by Wood, Karen
The girls all reached into their pockets and pulled out their pocket money. It was only a few coins and added up to not much more than ten dollars.
The sale ring was a round arena with a roof and a dirt floor, surrounded by seats. Kit took off her wet coat and found a seat in the third row. She held her breath for what seemed like a whole hour. Horse after horse came through. People called out prices.
‘Two hundred dollars!’
‘Three hundred dollars!’
‘Four hundred dollars!’
‘Four hundred and fifty dollars!’
When the bidding stopped, a man banged a hammer on the gate post. ‘Sold for four hundred and fifty dollars!’
Another horse was chased into the ring and the same thing happened again.
Kit thought she would die from the anxiety of waiting. When the auctioneer got to number thirty-two, she could barely sit still. She could see the gypsy mare’s ears and the top of her shaggy forelock. Finally the gate opened and a man led the mare, limping, into the ring.
‘How much for this aged mare?’ said the auctioneer. ‘She still has her teeth, she might make a good lawn mower.’
The crowd laughed.
‘Fifty bucks,’ someone yelled from the back row.
Kit jumped up from her seat. ‘One hundred dollars,’ she shouted and thrust her hand in the air.
Analita jerked her back down. ‘Let me do the bidding,’ she whispered.
‘Two hundred,’ someone barked.
Kit tried to stand again, but her mother held her firmly in place. Analita put her hand up. ‘Two hundred and ten!’
‘Two-fifty!’
Kit felt sick with nerves.
‘Two fifty-five,’ said Analita.
‘Three hundred,’ the voice yelled back.
The auctioneer lifted his hammer.
Analita jumbled all the cash in her hands. ‘We only have three hundred and thirty-one dollars.’ She turned to the bidder in the back row. ‘Please, sir. She would go to a loving home.’
‘Three-fifty,’ the man said, as though he hadn’t even heard her.
Kit glanced at him. The man was small and grubby. He flashed a toothless grin and she instantly recognised him from the car park. She turned back to the ring, then buried her face in her hands. They had no more money.
‘Three hundred and sixty dollars,’ yelled the auctioneer.
Kit lifted her head. Another bidder? Where did that come from? The auctioneer pointed in a different direction. But Kit could not see who had raised their hand.
‘Are there any more bids?’ asked the auctioneer. He raised his hammer. ‘Going once…’
Kit looked anxiously at the pet food man.
‘Going twice…’
The pet food man shook his head. After a brief pause, the auctioneer brought his hammer down with a dull whack. ‘Sold for three hundred and sixty dollars!’
The outward gate swung open and all too quickly the mare was gone, back into the rain. Kit saw her rump disappear around a corner. She searched frantically for the buyer. There were hats and heads and shoulders and people. It was impossible to tell who had bought her.
Confused, Kit turned to Ruby. She had her hand on her necklace and she was smiling. ‘What is it?’ asked Kit desperately. ‘What do you see?’
‘I see a big feed bucket and a stable filled with wood shavings. I see warm blankets and licorice treats.’ Ruby opened her eyes and stared at Kit. ‘I even saw a rainbow!’
‘A rainbow? What does that mean?’
‘It means she will die and go to heaven,’ said Lexie.
‘It does not!’ snapped Ruby. ‘For goodness sake, Lexie. Don’t be so glum.’
‘Then what does it mean?’ asked Kit. ‘My bracelet is warmer, but I still feel worried. I’m so confused.’
Ruby shrugged. ‘I guess it means she found a nice home, with someone who will take good care of her.’
Kit didn’t know what to feel. She was glad for the mare, but sad for herself. ‘Perhaps someone did realise she was special after all.’
‘She is probably better off then,’ said Lexie. ‘We could hardly afford to feed her anyway.’
‘We could so have fed her,’ said Kit trying not to burst into tears.
‘Come,’ said Analita. ‘I’ll use my twenty dollars to buy you an ice-cream.That’ll cheer you up.’
But Kit did not feel like ice-cream. She felt like making the mare some warm burdock tea to soothe her aching joints. ‘She had amber eyes,’ she said sadly. ‘Did you know that?’
