Pony Jumpers 9- Nine Lives

by Kate Lattey

  It wasn’t until we’d dropped the saddle off and were walking back out to the car that I started to calm down. The woman behind the counter had checked the tree and said that it appeared to still be sound, and had assured me that the damage was mostly superficial. Not that that would make it any easier to tell Susannah what had happened to her beautiful saddle, but it was a relief to know that it wasn’t completely ruined.

  “It was all my fault,” I told Aidan again as he unlocked the car.

  “So you keep saying, although I think you need to give Tori at least some of the credit.” He looked at me across the roof of the vehicle. “It’s done, AJ. You can’t change it now, so stop worrying about it.” I sighed heavily, and he jingled the keys in his hand. “Hey, you wanna drive?”

  I blinked at him. “Me?”

  “Why not? You’ve got your licence, right?”

  I looked at the family station wagon dubiously. “I’ve got my Learner’s, but I don’t have much practical experience yet.”

  Aidan tossed the keys to me, and I caught them in one hand. “No time like the present.”

  Driving to work provided a satisfying distraction, and Aidan was calm and patient as he directed me along the roads, around the roundabouts and past the orchards that led out to Te Awanga.

  “Hey, check that out,” he said. I glanced sideways, and the car wobbled towards the centreline. “Okay just kidding, watch the road.”

  “What was it?” I asked, gripping the steering wheel firmly.

  “A new subdivision.” He twisted in his seat and looked over his shoulder at it. “Residential housing, by the look of it.”

  “So?”

  “So, subdivisions like that have reserves and street gardens.”

  I wasn’t sure what he was getting at. “And?”

  Aidan sighed. “And someone has to design and plant those gardens, right?”

  “Sure, but…” I glanced at him, and he immediately pointed back at the road.

  “Focus.”

  “That place looks huge. Isn’t that job a bit big for three people?”

  “Dad can hire some temporary labour. What’s stopping him?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t think he does big jobs like that.”

  “Well, he should. If he wants to run a business, not a hobby. Turn right up here, and watch out for the speed bumps.”

  When we got to the job site, Aidan told Dad about the subdivision, and urged him to consider putting in a tender for the work. Dad listened with vague interest, but his argument was the same as mine.

  “That’s too big of a job for two-and-a-half people,” Dad told him.

  “Excuse me? Did you just refer to me as half a person?” I demanded of my father. “That’s sexist, Dad.”

  “I didn’t mean that,” he replied calmly. “Just that you’re only here half of the time.”

  “Oh.”

  Aidan ignored my interjection and carried on. “So hire more people. Why not?”

  “Aidan, I appreciate your enthusiasm,” Dad said. “But let’s not get in over our heads here, okay? Now if you can start digging out those flaxes, AJ and I will get the grasses planted and spread the mulch.”

  I threw myself into the work, partly as a welcome distraction from the fact that in a few short hours I was going to have to confess all to Susannah, and partly to prove to my father that I was more than half a worker. The distraction worked, but only while I was busy. Eventually, I was home and showered and changed, and was sitting on my bed with my phone in my hand, trying to find the right words. How do you tell someone that you’d just destroyed their personal property, which they lent to you in good faith that you wouldn’t do exactly that? I could blame Tori, but it wasn’t really the horse’s fault. I should never have left the saddle where she could reach it. It was my mistake, and I had to own up to it.

  There was only one problem – Susannah’s Facebook account had been disabled. She didn’t use it much anyway, but it was the only way I knew of to get hold of her. I considered sending her a message on Instagram, but she used that even less than Facebook, and this wasn’t the kind of news I could just sit on, so I bit the bullet and looked up her home phone number.

  It rang several times before someone picked up.

  “Hello?”

  It was her dad. My heart sank, but I tried to sound upbeat. “Uh, hi. It’s AJ. Is Susannah there please?”

