“Horses,” Stevie said, meeting the problem head-on. “Mr. Nelson says you don’t want to ride any more and you’re trying to get out of doing the movie.”
“So what?” he asked. “I’m not real interested in ending up in the hospital like you friend. She’s in bad shape!”
It was what Lisa had expected him to say, but she was still surprised to hear the deep fear in his voice. Without even thinking, she blurted, “Dorothy’s in better shape than you are!”
Skye looked at her, stunned. “She’s in the hospital with a broken neck, practically. Her career is over, bang, just like that! Are you saying that’s better off than I am?”
His fear gave Lisa the strength she needed. “Maybe her career as a competitive rider is over, but she’s got lots of options in front of her and she’s not afraid. From what I hear, it’s possible that this could end your career, too—and you are afraid. It may look like you’re both in the same boat, with your careers in trouble, but at least Dorothy knows what’s what.
“We just came from visiting her. She’s the bravest and strongest person I ever met. If you don’t believe us that you’re making a mistake, you should believe her. She’s the one who told us to come get you and make you go back to riding!”
Both Stevie and Carole looked at Lisa. She knew she’d surprised them as much as she’d surprised Skye and herself. Lisa was usually the shy, mild-mannered one who did exactly what everybody expected of her and never made any waves, but this was too important. She just couldn’t stand by and let Skye ruin his career, and his life, by being afraid to ride.
“She’s right, you know,” Stevie added.
“Yeah,” Carole finished, making it a unanimous vote.
Skye was skeptical. “Are you telling me that just seeing your poor friend in the hospital is going to make me want to hop back on a horse?”
“No,” Lisa said. “I don’t think that for a minute. But I think that if, after seeing Dorothy, you still decide not to ride, at least you will have made an informed decision instead of an emotional one.” For a moment, she was afraid that she’d sounded an awful lot like the report she’d had to write on last year’s election, but Skye didn’t seem to notice.
“Okay,” he agreed. “We’ll go to the hospital.” He reached for his socks and sneakers, carelessly tossed on the floor by the sofa. Lisa found it very comforting to know that underneath it all, Skye Ransom was very normal.
* * *
THIS TIME, THE girls weren’t so nervous walking along the hallway of the hospital. The nurses tried to tell the four of them that only three visitors at a time were allowed, but when they saw that one of them was Skye Ransom, all of a sudden there was no problem. Lisa was relieved about that. She didn’t want any of them to miss this visit.
The girls rushed to the bedside to greet Dorothy, but Skye hung back by the door. “Don’t be shy now,” Dorothy said, greeting Skye. “I’m not so bad, am I?” she asked, smiling behind her black eye.
“Well, I think you’d be a good model for the makeup crew for the next Rocky movie,” Stevie joked, trying to lighten the tension in the room. “I love the black eye!”
“It doesn’t hurt,” Dorothy said. “The doctor said it’s the result of head trauma. Doesn’t that sound fancy?”
Skye finally smiled. “That sounds like something you need a psychiatrist for!” he joked.
“Oh, they sent one of those in here, too,” Dorothy said. “And when he went out, he felt much better. See, he was having this problem with the nursing staff, and I just told him that—”
“You’re joking,” Skye said.
“Only a little,” Dorothy confessed. “See, the common wisdom is that I’m supposed to be a basket case. But I’m not. I’m simply recognizing what the facts are.”
“But the facts are awful,” Skye reminded her.
“Come, sit down, and let’s talk,” Dorothy said to Skye. He pulled a chair up to her bedside and sat down. “You and I have a lot in common,” she began. “We’re both performers and, though in different ways, we’re both competitors.”
Skye seemed suddenly a lot more interested than he had been. Lisa could tell that Dorothy had struck a chord.
“And we both know there are risks. Mine are obvious. Yours not so obvious, but they’re there. You could do a lousy movie and no matter how good you are, the movie bombs and your reputation goes sour. Or you could do a poor job on a good film and suddenly nobody wants to take a chance on you. Or you could get into a lot of legal trouble with a production company and nobody will touch you with a ten-foot pole.”
