Horse Talk

by Bonnie Bryant

  “The joke I keep hearing is, ‘How is a cow like a squirrel? They’re both on Horse Talk!” ’ said Lisa.

  Carole rolled her eyes. “Every time I walk into my homeroom, three of the guys who sit in back yell, ‘Horse Talk! It’s Carole!’ I’m about to punch them in the nose.”

  “We sure don’t need to write out any more questions,” added Stevie. “I’ve still got all the ones from last week. I didn’t get to use any of them.”

  “You’ll be lucky if you use any this week, too,” Lisa said. “I have a feeling we’ll get just as many calls.” She slumped into her armchair. “I never thought Horse Talk would be this popular. And I never thought I’d be sorry that it was.”

  Carole shook her head. “You shouldn’t feel sorry—”

  “Chad is such a jerk,” interjected Stevie.

  “—and if we find a missing horse—” continued Carole.

  “We haven’t found anything yet,” Lisa said. The phone rang shrilly, and she grabbed it. “Hi, Judy! Hang on!” Lisa punched the speakerphone button. Her most recent gift from her mother had been one she really appreciated: a telephone with all the latest gadgets. “There. We’re all here, Judy,” she said, “and we can all hear you now.”

  “Hi,” Judy said. “I called to tell you you guys were right. There is a horse missing around Pine Hollow. I don’t know if it’s the one your caller saw, but it could be.”

  “Fantastic!” said Stevie.

  “It’s quite a story,” Judy continued. “One of the other vets around here takes care of the horses at Fox Meadow Farm.”

  “We’ve heard of it,” Carole said. Fox Meadow was a boarding stable similar to Pine Hollow, on the other side of Willow Creek. It was supposed to be a nice stable.

  “They have some students who compete in three-day eventing,” Judy continued. Three-day eventing was a type of riding competition that included crosscountry jumping. The Saddle Club sometimes enjoyed trying it at lower levels, but at higher levels it required a very athletic and specially trained horse. “One of them, a girl about your age, sold her first horse last summer and bought one that was more advanced. It was a gray quarter horse mare, and it had completed a preliminary three-day event.”

  “Wow,” Lisa murmured. She knew that, though the word preliminary sounded easy, preliminary three-day events were tough.

  “Yeah,” Judy agreed. “It was a great little horse—named April Morning. The mare was up in Massachusetts, but the girl—her name is Samantha—and her parents looked at some videos of it and decided to buy it. The trainer at Fox Meadow knew the person in Massachusetts who owned the horse, and everyone thought it would be a great horse for Samantha.

  “They arranged for April Morning to be shipped down to Fox Meadow. Unfortunately, the evening the horse was to arrive here, we had a really terrible thunderstorm. Do you remember, back in August?”

  “The one where all the lights went out?” asked Stevie. She remembered, because she’d used the blackout as an excuse to try to roast hot dogs in her family’s fireplace. The sticks hadn’t been strong enough, and the hot dogs had fallen into the fire. They really blazed.

  “I think so,” said Judy. “Anyway, just outside Willow Creek, on the highway exit ramp, the truck and horse trailer skidded on the wet pavement and rolled into a ditch. When the rescue squad got there, the driver of the truck was unconscious. The trailer was pretty smashed up, and its door wouldn’t open, but the rescuers couldn’t hear any noises coming from inside it. They assumed that either it was empty or the horses inside it were dead.”

  “Oh no,” said Carole.

  “When the driver woke up, back at the hospital, he told them he had had one horse, April Morning, on board. So they called Samantha and her trainer and the vet who told me the story, and they all went out to the site of the crash. Because of the power outage, there were lots of emergencies, and nobody had gotten around to pulling the wreck out of the ditch.

  “But the side of the trailer was open—it looked as if it had been kicked open—and April Morning was gone. There was a little bit of blood inside the trailer, but not much. Any other clues the mare might have left were washed out by the rain. They still haven’t found her.”

  The Saddle Club looked at each other in stunned silence. It was an incredible story. Carole tried to imagine the desolation of buying a horse and then losing it before you ever got to know it.

