Spirit Riding Free: PALs Forever

by Stacia Deutsch

  “I don’t think they will,” Abigail said, desperately trying to scrape the mud off her dress but smearing it instead. “I guess we can make the steering rope longer.”

  “Nope!” Snips protested. “I’ll lean forward like this.” He showed her how he’d bend over to reach the steering rope. “I’m going to be the fastest driver on the course. Let the gravy take me to victory!”

  “Gravity,” Abigail corrected again.

  “Victory!” Ariella cheered. “We love victory! Abigail, don’t adjust the rope or the seat or the brakes,” Ariella told her. “We’ll do it Snips’s way!”

  “He’s never driven a soapbox before,” Abigail said, feeling exasperated. “He’s going to get hurt if we don’t make adjustments.” She’d never driven a soapbox before, either, but changing things for Snips’s size made sense.

  “The bigger the car, the faster I’ll go,” Snips said. “Maybe I can get Señor Carrots to give me a push at the beginning. He’s got a lotta muscle and could make me go even faster.” Snips thought about it and told Abigail, “Hold your ponies! I’m a genius! I think we should make the seat big enough for Señor Carrots to ride with me. He could be my assistant. Maybe we could even tie the steering ropes around his ears and teach him to use the brake pedals.”

  “That would be amazing!” Ariella exclaimed. “We could be the first cart in history to be driven by a donkey! The whole town would be so impressed.”

  “Maybe after we win the race, we could be in the newspaper,” Snips said. “Everyone who has a donkey would be so jealous.”

  “Yes!” Ariella cheered. “And all we have to do is to make sure the seat is big enough for both you and Señor Carrots.”

  “Or I could sit on Señor Carrots, and he could stand on the seat,” Snips suggested.

  Abigail stared, jaw open, eyes wide, at her cousin and brother.

  Were they serious?

  “What do you think, Abigail?” Ariella asked. But then before she could answer, she told Snips, “We’re going to need a longer steering rope.”

  “Are you even allowed to have more than one person driving?” Abigail asked.

  “Not more than one person!” Snips told her, and Ariella nodded in agreement. “Donkeys aren’t people, so we’ll be perfectly fine.”

  If the two of them had stopped talking for a second, Abigail would have said that she felt uncertain about this donkey plan. It was dangerous for Snips to drive such a big car, and there was no way Señor Carrots was going to agree to this scheme.

  Abigail tried to find an opening to tell them they needed to listen to her and make a Snips-size soapbox. But Ariella and Snips were going on and on about how to rig the cart to let his donkey drive.

  Abigail eventually gave up. They weren’t listening. They no longer needed her there. She slipped out the back of the old barn, unnoticed. Boomerang was waiting for her in the field.

  “Let’s go for a ride,” she said and, giving up any pretense of being fancy, she leaped on Boomerang’s back, let her mud- and sawdust-covered skirt flop over the saddle in every direction, and rode off toward the hills at a gallop.

  Dear Lucky,

  It’s derby day.

  I know that doesn’t mean anything yet, but I’ll explain. It turns out that Ariella is not fancy at all. Her family is fancy and their house is fancy and their life is fancy, but if you scratch off the fancy, Ariella is… well, whatever the opposite of fancy is.

  Had I known that she wasn’t what I expected, I’d never have taken manners lessons with your aunt. I’d have brought more comfortable clothing and shoes that didn’t pinch my toes until they turned blue like crumpled little blueberries.

  Anyhoo, apparently Ariella and Snips have been off together building a soapbox race car. Now I may not know anything about soapbox race cars, but I know that their car is never going to work. It’s just too big for Snips or Ariella! Snips got it into his head that Señor Carrots should drive the car with him, but I don’t know how that’s supposed to work. I told them a million times that Señor Carrots would never sit in the car, and a seat that is big enough for a donkey would be way too big for either of them. But would he listen? No. Would Ariella listen? No. They were too busy figuring out how to make it so Señor Carrots could ride in the soapbox car with Snips.

  And guess what? Call me “Surprised.” Okay, don’t really call me that, but I am surprised.

