Her mother passed them, both arms laden with cloth tote bags. “Yes, I thought you might need reinforcements after school and on weekends. The doctor said Dave’s going to need help for about two weeks.”
Vee stepped forward and took one of Sunny’s bags. “That means two weekends of sleepovers and every day after school.”
“Yeah,” Esther chimed in. “We get to be part-time ranch hands!”
Aneta took Sunny’s other bag. “My mom and Gram say this is a learning and giving opportunity.”
The four girls laughed. They knew how Aneta felt about “opportunity.” It often meant she ended up doing something way out of normal. But this time it wouldn’t be. Not with all of them helping with the animals and Uncle Dave. Piece of cake. Especially if she was a great Aneta-type person who finished things.
In the kitchen, the girls and Sunny’s mom put away the groceries and frozen food.
“You said you were going to cook for your uncle,” Esther said, sliding box after box into the freezer. “I thought you meant, like, real cooking.”
“I am,” Sunny defended herself. “I’m going to make amazing breakfasts for Uncle Dave.” That part wouldn’t be like Aneta. Cooking and Aneta? Not such a good mix, the Squad and others had discovered. Think smoke.
“Good,” came a wobbly voice from the small living room immediately across from the big kitchen. “I like a–mm–m–mazing br–r–reakfasts.”
The girls trooped into the room. There on the couch amid a bunch of pillows lay Uncle Dave. Sunny explained to the girls in a low voice that he had pins put in his ankle and that was a fiberglass cast around his lower leg. This was a perfect opportunity to practice niceness.
“Here we are,” Sunny announced, introducing her friends. Uncle Dave’s eyes looked kind of funny, like he was looking at her but not really seeing her. He waved a floppy hello. Pillows were supposed to make you feel like you’re lying on a cloud, but Uncle Dave acted more like they were stone pillows. One in particular seemed to be sticking his neck out funny. Great! Time to be kind. Sunny darted forward and with a quick tug moved the pillow to the left. Uncle Dave’s head rolled with it. “We’re here to help you, Uncle Dave.”
“Ow,” he said faintly.
“Oops.” Sunny shoved the pillow back, poking him in the eye with the corner of it. He had to peer at them out of one eye.
“Right,” he said, his words slippery and slurred. “I h–hh–ope I surrrvive it.”
Everyone always smiled when Aneta did things like that. As long as she wasn’t cooking, she did a great job being nice and helping. It wasn’t going to work for Sunny to be like Aneta. Uncle Dave wouldn’t live through it.
Sunny’s mom left after many directions. Vee wrote them all down. Sunny’s mom raved about how organized Vee was. That decided it. Sunny’s next try on finishing: be like Vee for a few days and write down everything to do.
After his eyes fluttered closed, the girls left Uncle Dave to rest and sat around the long kitchen table surrounded by packing boxes.
“Oh, Sunny—Nadine said she’s missing you at the library.” Esther slouched in a kitchen chair.
“She says she needs one of your Great Ideas,” Aneta added.
Vee gazed around the room piled high with boxes. “Man, for a guy who’s not married, he has a lot of stuff.”
Sunny shook her head. “I don’t have Great Ideas anymore. They get me in Deep Trouble. So I’m going to be a finishing kind of kid. Like you guys.” She tucked away the thought, however, that it was fun to have Nadine think she used to have Great Ideas.
They moved on to what Uncle Dave needed help with. Vee, being Vee, pulled out her notebook and tiny pen to add to the directions for taking care of Uncle Dave.
“Wait,” Sunny said, holding out her hand for the notebook. “I want to make the list so I can finish things.”
Vee’s eyebrows hit her hairline; she slowly passed the notebook and pen to Sunny.
“You finish stuff. I want to be like you. Being like Aneta wasn’t good for Uncle Dave.”
Vee smiled. Aneta looked puzzled.
“You’re very nice. I wanted to try following through with being nice to Uncle Dave,” Sunny explained.
The light dawned in Aneta’s eyes. “Oh, and you were like me with cooking instead.”
“Right.”
