Dream Horse

by Bonnie Bryant

  Carole gasped. Lisa screamed. They both jumped off the fence. Deborah ran toward Stevie. In a second, Carole had Belle’s reins. Lisa and Deborah knelt over Stevie.

  Their friend lay motionless on her back with her eyes closed, arms and legs splayed.

  “Stevie!” Lisa called.

  “Is she okay?” Carole asked, leading Belle over.

  Deborah held Stevie’s hand and felt her wrist for a pulse. The girls watched in horrified silence. Deborah nodded. She could feel the pulse. But so much else could be wrong!

  The moment felt like an eternity. Then Stevie’s eyes fluttered open. Deborah made her lie still and asked Stevie to move her arms, legs, hands, and feet one by one. She seemed okay.

  Lisa and Carole breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Thank God you had on a hard hat,” said Carole.

  “I think I should call a doctor,” Deborah said.

  “No, I’m okay, really,” Stevie said, pushing herself to a sitting position.

  “Here, I’ll help you up,” Lisa offered. Stevie took her hand.

  “Boy, I can’t believe Veronica would be so incredibly stupid as to cause an accident like this!” Lisa snapped. “Every time I think she’s reached the limit, she finds another limit to reach!”

  A genuine look of puzzlement crossed Stevie’s face. “Veronica? What’s she got to do with this? How could a nice girl like Veronica cause something like this to happen?”

  Lisa and Carole looked at one another.

  “Call a doctor,” said Lisa.

  “No, call an ambulance,” said Carole.

  “I already did,” said Deborah, tucking her cellular telephone back into her pocket.

  “LOOK, HERE IT IS,” Lisa said, flipping open her mother’s family medical encyclopedia. Concussion. That was the word the emergency medical technicians had used as they’d put Stevie into the ambulance at Pine Hollow.

  Deborah had been allowed to ride with Stevie to the hospital. Lisa and Carole had to stay behind. They’d used the time well. First, they’d untacked Belle, groomed her, and put her back in her stall. Then they’d hurried over to Lisa’s house, where they knew they would get word on their friend. Waiting for phone calls was hard. Lisa had suggested doing some research. “Not that we don’t trust the doctors,” she had said. “But we know Stevie better than they do.”

  Carole had agreed. It had only taken them a few minutes to locate the encyclopedia and look up concussion.

  “It says here a concussion results from impact to the head,” Lisa read, her finger running down the column of fine print.

  “Check,” Carole said. “She definitely had an impact to her head.”

  “There’s usually a headache,” Lisa read.

  “Check,” said Carole, recalling how Stevie’s hand had flown up to massage her sore head when she awoke.

  “And sometimes loss of consciousness and memory,” Lisa concluded.

  “Double check,” said Carole. “I can’t believe she didn’t remember Veronica’s part in the accident.”

  “Even if she didn’t remember it, how weird was it that she called Veronica ‘a nice girl’? I mean, that isn’t memory loss—it’s a change of personality!”

  “Does it say anything about that?” Carole asked.

  Lisa finished scanning the entry in the encyclopedia. “Not a word,” she said. She closed the book and was returning it to the bookshelf when the phone rang.

  Carole answered it. “It’s Chad,” she said to Lisa. Chad was Stevie’s older brother. Carole turned her attention back to the phone. “It’s definitely a concussion,” Carole reported. “Doctor says it isn’t too serious. She’ll stay overnight in the hospital to be on the safe side.”

  “Can we visit?” Lisa asked. Carole relayed the question.

  “Sure,” Chad said. “But the doctor doesn’t want anyone to stay too long. She’s supposed to get rest.”

  “Okay,” Carole agreed. “That makes sense. Is there anything she needs, anything we can do for her?”

  “As a matter of fact, there is,” Chad said. “She wanted me to ask you to call Phil and let him know. I told her I’d be glad to call him. For some reason, I don’t think she trusted me to do it.”

  “Do you think that might have something to do with the time you told Phil the family couldn’t wait until the two of them got married so you could have Stevie’s room?” Carole asked.

  “It was just a suggestion,” Chad protested.

