Sunny dropped the oilcan.
“We have so much to tell you!” Esther screeched as Vee and Aneta tumbled out of Aneta’s mom’s SUV. “I thought Aneta’s grandmother was bringing you guys.”
Ms. Jasper stepped out of the driver’s side wearing a suit that made her look like she should be the president. Her hair, blond and long, fell neatly from a clip. She smiled at the girls. “I thought I’d drop off some of Gram’s special treats and my peanut butter cookies for Sunny’s uncle.”
For a tiny second, a second so fast it might not have happened, Sunny thought Aneta’s mom’s face turned pink. Why would Ms. Jasper’s face get red? It was a sunny day, but not a hot-summer-sun kind of day. Just sweatshirt on, sweatshirt off kind of day. Weird.
Aneta and Vee walked into the house with Esther and Sunny, dropped off their backpacks, pillows, and stuffed animals in the bedroom, and then ran out to the corral to say hello to Mystery, Shirley, and Mondo. They waved to Bob who watched them while chewing a weed. On the way to the back corral, they greeted Piggles with a snort that caused him to snort. Then they were at the corral where Which Way was still getting in the way of the mini playing ball.
“I love it, I love it!” Vee yelled, clapping her hands. “It’s more fun than TV. That ball is splendiferous!”
“He is having so much fun with it,” Aneta said, her grin wide.
Sunny and Esther filled in the other two with the news—the appearance of the bay horse and the gigantic ball. Uncle Dave had made calls, but no one knew where he came from. Sunny figured Mystery had arrived so the girls would have another horse to ride. Immediately after that, they moved on to the really exciting news: they thought they’d surprised a burglar the previous night.
“Oh no! Were the animals all right?” Aneta’s blue eyes widened.
“You didn’t catch even a smidge of the person?” Vee asked.
With the mini following the ball Sunny rolled, Which Way and the girls walked the drive back to the front corral. Mystery, Shirley, and Mondo were nuzzling each other across the fence that separated them.
“How come that new horse can’t be in with Shirley and Mondo?” Aneta climbed up to sit on the top rail of the corral corner, close to the three horses. “They are friends already.”
Sunny opened her mouth to answer when Aneta’s mom joined them. “Just like you wouldn’t put dogs who don’t know each other together, it’s the same with any animal. You have to see what’s going on with the horse.” She flopped her arms over the top rail and surveyed the new horse. “This one looks like it’s used to being around other horses. You girls said it was just here this morning when you came out?”
Sunny and Esther nodded.
Ms. Jasper shook her head. “It’s not right to abandon a horse. It’s against the law.” She walked into the barn and emerged with a long blue lead. Ducking between the rails, she slowly approached the horse, talking soothingly.
“Mom!” Aneta’s gasp carried across the corrals. “What are you doing?”
“Um …” Sunny felt panic rising up. How about what Ms. Jasper just said about being careful with horses you don’t know? “Does your mom know anything about horses?”
“I do not know.”
Sunny truly, truly hoped Aneta’s mom knew what she was doing. Sunny just couldn’t see herself taking care of one more patient.
Chapter 16
Not Esther Either
You just never know about parents.
Along with Sunny, Vee, and Esther, Aneta found out her mother had ridden quite a bit from when she was Aneta’s age all the way through college. She’d even won awards! I think she knows as much as Uncle Dave about horses. Margo Jasper made the girls laugh when she led Mystery to the living room window to allow Uncle Dave to see if he recognized him. He agreed with her that the horse seemed safe to put in with Shirley and Mondo.
More yayness than that was she received permission from Uncle Dave to start riding lessons with the girls. All four of them did a happy dance holding hands. Once again, Sunny remembered the tractor shed. For pizza sake, that shed was like a splinter you couldn’t get out. Always bothering you. No more putting it off.
About two hours later, Sunny surveyed the tractor shed with some pride and a great deal of thankfulness for her friends. The shed, where Uncle Dave had met his horrible fate, had a cracked cement floor you could see. Sure, a few chunks were missing and there were lots of cracks, but yes, there was a floor. It wasn’t a Great Idea and it wasn’t exciting or fun, but it was working.
