Rocking Horse (10 page)

“H
UH
,” L
ISA SNORTED
. “A fairy godmother? I’ll look in the yellow pages. Would that be under
F
for
fairy
or
G
for
godmother
?”

“Under
1
for
impossible
,” Carole said. She dumped the wheelbarrow load of fresh shavings into Danny’s stall and joined Lisa and Stevie, who had returned to the tack room. Veronica’s tack wasn’t quite as bad as they’d feared. Working quickly, they took the bridle apart and dunked its bit into a bucket of hot water. They got out Max’s saddle soap and began cleaning the leather pieces.

“We could at least hope,” Stevie persisted.

“Why?” Lisa asked. She glared at Stevie over the bucket. “Have you ever seen us in a situation more hopeless?”

“You’re such a pessimist,” Stevie shot back. “What we need here is a plan.”

“A miracle,” Lisa said. “Think one up, Stevie, and I’ll go along with it.” She couldn’t help the angry tone she knew was in her voice. She’d been looking forward to the dance so much. She knew that it wasn’t Stevie’s fault they couldn’t go, but she felt she had to blame
somebody
.

Stevie thought while they finished the bridle. Surely there must be something they could do. Lisa reassembled the bridle while Carole and Stevie started on the saddle. It wasn’t often that Stevie Lake was stumped for a plan. In fact, Lisa couldn’t remember its ever happening before. But now she seemed entirely, hopelessly, completely stumped.

“The fairy godmother is our only option,” Stevie said at last. Lisa snorted. “I wish you’d quit making that noise,” Stevie said.

“Sorry,” Lisa said. “I’m in a bad mood, but I know it’s not your fault any more than it’s mine or anyone else’s.”

“It’s Veronica’s,” Stevie said. There was another noise.

“Cut it out!” Stevie said. “That’s so rude!”

“I didn’t do anything!”

“There it is again!”

“It’s not Lisa,” Carole said. “It’s something outside. Listen.”

They went to the door of the tack room. From there they could make out the noise of a truck pulling slowly into the gravel driveway. Carole turned on the outdoor lights. “It’s Judy!” she said. Judy Barker was Pine Hollow’s veterinarian, and she was a favorite of the three girls.

The Saddle Club hurried out to greet her. Behind her heavy-duty pickup truck she was pulling a two-horse trailer—the reason, no doubt, that she was driving so slowly.

“Hey!” Judy greeted them as she got out of the cab. “I didn’t expect a welcoming committee. I told Max I’d be bringing Mrs. Repass’s horse back from surgery, and he told me everyone would be gone. What are you guys doing here?”

“Suffering,” Stevie said succinctly.

“I can see that,” Judy said, looking them over. “Those aren’t exactly barn clothes you’re wearing, are they? Are the horses okay?”

“They’re fine,” Carole said. “It’s a long story.”

“A horrible story,” Stevie added. “Veronica stuck us here taking care of her horse while she’s at the big junior-high dance.”

“Max said we couldn’t leave until everything was
clean,” Lisa added. “We’ve done the stall and the tack, but Danny is going to take
hours
. He’s all over crusted mud.”

Judy looked confused. “You’d better tell me the whole story,” she said. “I’ll unload Mrs. Repass’s horse. You guys talk.”

They filled Judy in while she carefully backed one of the adult boarders’ horses down the trailer ramp. “It’s so unfair!” Lisa added as they followed Judy and the horse down the aisle of the stable.

“I’d say so,” Judy agreed. “Max was upset, and unfortunately he took it out on you. You guys definitely deserve to be at that dance.” She smiled. “I think you should go. In fact, I think I can fix everything.”

“But that’s impossible!” Lisa said.

“It’s too much,” Carole agreed. “Danny’s such a mess. We haven’t been able to get started on him yet, it’s going to take hours—”

“—and none of our parents are home to take us to the school—”

“—and we can’t go like this!” Stevie said, holding out her grimy shirt. “We look like we’ve taken baths in a pigpen!”

Judy smiled harder. Then she laughed. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I can easily drive you there myself, and I don’t mind picking you up when it’s over, either. My husband is out of town and I was planning on making a few late-night calls.

“Your clothes,” she added, “are a problem. But fortunately I don’t dress up very often.”