  “As I recall, Stevie didn’t think it showed good judgment,” Carole reminded him. Stevie’s actual reaction had been somewhat stronger than that. She’d talked seriously to her parents about putting Chad up for adoption.

  “Yeah, right. But anyway, can you guys call Phil?”

  “Glad to,” said Carole. “And thanks for letting us know she’s okay.”

  A few minutes later, Lisa had Phil on the telephone and told him what had happened.

  “I’ll get to the hospital in about an hour,” he said, after asking his mother if she could drive him. “I’ll meet you there, in front of the place, okay?”

  “Well, sure, but is this a good time for you to go over?” Lisa asked.

  “Absolutely,” said Phil. “I’ve been working with Teddy, and he’s in a foul mood. To tell you the truth, I’m glad for an excuse to stop and give us both a rest. It’s almost like what happened to Stevie, in fact. I was out on the jump course, and one of my sister’s cats ran out in front of Teddy and spooked him. He shied sideways, and I just flew off him. I landed on my rear with my feet sticking straight out in front of me. I felt so dumb! So, Teddy’s spooked, and I’m sore on my saddle seat. Too bad I can’t stand up in the car on the way to the hospital! Anyway, I’ll see you there in one hour. Bye.”

  “Bye,” Lisa said. She hung up the phone. One hour would give Carole and Lisa just enough time to put together a goody basket for Stevie. There was work to do.

  An hour later, Lisa’s mother dropped the girls off in front of the hospital at almost exactly the same moment that Mrs. Marsten let Phil out of their car. Lisa was carrying a bag for Stevie. Phil had a bag in his hand, too.

  “What did you bring her?” Lisa asked.

  “Oh, it’s just funny stuff,” said Phil, almost embarrassed. “You know, Stevie-like things.”

  “We know,” said Carole. “We brought her a jar of monster goo.”

  “You’re kidding! So did I,” said Phil.

  “I guess we all know Stevie, huh?” Lisa joked. “Well, we also brought her a book of knock-knock jokes—she’ll really like those, don’t you think?”

  “I hope she likes the book of knock-knock jokes you brought as much as she likes the one I brought,” said Phil.

  “Really?” asked Carole.

  “Really,” said Phil. “Like you said, we know Stevie.”

  The three of them laughed. It turned out that they had brought some different things, too. Phil had a teddy bear—a gift from his horse, he said. Carole and Lisa had brought a Slinky and a selection of cassettes. They were glad to see that Phil was lending her his portable tape player.

  The three of them entered the hospital and followed the guard’s instructions to find Stevie’s room.

  Stevie was asleep when the three friends walked in. There was a bandage around her head, secured under her chin. She looked weak and small in the large hospital bed, surrounded by control devices. It looked very official. On closer examination, Lisa realized that one device was to adjust the bed, another was for the television, and the third was to call a nurse. Stevie, always interested in controlling things, was clutching all three in her hands.

  Their tiptoe steps awoke Stevie. Her eyes fluttered open. She smiled at her friends.

  “How are you feeling?” Phil asked.

  “I feel great,” Stevie told him. Lisa and Phil each handed her a bag of goodies. Stevie loved her presents and gave her friends hugs. She said there was a young doctor who was going to particularly appreciate what she had in mind for the monst
er goo.

  “What’s the bandage for? Did you cut yourself or something?” Carole asked. She couldn’t remember anything about the accident that would have required a bandage.

  “It’s to hold an ice pack in place,” Stevie explained. “The thing about concussions is that they come with major headaches. The ice helps. The bandage is just to get sympathy because the doctor says I’m really not very sick.”

  “Well, that’s good news,” said Phil. “How can anyone have any fun in a hospital if they’re really sick?” he joked.

  Stevie smiled. “Well, if you’re really sick, then you won’t notice how awful the food is.”

  “Stevie, you haven’t been here long enough to have a meal,” Lisa reminded her.

  “Oh, right,” said Stevie. “But when it comes, I know it’ll be awful. All I’ve had time to do is sleep, and every time I do that, somebody comes in here and asks me what my name is or if I can remember how to count backward from a hundred. Or worse, they want to make sure I’m resting. I haven’t even had time for a decent dream.”

