleared her throat loudly.

“You don't be givin' me the stink eye, Mekana. I'm good to ride. Biscuit is tied over on the other side of the bunkhouse, waiting for me.”

“Okay.” Megan sounded dubious, and when Kimo turned too quickly and put his hand to his head as if the movement had made him dizzy, Aunty Cathy reached for his arm.

“Cathy, now you get back.” Kimo waved her off. Then he headed toward the tack shed.

“That's one stubborn cowboy,” Megan drawled.

“Ridiculous,” Aunty Cathy said to the girls. “I'm going to ride with him. I'm sure there'll be something for me to do and at least if he falls off, I'll be there to catch Biscuit.”

“Want us to do something while you're gone, Mom?”

“Stay here,” Aunty Cathy said. “With all that plastic pipe, I didn't have room for the hay, so the feed store's delivering it. The driver will have an invoice marked ‘paid,' and all you have to do is count how much hay I paid for and how much they leave. They'll match, and then you just sign for it.”

“It's not as complicated as it sounds,” Megan told Darby as her mother left. “I've done it lots of times.”

While the girls waited, they played with Blue Moon
once the rain stopped. The foal looked happy and healthy and he'd learned to trade snorts with Hoku, even though their corrals were some distance apart.

Fun made the time go fast. It wasn't long before they heard a motor. A big flatbed truck piled with hay was rumbling up the road.

Shading her eyes, Megan studied it.

“Can you believe it?” she asked.

Darby followed Megan's stare. Sun glazed the truck's windshield, but she could see through it clearly enough to identify the driver.

“Dee's delivering hay,” Darby said.

A minute later, with a noisy grinding of gears, the truck jerked to a stop.

“Hey there, girls,” Dee said as she vaulted to the ground. “Got some hay here for you. Where's that son of mine? Tell him to come and help us unload it.”

Darby and Megan exchanged glances. They couldn't blame Dee for wanting Cade to see her working, but they hadn't even had a chance to tell him she'd been hired yet.

“He's up in Flatlands pasture,” Darby told her. “We'll help you unload.”

Dee's face drooped in disappointment, but when Peach, the sweetest of the Australian shepherds, came up and nuzzled her hand, Dee shrugged.

“Oh well, then,” she said, then climbed onto the truck bed and began tossing bushels of hay down to Megan and Darby.

Darby didn't know why she'd thought Dee was soft. Cade's mother moved with quick strength that made Darby believe the woman really had helped Manny work his taro patch.

In fact, Darby and Megan worked hard to stack the hay as fast as Dee threw it down, and Darby had the feeling Dee had done most of the labor on their hardscrabble farm.

At last Dee stopped. She dusted her hands together and climbed back down to the ground. She leaned into the truck cab and withdrew some papers.

“Which of you wants to sign this invoice?” Dee asked.

“You can,” Megan said, so Darby took the papers.

Remembering what Aunty Cathy had told her, Darby quickly counted up the number of bales they'd stacked while Dee threw a stick for Peach.

“There's a mistake,” Darby said to Megan. They did a second count, then Darby called to Dee, “We've got four bales too many.”

“Well, look at you, all checking the invoice and like that,” Dee said, but she didn't seem surprised.

Darby grabbed the twine around one bale. “It's okay. We'll just throw them back on the truck.”

Dee held up her hand to stop Darby. “Don't bother. The feed store has lots more where that came from. They won't miss it. Tell Cade it's a gift from me.”

“No, really,” Megan protested. “Take it back. My mom wouldn't want it if we didn't pay for it.”

“But it's a gift. You know what they say about looking a gift horse in the mouth.”

“Actually, I don't,” Megan said.

“They say don't do it,” Dee snapped. She got back into the truck cab. “Tell Cade I'm staying with my friend Lisa Miller in town if he needs me. Manny's truck broke down, and I'd have no way to get to my new job if I stayed out in Crimson Vale. Be sure to tell him because I know how worried he got last time he couldn't find me.”

“Who's taking care of Honi?” Darby asked.

“My smart little pony takes care of herself,” Dee said. The engine roared to life, but then Dee shouted out the window. “Come to think of it, since you don't want it, maybe Cade can drop one of these bales of hay over there for Honi.”

Darby opened her mouth to speak but no words came out.

Dee had been on the job less than a day and she was already stealing from the feed store. She called it a gift, but Darby wasn't so sure Dee hadn't thought of the gift as pony food on her way over here.

Waving, Dee revved the truck engine. Then, she backed up so fast, Darby covered her eyes.

“Don't hit the fence. Don't hit the fence. Please don't hit the fence,” Megan chanted.