“I know these things,” Skye said.
“I know you do. You also know that you could be doing a stunt and, wham, something goes wrong, and you’ve got a broken arm, a concussion, a cut, or what I have: a compression fracture of a vertebral body.”
“I don’t do dangerous stunts,” he said.
“Or these things could happen to you crossing the street or climbing out of a bathtub! The point is that being alive is risky. If you’re going to let yourself be held hostage to your fears, you might as well climb into that empty hospital bed there, pull the sheets up, and stay there for the rest of your life. No, on second thought, even that’s too dangerous—wait until you try the food here!”
Skye laughed in spite of himself. “I think you’re telling me to climb back on the horse, aren’t you? I’ve heard that one before.” He glanced at the girls.
“Well, they’re right. So what if you fall off. You fell off the other day, didn’t you? What got hurt?”
“I’ve got a bruise—”
“And that’s not all,” Dorothy said gently.
Skye looked down at the floor, then confessed, “Well, I guess I’ve always thought I could do anything and everything, and nobody ever told me different, except that horse and Topside. Those horses showed me that riding is very risky.”
“Who cares what the horse thinks?” Dorothy asked. “I’m much more concerned with what Skye thinks.”
“Skye thinks he’s a lousy rider,” Skye told her. “And being a lousy rider is dangerous.”
“Skye’s right about that. And there’s only one cure for being a lousy rider and that’s practice.”
Skye sat back in the chair and crossed his arms over his chest. A young nurse came into the room and adjusted Dorothy’s IV. An intern came in and took her temperature and checked her pulse. A nursing student came in to adjust the blankets on her bed. Skye sat deep in thought through this flurry of activity.
“I think the word’s gotten around that Skye Ransom is in my room,” Dorothy whispered, grinning impishly. “I haven’t had this much attention since I arrived. Next thing you know, the nutritionist is going to want to know how I liked the ravioli I had for lunch yesterday.”
The girls giggled. Being with Skye Ransom had some very funny aspects.
“Ah! Miss DeSoto!” An older woman appeared at the door. “The nutrition department wants to welcome you to our hospital and let you know that we’ll—”
Dorothy shot a dirty look at the girls, who were about to explode with laughter. They stifled it politely, while Dorothy assured the woman that the ravioli had been fine.
“Skye, I think you’re going to have to move along before they start drawing blood samples just to get a look at you!”
He laughed. “I’m sorry. I’m causing you a lot of trouble. I’m causing Lisa and Carole and Stevie a lot of trouble. And then there’s my manager and the production company and the Hollywood people.” He blew out a big breath and shook his head. “I’m being a jerk. I’ve been a jerk from the start. I’m the one who lied about being able to ride, so it’s not fair to all these other people to put them to a lot of trouble because I lied.” He looked at Lisa. “How far away am I? If I can ride with you this afternoon for a couple of hours, do you think I’ll be able to pull it off on camera?”
Lisa looked at Carole and Stevie. They nodded. “It won’t be easy,” she said. “But you’re a good student
and a determined one. It’s certainly worth a try. And we’re willing to help.”
“You’ve been such a big help already,” Skye said. He wrinkled his brow in thought. “I’ll ride with you today on one condition.”
“And what’s that?” Lisa asked, glancing at her friends with a worried expression.
Skye grinned. “That you’ll ride with me tomorrow.”
“But tomorrow’s your shoot, isn’t it?” Stevie asked. “The big riding scene in the movie?”
“That’s what I mean,” he said. “You’ve got to be there! I can’t see myself riding in front of a camera without Lisa to pick me up off the ground when I fall, Carole to tell me absolutely everything there is to know about horses, and Stevie to make a joke about it. Will you be there? As extras? Can you do it?”
They assured him they could!
EVEN MAX TURNED out to watch the filming. He and Mrs. Reg were given folding chairs and a spot in the shade.