Aneta nodded with a hint of a grin.
After a few minutes of Sunny contorting her face to remember what Uncle Dave had told her about the horses and what she remembered doing, she threw down the pen. “I must think harder!” She rubbed her head like her uncle did in the morning, her hair exploding in a floaty frizz. “Ahhhh!”
Aneta, Vee, and Esther tee-heed at the hairdo then plucked apples from the bowl Sunny’s mom had left on the table. Esther, sitting next to Sunny, leaned over to see the lists. Sunny covered them. “Not yet. I’m still working on them.”
“We could all make our own lists, you know,” Esther said.
“Oh, let Sunny do it. She’s not hurting anything,” Vee said, a stubborn light sneaking into her eyes.
Esther had that ready-for-battle look on her face. Now she was opening her mouth.
Sunny leaped from her seat, throwing her arms in the air. “Okay, guys, we can’t argue this time. Really. I mean it. I have to show Uncle Dave and my parents that I can actually finish something, so if you two are arguing, I know I’ll get distracted.”
Vee glared up at her. The Vee Stare full force. “I wasn’t arguing. I was giving my opinion.”
“Well.” Sunny felt deflated. She lowered herself back into the seat. “You get what I mean.”
Esther took a bite of apple and winced. “These are sour.” Suddenly she giggled. “Sunny, I promise I won’t be sour like this apple. I’ll crunch along with everyone else and help you finish stuff.”
Throwing an arm around Esther, Sunny surveyed the girls. She loved the Squad. She really did. Who else would give up free time after school and for two weekends to work hard? She frowned. Hmmm. Unless they didn’t know how hard they were going to work.
She finished the list a few minutes later and showed it to the girls. Vee said it was a great list.
“On to make dinner!” Sunny announced, springing up from the chair.
Dinner was hot dogs cooked in a frying pan on the stove with not-toasted buns. Although Sunny’s mom always toasted the buns under the broiler, the girls had agreed that it might not be a good idea to use a strange oven on night one. A microwave pan of macaroni and cheese—much more fancy than box-style—rounded out the meal. Sunny took in a plate on a tray for the sleeping Uncle Dave to have whenever he awoke.
“After the creepy carnival guy left, the zoo got friendly,” Aneta said after dinner, picking up their empty plates and heading toward the sink. “So now we do not have to un-grump them like Sunny said.” Vee joined her and together they rinsed the dishes and silverware and placed them in the dishwasher.
“And we were washing them, too. Other than Which Way, they might not have liked it, but they weren’t grumpy about it,” Vee said.
“Like I said, this has been the easiest rescue ever. Now we need to see what each animal is good at so we can tell people.” Esther set her fork down and pushed her not-quite-empty plate away. “That might help them find homes. After homework.”
The girls started on their homework at the big pine table as they had promised parents. Every time Sunny started to daydream, she’d receive a little kick on the left foot. Vee sat on her left. If she stared at her paper and book too long, a nudge from Esther jabbed her in the ribs. She wished the girls were staying every day; it sure made school faster. She didn’t mean to disappear into her head; it just kinda happened, so it helped to have reminder friends.
Soon after the last book snapped closed, Esther’s dad picked up the girls and Sunny was alone. She checked on Uncle Dave. He looked like he was going to sleep all night on the couch. Mom said he might for the first few nights and to let him. She took the tray back.
Maybe a forkful or two of mac and cheese. The hot dog was untouched. Poor Uncle Dave.
“You and the ranch are going to be just fine. I’m so sorry I made you fall and break your ankle. You’ll see. I’ll finish everything,” she said, even though she knew he was dead asleep.
When she began yawning, it was time to put the zoo to bed. On her way to the barn, she saw the mini standing at the rails as though waiting just for her. And the goose perched on the little horse’s back! Funny.
“You looking for a free ride, Which Way?”
The tiny brown-and-white goat standing in the barn opening bleated softly. Which Way flapped off the mini and ducked under the lowest rail to follow her. As Sunny walked past the paddock into the barn, she noted the pig had already put himself to bed, wide side heaving up and down with each snuffly snore. One of his long ears flipped this way and that batting away a fly. The mini entered through the paddock door and headed to his stall. The pygmy goat joined him, even though he had a stall of his own.
