Hard Hat (2 page)

“Helmets,” said Joe. Max nodded. Riding helmets were required of all riders whenever they were on horseback.

“The mounting block,” said May, reminding everyone that a secure beginning to a ride was always a good idea.

“The good-luck horseshoe,” said Jasmine. Everyone nodded. One of Pine Hollow’s traditions was a horseshoe nailed over the door that every rider touched before beginning a ride. Some people claimed it had magical powers because no rider had ever been seriously hurt at Pine Hollow. Most riders recognized that it was more a matter of reminding all riders that the sport could be dangerous and they needed to take precautions. Whatever the reasons, it seemed to work.

Maxi wriggled, trying to loosen Max’s grasp. She pounded her father on top of his head and wriggled some more. Absentmindedly, he put her down.

“Deborah is away today,” he said, explaining the obvious. Deborah, Max’s wife, was an investigative reporter for a major Washington newspaper. “And she’s working on a story, so even when she’s home, like she will be tomorrow, she’ll be too busy to look after Maxi for a couple of days.”

Lisa grabbed for the fleeing child. Max nodded with pleasure when he saw that Maxi was secure—for a few minutes at least. Clearly he was a little befuddled
by his joint responsibilities as father and riding instructor.

Lisa plopped Maxi down on her lap and handed the girl a pencil and some paper to scribble on. There was a moment of quiet, and Max continued the meeting.

“And safety precautions for the horses?” he asked. There were lots of answers, including locks on their stable doors, bandages for their legs when they traveled, careful feeding, shoeing, and preventive vet care.

Maxi dropped the pencil and paper, got up from Lisa’s lap, and trundled over to look at the shiny gold chain around Veronica diAngelo’s neck. She reached for it.

“Eeew!” said Veronica, recoiling from the little girl’s moist grasp and wrinkling her nose.

Max sighed. “Needs a change?” he asked. Veronica nodded distastefully.

“I’ll do it,” Lisa volunteered. Max thanked her and handed her a diaper bag. Lisa picked up Maxi and took her into the bathroom. She loved Maxi, as did her friends. In fact, they’d been there when she’d been born, looking after Deborah all the way through her labor until the newest generation of Regnerys arrived.

A few minutes later Lisa returned to the Horse
Wise meeting and settled down, once again trying to contain the little girl she’d taken as her charge. It didn’t work. Maxi went from lap to lap, interrupting the meeting repeatedly. Nobody really minded, except perhaps Veronica, but nobody cared what Veronica thought anyway.

Veronica diAngelo was The Saddle Club’s least favorite rider. She was the daughter of one of Willow Creek’s wealthiest citizens, and she never let anyone forget it. She considered herself better than everyone, and the result was that she wasn’t as good as anyone. She hated doing her own chores, and her only spark of creativity was in finding ways to get other people to do her jobs. This was not a popular attitude at a stable built on cooperation and shared work.

Once their meeting was over, the riders prepared for riding class. Today they were going to work on jumping techniques and, as a sideline, baby-sitting. The riders took turns looking after Maxi, who had been fitted with a riding helmet, just to be on the safe side.

It turned out that Maxi’s hard hat was a good idea. Although she managed to stay out of the way of the horses, Maxi wasn’t awfully secure on her feet, and she fell down several times. Stevie was picking her up for the third time and giving her bumped knee a kiss
when Deborah arrived. Maxi ran to her mother, arms open for a big hug, which Deborah seemed more than happy to give. She set down her computer and the bagful of notes she was carrying in order to embrace her daughter. A few seconds later the two of them joined the watchers at the rail of the jumping class.

Max was working with Katya, a very new rider, on basic skills. It wasn’t that everybody couldn’t benefit from review, but The Saddle Club had a thorough knowledge of the material, so they took the opportunity to chat with Deborah. Max was apparently so pleased not to have to worry about Maxi for a few minutes that he didn’t even glare when they stepped aside to talk.