  That lazy donkey loves riding in the car. So far, they’ve only slowly pulled him around the old barn, but the plan is for him to ride the racetrack with Snips. It’s ridiculous! I think Señor Carrots thinks he’s just going to be pulled around, having fun—not flying down a hill faster than a shooting star.

  Sometimes I think I am making things up, but I am not. This story seems too fake to be true. So, here’s what I need you to do. Squint your eyes and look in my direction. Can you see Snips at the starting line in a soapbox racer that is as big as a… donkey? I see him.

  If you can see what I see, then you’ll see that Ariella is trying to lead Señor Carrots onto the platform with a lead rope. The donkey’s being stubborn. Maybe he’s figured out their real plan? Or maybe he’s just being himself. I can’t tell from here.

  Boomerang and I want nothing to do with this nonsense. We rode out to a hill where we can see but not hear. It’s better for us to be far, far away so I can ignore Ariella and Snips not listening to me.

  Snips told me they’re going to do a practice run before the real race, just to get Señor Carrots used to the hill.

  At any rate, they were finally able to get Señor Carrots in the car. Snips clambered on top of him and is holding steering ropes attached to the wheel. He’s talking for a minute with Ariella and is now turning back to the hill. Ariella is giving the car a shove and…

  There they go.

  The donkey is driving better than I thought. They made the first right turn without a problem. Señor Carrots’s foot is tied to the brake. Snips is shouting (yes, I can hear him—he’s loud). He’s telling the donkey to pull the brake as they go into the next curve.

  Señor Carrots is not pulling the brake.

  Snips is yelling louder.

  Ariella is running alongside the track, and now she’s yelling, too.

  I’m really far away and even I’m yelling.

  It doesn’t look like Ariella or Snips taught Señor Carrots how to pull the brake pedal.

  So now, instead of turning around the next curve, Snips and Señor Carrots are going too fast and are going right off the racetrack! They’re racing across the grass—I can see Snips bouncing up and down from all the little bumps in the ground. And… and…

  They’ve barreled right into a huge bunch of bushes!

  Oh no!

  PALs forever and ever,

  Abigail

  Lucky took Spirit out for a ride.

  She had to get away and figure out what to do. She could protest her family moving away from Miradero, but she didn’t think that would do her any good. It was extra hard because her dad and Kate seemed so happy in Destiny Falls.

  Kate came back from her tour of the school all excited about the programs they were running and the new books and new desks and all the things they had here that Miradero didn’t have. Her dad gushed on and on about the good restaurants and the fancy train station plans. It was going to be an example to the entire frontier of what could be built!

  Lucky sighed and gave Spirit a nudge to gallop faster. She needed some real speed if she was going to figure out a plan.

  “Lucky!” Spirit was about to round a bend in the path when Lucky heard her name called. “Slow down!”

  A horse came galloping behind her. She slowed to let the rider catch up, then instantly regretted her decision.

  “Julian…” Lucky groaned. “Why are you still following me?”

  “You owe me a dollar from last night,” he said with a grin. “I came to collect.” Her cousin held out his hand.

  “I bet you a dollar you couldn’t eat all
the popcorn you bought at the theater.”

  “And I ate it,” Julian said. “Some last night, a handful for breakfast, and the rest today for lunch.” He pulled the empty container from his back pocket. “It was delicious. Dollar, please.”

  “You’re…” What was the word Aunt Cora sometimes used to mean annoying in a big way? “Insufferable.”

  “If by insufferable you mean delightful,” Julian said smugly.

  Not wanting to argue, and hoping to get away for the rest of her ride, Lucky gave over one of the dollars her dad had given her.

  “For another dollar, I’ll tell you something you don’t know.” Julian already had his hand out to be paid.

  “Just tell me,” Lucky said.

  “Dollar first.”

  It was the last of the five. One by one, he’d managed to get them all. This was meant to be the dollar Lucky had bet him that he couldn’t make her like Destiny Falls. The truth was, she really did like it here; she just didn’t want to move from Miradero. She’d never tell him that, and she was determined to protect her last dollar from his pocket.