The scene was being filmed in a wooded area of Staten Island, another part of New York City. It was supposed to look as if it were Central Park, but being in a more remote section of the city gave the crew more flexibility in the filming.
Skye set up the scene for them: His character was supposed to have a big crush on a girl named Molly. This Molly was a horseback rider, so he wanted to impress her, even though her father didn’t like him. The trouble was that his character, Brad, wasn’t all that good a rider. His horse would get out of control, start running away, and Molly would come to his rescue.
“Sounds like real life, doesn’t it?” Skye asked, winking at Lisa.
She smiled back at him. “Should be easy enough, except that everybody knows the hardest thing in the world is to know what you’re doing and to look like you don’t.”
Skye laughed. “That’s why I’m glad you three are here.”
They were glad, too.
It hadn’t been easy getting there, either. For one thing, the scene hadn’t called for extras. The director wasn’t enthusiastic about letting them into the film. Finally, Skye had just plain asked that they be allowed to do it as a special favor to him, explaining that The Saddle Club had been extremely helpful in preparing him to do the scene. The director had agreed.
Then, there had been the matter of horses for them. The director had arranged for four horses, two each for Skye and his costar. The girls could certainly use the backups, for all the riding they were doing, but that left one of them on foot.
It had taken Max to come up with a solution to that. He pointed out that there was an excellent horse at their disposal who would otherwise spend another day cooped up in the overcrowded stable area of Madison Square Garden, just waiting for somebody to move him someplace. Stevie was riding Topside.
As soon as she mounted him, Stevie knew that Topside was every bit as special as she’d hoped. He had wonderful strength and was very responsive. She leaned forward in the saddle and patted his neck to put him at ease. He looked back over his shoulder and nodded. Stevie could have sworn he was trying to put her at ease, but that, of course, was impossible.
While the director worked on placing the cameras, The Saddle Club took time to ride around the grounds where the filming would take place.
And every time Skye had a free minute, he came out of his personal trailer and joined them for last-minute refresher lessons.
“How do I get him to canter?” he asked Carole.
“Her, her,” Stevie reminded him. “Not that it matters, really, except to her, of course, but you’re riding a mare, and her name is Roulette. She’s a bay, just like Topside. That’s what we call the color when a horse is basically brown, but—”
“Very interesting,” he said, hiding a smile, “but how do I get her to canter?”
Carole spoke up. “You get her to trot and then you move your outside foot—that’s the one away from the direction you’re turning—back and touch her behind the girth. She’ll probably respond immediately.”
“I’ll try it now,” he said. He mounted Roulette.
Lisa rode with him to make sure it went smoothly. They trotted. His posting was all right. It didn’t look perfect, but it looked good enough to pass for somebody who wasn’t very good at posting.
“Nice,” she said, to build his confidence. He smiled at her again. Lisa reflected that she was almost getting used to being with Skye Ransom. Almost. Her knees still buckled every time he smiled at her.
“Now,” she said. She waited until Skye got Roulette to canter before giving her own horse the instruction. Just the sight of another horse cantering could be enough to get Roulette going, and she wanted it to be Skye’s victory. Her horse caught up to Skye’s and they cantered together.
“Try sitting deeper in the saddle,” she said. “That way, you can rock with the gait more easily and not flap around so much. See, it’s really a sliding motion. Pretend you’re on a merry-go-round.”
“Do they put sacks of potatoes on merry-go-rounds?” he asked.
“No, but then, you’re no sack of potatoes.”
“And I’m no Dorothy DeSoto, either.”
“Neither am I,” Lisa said.
Skye looked at her as if understanding for the first time that there was a big difference among riders—even skilled riders. “Thanks,” he said, and she knew he meant it.
She had him bring his horse to a trot and then canter again. He didn’t have any trouble doing it on his own, but the second Lisa’s horse started cantering, Roulette did it, too. Skye just couldn’t hold her back. Lisa wished there was more time to help him control his horse, but they had to stop practicing. The worst thing would be to overtire Skye’s horse before the big scene.