The Saddle Club had never seen Judy dressed in anything more formal than a sweater and khakis, and tonight she was wearing old jeans and a sweatshirt. Stevie looked Judy over. She was about the same height as the three of them, and she wasn’t very large—but surely Judy didn’t mean they could trade clothes. Stevie would rather go in her own dirty shirt than in Judy’s dirty shirt. Besides, there were three of them.

“Come on,” Judy said, leading them back to her truck. She threw open the passenger door. “Ta-da!”

“It’s a truck,” Lisa said, totally confused.

Judy reached behind the seat. “It’s my dry cleaning,” she said. “Look, I only take it in about twice a year, and, lucky for you guys, I just picked it up today. As long as you’ve got pants …” She glanced down at Carole’s torn breeches.

“We’ve got pants,” Carole said, nodding to include Lisa. “Stevie doesn’t.”

“Then Stevie can have the red dress,” Judy said, handing a plastic-sheathed minidress to Stevie.

Stevie peeked beneath the plastic. “Cool!” she said. “Thanks, Judy!”

“No problem. And for Carole … Purple? Here, take this sweater.” She gave Carole a short-sleeved
fine-gauge sweater. “And Lisa … Hmm, you wouldn’t look very good in my tweed skirt. Not in my white blouse, either—too fluffy for a dance …”

“How about this?” Lisa asked. She pointed to a plain light blue silk blouse. It wasn’t as fancy as her new sweater, but she wouldn’t look like a geek in it, either. “I’d be really careful with it,” she added.

“Fine,” Judy said. “Now, let me see this horse.” They trailed back into the barn.

“He’s the worst of it,” Carole warned her. “The other problems were easy compared to how Danny looks. And Max—I mean, I think we’d better make sure Danny is clean before we leave. And all that dirt isn’t going to just fly out of his coat. It’s going to take hours.”

“So you’ve said,” Judy said. She looked Danny over, her hands on her hips. “He’s a walking disaster. No problem. I’ll clean him up while you girls go to the bathroom and clean yourselves up. You’ve got dirt down your neck, Stevie.”

“But Judy—” Carole protested. She knew Max wouldn’t be satisfied with a horse that was less than totally clean.

Judy made shooing motions with her hands. “Go,” she said. “I’ll deal with him. Go—and be sure you wash your hands before you put on my clothes.”

“See?” Stevie said as they headed for the bathroom.
“I told you nothing was impossible. I
told
you all we needed was a fairy godmother.”

“Yes, you told us,” Carole admitted. “We just didn’t believe you. And I’m still not going to believe you until that horse is clean.”

Lisa started to laugh. “I never thought of Judy as a fairy godmother! What do you think she’ll do, wave a magic wand over Danny?” She washed her face and hands and smoothed her hair back with her damp fingers.

“I don’t particularly care, as long as it works,” Stevie said. She stepped out of her soiled miniskirt and into Judy’s shimmering red dress. “Look, this fits!”

“It looks fantastic,” Lisa said. “Wait until Phil sees you!”

Stevie grinned. “Wait until Bart sees you!”

“Wait until Veronica sees all of us,” Carole added.

“Yep,” said Stevie. “We’ll show her she couldn’t keep us from having a good time.”

“We certainly will,” Lisa said. A tiny flicker of an idea started in her brain. It was crazy, but it might be funny. In fact, it might be the perfect end to this strange night. Lisa smiled to herself and adjusted the tail of Judy’s blouse.

“Come,” cried Stevie, “our pumpkin awaits!”

When they got back to the aisle, they couldn’t
believe their eyes. Danny, on the cross-ties, was nearly clean—and Judy was waving a long stick over his body!

“What’s that?” cried Carole.

Judy waved the stick at them. “It’s a magic wand, of course!” When The Saddle Club looked blank, she laughed. “Surely you’ve noticed the parallels between your problem and Cinderella’s? This is a horse vacuum, guys. Haven’t you ever seen one before?”

“No,” said Lisa. They came closer. Down by Judy’s feet was a small square canister making a familiar vacuum-cleaner noise. A thick hose connected it to the wand in Judy’s hand.

“Watch,” Judy instructed in a satisfied tone. She ran the wand down the one remaining filthy spot on Danny’s flank. Mud and dust disappeared, leaving only shiny gray hair. “I’ve always wanted one of these, but they’re expensive,” Judy said. “Today I finally bought one, and I’ve been carrying it around in my truck all day. It really works!”