  “No,” Lucky said, starting to move down the path with Spirit, hoping that Julian would get the hint.

  “But I have my eye on a book at the bookstore,” Julian said.

  While it was amazing that the town had an actual bookstore where you could get the books you wanted whenever you wanted them, Lucky would rather order them from the Miradero library and wait for the books to arrive, no matter how long it took.

  “You don’t read,” Lucky said. “I bet you don’t even know how.”

  Julian snorted. “I read a book once. I liked it. I just never have time to read.”

  “Because you’re too busy thinking about ideas to snake money,” Lucky said. “Now if you’ll excuse me.” Spirit moved into a gallop. Julian struggled to keep up.

  “Then you don’t want to know that you… moving here?” he shouted as the distance between them grew.

  The idle word—the most important word—was muddled. Spirit skidded to a stop, and Julian and his horse ricocheted past. They stopped then turned to come back.

  “My dollar,” Julian said. “I told you the information, now you cough it up.”

  “No way.” Lucky stared at him. “What did you just say?”

  “Without that dollar, I can assure you that I said nothing.” Julian spurred his horse to go back into town.

  “Fine!” Lucky had to know that she’d heard him correctly. “I’ll give you the dollar.”

  “You aren’t moving here.” Julian smiled and pocketed the dollar.

  “Wait, what?” Lucky pulled Spirit up closer to Julian. “What do you mean I’m not moving here?”

  “Just what I said,” he replied with a shrug.

  “But how do you know?”

  “Because for some reason, Aunt Kate and Uncle Jim love that rinky-dink town of Miradero as much as you do.” Julian rolled his eyes.

  “B-but the schoolhouse and the railroad meetings,” Lucky spluttered. “And what about the barn and those new friends and the house next to yours?”

  “Aunt Kate was just trying to get ideas for how to make your school better, Uncle Jim was telling everyone about all the work he did in Miradero, I showed you that barn to actually see how Spirit liked it, my friends were to show you how great Destiny Falls is, and I told you about the house because…” Julian trailed off.

  “Because?” Lucky prompted him. She could feel her patience growing thin. “Because why?”

  Julian huffed. “Because… well… maybe if you liked Destiny Falls… maybe you would move here, too!” He wrinkled his nose.

  “Move here, too?” Lucky was shocked.

  “Well, yeah,” Julian said, looking away. “We always have fun together, don’t we? It might be more fun if you actually lived here.”

  Lucky frowned. “Destiny Falls is nice… really nice… and I have had fun here, at least when I wasn’t worried about moving, but Miradero is my home. It’s where my friends live and where Spirit lives. I couldn’t leave there.” Julian looked disheartened. “But,” Lucky continued, “that doesn’t mean that I can’t come and visit. Destiny Falls isn’t that far from Miradero. And I’m sure that my dad will want to come here more often to see how the railroad is going. We could have more… fun.”

  Julian looked up at her and his face broke into his signature grin. “Yeah… maybe you’re right. Plus, I could even visit Miradero more and run that town next.” As Lucky started to protest, he laughed. “Now if you don’t mind, I’ve got a book to buy.” He shook the dollar bill at her. “See ya, RF.” In a flash, he was gone.

  Lucky could have easily caught up with him and his horse, but she had something bigger that she had to do. She wasn’t moving! That was the important part. But she’d sent the letter to Pru that very morning, asking her and Abigail to cut their vacations short to come to town to help her convince her dad to stay in Miradero!

  “Spirit,” Lucky told her trusty steed, “I am going to choose to believe that Julian wasn’t tricking us this time. And if he wasn’t tricking us, then we have to stop the mail so we don’t ruin anyone else’s vacations!”

  Lucky and Spirit galloped down the path back toward town, dodging slow-moving riders and carriages and cutting through trees. As they reached the main post office, Lucky leaped off Spirit, immediately broke into a sprint, and burst her way through the front doors.

  The man at the desk looked up in alarm at the sudden interruption. “Can I help you, miss?”

