Horse Spy

by Bonnie Bryant

  “And Alex?” Carole asked. Stevie and Alex were taking their tests on the same day.

  “Well, it was a near thing, but he passed, too,” Stevie conceded. Carole strongly suspected it hadn’t been a near thing at all. Stevie used to spend a lot of time competing with all three of her brothers. Their house still bore the scars of a few water balloons gone astray. Now that they were older, they no longer fought as they had in the past, but it was still sometimes difficult for Stevie to admit in public that her twin was actually related to her. The only thing he’d ever done that she boasted about on his behalf was to fall in love with her friend Lisa.

  “He told me he started to turn the wheels the wrong way in the middle of his three-point turn, but he corrected it before they said anything. Can you imagine? Blowing a three-point turn?”

  “And you?” Carole asked.

  “It went like a breeze,” Stevie said. “When they asked me what the rearview mirror was for, I explained that it was for putting on lipstick without lowering the visor. No problem.”

  Carole almost believed her, but then Stevie had been able to pull her leg as long as they’d known each other.

  “And the horn is to let your friends know you’re waiting, right?”

  “Exactly,” said Stevie. “Now, do you want to go for a ride?”

  “Well, sure,” Carole said. “I’ll be done here in another hour, and I was planning to exercise Starlight then. Why don’t you go groom Belle and tack them both up? We can be on the trail right after I’m done. We can’t take a long ride, but it should be fun—”

  “Actually, I meant in my car. I don’t have time to ride Belle today. I saw this ad in the paper—”

  “Oh,” Carole said, disappointed. It would have been fun to ride with Stevie.

  “No, it’s really good news,” Stevie said, sensing Carole’s disappointment. “See, now that Alex and I have our licenses, we can both drive the car Chad left when he went to college. We’ve worked out a schedule for it, and it means I can get a job. Actually, I just about have to get a job, because Mom and Dad are making us pay the insurance and that’s a lot of money, which is why Alex is going to be spending the summer breaking his back mowing lawns. Anyway, I heard that Pizza Manor is looking for a delivery person because Alex’s friend, Elroy, quit last night and the manager gets in at eleven today and he’ll be desperate for a new driver. Who could be more perfect than yours truly?”

  “Nobody,” Carole agreed. “You are, without a doubt, the ideal person for the job. Go for it.”

  “Well, the interview isn’t for another forty-five minutes, so I thought I’d visit with you.”

  Carole looked at the pile of work on her desk, including the notebook of Fez’s records. Time spent with Stevie was rarely time spent doing a job, much as she would have liked to talk with her friend—even to hear more details about her driving test. But she had to work.

  “Look, I can’t,” she said. “I’m sorry, but the new horse just came in, and I’ve got to get some paperwork done before the owner arrives. But the good news is that I’ve asked Emily to cover for me the day after tomorrow so you and Lisa and I can go on our farewell ride before you-know-what happens.”

  “I sure do know what,” Stevie said. “It’s the only topic of discussion at my house these days. Well, I mean it’s the only thing Alex wants to talk about. I’m sorry Lisa’s going away for the summer, but I guess I understand it. It’s her father, after all.

  “That’s great that Emily can cover for you. We should be able to be out of here by ten o’clock or so.”

  “That’s what I thought,” said Carole. “And we won’t have to worry about your new job meaning you can’t go. There aren’t too many people who order pizzas for breakfast.”

  “I think we’ll be safe on that score, if I get the job.”

  “Job? What job?” Lisa entered the office.

  “I got my license, and now I’m going to apply for a job at Pizza Manor.”

  “Oh, that’s great!” said Lisa. “By any chance, did anybody else in your family get a license today?”

  “Gee, who could she be asking about?” Stevie said.

  “Both your parents have licenses,” Carole said. “And we all know Chad does. So that leaves the dog, right?”

  “Only if the dog is named Alex,” said Lisa. “Did he pass?”

  “Yeah, he did,” Stevie assured her. “And that means he can get to all those lawns he’s going to mow while you’re away. You won’t have to worry about him getting into trouble at all. He’ll be too tired every night to do anything.”