Something flashed across Analita’s face then disappeared. Was it regret? ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘What flavour do you want?’
Kit, Ruby and Lexie sat at a table in the window of the ice-cream shop, staring out at the miserable grey day. Their ice-creams melted in their hands.
‘How’s the salted caramel flavour?’ asked Analita in a voice that was too cheerful.
Kit looked at the soggy cone. ‘Good.’
‘How’s the choc mint chip?’
‘Fine,’ said Ruby.
‘The raspberry swirl?’
‘Okay,’ said Lexie.
They sat there a moment longer. A thread of disappointment wove through the three sisters. It was all the more powerful in triplicate.
Eventually Analita stood and jingled her car keys. ‘Let’s go home.’
It was a long quiet drive back to Kulnara. As they drove through the small town, the rain finally stopped. A rainbow appeared in the distance and it reminded Kit of the mare. She stared out the window and tried to imagine where the poor horse might be. Would her new owners fix her sore feet? Would they feed her and give her a warm shelter?
As they drove into their farm, a large truck drove out. ‘Who was that?’ asked Kit.
‘I don’t know,’ said Analita. ‘I’ve never seen that truck before. Maybe someone came to fix the water pump.’
Kit saw Grampy disappearing into the barn. ‘I just want to see Kismet,’ she said. She hopped out of the car and ran to the barn. A cuddle from Kismet always made her feel better.
She found Grampy in the feed room. The mountain of hay that the mayor had given them was half gone already. ‘I don’t know what we will feed them once this is all gone,’ he said as he cut the strings around another bale. He pulled four biscuits off and put them in the wheelbarrow. ‘We have four mouths to feed now, so we’ll have to be extra careful.’
‘Four mouths?’ What was Grampy talking about?
‘It’s what you wanted, wasn’t it?’ he said, and gestured to the end stable.
Kit raced to it.
When she looked inside, her heart leapt. The gypsy mare stood with her nose in a feed bin, chewing slowly. Kit could smell the bran and molasses. Grampy had filled her stall with soft wood shavings and she had a bucket of fresh water.
‘You bought her,’ said Kit. ‘You were the mystery bidder!’
Grampy nodded. But he didn’t smile.
‘You old trickster, you!’ Kit laughed as she wrapped her arms around Grampy and squeezed him tight.
‘Ja, ja,’ he said, gently pushing her away.
Kit slowly opened the stable door. The mare continued to chew. Kit ran a hand along her neck. She pushed her forelock aside and gazed into her eyes. ‘What made you change your mind?’
‘She is from Magnifico’s line,’ said Grampy. ‘One of the greatest lines in Europe, extremely rare in this country. It is a crime that she should end up in such a state.’ Rather than excited, Grampy seemed angry.
‘It is a crime that any horse should end up in this state.’ The bracelet around Kit’s wrist remained cool as she stroked the mare’s neck. She was so much like Kismet. ‘How do you know she is by Magnifico?’
‘There’s no other explanation,’ he said.
‘But how could that be?’
‘When I first came to Australia, a breeder in the Silver Mountains bred two mares to Magnifico. Maybe this is one of the foals.’ Grampy’s face tightened. �
��Now that she is of no use to him, she has been dumped at the sales.’
Grampy let himself into the stall and ran a hand over the mare’s neck. A deep sadness crossed his face. ‘If only we could afford to keep her.’
‘We’re not going to keep her?’ Kit’s heart dived.
‘No.’ Grampy shook his head. ‘If she is a Magnifico horse, then she has a special person out there somewhere. She’ll never be truly happy with us.’
‘But …’ Now that she had the mare home, Kit felt strongly that she was meant to stay.
‘Let’s call her Chance,’ said Grampy, as they left the stable together. ‘Because she deserves a second chance.’ He made his way to the large open doorway and stared at the dreary day outside.
Kit rushed after him. ‘Grampy, if we don’t find her real owner, please can we keep her?’
He gave her a kind look. ‘She is old and frail. She cannot earn her keep. It would be cruel to make her try.’ He gave an exasperated sigh. ‘I need to buy a tractor!’