What wasn’t working, however, was being good at being Esther. Sunny tried telling everyone what to do. Except she kept forgetting to think ahead to the next thing, and the girls kept coming up and asking, “Where does this go? What do I do with this?” Finally, she burst out with, “Okay, I’m not a good Esther. Everybody, do what you want. Just make it so”—she made an exaggerated sweep of her hand to include the entire shadowy, cluttered shed—“nobody”—she winced—“and I mean nobody, will trip over anything.”
“I could take over and tell everyone,” Esther offered.
“I can figure it out. Thanks, Esther.” Vee grabbed an open, dried-out paint can, tucked a canning jar of nails and screws under her arm, and began to drag an old carpet toward the shed door.
Esther huffed, looked like she might get mad—Sunny hoped she wouldn’t—then shook her head. “Okay, here we go! Operation Clean!” Bending over, she inspected a rusted, dented bucket. “There’s a pair of spurs in here.”
Sunny told her how those spurs had sent her sprawling her first night at the ranch.
“Ugh. They’re, like, sharp and dangerous and rusty.” Holding them as if they were bombs about to go off, Esther returned them to the bucket.
Once everything was out, the girls sorted it into piles. Vee’s idea: JUNK, which meant it got dumped in the Dumpster on the far side of the lean-to; KEEP (Esther’s insistence), which meant it was placed in the back left corner (Esther and Aneta’s job); and WHO KNOWS?, which meant they would have to ask Uncle Dave when he was next awake. Sunny did whatever she was told.
Aneta and Sunny stacked the WHO KNOWS? pile in the back corner, way out of the way. This included the yoke that had trapped and snapped Uncle Dave’s ankle. Sunny shuddered as she dragged it to the back.
“Not much time left.” In the doorway, Vee stood silhouetted by the fading light of day. “How much is there left to do?”
“No time for the top floor.” Sunny blew out a tired breath. “I don’t think I’ll be going up there anytime soon anyway. You guys, if I had to do this by myself, I would be doing it until my brothers were taller than I am.” She kicked the stack of old metal buckets. “Thanks BUCKETS. So you think maybe it was a Great Idea that I didn’t do it when Uncle Dave asked me? So I’d have help?” She sucked in her cheeks so she wouldn’t laugh.
“Ha-ha, I don’t think so,” Vee said sternly.
“My mom would say two wrongs don’t make a right!” Esther shook her head as a smile slipped out.
“Sunny!” Aneta looked horrified, yet a grin slid over her face.
“Joking! Joking!” She couldn’t keep her face looking serious. “I’m starving. Oh no!” Turning a shocked face toward her friends, she said, “I forgot to feed Uncle Dave. If it’s dark, it must be past suppertime.”
“You need to feed us, too,” Vee reminded her.
After a hilarious dinner with Uncle Dave, who was wide awake, the girls spent the rest of the evening unpacking his boxes. He sat up on the couch so he could direct their efforts, his ankle supported on pillows. With their running in and out of rooms, yelling, “Here? Does it go here?” the pile of boxes shrank. Uncle Dave seemed to be enjoying the job, Sunny thought. His rat-a-tat laugh was back.
This was the most fun unpacking had ever been. Her uncle had some weirdo cool stuff from his travels around the country and was more than willing—now that he was off pain pills—to tell the story behind it. With another box nearly emptied, she peered in to
see what was left. One cowboy boot with a glitter-covered fake plant sticking out. “Wow, Uncle Dave. What’s the story with this ugly thing? Glitter and cowboy boots don’t go together!” Taking the few steps into the sitting room, she stood before her uncle, dangling the boot from a strap.
The smile that had been tickling around her uncle’s mouth as he teased the girls through their work vanished, as though Sunny had taken an eraser and wiped it out.
“You can throw that out.” He frowned. “I thought I had a long time ago.” His eyes looked worser than before, Sunny thought, dumping the boot in the big trash can. Worser was a word her little brother used. Sad eyes. They looked different than pain eyes. This was a story her uncle didn’t want to tell. Soon after, he said he was ready to stop thinking about unpacking.