  “I wasn’t worried about that,” Lisa said. “I know you’ll look after my interests.”

  “Actually,” Stevie said, “you are the one thing we almost never talk about. He used to confide in me about his girlfriends, but not about you. Oh, sure, he’s been mooning around the house, complaining about you going away for the whole summer, but he never says anything really personal. He assumes you talk to me about him.”

  “Which of course I don’t,” said Lisa.

  “That’s the problem with having your brother date your best friend. I’m missing out on all the good dope from two people I used to be able to count on!”

  Lisa flopped into the other chair in Carole’s office. Carole glanced at Fez’s incomplete notebook and the pile of other paperwork that awaited her, but for the moment, her friends’ concerns were more important. Fez could wait a few minutes.

  “This is the worst!” Carole said. “Stevie and I are going to miss you, and Alex is going to be miserable, and that’ll make Stevie miserable, and you know that when Stevie’s miserable, the whole world is miserable.”

  “Aw, come on,” Lisa said, a little bite in her voice. “It’s not going to be that long. I didn’t ask my parents to get a divorce. I didn’t tell Dad to fall in love with someone who lives in California. I didn’t choose to have my life split in half.”

  “Easy, easy,” Carole said. “We’re just venting. I guess none of us much likes the whole situation, so maybe we’d better stop talking about it.”

  “Or else we could look on the positive side,” Stevie suggested.

  “And that is?”

  “You’re going to spend a whole summer in sunny Southern California. You’ll certainly get to see Skye, and that’s always lots of fun.”

  “He’s pretty busy,” Lisa said.

  “Starring in another movie?” asked Carole. Skye Ransom was an actor the girls had known for a long time. They’d met him by accident—his accident—when he’d fallen off a horse. They’d helped him out, and they’d been friends ever since.

  “No, it’s not a movie,” said Stevie. “It’s a television series. A contemporary series set on a horse ranch. He’s been cast as the young romantic lead. All the girls who come to the ranch fall in love with him.”

  “That’s more like fact than fiction,” Lisa remarked. Then she realized that her boyfriend’s sister might not find that very funny. “Not that he’s my type, mind you. Personally, I prefer the lawn mower type to the handsome young star type.”

  “I’ll be sure to tell Alex you said that,” Stevie promised.

  “No, don’t,” said Lisa. “I don’t think he likes to hear anything about Skye Ransom. He can’t help being insecure, but, honestly, he has nothing to be insecure about. Skye’s just a friend.”

  “Even with all the razzle-dazzle of Hollywood?” Carole asked.

  “Especially with all that,” Lisa said. “It’s a nice place to visit, you know?”

  “But you wouldn’t want to live there?”

  “Never,” Lisa said. “Absolutely never.”

  “Well, that’s good enough for me,” Carole said. She pulled a pile of papers in front of her.

  “I think that’s a hint,” Lisa said. She stood up. Stevie stood up as well, then glanced at her watch.

  “Oh, look! It’s time for me to go to Pizza Manor. Do you want to come along for a ride?” she asked Lisa.

  “Su
re,” Lisa agreed.

  “You can’t apply for the job,” Stevie said, suddenly a little concerned that super-organized Lisa might beat her to the job she was counting on, just to avoid being away from Alex.

  “Don’t worry. I’m hungry. I’ll have some veggie pizza while you wow the manager with your driving skills, your reliability, and your sparkling personality.”

  “Deal,” Stevie said.

  The two of them said good-bye to Carole and headed out.

  Carole opened up the notebook, and on the top of the first page, she wrote Fez.

  “STEVIE, RELAX. You don’t have to hold the wheel so tightly,” said Lisa.

  “I do kind of clutch it, don’t I?” Stevie acknowledged. She tried to relax her hands. Her knuckles changed from milky white to a healthy flesh color.

  “Are you nervous when you drive?” Lisa asked uneasily.

  “No, not really,” said Stevie. “But you know, it’s kind of new, with my driver’s license and all. I don’t want to make any mistakes.”