  “Have you had any dreams?” Lisa asked. She always thought dreams were interesting.

  “Um, yeah,” Stevie said. “An hour and a half ago a nurse woke me up in the middle of a dream about a horse.”

  “See, she’s right. She’s not really sick. Dreaming about horses is perfectly normal,” said Carole.

  “Well, this wasn’t so normal,” Stevie said. “It was this beautiful bay gelding. He was cantering. He had a gorgeous gait—smooth as could be. Anyway, suddenly something startled the horse, and it got spooked and shied sideways. Next thing I saw was something flying over the horse’s head. I don’t know what it was, but it was big. Then a nurse came in and asked me who the first president of the United States was. I told her it was Frank Sinatra. That got her to leave pretty fast.”

  Carole, Lisa, and Phil all laughed. It was just like Stevie to tease a nurse.

  The door to Stevie’s room opened, and a young doctor came in, accompanied by a nurse with a worried look on her face. Stevie’s friends offered to leave, but the doctor said that wouldn’t be necessary.

  He looked in Stevie’s eyes with a penlight and had her follow his finger as he moved it around in front of her.

  “Everything seems okay,” he said to the nurse. Then he turned back to Stevie. “Um, Stephanie,” he said, checking her chart, “do you happen to remember—now, don’t worry if everything isn’t totally clear to you—but would it be possible for you to recall who the first president of the United States was?”

  “Napoléon Bonaparte,” she said, without batting an eye.

  “Right,” said the young doctor, making a mark on her chart. “Thank you.” He smiled insincerely and then turned to Lisa, Carole, and Phil. “I think Stephanie could use a little more rest now,” he said. “Perhaps you’d like to come back tomorrow?”

  Carole was about to set the doctor straight and explain that Stevie was just being funny, but Phil tugged at her sleeve.

  “Sure thing, Doctor,” he said. “Bye, Stevie. We’ll check in tomorrow to see how you’re doing.”

  “I’ll be home by tomorrow,” she said brightly.

  “We’ll see,” said the doctor.

  “Come on,” said Phil to Lisa and Carole.

  As they scurried through the shiny hallways of the hospital, Lisa asked Phil why he’d been in such a hurry to get out of there.

  “Because something very strange is going on,” he said.

  “Wait a minute. You know she was joking about the president. It’s a dumb question. She was just giving a dumb answer,” Lisa said.

  “Not that. Of course she was teasing. No. It was about the horse in her dream.”

  “What about it?” asked Carole. “I’ve seen lots of horses shy. That didn’t seem strange to me.”

  “What was strange was that she was describing exactly what Teddy did at exactly the time she was dreaming about a bay gelding getting spooked. Don’t you see? She described what happened to me. And the thing she saw flying over Teddy’s head was my body!”

  Lisa stopped walking and put her hands on her hips. “Are you telling us you think Stevie’s suddenly developed ESP from a bang on her head?” she asked. “Also, keep in mind that the accident that put Stevie here in the hospital is a lot like the one that made you fly over Teddy’s head and land on your backside. She was probably just dreaming about her own accident.”

  Phil paused for a moment. Then he shrugged. “I guess my notion is pretty kooky, isn’t it?”

  “That’s one way to put it,” Lisa said.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “But it did seem strange. I mean, it happened to me about an hour and a half ago, and that’s when she was having the dream.”

  “And the same thing happened to her about three hours ago,” Lisa reminded him. “It makes sense that she would dream about the accident that landed her in the hospital even if her accident involved a mare and her dream was about a gelding.”

  “I guess,” Phil said.

  They started walking again and got to the front door of the hospital just as Mrs. Marsten arrived to pick Phil up. Mrs. Marsten offered the girls a lift, but they just had a short walk. They were going over to Pine Hollow on their way back to Lisa’s. They all agreed to visit Stevie together the next day. Then Phil drove off with his mother.

  “Can you believe that?” Lisa asked. “ESP? Sometimes I wonder who’s weirder: Phil or Stevie.”