  “Girls?” said Judy. “Are you there?”

  “We’re here,” said Lisa. “We’re just trying to take it all in.”

  “Samantha and her family have been looking for April for over three months,” said Judy. “Up until now, they’ve concentrated their search on the other side of Willow Creek.”

  “And we found her!” Carole said.

  Judy hesitated. “You found a person who saw a horse,” she corrected Carole gently. “It may or may not have been April Morning. After all this time, Samantha and her parents have pretty much given up hope. What color was the horse your listener saw?”

  Lisa felt embarrassed. “We didn’t ask,” she said. “We assumed the call was another joke, until it was too late.”

  “I wouldn’t get your hopes too high,” Judy cautioned them. “The vet who saw the wreck said it was amazing that any horse had gotten out of it. April could have been injured badly enough that she died. Or someone could have found her and kept her without tracing her back to Samantha. August was a long time ago.”

  “I know,” Carole said. “I guess it wouldn’t be fair to get Samantha’s hopes up.”

  “Why not?” asked Stevie. “She needs to know what we found out.” Stevie’s horse, Belle, had actually been stolen from a previous owner, and once they discovered this, it had been a long week before she’d known whether she’d be allowed to keep Belle. Stevie would’ve died if she hadn’t known what was going on.

  “I agree,” Judy said. “Samantha knows what the odds are. In fact, I’ve already told her about you guys and Horse Talk. I said that you’d probably be at Pine Hollow tomorrow morning if she wanted to stop by.”

  Carole had to laugh. “Us be at Pine Hollow on a Saturday morning? I’d say that’s a pretty good guess.”

  Judy laughed and said good-bye. Lisa reached up to turn the phone off, and the three members of The Saddle Club stared at each other for a moment. Then Lisa started to grin. “I guess I don’t feel so bad about Horse Talk now,” she said. “What if our show actually helps Samantha find her horse?”

  Carole didn’t look happy. “I’m just worried that it can’t be the right horse,” she said. “What are the odds of a horse surviving a crash like that and then living for months on its own?”

  Lisa sat down on the floor and reached for a pad of paper. She always thought better when she was doodling. “First, I’d say they were separate odds,” she said. “The odds of the horse surviving the crash may not have been very high, but we know the horse survived the crash. And we know that it kicked the side of the trailer out, so it couldn’t have broken all four legs or anything like that.”

  “It still could have been badly hurt,” Carole said.

  “Well, sure,” Stevie said. “But it might not have been. There isn’t any way for us to know that.”

  “Then there are the odds of a horse living for three months on its own,” Lisa continued.

  “Now, that could happen,” Carole admitted. “Remember the herds of wild horses out West?”

  “Sure,” Lisa said. “All horses need for survival is food and water, and they can find food anywhere there’s enough grass.”

  “I’ve been thinking,” Stevie said. “The caller—Missa—said she lives near the library, remember?” Carole and Lisa nodded. “That’s not really too far from Pine Hollow. It’s all subdivisions, but the back of the subdivisions border the woods that connect to the woods behind Pine Hollow.” There were miles of trails in the hills behind Pine Hollow.

  “So why wouldn’t April come hang out with the Pine Hollow horses, the way the horse Ja
ney found hung out with her family’s sheep?” asked Carole. Horses were social animals, and they didn’t like to be alone.

  “Think about it,” Stevie said. “There’s a wire fence between Pine Hollow and the subdivisions. There are a couple of gates in the fence, but a horse couldn’t unlatch them.” Carole nodded. She remembered that Max was glad there were fences through part of the woods. It meant that any horse that might run away from Pine Hollow wouldn’t be able to reach a highway or downtown Willow Creek.

  “We’ll talk to Samantha tomorrow,” Carole said. “I hope April Morning isn’t in danger.” She was more and more convinced that Missa had seen April.

  “If it is April, then she’s survived a long time on her own,” Lisa said comfortingly. “She’ll be okay for another week.”