  “You won’t,” Lisa said. “All you have to do is to keep a few things in mind. Keep your hands steady, your foot limber, and your eyes moving, and concentrate on where you’re going.”

  “Sounds just like riding a horse,” Stevie said.

  “I guess so, and, like riding a horse, it’s a matter of being able to focus on fifteen or twenty things at once, like that double-parked—Stevie!”

  Stevie swerved to the left, avoiding the double-parked car by a good tenth of an inch. Lisa felt her heart slowly settle back into her chest.

  “No problem,” Stevie assured her.

  “Right,” Lisa agreed. She decided not to distract Stevie by giving her any more instructions until they reached Pizza Manor. It hadn’t been all that long ago that Lisa had gotten her own driver’s license. She was a year older than Stevie, a year ahead of her in school, and a year more experienced as a driver. Her own first day had been spent driving her friends to and from every place in town where they’d wanted to go. It had been wonderful fun, even if they had never gone above fifteen miles per hour. Now, a year later, she was an able and confident driver. Soon enough Stevie would be, too.

  Stevie managed to complete the trip without any more near misses or even not-so-near ones. She looked at her watch. She was right on time for her interview. Being on time had never been one of her strong points. Perhaps getting her driver’s license and being on time for an appointment on the same day meant she was turning over a new leaf. She took a nice deep breath. Everything was going to be wonderful. She would get the job. She was sure of it. She and Lisa walked in together.

  Pizza Manor was a small restaurant in the shopping center near Pine Hollow. The shopping center had few things to recommend it. Besides Pizza Manor, which was a relatively new addition, there were a handful of other stores that seemed to change regularly: a shoe store that became a record store; a gift shop that turned into a liquor store and then into a dry cleaner’s. The two things there that never seemed to change were the supermarket and TD’s. TD’s stood for Tastee Delight. It was an ice cream shop that Stevie, Lisa, and Carole had been going to as long as they’d been friends. They still liked crowding into their favorite booth every now and then for something sweet and gooey.

  “Welcome to Pizza Manor. May I help you?” said the smiling girl behind the counter.

  The girl was Polly Giacomin. She rode at Pine Hollow with Stevie and Lisa. It felt funny to have her offer to wait on them.

  “Hi, Polly,” Lisa said. “I’ll have a slice of veggie pizza and a small diet soda.”

  “M’kay.… Stevie?”

  “I’ll have an interview.”

  Polly smiled. She knew Stevie.

  “So you passed the test?”

  Stevie nodded.

  “The manager’s in the back. I’ll let him know you’re here. He’s been tearing out his hair all day because Elroy quit last night. He’s afraid he’s going to have to make the deliveries himself. Just smile nicely, show him your license, and you’ll get the job.”

  She drew a soda and slipped a slice of pizza onto a red-and-white-checked paper plate, then handed them to Lisa. “Hang on a second,” she said to Stevie.

  Lisa took her lunch to a nearby table and sat down to eat and wait.

  Stevie didn’t move, afraid that she couldn’t. The day had been something else. In spite of what she’d said to her friends, her driving test hadn’t gone that smoothly. She loved driving. She’d loved it from the first moment her father had let her sit behind the wheel the day she’d gotten her learner’s permit. She loved the powerful feel of the car, knowing that she and she alone was in charge. It was similar to but not exactly the same as riding, since the car was only a machine and not a living, responsive animal. But what a machine it was—big, noisy, shiny, expensive. It could take her anywhere. She didn’t have to feed it or groom it. She only had to give it gas—and pay the insurance.

  She’d almost blown it, too. Or maybe she hadn’t. The man who gave her the driving test had sat stony-faced during the entire ordeal, not speaking except to issue instructions. She had no idea what she’d done wrong or right. She only knew that in the end, it had worked. Had he noticed that she didn’t really look over her shoulder when she pulled out of the parking place? Had he been aware that she was a little bit over the center line when she was making a left turn? Maybe he had, or maybe he hadn’t. She’d passed. That was the important thing.