Vee, after surveying the remaining boxes, asked him if it was okay if they set up the boxes in the kitchen. “I helped my mom set up the kitchen when we moved into Bill’s house. Bill said I did a bang-up job.”
Uncle Dave looked at her then at Sunny. Sunny, with shame rushing up the back of her neck and staining her cheeks, knew he must be thinking Vee had Great Ideas and was a finisher.
“Vee always finishes,” she said, choking a little on the clutch in the back of her throat. “Not like me.”
Uncle Dave winked at Sunny. “Nice to have friends, huh? Okay, Vee, go ahead. I’m no gourmet cook anyway. Just tell me where everything is.”
Vee stepped over to the table and waved a pack of sticky notes. “I brought these. We’ll mark every drawer and cupboard after we’re done. No problem.”
Esther patted Vee on the back. “Vee’s organized. So am I.”
“Just so you know, Uncle Dave,” Sunny hastened to add, “I’m working on finishing things. I tried to be like Aneta and be helpful with your pillows, but—”
“Glad you left that for Aneta,” was her uncle’s dry remark.
“Then I made lists like Vee. Only—” She remembered the slightly opened barn and that she hadn’t told her uncle yet. She hurried to finish. “Only I left it in the barn and had to go get it with Esther. The door was a teeny bit open—”
“Good thing you left the list in the barn.” Uncle Dave inched forward on the couch, positioned the crutches on either side of him, and pulled himself up. “Otherwise, forgetting to close the barn door could have been serious.” He took two steps and winced. “Ow. What’s that word I hear you saying? Ughness. That’s what this is.” With that, he hobbled down the hall to his room.
“Only, I didn’t leave the door open …,” Sunny began, but Uncle Dave was muttering under his breath. She caught a few words.
“… so sure I’d gotten rid of that years ago. Like I need to remember her.”
Forty-five minutes later, the girls had cleared the boxes and filled nearly all the cupboards and drawers until only a box of mismatched glasses was left.
Sunny pushed open the screen door to add another empty box to the pile Mom and Dad would take to the recycling place. She inhaled a deep breath. It smelled like—well, a ranch. Horses. The three and a half horses nickered to one another. The mini threw in an extra one to let her know he had seen her and wanted his ears rubbed. Three big. Then a dip to a little shadow with pricked up ears. Swirling all the way through the horsiness, the smell of pine trees, grass, and animals.
As she entered the kitchen, she heard Esther.
“Glasses go in the cupboard by the dishwasher ‘cause it’s faster to put them away.” Esther’s fists were firmly planted. Yep. On her hips.
“No, they go by the sink because that’s where people go get a drink of water. Everybody knows that.” Vee made it sound like anyone with half a brain would know that.
Uh-oh. Sunny was actually surprised they’d gotten this far without an argument.
“You guys,” she said helplessly, standing near the door.
Aneta opened the top drawer—which Vee and Esther had agreed should be the silverware drawer—and removed a fork and spoon. She held both behind her back. Sunny saw her stick the spoon into her back pocket. What was Aneta up to?
“We will decide,” the blond girl said in her quiet voice, slicing through the increasing volume of Vee and Esther. “Sunny’s uncle is sleeping, so we do not yell.”
“I’m not yelling. Esther is the one who’s yelling,” Vee said, but lowered her voice.
This remark pulled Esther’s face into downturned lips and narrowed eyes.
Oh, for pizza sake.
“What do I have in my hand—a fork or a spoon?” Aneta asked, her voice showing her smile. Sunny watched. “If you guess what I have in my hand, you decide which cupboard the glasses go in. Then we are done, and we are the Squad again.”
The girls each guessed eagerly, and Aneta removed the fork from behind her back. “Esther decides.”
Vee rolled her eyes and began to laugh, leaning against the counter. “Aneta, you are so funny. Sorry, Esther.”
Esther’s face lightened into a full-faced grin.
Aneta sighed deeply. “So, we are the Squad again? I hope so.”
Sunny walked to the middle of the girls and held out her right arm where the Squad bracelet encircled her wrist. The girls joined with theirs.
“The Squad!” they said, only very quietly so as not to wake Uncle Dave. “Together!”