The director waved to Skye. It was time for him to do something, so he left the girls where they were.
“This is so slow!” Stevie complained. “I thought we’d be in front of cameras all day, but I haven’t even heard the word ‘Action!’ ”
“Okay, girls, come on over here,” the director’s assistant called to them.
Lisa pasted on a smile, ready for her moment of glory in front of the cameras.
“Yours is over there,” he said. They turned to see what he meant, ready for their great performance. That wasn’t what he meant at all. It was lunchtime!
Lunch turned out to be dry cold cuts. It wasn’t the sort of glamour meal that they’d been expecting. There was better food in the refrigerator of Skye’s limousine!
“Is this the life of a movie star or what?” Stevie asked, looking at a hard piece of salami. “I think I’d prefer the hospital ravioli!”
“Hi, girls,” an unfamiliar voice greeted them. Lisa turned to find herself face-to-face with the girl who was playing Molly. Lisa had the feeling she was supposed to know her name. The actress’s face was vaguely familiar, but when Lisa, Stevie, and Carole introduced themselves, the girl didn’t offer her name.
“I understand you’re these super riders,” she gushed, batting her eyelashes. “Isn’t it a drag when you’re a good rider and you have to work with somebody who doesn’t know the first thing about riding?”
She didn’t fool Lisa, Stevie, or Carole for one second. They recognized right away that “Molly” was trying to make Skye look bad. She wanted The Saddle Club to tell her what a bad rider he was.
“It can be awful,” Stevie said. Molly’s eyes lit up. “But on the other hand, you’re lucky here because you’ve got Skye and you’ve got us, so if you get into trouble, we’ll be glad to help you.”
Molly smiled sweetly, but there was nothing sweet in the look she gave Stevie. “See you later,” she said.
“What a creep!” Stevie said when she thought Molly was out of earshot.
“Yeah, a real jerk,” Carole agreed. “Now we’ve got to make him look good.”
“He’s doing okay,” Lisa said. “We were working on cantering and he’ll pass. He’s not great, but at least he’s not scared anymore. Or, if he is, he’s hiding it, and since he’s such a good actor,
that’s about the same thing.”
A bell rang then. The girls had been told that when the bell rang, it was time for the filming to begin. Quickly, they disposed of the remains of their unappetizing lunch, gulped final swallows of juice, donned their hats, mounted their horses, and headed for the cameras, ready to be discovered.
AT FIRST, IT didn’t go well at all. The revised script called for Stevie, Lisa, and Carole to pass in front of the camera just to give the impression that there were other riders around. This wasn’t hard. The first time they did it, the director gave them a “thumbs up” to show approval, then turned his attention right away to the heart of the scene.
“Molly! Molly!” Skye called out. It was his first line. Roulette began trotting.
Molly looked over her shoulder. “It’s over between us, Brad, don’t you understand?” She began cantering.
“Just because your father—” Skye couldn’t finish his line. Roulette broke into a canter, chasing after Molly’s horse. Roulette wasn’t supposed to canter until after Skye finished his line.
“Cut!”
Everybody returned to their starting places.
“Action!”
The girls walked their horses in front of the camera. Thumbs up. So far, so good.
“Molly! Molly!” Roulette broke into a canter.
“Cut!”
Again.
Skye was having a really bad time controlling Roulette. Stevie noticed that the horse was just very eager to keep up with the horse Molly was riding, and Skye simply wasn’t a good enough rider to make her do what he wanted. It wasn’t the sort of riding technique they could teach him in a few lessons, and the lack of knowledge was showing.
“Action!”
The girls walked in front of the camera. Thumbs up.
Skye didn’t even have a chance to deliver his first line that time. Roulette just took off. Stevie was watching Skye, but as he passed Molly, the actress drew Stevie’s attention. There was no mistaking the look on the girl’s face. It was a sneer of triumph. It was clear that Molly was trying to make Skye look bad. Stevie had no idea why that was so, but she wasn’t going to let it happen. She and her friends had worked too hard to have Skye fail.
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