“Good night, Piggles.” She breathed in deep, looking at the barn with pleasure. It was kind of fun putting the zoo to bed.
The barn smelled like dust, hay, horse, and other good smells. So much better than that tractor shed she was going to finish tomorrow. The goose followed her around as she went to the stall where the goat had joined the mini.
“Gonna sleep with your good buddy, Bob?” Sunny rubbed the goat behind the ears. “Don’t worry, I’ll remember to shut the barn door,” she told Which Way, who was unconvinced and kept following her. She snuggled her head onto the top of the platinum silver mane of the mini. “What is your name?”
The mini snorted, threw back his head, and sniffed her ear for treats. She let out her own snort.
“How ‘bout Wuffle for a name?” The mini looked away. “No, huh? I’ll give you a rocko-socko name; don’t worry.” She talked to herself as she closed the barn door. “I’m closing the barn door, guys. You all see me do it, right?”
She would be a finisher. Just wait and see.
Chapter 12
What Am I Good For?
Wednesday seemed like two days glued together and each a hundred hours long. Sunny’s alarm went off—three times—until Uncle Dave’s hoarse voice yelled down the hall, “Turn that thing off or get up!”
In the living room, she spilled the water glass for his pain medicine and had to mop it up with a towel from the bathroom because she hadn’t unpacked the kitchen towels yet. When she opened the barn door, the zoo was already in the paddock through the paddock door—that she’d, um, forgotten to close the previous night.
“You’re doing a great job, Sunny.” Uncle Dave sat up on the couch, bleary eyed, as she brought him lunch.
Good thing you can’t walk right now. You might say something different.
After schoolwork was done, Sunny brushed the mini and the goat, led them out to the corral behind the house, and twisted the spigot to fill the water trough. As soon as she unclipped the goat’s lead in the corral, he scooted on his knees under the rail, hightailing it to the front. When he stopped at the oval and started to graze, she walked back to the corral. Pulling an Esther pose, she placed her hands on her hips and addressed the pig and the goose that had waddled from the barn.
“You guys can come and go as you please. Just don’t make me chase you!”
With a couple of flaps, the goose was splashing and honking in the half-filled water trough. The pig found an old garden in the shade to the left of the corral and began to root a row in it.
“Well, someone could adopt Piggles and he can root up their garden in the spring,” Sunny said to the mini. She turned to the other animals. “What are you all good at?” It looked like Bob was going to be good at mowing.
Her question reflected her own problem. She’d been good at Great Ideas. Been good at them.
No matter. She’d get used to not having Great Ideas. She would simply have to find something else she was good at.
Back to school stuff. She caught up on the assignments she was behind in and video chatted with her mother and told her everything was going fine. She talked to Uncle Dave until he fell asleep.
Then she counted the hours until the Squad would arrive. She thought of the tractor shed a few times while she opened the endless boxes and put things away. Uncle Dave groggily said he did not care where things went as long as kitchen stuff landed in the kitchen, bathroom stuff in the bathroom, and so on. It seemed the pile of boxes would never go down. Some boxes were marked SHED. She groaned. Like the shed needed more stuff in it.
Taking a break in the afternoon, she wandered toward the corral. The water trough was running over and, from the looks of the mucky mini, the goopy goose, and the oh-so-happy pig in mud, it had been on since—
“Ughness!” Sunny slogged through the mud and turned off the spigot. “Great, just great.” No point in taking off her sneakers to save them; they were toast. She led the muddy trio back to the tractor shed for another hosing. Bob the goat was making great progress on the oval.
Finally, finally, after hosing off her own sneakers, going into the house, seeing the track of barefoot mud she’d left, wiping up the tracks, and sighing mightily, she heard a vehicle pull into the circular driveway. Getting a good hold on the front door, she yanked on it and pushed open the screen with both hands.
The Squad had arrived!