‘But…’ Kit scrambled for ideas. ‘She must be able to earn her keep somehow, surely.’
Grampy didn’t seem to hear her. He was watching the rain. ‘Look at this weather. The crops will be ruined if I don’t spray for mildew. I should be buying fungicide, not more horse food.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Ruby and Lexie entered the barn.
‘Grampy bought the mare,’ said Kit ‘She’s in the last stable.’
‘What?!’ Ruby and Lexie ran to the end of the barn and gasped.
‘I thought we couldn’t afford another horse?’ Ruby said.
‘We can’t,’ Grampy replied in a flat voice. ‘I will trim her hooves and we can nurse her back to health. But as soon as she is better, we will have to find her another home. I’m sure someone with a kind heart and plenty of land will be willing to take her.’ He sighed as he left the building.
When Grampy was gone, Kit heard a grunting noise. ‘What is that?’
Ruby pointed to Chance. She had fallen asleep with her nose in the feed bin. Her snores echoed in the metal tub.
‘She must be exhausted,’ said Lexie.
‘Maybe we should give her a bath,’ Kit said. For as long as the mare was with them, Kit would love her like she was her own. ‘That might make her feel better.’
The girls set about washing Chance. Then they rubbed her all over with towels.
‘She has bald patches,’ Ruby said.
‘I’ll make some calendula ointment,’ Kit replied.
‘She has big splits in her hooves,’ said Lexie.
‘She’ll need some hawthorn berries too.’
‘She has a lump on her cheek,’ said Ruby. ‘She must have a toothache. No wonder she feels so poorly.’
‘I must find some devil’s claw root,’ said Kit. ‘Oh dear, she needs everything.’
The girls led Chance back to her stall and put a blanket over her. Kit brought her another bucket of warm mash, with hawthorn berries mixed through it. Lexie gave her fresh hay and filled her water bucket again. Ruby fluffed up her shavings and then closed the stable door.
‘Well, she certainly likes her food,’ said Ruby. Chance’s head filled the bucket. She closed her eyes as she ate and looked almost at peace.
‘She is healing,’ said Kit, touching the bracelet on her wrist. It was warm like a woolly scarf. ‘The berries must be working already.’
She watched the mare eat. Her bones poked through the blanket like a coathanger. ‘Do you think there is any way she could earn her keep and stay?’ Kit asked her sisters.
Not even Ruby looked hopeful.
That night, as Kit lay in bed, she heard Grampy playing his mandolin. She only ever heard the sound of it late at night, and it never lasted long. Grampy always made the instrument sound miserable. He only played a few sad chords and stopped. It was like he couldn’t allow himself to be happy.
The weather remained overcast and drizzly into the next week. Grampy sat at the breakfast table grumbling about powdery mildew and the cost of fungicide spray. ‘Everything would be so much easier with a tractor,’ he said.
Everything would be so much easier if you just gave up trying to be a farmer, thought Kit. But without knowing exactly what else they could do for a living, she said nothing. She kept turning the pages of Grandma Levinia’s diary, looking for more ways to make Chance feel better. Levinia had written many notes on horsey herbal remedies.
After breakfast, Kit visited Chance to put more lotion on her bald patches. In less than a week in the care of Kit and her sisters, she was much improved – her toothache was gone, her hooves were in better shape, there was more flesh on her ribs and she no longer seemed exhausted all the time.
She had spent every day at school trying to think of ways that Chance could be part of their show. She began dreaming of a life where Grampy didn’t have to pull weeds all day and they could all be full-time trick riders, travelling the countryside in a traditional Romani-style wagon. They would travel from town to town putting on shows and delighting the crowds. At night they would gather around a fire. Grampy would laugh and sing and play happy songs on his mandolin. Kit and her sisters would dance and twirl and click their fingers. The horses would graze happily nearby.
When Mrs Alamango called the attendance roll on Friday morning, Kit barely heard her name.
Lexie nudged her with a sharp elbow. ‘Wake up!’
‘I’m here!’ Kit said quickly and put her hand up.
Mrs Alamango began handing out notices. ‘Next week we are going on an excursion to Marine World,’ she said.