“Was she a nuisance?” Deborah asked.

“Just a little bit,” Stevie said.

“No, she was mostly just fun to be with,” Carole assured Deborah.

“And chase after,” Stevie added.

“And hold,” said Lisa.

“So, tell us about the story you’re working on,” Stevie said. “Max said it’s really important.”

Deborah smiled. “He would say that. Well, it’s pretty important, anyway. It’s about corruption.”

Deborah wasn’t just any reporter: She was an investigative
reporter, which meant she would look for stories that required a lot of background and research to put together, and she’d often uncover crimes and misdeeds. It was sometimes dangerous, but it was always interesting.

“It’s about the construction industry here. See, there’s so much building going on that some of the people can get away with overcharging people for their work. And when they do, I’ve found cases where they then proceed to do shoddy work and pocket the difference. Some of these guys are getting away with murder.”

“Murder?” Stevie echoed.

“Well, not really murder. But lots and lots of money. And in some cases they use a portion of that money to pay off building inspectors to say a building is safe when in fact it might not be.”

“That’s terrible!” Carole said.

“Somebody ought to do something!” said Lisa.

“I am,” Deborah assured them. “I mean, I will—right after I give Maxi some lunch!”

“We can help,” said Lisa.

“No, you’ve got your class now.”

“I don’t mean now,” Lisa said. “I mean we can help with Maxi while you’re working on the research for
your story. Max has to teach classes, but when we’re not in the classes we can certainly baby-sit. Right, girls?” She looked at Carole and Stevie.

Sometimes, when The Saddle Club wasn’t busy helping one another out, they had what they’d come to think of as Saddle Club projects. They usually decided together that they were going to pitch in to do something. This time, it seemed Lisa was volunteering their services. On the other hand, it was perfectly clear to all of them that Max and Deborah needed their help and they were able to give it.

“I’ll pay you,” Deborah offered. “I mean, the usual baby-sitting rate.”

That clinched it. All three girls nodded and smiled. Getting paid to do something they liked as much as chasing after Maxi was a very good deal.

A
FTER CLASS THE
girls hurried over to Stevie’s house for their planned sleepover. When they had showered and changed their clothes, they met in the Lake kitchen for a snack. Lisa was full of ideas about ways to look after Maxi.

“We can switch off days. I’ll take Monday. Carole you do Tuesday, Stevie Wednesday.”

“Wouldn’t it be more fun and easier if there were two of us at any one time?” Stevie asked.

“Okay by me,” Lisa said. “Now, as to activities. We can read her books about ponies, and she likes to draw things.”

“Scribble,” Stevie corrected her.

“Well, yes, but don’t you think Picasso started with scribbles?”

“I bet she’d like to play with clay,” Carole suggested.

Fifteen minutes later the girls had a long list of activities for Maxi and a pretty good idea of when each of them would be caring for her. Stevie smiled, looking at Lisa. There were some real advantages to having a truly organized friend.

“Oh, Stevie! There you are!” Mrs. Lake hurried into the kitchen, an excited look on her face.

“Mrs. Lake, you should know by now that the best place to find Stevie is always in the kitchen,” Carole teased.

“You’re right about that,” said Stevie’s mother.

“What’s up?” Stevie asked.

“We are!” she said. “I mean, you and I are going on a trip!”

“We are?”

“I’ve got to be in New York City next week on business and I’ve arranged to stay with my college friend Elisa Evans. You remember Mrs. Evans, don’t you?”

Stevie didn’t remember her, but she didn’t think that mattered very much. She just nodded.

“Well, she lives in this big house on the Upper East Side and she’s got a daughter almost exactly your age. In fact, Elisa and I were pregnant at the same time. I haven’t met Regina—that’s her daughter—but Elisa has told me a lot about her and I think the two of you are going to get along just fine. Actually … from what she said, I’m a little worried that you’re going to get along too well. Apparently Regina is quite a prankster. That reminds me, I got a call from Miss Fenton’s office …”

“You mean I’m going to New York with you?” Stevie asked, thinking it would be a good idea to skip the question about Miss Fenton’s office.