“That’s amazing!” Carole said. “We’ll just get a brush and go over his face with it.”

“No, I’ll get a brush,” Judy said. “You three are going to concentrate on keeping clean, at least for a few minutes.” She brushed Danny’s face with soft, expert strokes. “Take the vacuum back to my truck. There’s a hairbrush on my seat and some lip gloss in
my purse. Help yourselves. As soon as I get this horse back to his stall—your carriage awaits!”

“No,” Lisa said, catching hold of Danny’s lead rope as Judy unsnapped the cross-ties. “You get the vacuum, Stevie, and Carole, you get Danny’s tack. He’s coming to the dance with us.”

“W
HAT DO YOU
mean?” Stevie asked. “He can’t come to the dance with us! He’s a horse!”

“It’s an open dance,” Lisa said mildly. Her little flicker of an idea had turned into pure determination: Danny was coming to the dance. “Anyone can come, provided they’re invited by a junior-high student. I just invited Danny.”

“But Lisa …,” Stevie said. Usually she was the one with the crazy ideas. This one was nuts. What would Danny do at a dance?

“They said anyone could come.” Lisa held firm. “They didn’t say ‘any people’ or ‘anything but horses.’ ”

“I’m sure it was implied,” Judy said.

“Besides, he might get upset,” Carole said. “All the lights and the crowd and the noise—”

“—are no more than he’d see at a big horse show,” Lisa finished. “You know he’s used to that. I’ve never seen him act excited in any situation. And the tent will seem just like the tent stalls from the rally.”

The others stared at her. Carole knew that what Lisa was saying was true. Before Veronica owned Danny, he’d been a regular on the A show circuit. He’d gone to a different horse show every week of his life. He probably wouldn’t be worried at all.

“But Max said—” Carole began.

“He said we couldn’t leave until the stall, tack, and horse were clean,” Lisa said. “And they are. We’ll take good care of Danny—you know we will. All I want to do is prove to Veronica that her horse is clean.”

As Lisa’s words sank in, Carole and Stevie began to grin. “I guess it is no more than Veronica deserves,” Carole said.

“Certainly not,” said Stevie. “In fact, it’s less than she deserves, but it’s not a bad start.”

Judy laughed. “You three are always up to something!”

“Can we take him?” Lisa asked her. “Please?”

“I guess I don’t mind,” Judy said. “Max shouldn’t have made you stay here—I’m sure he realizes that
by now—and you did make sure the horse was clean. Only promise me you’ll keep him safe from the other kids. Don’t do anything stupid.”

“We won’t,” Carole promised. Lisa and Stevie nodded.

“And page me the minute he’s ready to come home. Don’t push him to do anything he doesn’t want to do. I’ll have my beeper on, and I’ll come right away when you call.”

“Okay,” Lisa said. She clucked to Danny. “Come on, buddy. You’re going to the ball.”

W
HEN THEY ARRIVED
at the junior high, the dance was in full swing. Bright strings of lights surrounded a big, open tent on the green football field; under the tent, at least a hundred kids were dancing. A DJ played records in one corner; on the other side of the tent, folding tables and chairs gave people a place to rest.

Stevie tapped her feet to the music. “Hope Danny’s got rhythm,” she said. Judy pulled her rig up along the dark side of the school. She stopped, and the girls got Danny out and quickly tacked him up. Lisa grabbed his reins.

“We’ll lead him in to make sure he feels calm,” she said. Lisa had no doubts that he would feel calm, and, sure enough, as they approached the tent, Danny seemed no more than mildly interested. He
pricked his ears in the direction of the music and walked calmly at Lisa’s shoulder.

“He likes it,” Carole said, watching him. “Look, Stevie. It looks like Danny’s matching his footsteps to the beat of the music.”

“Hey,” Stevie said happily. “People are starting to see us.”

As they led Danny to the side of the tent, more and more kids noticed them and stopped dancing in their tracks. “It’s a horse!” someone shouted. “Look at that!” Everyone who hadn’t seen them stopped and looked then. Lisa saw Veronica in the crowd, talking to the gorgeous new guy. The guy was pointing at Danny. Lisa saw Veronica toss her hair and shrug.