“I, uh, wrapped it up and put it away in the closet after Maxi knocked it over one day and nearly broke it.” Once again Laura found herself telling a white lie, and this time blaming the poor cat.
“Well, this one can live safely on your shelf with the others.”
The final gift from her parents gave Laura a bit of a start. It was a new backpack, a black and grey Nike sportbag with a large central compartment and lots of zippered side pockets.
“I noticed your old one is getting pretty ratty,” her mother explained. “It smells awfully gamey, too. What have you been toting around in there?”
Laura, Krissy and Todd avoided looking at each other, because they knew they would burst out laughing if their eyes met.
Todd stood up and reached into his jeans pocket. He handed Laura an envelope. She opened it. There was a cheap dollar-store greeting card inside with kittens on it. The careful handwriting read:
Happy Birthday and thanks for everything.
Underneath, Todd had written, as an afterthought:
If you ever want to go fishing
I have a net I don’t need anymore.
Laura and her friends presented the new bed and backpack to Flash, who was surprised and delighted they had thought of him. He circled a few times in the soft, fuzzy bed, then sank down gratefully in its plush comfort. “Ahhhh,” he sighed.
He was equally enthralled with the new backpack, or Flashmobile, as the kids had dubbed it. “Very roomy,” he observed. “The mesh is a nice touch, better air flow, you see.”
As Maxi slunk into the closet and began to make herself at home in Flash’s new bed, he yelled, “Hey! Get out of there!” and stormed in after her to defend his new sleeping quarters. There was the sound of a scuffle, the flutter of wings, a hiss.
Laura laughed. “Oh, they’ll sort it out. They always do.”
And so the Turtle Creek Triad began to plan the rest of their summer. Outside, the sky began to darken. In the distance, there was the ominous rumble of thunder.
A storm was coming.
SUSAN STAFFORD
“The Fearless Editor”
Susan Stafford was bitten by the horse bug at an early age, finally realizing her dream of horse ownership in her early twenties. She is the managing editor of Horsepower Magazine which helps horse-crazy kids satisfy their hunger for all things equine. Susan has three grown children and lives on the shores of Lake Erie with her husband. Pocket Pegasus is her first book.
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