Dream Horse (12 page)

He knew he could start a fire right near the plane, but the overhead growth was so dense that the blaze might not be seen from the sky. Worse, it might start a forest fire. That would bring rescuers, but they would likely arrive too late. He had to find an open space.

Phil set out. The woods were thick, and the ground was covered with a dense undergrowth of bushes and vines. Tall trees that had fallen over the years crisscrossed the steep forest floor with their trunks. It was slow going.

Phil couldn’t see what lay ahead. Everywhere he looked, all he could see was forest. Instead of knowing where he was going, it would be essential for him to know where he’d been. The last thing he wanted was to forget where the glider and Uncle Michael were. He opened the largest blade of the pocket knife and used it to make blazes on the trees of his trail so he could follow them back to the glider.

After more than an hour of trekking, he came to an open space. It was a large, craggy rock outcropping that clung to the side of the mountain and overlooked the valley. Phil recognized it as Rock Ridge, which he’d seen from the airport and the sky. What he hadn’t known from those distances was how vast the open rocky area was. Night was starting to fall, and Phil could see a few lights in the distance—perhaps five miles across the open valley.

“Well, if I can see their lights, they’ll be able to see mine,” he said. His voice sounded loud in the quiet twilight.

Using the flashlight from the tool kit, Phil found some dry branches, twigs, and leaves. It was enough to start a meager fire. As soon as he had a small flame going, he added more dry branches. It wasn’t much of a fire, but it would do for now. Quickly he gathered more wood from the forest floor and kept it near the little fire. He sat down next to it and ate his first granola bar. It tasted dry and uninteresting—not nearly as good as it would have been if he had had a glass of water to go with it, or better yet, a soda. Maybe some juice. It would be even nicer if he had a hamburger to go with it—one with a slice of cheese and some bacon. Oh, and some fries, too.

Within a few minutes, Phil had worked himself up an imaginary dinner of huge proportions, delicious, juicy,
and totally unavailable. He took the last bite of his granola bar and chewed slowly. The hamburger would have to wait.

Phil had brought his parachute along, wondering if it might come in handy. It became a pillow, insulating him against the ridged rocks. Phil put his head back and looked up at the stars—so many, so far away, so alone, just like Phil.

He closed his eyes. The tension, worry, and exhaustion of the day overtook him. Within a minute, he was asleep. Then he was dreaming. He dreamed of food and a comfortable bed. He dreamed that he was at home, that nothing bad had ever happened to him. Then he dreamed that he was taking a shower, a cold one, noisy and unpleasant. There was a roar and a bright light and the water kept pelting at him. He reached for the spigot and twisted frantically, but the flow didn’t stop.

Phil woke up from his nightmare—only to find it wasn’t a nightmare. It was reality. Although the sky had been clear when he had dozed off, now it was covered with clouds. He was in the middle of a fierce rainstorm, complete with lightning. The little fire was drenched and doused.

A jagged bolt of lightning raced through the sky. Phil knew he was in danger of getting struck, standing alone on the rocky outcrop. He had to get away from there.
Then he remembered Uncle Michael. How was he doing in the tree in the rain?

Phil grabbed the remains of his food and his matches and headed back into the woods. He left the parachute because it was heavy with water from the rain. He searched his memory, hoping he would be able to find the blazes he’d made on the trees so he could return to the crash site in the dark. In the cold. In the rain.

T
HE PHONE NEXT TO
Lisa’s bed rang. She and Carole both jumped at the same second, and Lisa knew that they both had exactly the same thought. Phil. They’d found him. Everything was okay. They didn’t have to worry anymore.

But that wasn’t it.

“Hi, Lisa? It’s Stevie. Why did you guys leave?”

Lisa clutched the telephone hard. She’d known Stevie was going to call her. What she hadn’t known was what she would say. On the other hand, this was a fairly straightforward question. She could answer it.

“Carole and I stayed with you for a while, but you
were sound asleep, and it’s like you really need the sleep, so we left right before dinner.”

“Oh, I guess I woke up a little while after that. Mom gave me some soup. I guess she thinks I’m really sick or something. She only ever gives me soup when she thinks that. I guess I’ve been a little weird lately, huh?”

“A little,” Lisa admitted. “But the doctor says you’re getting better.”

“If he thinks that, he ought to take a look at my dreams!” said Stevie.

“What do you mean by that?” Lisa asked.

“It was another horse dream,” Stevie said. “And this time it was about a blind horse. Maybe I just dreamt that because you told me about that mare you looked at. Blondie, right?”

“Uh, right,” said Lisa. “Uh, wait a sec. Carole is here. She’s spending the night. Let me get her to pick up an extension, okay?”

Lisa covered the phone and whispered to Carole that Stevie had had another dream. “You’ve got to hear it, too.”

Carole ran and picked up the cordless phone from the hall and brought it back into Lisa’s room. They listened together.

“I’m here, Stevie,” Carole said brightly.

“Are you okay?” Stevie asked immediately. “You sound funny.”

“I’m fine,” Carole said, trying to sound as normal as possible. These days it wasn’t easy sounding normal around Stevie.

“Okay, so here’s what happened in my dream. This horse is struggling someplace.”

“Like it’s sick or something?”

“Oh, no,” said Stevie. “Not at all. She’s struggling because she has to climb something. It’s really tough going. She’s climbing a mountain maybe. There are rocks everywhere, but she doesn’t see them. All she can see is that she’s got to get there. Somehow, she knows it’s really important.”

“What is?” Lisa asked.