  Lucky was breathing deeply. “Hi, I’m so sorry to bother you, but has the mail carrier left for the day? It’s really, really, really important.”

  The man frowned. “You just missed her. She left a few minutes ago to head to the next town!”

  “Oh no!” Lucky turned on her heel and headed toward the door. “Thank you!” she called as she dashed outside.

  Lucky thought quickly as she swung onto Spirit’s back. If the carrier had left only a few minutes ago, Lucky might still be able to catch her before she got too far away! Lucky nudged Spirit’s sides with her heels and took off down the main road out of town. The buildings became fewer and farther between, and the people and horses became more sparse. Lucky followed the railroad tracks for guidance, heading the opposite way from how she, her dad, and Kate had come only days before.

  Just as Lucky was ready to give up and turn around, upset that she may have scared her friends and ruined their vacations for no good reason, she saw the speck of a horse and its rider up ahead.

  She bent low over Spirit’s neck. “Just a little farther, Spirit,” she whispered. Spirit shot forward and, within moments, had pulled up next to the horse and its rider. It was the mail carrier!

  Lucky waved wildly at her to slow down, and the woman pulled on her horse’s reins in confusion. Lucky and Spirit also slowed until the two horses were at a standstill.

  “Whoa there,” the carrier said. “Is everything all right?”

  “No! I mean, yes, everything is fine now, but that actually makes it not all right,” Lucky said in a rush.

  The mail carrier’s brow furrowed. “I’m sorry, I don’t quite understand.”

  Lucky took a moment to gather herself. “Well,” she explained, “my cousin made me think we were moving away from Miradero to Destiny Falls, and I don’t want to move away from Miradero because I love it there, so I sent a letter to my friends asking them to cut their vacations short and come help me convince my dad not to move, but it turns out we’re not actually moving, so my friends don’t need to come and help me.”

  “Oh.” The carrier somehow looked more confused than before.

  “So,” Lucky continued slowly, “if you don’t mind, I really need that letter back that I sent this morning because I don’t want them to get the letter and ruin their vacations.”

  “Hmm. I see.” The carrier pressed her lips together.

  “So… can I have the letter?”

  The carrier shook her h
ead. “I’m afraid not, miss. I’m sorry, but that letter has already been postmarked and is due to arrive at its destination. I can’t just let you take it.”

  Lucky frowned. “Okay, well, can I write a new letter to go along with it?”

  The carrier shook her head again. “I’m sorry, but mail needs to go through the post office before I take it,” she said.

  “Oh, please,” Lucky said, “if my friends, the PALs, think I’m in trouble, they’ll worry and ruin their weeks by coming to try and stop my dad. That would make everything messy because I just made a mistake. I really want them to keep having fun and not spend their time worrying about something that’s not even happening.”

  “Hmmm…” The woman looked up and down the empty street. “I still have to deliver the mail, but I don’t think there’s a rule about you changing the letter. Think you can do that instead of just taking it back?”

  “Oh, that’s a great idea!” Lucky cheered. “I definitely think I can do that, no problem.”

  “Don’t write a whole new letter,” the carrier said. “Just cross out the parts that are wrong.” The woman dug Lucky’s letter out of her bag and gave Lucky a pencil.

  Lucky opened the envelope carefully so it could be resealed. Then she started making changes.

  Dear Pru,

  I think something terrible is happening. I haven’t been able to talk to my dad about it yet because I can’t seem to get him alone, but… I think we’re moving to Destiny Falls! Julian has been showing me around the town all day, and he keeps saying how much I’d like the school and how much Spirit will like the stables and how the house right next to his is for sale. Julian certainly seems sure that we’re moving, and I can’t help thinking he’s right!

  Julian and I went to see a show tonight. The play itself was amazing. There were bright lights and really beautiful costumes, and the story was about a group of three friends—just like us! It would’ve been a night out of a dream, except for the sound of Julian crunching on popcorn next to me the entire time. Afterward, my dad was supposed to meet us at the ice-cream parlor. I was going to try again to talk to him about the move, but he never showed up!