“Let’s go to bed,” Sunny added.
Chapter 17
This Time Maybe?
The next morning, the S.A.V.E. Squad converged on their “official” meeting spot, the children’s section of the Oakton Community Library.
“Sunny!” Nadine’s cheerful face, framed by long black hair and bangs, greeted her. “Your mom and brothers have been in. I’ve missed your smiling face and your great ideas.” Nadine stopped stacking books on her big desk and reached out to hug Sunny and then the others. Nadine and her husband, Frank, were good friends of the Squad, even if Frank tried to act like the girls were too much drama. “How come you’re in town, ranch hand?”
“Dad came out to visit Uncle Dave, so Mom came too and brought me to Esther’s house. Then we walked over.” Sunny surveyed the colorful banners overhead waving in the air currents. “It’s been like forever since we’ve all been here together.” She shot a rueful look at Nadine. “Except I don’t have Great Ideas anymore. Now I try to finish things.”
“Why can’t you do both?” A tall, skinny man with a ponytail walked through the children’s section wearing a tool belt and carrying a bulging bag. Frank. Nadine’s husband … and maintenance guy … and van driver for the community center. He glanced over at the girls, and his gaze settled on Sunny. “Been kind of quiet here without you girls.”
Esther giggled. “I know you want to say ‘without the drama,’ Frank. Go ahead.”
“Without the drama.” He kept walking, not cracking a smile.
“You girls do know he adores you, right?” Nadine finished collecting her armful of short chapter books. “I don’t want you to think he doesn’t. Hey—you girls came at a good time. Adventure Readers reading club starts in a few minutes. Okay if you come talk to the kids about loving to read? You are the famous S.A.V.E. Squad. The kids are third, fourth, and fifth graders.”
“Don’t kids who come to the library already like to read?” Esther sounded surprised.
Sunny was surprised as well. Both her brothers devoured books. Her dad said the public library saved him from running out of room in the house and money to pay for books.
They were nearing the conference room where the reading group met. Nadine lowered her voice. “These are reluctant readers. For various reasons, they haven’t yet seen how great reading is. Some don’t read well; others don’t have books at home or people who read aloud to them.” She threw a glance at Sunny. “Got any great ideas on how to connect reading to kids?”
Aneta’s soft voice was incredulous. “Not like to read? Oh, we will tell them how fun it is to read. I learned good English by reading girl detective stories when I was adopted by my
mom.”
Nadine introduced the girls and told the quiet group of three girls and five boys about how the girls met and about their first two adventures. Since some of the kids had been at the park during those times, they volunteered their memories with excitement. Once those stories were told, the children sent admiring looks toward the Squad. Then the Squad told about their favorite stories and how they loved to read.
Sunny noticed, however, that when Nadine began reading bits from her chosen books, the kids got restless. Kind of like me in my online science class.
At the end, Nadine asked the group to share why they liked or didn’t like reading. Immediately hands shot up.
“It’s okay, I guess.”
“It’s boring.”
“I like movies better.”
“The words move around.”
“I don’t see anything when I read.”
As Sunny listened, she wondered about what sort of Great Idea Nadine wanted. What did Sunny know about making reading fun? She had always liked to read. While she sort of listened to Nadine, she slid into that place in her head that would get her a nudge from her friends and so missed the end of the club hour. She’d been thinking.… That day that she and Esther had done their schoolwork out loud in front of the animals. Hmm. It had been more fun than reading it to themselves.
The reading club filed out afterward, shyly waving. The girls waggled their fingers back. Sunny opened her mouth to tell Nadine the Great Idea. Then she snapped it closed. Nope. Not this time. Wasn’t she done with Great Ideas? Hadn’t they gotten her in trouble?
Outside the library, Vee, Esther, and Aneta gathered near Sunny.
“Okay, spill!” Vee said.
“What were you thinking about?” Esther asked, cocking her head with a wary look.
“Did you get a Great Idea?” Aneta asked eagerly.
“Can’t tell yet. Gotta talk to Uncle Dave.”
No matter how the girls begged and offered her more ice cream once they had all licked through ice cream cones at The Sweet Stuff, Sunny refused.
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