  After some discussion, they decided to watch a video after all. Lisa’s mom had rented Phar Lap, an old film about an Australian racehorse. The Saddle Club had seen it three times already, even though the ending made them all cry. They went down to make popcorn, then hauled the VCR back up to Lisa’s room. Lisa had her own TV.

  “Stevie,” Lisa said as she connected the cables to the back of the TV, “I’ve been thinking about Janey ever since Wednesday evening. Before she seemed like a real brat, but Wednesday she was different. She seemed like a really nice little kid. I mean, talking about her sheep station—she seemed friendly, and she didn’t act shy at all. She really seems to know a lot about horses. I actually liked her.”

  Stevie flushed a little. “I know,” she said. “She seemed like a different person to me on Wednesday, too. But I think I might know why we haven’t been getting along.” Stevie took a sip of her soda and tried to think how to explain. “I think I’ve been trying too hard to—well, not to tell Janey what to do, but something like that. I think I assumed she didn’t know much, because she was younger and from a different country and all, and so I tried to tell her everything. I don’t think I listened very much. She seemed like such a brat right at first, but now I think that maybe she just felt uncomfortable in a new place.”

  Stevie sighed. “It’s been bothering me,” she admitted. “I was so busy being a big sister that I forgot to be a big sister. And then, when she didn’t act very friendly at the start, I didn’t act very friendly back. It kind of made me mad that she wasn’t appreciating my help. I didn’t bother to get to know her very well.”

  Stevie looked upset. Carole smiled. “I hope you’re right, because I’d hate to think she was really like Veronica! I bet Janey was really overwhelmed at first. I bet Virginia is a lot different from New Zealand. Now that she’s had a chance to get to know us, she’s more herself.”

  Stevie understood what Carole was saying, but it didn’t make her feel better. “Sure,” she said. “Who wouldn’t be overwhelmed, moving to a new country? Part of my job as a big sister was to make her feel at home, and part of making her feel at home probably involved listening to her and learning something about her. I just talked—too much horse talk!” Stevie laughed. “Maybe that was the problem all along—the radio show!”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised,” Lisa said dryly. “Don’t worry; in another week we’ll be done.”

  “But I’ll still be a big sister,” Stevie said. “I’ll be a better one now.”

  “We should have been more of a help,” Carole said. “I moved enough as a child. I should have remembered how that feels.”

  “We’ve been too busy with Horse Talk,” Lisa said. “We’re sorry.”

  “That’s okay,” Stevie said. “Janey’ll be here at least another month. We’ll get another chance with her.”

  Lisa and Carole looked at each other and smiled. At least Stevie has learned something valuable from all this mess, Lisa thought. It might not be because of Horse Talk, but it’s about horse talk. Lisa still wanted to think of her radio show as valuable. Instead, it seemed to be a bigger disaster every single week. Next Wednesday the transmitter would probably blow up just as some stupid eighth-grade boy called to ask how horses compared to emus. The explosion would probably set the tack room on fire. They would have to evacuate the horses from the stable, and Max would be so mad he would never let her ride Prancer again. Lisa sighed. “Maybe we’ll find April Morning,” she said.

  Carole let out a matching sigh as the tape started to roll. She looked out Lisa’s window at the dark, cold night. “I hope she’s okay, wherever she is.”

  “WHY IS EVERYONE trying to mess up your radio show?” May Grover asked Lisa indignantly. They were sitting in Max’s office along with the rest of the Pony Club. As soon as Max arrived, the meeting would begin.

  “It’s a joke,” Lisa said wearily. “At least, it’s someone’s idea of a joke. It’s kind of been snowballing lately.”

  “It’s mean,” May said, her eyes flashing. Lisa remembered that May had seemed lukewarm about the idea of a radio show at first, and she smiled. May seemed to understand what she was thinking. “You guys are going to a lot of trouble,” she said. “People shouldn’t try to mess you up. It’s not nice.”

  Around the room, the other Pony Clubbers murmured agreement. Veronica sniffed. Lisa expected her to say something about the triviality of radio shows in general, and Horse Talk in particular, but Janey cut her off, saying loudly, “We’ll all help, if we can.” There was a chorus of cheers.