  “No, she’s not. Can I take a message?” He sounded impatient, and I was tempted to leave my number for Susannah to call me back, but I knew that her dad was going to find out about the saddle eventually, and if I didn’t tell him now, I’d come across as a total wimp. Besides, the saddle didn’t technically belong to Susannah. Her dad was the one who’d paid for it.

  “Um, actually I was calling because I have some bad news. It’s about the saddle that you lent me, the Antares?”

  I was hoping that he’d sound vague, or say that he’d forgotten about it, but his voice was even sharper in reply. “Go on.”

  “It got damaged.”

  I heard a tsk noise from his end of the line. “How badly?”

  “Um, I’m not sure. I mean, it’s not broken. The tree, that is. But the leather’s a bit…munted, and it needs replacing, and the panels need reflocking. It’s with a saddler right now, and obviously I’ll pay for all the repairs,” I assured him, my stomach churning nervously.

  “Which saddler?” he asked, and I gave him the name. “I see. And he’s going to replace the leather with the same quality European leather as was originally used, I assume?”

  “Um, I’m not sure,” I admitted. “He wasn’t there when I took the saddle in, but the woman said he’d be able to fix it. I can find out,” I assured Derrick. “I’ll ring them in the morning and check. And if you want the saddle back afterwards, I completely understand.”

  “You know, that was a five-and-a-half thousand dollar saddle,” Derrick said, and the sick feeling in my stomach intensified. “And we never used it. It was in mint condition when you took it, and now you’ve damaged it and want to give it back?”

  His clipped South African accent made it impossible to argue with him, and I swallowed hard before squeaking out a response.

  “I’m sorry. I’ll pay for the repairs,” I said again.

  “I would prefer if you paid me back the cost of the saddle,” Derrick replied. “When it belongs to you, you can do what you want with it, have it repaired by whoever you like.”

  My heart thumped painfully, and I felt like throwing up. I didn’t have anywhere near that kind of money, and I mentally cursed Katy for borrowing the saddle from Susannah in the first place. I’d turned it down initially, afraid that something like this might happen, but when Katy was schooling Squib after I broke my collarbone, she’d refused to ride in my Wintec, and had taken it upon herself to get the Antares on loan.

  “Okay,” I told Derrick. What else could I say? All I could do was promise to get the money to him as soon as I could. Trouble was, I had no idea how I could possibly accomplish that.

  Derrick reminded me that they would be at Series Finals and would see me there, then hung up. I lowered my phone into my lap and stared at it, amazed that I could actually feel worse than I had before I’d spoken to him, and wondering how on earth I was going to come up with that kind of money in such a short amount of time.

  4

  LEGACY

  Things went from bad to worse when I found out the next morning that Deb had driven herself to the emergency room last night and discovered that her foot was broken in two places. With a moon boot and crutches she was still able to move around, but there was no way she’d be able to exercise the ponies, muck out the paddocks, or deal with Tori until she’d recovered. With Katy still five days away from coming home, and Deb still refusing to call her back early, that meant only one thing.

  I had to do it all.

  Confidence, I told myself the following afternoon as I unlatched the door and stepped into Tori’s stable. Furiou
s at her confinement, she was practically climbing the walls of her loosebox already, so the vet had suggested hand-grazing her for twenty minutes, twice a day. She watched me approach and allowed me to clip the lead rope onto her halter, then followed me to the stable door. I took a deep breath and prayed that she would follow without argument, then swung the door open and stepped out. I heard Tori’s shod hooves clip on the concrete behind me, and together we walked towards the raceway that led up past the arena and out towards the back of the farm. Tori followed me stiffly, her ears swivelling back and forth as she looked around.

  “This way.” I walked her a short way up the grass strip, then stopped next to some longish grass. “Now, eat.”

  But Tori didn’t stop. She just barged past me and kept striding up the track, and I hurried alongside her, tugging at her lead rope.

  “Aren’t you hungry?” I asked her.