  “You know, I feel a little bit sorry for the doctor who is worrying about whether Stevie—um, I mean Stephanie—knows who the first president was.”

  “Especially if he’s the same doctor she was talking about when she mentioned the monster goo,” said Lisa.

  “The problem with Stevie is that only her best friends understand that what’s normal for her may not be exactly what the medical textbooks say is normal for other people.”

  “And I guess that’s why we care about her so much,” said Lisa.

  MAX AND DEBORAH were having a serious conversation when Lisa and Carole arrived. The girls weren’t trying to overhear, but it was hard not to because the couple was standing right by Starlight’s stall.

  “But how are you going to know?” Max asked.

  “I don’t know, but I will,” Deborah said.

  “No way. I’m coming.”

  “You can’t,” she said. “He’ll know who you are. You’ll blow my cover! This is my job!”

  “It won’t make any difference if you don’t know what you’re writing about,” said Max.

  “But Max—”

  Max spotted Lisa and Carole. “How’s Stevie?” he asked. The girls told him about their visit. “When she starts thinking about monster goo and a doctor, you can tell she’s on the mend,” he said, looking relieved.

  “The trouble is that Stevie is so, um …” Carole searched for a word.

  “Stevian,” Lisa supplied.

  “Yes, I think you mean one of a kind,” Deborah translated.

  “Right,” Carole agreed. “She’s so unique, it’s going to be hard for her doctors to know whether she’s thinking straight. I mean, she really got a nurse upset when she told her that Frank Sinatra was the first president of the United States.”

  Max grinned. “It’s nice to know that Stevie is being a challenge for someone else for once!”

  Deborah wrinkled her forehead in thought.

  “What’s up?” Lisa asked her.

  “Well, Stevie has a way of solving problems that I sometimes admire. I was just trying to think what she’d do with the problem I have about this investigation into Mickey Denver’s business.”

  “Easy,” Lisa said. “She’d tell you to take her along, say she’s your daughter, and pretend that you’re buying a horse for her. She doesn’t know as much as Max, but she knows enough to know when a horse dealer’s out-and-out lying.”

  “Too bad she’s in the hospital,” Deborah said.

  “Ah, but you’ve got the second- and thir
d-best thing here,” said Carole. “Lisa and I can help.”

  “Great idea,” Deborah said brightly. “It’s perfect, in fact!”

  “Oh, no way!” Max began. “This man is a—”

  “Horse trader,” said Carole. “We know quite a bit about horses. We’ll know if he’s trying to pass off a nag as a Thoroughbred.”

  “He’ll see right through you!” Max said sternly.

  “Max! Don’t forget who had the starring role in Annie,” Lisa reminded him.

  “Right, so you’re going to sing to him?” Max asked sarcastically.

  Deborah spoke calmly. “Darling,” she said, “this is exactly what I need. For one thing, the girls do know about horses. For another, a little girl and her doting mother are going to seem like easy marks to a crooked horse trader. It’s perfect.”

  Max seemed to want to say something more. Then he sighed and relented. “I thought life would be simpler with Stevie in the hospital, but it seems that she’s here even when she isn’t.”

  “That’s the magic of Stevie, isn’t it?” Carole asked.

  It only took Lisa, Carole, and Deborah a few minutes to set up what Carole called their sting operation. Deborah would be the mother, of course. Lisa would pose as her daughter, and Carole as her daughter’s best friend.

  “I’m not going to have any trouble playing that part,” Carole said.

  “I won’t have any trouble being a horse-crazy girl,” said Lisa. “The hardest part is going to be pretending we don’t know much about horses.”

  “You’re right about that,” Carole agreed. “Do you think I’ve got time for a few acting lessons before we go?” she joked.

  “Don’t worry, dear,” said Deborah in a very motherly voice. “If you make any mistakes, I’ll see that you’re grounded.”

  Carole snapped a clean salute. “No mistakes, ma’am,” she promised.

  “It’s really not going to be too hard,” said Deborah. “Your job is to be totally enthusiastic about any horse he tries to sell us, okay?”

  “Deal,” Lisa and Carole said.

  “Come on, let’s call and see when we can meet him,” she said.