  “Thanks,” Stevie said quickly as Max came into the room. “Stay after the meeting, and we’ll make plans.”

  Carole rolled her eyes happily at Lisa. They knew from the night before that Stevie didn’t have any plans, but she had the entire meeting to come up with one, and Stevie usually thought fast under pressure.

  “OKAY,” SAID STEVIE when the official meeting was over, “what we’ll do is something I call a Reverse Chad.” She divided the Pony Clubbers into several groups. Each would work from a different house. “I’ll give you all questions to ask,” she said, “and your jobs will be to dial in as often as possible. Every time you hear a busy signal, hang up and dial again immediately. If enough of us do it, we’ll be able to jam the phone lines and block most of the prank calls.”

  “Depends on how many people are trying to make prank calls,” Carole muttered to Lisa. They were standing together at the back of the room.

  “If we cut the pranks down by a quarter, I’d be grateful,” Lisa replied. “At least we’d get a break from unremitting stupidity.”

  The office door opened, and a girl walked in. She was wearing blue jeans, tennis shoes, and a heavy jacket, but something about the way she seemed so comfortable in a stable—and, perhaps, the stirrup-leather marks running down the inside of her jeans—told Carole that the girl was a rider. “Can we help you?” Carole asked.

  The girl turned toward them. Her face looked sad and hopeful at the same time. “Judy said I should ask for The Saddle Club,” she said. “I’m Samantha Harding.”

  Stevie looked up. “I’ll be right back,” she said, excusing herself from the other Pony Clubbers. She joined Lisa and Carole in introducing themselves to Samantha.

  “Call me Sam,” the girl said. She flicked her short curly hair over her ears. “I heard you might know something about April.”

  “Let’s talk in the locker room,” Lisa suggested. She thought Sam might not like to tell her story with twenty-eight other kids listening in. They sat down on the locker room benches, and Stevie nudged the door shut with her toe.

  “Did Judy tell you what we heard?” she asked. “It wasn’t much.” She related the story of Missa’s telephone call.

  “I’m sorry we didn’t find out more information from her,” Lisa said. She was a little ashamed of how little they knew. “We didn’t get her last name, or where exactly she lives, so we can’t track her down, and we didn’t find out what the horse looked like or if she saw it more than once.”

  “We thought the call was another prank until after the show ended and we had a chance to think about it,” Carole said. Like Lisa, she felt a little embarrassed. She didn’t want
Sam to think that they didn’t care about her horse. “The show was sort of awful. Everyone who called in was doing it for a joke—”

  Sam held up her hand. “Don’t feel bad,” she said. “I listened to the first part of your show, and I had to turn it off. I don’t know how you could stand to talk to all those idiots.” She took a deep breath. “Most of them sounded like they wouldn’t know a horse if it kicked them.”

  Sam reached into her jacket pocket. “I brought some pictures of April. I can’t let you keep them, because they’re all I have, but I thought you’d like to look at them.” She held out two snapshots of a gray mare. One showed her standing still, without any tack; the other showed her leaping a large stone fence with impressive form.

  “Wow,” Lisa said. “She’s gorgeous.”

  “Yes, I think so, too.” Sam gave a bitter snort. “How would I know, though? I own this horse, and I’ve never even seen her except in a video and these photographs. I’ve never gotten to pet her or ride her. She was supposed to be my birthday present. I keep praying that we’ll find her by Christmas.”

  Carole could feel Sam’s pain. “We’ll do whatever we can to help you find her,” she promised.

  “That’s right,” Lisa agreed quickly. “If Missa calls back this week, we’ll get a lot more information out of her. We’ll try to convince her to call back. This is our last week, you know. We’ll have to make an announcement at the start of the show. I hope she’ll be listening again.” Lisa looked at Carole and Stevie to see what they thought. “Oh,” she added, remembering Stevie’s plans to jam the phone lines.

  Stevie nodded, understanding. “We won’t be able to call in,” she said, “or Missa might not get through.” She smiled at Sam. “I’ll call off the Reverse Chad.”

  “The what?” Sam looked startled.