  Tori swung her head towards me and gave me a filthy look from the corner of her eye, then saw a particularly lush patch of grass and headed towards it, almost pulling the lead rope out of my hand in the process. I followed her, being careful not to end up standing too close to her twitchy hindquarters, then stood still in relief as she started snatching mouthfuls of long grass.

  “That’s the idea,” I said, relieved. “That’s what we’re here for.”

  I leaned against the fence and watched as she tore at the grass. Occasionally Tori would raise her head, chewing furiously and refusing to look at me, but at least she hadn’t attacked me or knocked me down. Yet.

  I reached into my pocket for my phone, planning to while away the time by scrolling through Instagram, but it wasn’t there. It wasn’t in my other pocket either, and I realised ruefully that I must have left it in the tack room. For a second, I considered leaving Tori there and running to get it, but I knew that wasn’t really an option. I was stuck being bored, and I leaned my head back and looked up at the wispy white clouds overhead, hoping that the next twenty minutes would at least be uneventful.

  The sun baked down on us, still retaining some of summer’s fierceness. And still I stood there, leaning against the fence and letting Tori graze. Without my phone, I had no idea how long I’d been standing there for, but I knew from experience that time moves slowly when you’re not doing much. I leaned back against the fencepost and daydreamed until the loud diesel engine of Dad’s work truck broke the quietude.

  “Time to go,” I told the horse, straightening up. “C’mon now.”

  I tugged at the lead rope, but Tori just flattened her ears and tugged back obstinately. It was crazy, but I’d been so concerned about getting her out here without being flattened that it hadn’t occurred to me that it would be tough to put her back in her box. Of course she wanted to stay out here, eating grass in the sun. She wasn’t stupid.

  “Please?” I asked her. Tori responded to my plea by dragging me a few metres further away from the stables, and my heart sank. I did not want to get into a battle of wills with this horse. I already knew I wouldn’t win.

  “AJ!” It was my brother’s voice and I called back to him.

  “I’m over here!”

  Aidan appeared at the end of the raceway. “You ready to go?”

  “I am, but Tori isn’t,” I called back. I could see his impatience from where I was standing, then had a brain wave. “Hey, you wanna help?”

  Moments later, Aidan was handing me a bucket of sweet feed, which I held out towards Tori and shook temptingly. She lifted her head and looked at me, then at Aidan. Her ears swivelled backwards and her nostrils wrinkled, and my brother took a step back.

  “Man, she looks mean.”

  “That’s why we call her the dragon,” I told him. “I’d like to say she’s all bark, no bite, but…”

  As I spoke, Tori took a step towards me. Aidan jumped backwards, but Tori ignored him, dipping her nose into the bucket and grabbing a mouthful of the molassed grain.

  “Good girl,” I told her. “That’s the way. Come on. You can have the rest when you get back in your box.”

  It was slow progress, with Aidan walking warily ahead of us and Tori stopping several times for a bit more grass, but we eventually made it. At least, we made it as far as the stable door before Tori quit again.

  “Come on, in you come,” I urged. She tossed her head, then pawed the ground. “I know, Tor. I get it. But you have to go back in here, just for a bit longer. I’ll take you out again after work.” I rattled the sweet feed remnants in the bottom of the bucket, but Tori raised her head even higher, then leaned back against the rope, reminding me that she could get away from me any time she wanted to. “Hey now, don’t do that. Just a few more steps, then I’ll give you another whole scoop. How’s that sound?”

  Tori huffed out a breath, then took a hesitant step forward, followed by another, until finally she was in the stable. I put the bucket in her feed bin as Aidan shut the door behind us, and unclipped her lead rope as she licked up the last of the bribe.

  “Good girl.” I reached out and gave her shoulder a gentle pat. I might as well have patted a concrete block, for all the reaction I got, but at least she didn’t try to attack me. It was progress, of a sort.

  “Can we go now?”

  I looked at my brother, standing at the door and still eyeing Tori with caution. “That depends. Can I drive?”