They unpacked a few more boxes and did their homework. Too soon the girls had to leave, and Sunny began a new countdown to the next day after school.
That’s when Esther would be staying overnight!
Chapter 13
A Creepy Feeling
The zoo was out of the barn and running in every direction except the same. Sunny darted one way and then another, yet every time she nearly touched one of them, they squirted out of her hand. Then the pig began to fly, and the mini horse said, “Come here so I can stomp on your foot!”
Sunny sat up, her heart pounding in her throat, sleep as well as the dream vibrating in her brain. Where was she? Right. She was in her bed at Uncle Dave’s. Thursday night; Esther lay curled up on the inflatable mattress. Through the open window, the dark sky above the corral and meadow said nighttime. A chilly breeze blew, but it wasn’t as cold as Sunny felt when she saw a shape outlined through the window.
She burrowed back under the covers. She did not see something at the window. What a crazy dream. She must still be dreaming. A sweaty moment later, she peeked out. No doubt about it. Something was looking at her from the open window.
“Esther! Esther, wake up!” Loud enough for her friend to hear, low enough that—that—thing couldn’t.
Esther stirred.
The shadowy figure snorted. Just like—
Sunny bounded out of bed. Now she could see the ears. It was the mini. She leaned through the window. There, below the view of the window was Piggles, Bob, and Which Way. Which Way looked very pleased with himself.
“How did you—?”
The zoo had been safely in the barn with the door shut. She’d shut it right after dinner while Esther did the dishes. Honest. They were safe.
No, they were looking in her window.
But she had shut the barn door, hadn’t she? She’d gone through Vee’s checklist and actually checked everything off and—
She smacked her forehead with her hand. She’d left the list and the pen in the barn. It had all the instructions for Uncle Dave Mom had left that Vee had written in her perfect handwriting. She needed that notebook ‘cause it also included all her lists on how to care for the animals and how to split up the chores.
She’d better go get it and check the door, just to make sure. She would also check to see how the zoo got out. No way did she want to mess up her chance to prove to her family that she could finish things.
“Okay, guys, lemme get dressed and I’ll be out.”
Yawning, she checked the bedside clock. With the ranch away from city lights, night was really night. A flashlight would be han
dy, but that would have been something Esther or Vee would have remembered, she reflected, slipping her feet into a pair of flip-flops and pulling on a sweatshirt. A sigh over leaving the handy-dandy list in the barn. Reinventing herself as Vee wasn’t going to work.
“The trouble with a list is you have to remember where you put the list,” she muttered, opening the bedroom door.
Esther slowly sat up, stretching. After a quick look out the window, she whispered, “I see ears. Is that the mini? It’s not morning yet. What are you doing?”
“I’m going to see how they got out. I’m sure I closed the door.” Her voice lowered. “I also forgot the list in the barn. I’m going to get it.”
In seconds, Esther had rolled off the bed. “Let me get my flashlight out of my backpack. Then we can go.”
I knew it.
Dressing quickly and digging out her big-ended flashlight, Esther was ready to go. Crossing to the window and sitting on her rear and rolling out, a twinge of guilt zinged Sunny. It would be longer now for Uncle Dave to screen the windows and everything else on his “I’ve got to look at that” list.
As soon as Sunny was out the window, the mini moved in for an ear wuffle. “Maybe your name should be Magician,” Sunny said, rubbing him behind the ears. He drew back his head and shook it. “Okay. I’ll keep trying.”
The two girls stood for a moment in the cool-but-not-cold air with their heads thrown back, marveling at the stars. So many more than she saw at home. Sunny spun from sheer joy. Here she was, free and outdoors in the freaky weather of November. The zoo must be magicians because she was sure she’d shut the barn door. She skipped toward the corner of the house, throwing in a little spin every few skips. Okay, so being Vee wasn’t going to work, being helpful like Aneta hadn’t worked. Esther jogged next to her.
Rounding the corner and crunching as quietly as possible, so as not to awaken Uncle Dave, the two approached the nighttime hulk of the barn.
Secondhand Horses Page 5