“Whatever it is,” said Stevie. “I don’t know. I mean, nobody’s told me what’s important. I just know the horse knows.”

“Wow,” said Carole. “That’s an exciting dream.”

“I think I should start writing these things down,” said Stevie. “These dreams I’ve been having are good ones. Don’t you think it would make a good story? Nobody would believe it, of course. But dreams are dreams.”

“That’s right,” Lisa said quickly. “Dreams
are
dreams. These are dreams, aren’t they?”

“That’s what I said, didn’t I?” Stevie asked. There was
an edge to her voice, and Lisa knew she was pushing a little too hard. She didn’t want to upset Stevie, especially when there was so much she didn’t want to have to explain.

“Of course,” Lisa said.

“I sure wish I could be with you guys tonight. I’m tired of being sick. I’m even tired of being tired. I want to be well. I want to stop having strange dreams. Know what I think this is all about?”

“What?” Carole asked.

“I think my mind is so bored with being in bed all the time that it keeps on making up strange stuff.”

“I’m sure you’re right,” said Carole, but she wasn’t sure at all.

“Well, to keep me from having wild dreams, you guys have to tell me everything you’re doing. What are your plans for tomorrow?”

“Oh, we’ll just go to Pine Hollow and hang around,” Carole said. “We’ll check on Belle for you.”

“Thanks,” Stevie said. “And tell her I will get better and I will ride her really soon, okay?”

“Deal,” Carole said.

“And we’ll stop by tomorrow, too,” said Lisa. “Probably late in the day.”

“Phil said he’d come by, too,” said Stevie. “Have you talked with him?”

“Um, no, not, er, today,” said Lisa.

“Of course you haven’t talked with him today,” Stevie said, almost snapping. “He’s been up in that glider with his uncle. The two of them have been having a wonderful time, and Phil hasn’t even had the consideration to give me a call to let me know that he’s all right. I have half a mind to call him right now.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t do that,” Lisa said quickly.

“Why not?” Stevie asked.

“Well, it’s—I mean, probably if they were flying all day—um …”

“It’s pretty late,” Carole said. “I bet those two were so tired they just fell asleep as soon as they got home.”

“You’re probably right,” said Stevie. “I’ll call him in the morning.”

“Um, Stevie?” Carole began.

“No, I won’t,” Stevie said, correcting herself. “I don’t need to chase him down. If he wants to talk to me, his friend who is sick in bed, well, then he can just give me a call. I’m certainly not going to call him!”

“Good idea,” said Lisa.

“Good night,” Stevie said, and then she hung up.

“Whew,” said Carole.

“Definitely,” agreed Lisa.

L
ISA AND
C
AROLE
arose before dawn the next morning. They wanted to get to Pine Hollow early to look after Belle for Stevie and to take an early trail ride. Later in the day, the woods around Pine Hollow would be filled with other riders, a lot of them inexperienced. At daybreak they’d have the place to themselves.

“I think dawn is my favorite time of day to ride,” said Lisa, vigorously brushing Belle’s coat.

“I think my favorite time is any time,” said Carole.

Lisa laughed. That was just like Carole. Even though they were all horse-crazy, Carole was probably the horse-craziest
of them all. She brought Belle some grain and filled her hayrack.

“Don’t worry, old girl,” Lisa said, patting the horse’s smooth nose and rubbing her cheek just where she liked it best. “Stevie will be back here in no time. She’ll be riding you again, and she’ll get you back to working on jumps so she can beat Phil—”

Lisa stopped suddenly, realizing what she’d said. For a moment, she’d forgotten about Phil. There had been no call last night. None this morning. Phil and his uncle were still missing. She swallowed hard.

“Oh, they’ll find them,” said Carole. “They can’t have gone far, and you’re the one who was telling me how safe gliders are. They couldn’t search last night because of the dark and the rain. But the sun’s out today. There will be helicopters and planes all over the place. They’ll find them and they’ll be okay.”

“But they were flying right near Mickey Denver’s ranch. You remember what the terrain looks like over there—the mountains are rocky and they looked dangerous to me.”

Carole was quiet for a moment. She dropped Belle’s brush into her grooming bucket and unclipped the cross-ties. Lisa patted Belle as Carole shooed her into the stall, and then Lisa clipped the lock shut.

“I wish there were something we could do,” said Carole.

“What could we do? I mean, shouldn’t rescuing be left to professionals?” Lisa asked. “We don’t even know where to begin.”

“Or how,” Carole said.

“It would be a real challenge as a Saddle Club project,” said Lisa.

“For something this difficult, we’d have to have Stevie’s help,” Carole agreed.

“We’d have to have more help than that,” Lisa said glumly.

In the end, they decided there really wasn’t much they could do except hope that everything would turn out okay.

“Let’s go on our trail ride. Maybe when we get back, Stevie’s mother will already have called Mrs. Reg to tell us that everything’s fine,” Lisa suggested.

“Good idea,” Carole said.

They saddled up and left the Pine Hollow paddocks behind. The woods were magically quiet at that early-morning hour. The leaves were still damp with rain from the night before. Lisa was enjoying the ride until the thought occurred to her that Phil and his uncle might be stranded in the woods somewhere. They might have
been caught in last night’s downpour. They might be lost and scared … or worse.

Carole seemed to be thinking the same thing.

“Let’s go back,” she said to Lisa. “This isn’t working.”

“I bet Mrs. Lake has called already,” said Lisa.

“Are you starting to read minds, too?” Carole asked.