‘I’ve been there three times,’ said Haylee White, in an excited voice. ‘We always do the special tour so we can pat the seals.’
‘I’ve been there four times,’ said Harry Chalkman, who always liked to be better than everyone else. ‘I got to swim with the seals.’
Kit frowned at him, and next to her Lexie burst out, ‘I thought you were grounded, anyway.’ Harry had been caught stealing at the recent Summer Festival.
‘Not from school excursions,’ he said.
‘Can everyone please take these forms home and have their parents sign?’ said Mrs Alamango. ‘Bring them back with twenty dollars.’
Kit stuffed the notice into her bag without enthusiasm. No way would Grampy and Analita be able to pay sixty dollars for all three sisters to go to Marine World. Such was the life of a triplet. Everything was three times more expensive.
By the time they climbed off the school bus that afternoon, Kit still hadn’t come up with any ideas for how they could keep Chance. But at least the sun had come out. She dumped her bag by her bed and got changed for riding. They had all agreed that Chance was well enough now to come with them to Trickstars HQ.
Kit vaulted onto Kismet’s back and led Chance behind them. The old mare plodded one step at a time. At every opportunity, she put her head down and started ripping at grass.
Finally the mare stopped at a lush green patch, and no matter how hard Kit pulled, she would not move. Ruby grabbed the rope too. Lexie pushed from behind. Chance kept eating as though nothing was happening.
‘Gosh, she’s a bit…’ Kit wondered how to put it nicely.
‘Stubborn as an old mule,’ said Lexie, who was purple in the face from pushing. She grunted with the effort.
By the time they got to their headquarters, an abandoned flower farm, the girls were exhausted. Kit left Chance to graze near the old cottage.
Inside the old cottage, Kit called the meeting to order. ‘How can we help Chance to earn her keep?’ she asked her sisters. ‘Does anyone have any ideas?’
‘Maybe we could teach her some tricks,’ said Ruby. ‘Just some easy ones.’
‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,’ said Lexie.
‘She’s not a dog,’ said Kit. ‘Let’s do our normal practice routine and see if she shows any interest. Maybe she’ll want to join in.’
‘Good idea,’ said Ruby. ‘Meeting closed.’
Kit pulled on her trick-riding slippers and jumped onto Kismet. ‘Right, Chance,’ she said in a determined voice. ‘Watch this!’
The mare twitched her tail and continued pulling at the grass.
Kit looked at her in dismay. ‘All she wants to do is eat!’
‘Maybe she’ll take more notice once we get started,’ said Lexie, riding into the ring. ‘I’ll go first.’
Ruby and Kit followed. When the three horses were cantering, Ruby called out the warm up exercises one by one. From basic seat, they flipped from flag to mill, then to scissors, stand and flank. When they finished, the triplets stopped and stared at Chance.
She was on her side, fast asleep.
‘Hmmm,’ said Ruby. ‘We must be boring.’
‘How about some Roman riding?’ said Kit. ‘Everyone loves Roman riding.’ She brought Tinker alongside Featherfoot. When the two horses were side by side, she stood upright with one foot on each horse. Holding a set of reins in each hand, she clucked for the horses to walk forward.
‘Everyone except Chance,’ said Lexie.
The mare stretched her legs, flopped her head back and continued snoring.
Kit frowned at the sleeping horse. She was surrounded by half-chewed flower bushes. ‘Oh no,’ she groaned when she recognised the plants. ‘She’s been eating chamomile flowers. Hundreds of them. No wonder she fell asleep – they’re relaxing herbs!’
‘Maybe she’ll be more interested when she wakes up,’ said Ruby.
‘When will that be?’ asked Lexie.
‘Probably next week,’ said Kit.
The triplets gave up and spent the rest of the afternoon practising a new trick they called ‘Supernova’. It started with their signature trick, Galaxy of Stars. All three girls stood on a cantering Featherfoot and formed a star shape. After that, they leapt about like exploding stars.
When they were exhausted, Chance stood up and shook like a big dog. She stared lazily at the practice ring.
‘Oh, at last, we can teach her some tricks,’ said Kit. She slipped off Kismet and ran to attach a rope to Chance’s halter.