“If you want to,” said Mrs. Lake. “It should be a lot of fun. I mean, museums, theaters, restaurants—you know how great that city is. And you’ll get to meet Regina. Elisa and I are sure you’re going to like each other. Want to come?”

Stevie looked at her friends. She felt bad about leaving after they’d just planned a whole Saddle Club project baby-sitting Maxi.
Hmmm. Maxi: mud pies, diapers, smeared spaghetti, splattered finger paint. New York: museums, subways, restaurants, new friends
.

Stevie scratched her head.

“Oh, stop it!” Lisa said.

“Stop what?” Stevie asked.

“Stop pretending there’s anything to decide!” said Lisa. “Of course you’re going to New York. The only problem is that Carole and I wish we could come, too!”

“Definitely,” Carole agreed.

“You don’t mind me leaving you with Maxi?” Stevie asked.

“Not a bit,” Carole assured her. “All the more babysitting money for the two of us.”

Stevie grinned. “You guys are the best,” she said.

“It’s decided, then,” said Mrs. Lake. “We’ll leave Monday morning.”

“H
EY
,
LOOK
! I
T
’
S
the Empire State Building!” Carole announced, handing a postcard to Lisa.

The two of them were at Pine Hollow, looking after Maxi, when Mrs. Reg handed them their first postcard from Stevie.

“She’s having fun,” Lisa said, looking at the scribbled note.

“Of course she is. She’s in New York. What does she say?”

“Hmmm. ‘New York is great,’ ” she read. “ ‘But you already know that. We didn’t go to the Empire State Building, but the picture was so N.Y. that I couldn’t resist. Mom was right, Regina is my kind of girl. You’d
love her, too. The first thing we did when I got here was climb over the fence in her backyard. We got chased by a dog, but that’s another story. The only thing missing in this wonderful place is you and Pine Hollow and horses and TD’s and Max. Well, it’s still a great place!’ ”

“Hmmph,” Carole grunted. “She’s completely forgotten that there are horses in New York.”

“And we rode them,” said Lisa.

“Right,” Carole agreed. “That’s where we met …”

“S
KYE
R
ANSOM
,” S
TEVIE
said.

“You really met, like, the
real
Skye Ransom? Here?” Regina asked.

Stevie nodded. She was sitting in Regina’s backyard with a group of Regina’s friends from the neighborhood. The backyard and the neighborhood were like nothing else Stevie had ever seen. Almost the whole block was made up of houses, but not houses like they had in Willow Creek. These were taller, narrower, and closer together—in fact they were touching. Most of them were four stories tall, and they seemed to have only a front and back room on each story. Stevie had learned that they were called brownstones, after the brown sandstone that covered the exterior of most of
them. Some were actually brick, but it didn’t seem to matter. They were still called brownstones. And behind each one was a yard, carefully fenced and dividing a large open area in the center of the block.

None of the yards was very large, and except for the fact that they were pretty much the same size and shape, they were all unique. Most of them had some plants and grass, though a few were just concrete. Some had play things for children. Others had chairs and tables and barbecue grills. A few had trees to climb. Most of the fences were not very high, though they did provide some privacy for each of the gardens.

Best of all, as far as Stevie was concerned, almost all the fences could be climbed, and many of them were of wide brick that made them perfect for walking along, as long as you took extra care for balance. It had taken Stevie only about four minutes to fall in love with the place. Because the houses were big, most of them with four or more bedrooms, there were a lot of children of different ages. On the warm, sunny summer days, they all played together.

Stevie felt comfortable with Regina and her friends and quickly got the hang of going from garden to garden, playing at other kids’ houses, with other kids’ pets and other kids’ games. She especially liked when
other kids’ parents handed out cookies and milk, totally unaware of the fact that they’d just gotten snacks two houses away! New York was great.