  And now here she was, ready for another test—this time to get a job. Who was she kidding? She barely knew how to drive. She didn’t know the first thing about the restaurant business except that she was a pretty good eater. She was usually late for things, but she’d made it that day. She was wearing an old pair of jeans and a wrinkled shirt, and she hadn’t combed her hair, and she probably smelled of horses because she’d stopped by Pine Hollow, and she’d never had a real job before.

  Suddenly a man was standing in front of her on the other side of the counter. He was stocky and had a mustache. He had combed his thinning hair from one ear to the other to make stripes of hair across the top of his head.

  “You here about the delivery job?” he asked.

  “Me?” Stevie asked, glancing over her shoulder.

  “Yeah, you.”

  “Oh, right, yes,” said Stevie, offering her hand. He shook it.

  “Polly said there was a boy here, too. Steve something.”

  “That’s me. Except I’m not a boy. I’m Stevie Lake—it’s short for Stephanie, but don’t tell anybody that.”

  “My daughter’s named Stephanie,” he said.

  I’ve blown it, Stevie thought. I’ve made him think I’m crazy and I’ve insulted his daughter. He’s not going to hire me. In fact, nobody will ever hire me. I can’t really drive and—

  “You have a license?”

  “Yes.”

  “May I see it, please?”

  “Oh, sure,” Stevie said, fishing it out of her purse. She handed it to him.

  “Kind of rushing things, aren’t you?” he said.

  What had she done wrong now?

  “Sorry?”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a license as fresh and new as this,” he said. “It’s like holding a newborn baby. Did you come straight here, or did you stop to show your friends?”

  “Um, my friends,” Stevie said, pointing to Lisa, who was calmly eating her pizza, totally unaware of the fact that Stevie was making an idiot of herself just out of earshot. Then Stevie looked at the man. It took her another two seconds to realize he was teasing her.

  “I would have come straight here, sir, but I thought it would impress you more if you could see how much business I would bring in for you.”

  “That’s just one customer,” the man said.

  “Right, but she’s very hungry.”

  “Okay. Come on back to my office. You’ve got to fill out an application and tell me a little bit about yourself. So far, all I know is that the Commonwealth
of Virginia thinks you’re an adequate driver, and you’ve got a smart mouth on you. Anything else?”

  “No sir, that’s me in a nutshell,” Stevie assured him.

  She followed him, wondering what she was getting herself into.

  CAROLE HEARD a knock at her office door. At least she’d been able to finish putting the papers in Fez’s notebook before the next interruption. She looked up.

  A very handsome guy leaned in the doorway, looking back at her. She smiled automatically in response to the smile he gave her.

  “Is Callie here?” he asked.

  “Forester? Uh, no,” Carole said. “She hasn’t been here yet. But her horse is here. Would you like to see him?”

  “No thank you,” the boy said, smiling wryly. “I hear enough about him to satisfy any curiosity I have.”

  That was all the hint Carole needed. Only a nonriding brother could respond that way to his sister’s horse.

  “You must be Scott,” Carole said. “I’m Carole Hanson, morning stable manager for the summer.”

  He took her hand and shook it. “Well, I’m glad I didn’t come in the afternoon or the fall Otherwise I would have missed the opportunity to meet you.”

  “Instead, you’ve only missed your sister. I don’t know when she’s going to be here. Would you like me to give her a message?”

  “No, I’m waiting for her. I’m supposed to pick her up after she’s checked on Fez. My father is dropping her off on his way into town, but he can’t wait for her, so I’ve got chauffeur duty—which is an honor I accept in return for being able to use the car.”

  “Oh, it’s station-wagon bingo, huh?” Carole teased.

  Scott laughed and took a chair across the desk from her. “Don’t you know it. You must have brothers and sisters, too.”

  “No, I’m an only,” Carole told him. “And there’s no argument over the car in my house. My father gets it when he wants it. See, he’s a retired Marine.”

  “Can’t be any harder to argue with than a man who makes his living as a politician.”

  “I think you’ve got me there,” Carole said. “But when he says Ten-shun!’ … Well, enough about that.” She stood up from her desk. “I was about to go look in on Fez, so if you want to come with me, you’re welcome, or you can stay here.”