  * * *

  I stood in front of the mirror in my bedroom and checked my outfit, wondering if it was the appropriate choice for dinner with my boyfriend’s family. We were just having dinner at their house, before Harry and I went to the movies, but I didn’t want to look completely scruffy for my first time properly meeting his mum and sisters. I turned sideways, considering my choice of close-fitting jeans, ballet flats and my new red top with the low neckline. I caught sight of the alarm clock beside my bed and shrugged at my reflection. If I spent any more time worrying about it, I’d be late. I was just going to have to wing it.

  I went into the living room, searching for Aidan, and found Anders reclined on the couch. He looked at me with a strange expression before sitting up straighter with a frown.

  “Woah, wait a minute. Where d’you think you’re going, dressed like that?”

  “Somewhere you’re not,” I shot back as Aidan walked into the room, cracking open a can of beer.

  “Where’s mine?” Anders demanded.

  “In the fridge,” Aidan said placidly, looking me up and down before taking a drink. “What’re you all dressed up for?”

  I looked down at myself. “Anyone would think I’m wearing a mini-dress, from the way you lot are reacting. I just need a ride to Harry’s.”

  Anders shook his head. “No way. You’re not going out with Scud dressed like that.”

  “Excuse me? Since when do you have a say in what I do, or what I wear?”

  “Since you’ve started dressing slutty.”

  My jaw dropped. “You know, Anders, when I want your opinion, I’ll ask for it. Which will be never.” I turned away from him and back to my older brother. “Aidan?”

  Before Aidan could reply, a yell came from the other end of the house.

  “Turn that music down!” Lexi’s voice knew how to carry. It’d had years of practice. We heard her stomping down the hall and banging on Astrid’s door. “Astrid! Stop drumming and turn it down now!”

  “Get out of my room!”

  “I’m not leaving until you stop turn your music down!” As Lexi spoke, the music volume dropped substantially, but Astrid stubbornly kept whacking away on her drum kit. Lexi’s voice shifted up an octave. “And your bedroom stinks! What have you been doing in here?”

  “Get out, Lexi!”

  A cymbal crashed, Astrid yelped, and Anders tipped his head back and groaned. Aidan put his beer down on the coffee table and pointed towards the back door.

  “Car’s out there.”

  I grinned and followed him towards it as Anders protested. “Don’t leave me here with this!”

  “Sorry bro,” Aid
an said. “But we can outrun you.”

  Down the hall, the voices grew louder. “Ouch! Stop it!”

  “Don’t touch me!”

  I paused in the doorway and leaned back into the room, grinning at Anders. “Better hurry up, or they’ll have torn each other to shreds by the time you limp over there.”

  Anders lifted one hand and flipped me his middle finger. I stuck my tongue out at him, then ran across the lawn to meet Aidan and escape the house before World War III broke out.

  “She made it!” Harry opened the front door of his parent’s villa and grinned at me. “And she looks…”

  His voice trailed off as he looked me up and down, and I felt my face flush self-consciously. Maybe this top was too low-cut for a family dinner… I looked back up at Harry and caught the mischievous gleam in his eyes.

  “I look what?”

  Harry raised an eyebrow, deliberating over his words for a moment. “Like you made an effort.”

  “Really? That’s the best you can do?”

  “What? It’s a compliment.”

  “It’s a poor excuse for one, and you know it,” I told him as he stepped back and ushered me into the wide entry hall. “I thought you were supposed to be smooth.”

  “Okay, okay.” Harry shut the door behind me, then slid his arms around my waist and pulled me in towards him. “You look amazing.”

  “Say it like you mean it.”

  “I do.” He pressed his forehead against mine and smiled down at me. “Especially from right here. This view is perfect.”

  I rolled my eyes and shoved him away, but he didn’t budge. “Typical boy. One track mind.”

  “You’d be even more offended if I hadn’t noticed,” he pointed out, then lifted his head and sniffed my hair. “What’d you do, wash?”

  “Just for you.”

  “I’m flattered. But you know, I’m also okay with dirty,” he added, his voice going lower as he dropped his head and kissed me.