Cheers, Chocolate and Other Disasters

by Mikki Sadil

  Aaghh! I was hoping she and Julie had forgotten about Celine. “But why does she have to go with us? We’ve been the three musketeer friends for a long time, so why can’t she just get her own costume?”

  Abruptly, Jaime became the Jaime of the last few weeks. In her snotty voice, she said, “Look, AJ, Celine is our friend, even if she isn’t yours. We’re not going to leave her out, okay? So either we go as the four musketeers or we don’t go at all. Right, Julie?”

  “Um, well, AJ’s right, Jaime. It’s been just the three of us for over a year, and Celine is new. She just started being our friend, so maybe…”

  Jaime jumped off the bed. Her brown eyes blazed. “So maybe nothing. Celine is going with us or I’m just going to go with her. You decide, Julie, and then let me know. And I don’t care what you do, AJ.” She stalked out of the bedroom, and a moment later, we heard the front door slam.

  Julie sat picking at what was left of the popcorn. She didn’t look at me. “Well, I guess we go as the four musketeers, huh?”

  It was decided. Celine was still winding them around her little finger, and no matter what Julie said, I had become the outsider.

  “Yeah, sure, Jules. Whatever. Look, I’ve got to get home and check on Sunni. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  She didn’t look up as I headed out the door and down the stairs. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. Celine wasn’t even there, and she was still calling the shots. I fumed all the way home.

  As soon as I got home, I went out to check on Sunni. She was standing with her head hanging down. I could see she was not putting any weight on her left front leg. I bent down and felt it. The hoof was hot to touch, and the leg was swollen up to her fetlock.

  She had only eaten a small part of her alfalfa and none of her grain that morning. Sunni was in trouble again.

  I ran in the house and called Dr. Cross and waited impatiently until his service answered. “Hi, this is AJ Devlin. My mare’s in really bad shape again, and I need Dr. Cross to come out as soon as he can.”

  A cool voice answered, “I’m sorry, Miss Devlin, but Dr. Cross is in the hospital recovering from emergency surgery. He won’t be able to get back to his practice for several weeks.”

  “No. You don’t understand, my mare’s sick, I can’t wait several weeks. Can’t someone else come?”

  “Well, yes, we have a Dr. Bailey on call. He can be out there in about an hour. However, he is not primarily an equine vet, but he’ll do the best he can.”

  Aaghh! I couldn’t believe that Dr. Cross didn’t have another equine vet to take over for him. Well, this was a small town, so maybe there weren’t any other large animal vets around. I just hoped that this Dr. Bailey would know how to do the same things that Dr. Cross would.

  Before long, the vet truck drove up and a small, skinny young man who looked like he might still be in high school got out. He walked up to me and stuck out a freckled long-fingered hand. “Hi, I’m James Bailey. I understand you have a sick horse?”

  I shook his hand. “Are you sure you’re a vet? You look too young to me.”

  Dr. Bailey laughed. “Yeah, I get that a lot. I’ve been a vet for two years, but I haven’t done much equine stuff. Let’s take a look at your horse.”

  He did a thorough examination of Sunni’s leg and opened the chart he had brought from the truck. “I see here that Sunni was down over the weekend with colic. Did you notice anything wrong with her front leg then?”

  “No, not at first. I was too worried about the colic. Dr. Cross didn’t see anything, either,” I quickly added. “But just before I put her up for the night, I noticed she was limping. I thought it was just because she was so tired. What’s wrong?”

  “Look here.” He lifted Sunni’s foot and showed me a deep stone bruise at the edge of her hoof, now surrounded by infection. “This must have happened while she was running home. I’ll clean it out, put antiseptic powder in it, and then wrap her hoof and leg. I’ll give her a shot of antibiotics and leave a week’s supply of injections for you to give her.”

  When Dr. Bailey finished wrapping Sunni’s leg, he hesitated for a moment. “Look, AJ, I’m not an equine vet and Dr. Cross won’t be able to get out here for a couple of weeks. You need to keep a sharp eye on this leg, and if it doesn’t start getting better, you should think about calling in another vet. We don’t want the infection to get worse.”

  I was sick inside with guilt. My beautiful Sunni, my best friend in all the world, and I had done this to her.

  Chapter Eight

  Me and Sunni

  After Dr. Bailey left and I had explained to Andrew and the twins what was happening, I sat down to wait for Mom to get home. As soon as she walked in the door, I threw myself at her.

  “Mom, I’m really scared for Sunni. Dr. Cross is in the hospital and the new vet doesn’t know much about horses. He said we might need to get an equine vet from Denver.”

  Mom put her arms around me. “Shh, AJ, it’ll be okay. I thought Sunni was coming along well after her colic.”

  I was trembling. “It’s not colic anymore. She got a stone bruise we didn’t see and now it’s infected. Mom, it could get worse and go up…”

  “Honey, stop. Sunni is young and healthy. A stone bruise is not fatal, even with an infection. We can’t call in a specialist. I’m sorry, but they’re just too expensive. I’m sure this new vet will ask Dr. Cross’s advice, and everything will be fine.”

  “No. Dr. Bailey said the infection was bad and could spread. Sunni could die!”

  I broke away and ran upstairs to my room, threw myself on the bed, and lay there shaking. Mom called me to come down for dinner, but thinking of food make my stomach turn over.

  After a little while, I got up and started pacing. What else could I do besides wrapping her leg and giving her antibiotics? I sat down at my computer and searched “equine stone bruise.” A lot of things came up, but most were too technical for me. There was one thing, though, that I could try. One article said to stand the horse in cold water.

  That’s when I had this brilliant idea. Bear Creek Lake was about thirty minutes from our house, up in the mountains. I could get Andrew to drive the truck and trailer up there, and we could stand Sunni in the icy water. But I knew we couldn’t do that until Saturday.

  Of course, first I had to convince Mom to let Andrew drive up the mountain road, then second, I had to convince Andrew to do it, and finally I had to get a stubborn Quarter Horse who didn’t want to walk on her sore leg out of the barn and into the trailer. Now that would be a piece of cake. Not.

  I couldn’t sleep, so I put on my heavy robe and slippers, took a quilt off my bed, and slipped out to the barn. I threw a bunch of fresh shavings in a corner of Sunni’s stall and laid down. She was lying down but she was breathing okay, so I figured she just wanted to rest her injured leg. I dozed some, but every time she moved or snorted, I woke up and checked her. It was a long night.

  When Andrew came out in the morning to feed the horses, he was surprised to see me. “Hey, what did you do, sleep out here all night? The barn is freezing.”

  “I couldn’t sleep, Andrew. This whole thing is my fault, and now she’s got this stone bruise, on top of the colic. I just had to be out here with her.”

  “Well, you’d better get inside and ready for school before Mom finds out.”

  I showered and got dressed as quick as I could. The sweet aroma of cinnamon drifted up the stairs as I ran down. Mom must have baked muffins for breakfast. Oh, crap. I hoped that didn’t mean more bad news. I grabbed one, slipped my backpack over my shoulder, and had just opened the back door…

  “AJ, where are you going? You didn’t eat dinner last night, so you’d better have some breakfast.” Busted. Mom caught me.

  “Mom, I’m taking a muffin and I have money for lunch. I’m just not hungry. I’ve got to go.”

  Lisa and Amberley met me at school. Lisa said, “I assume we are going to practice after school today?”

  “So
rry, Lisa, I can’t practice today, I’ve got things to do at home.”

  “But, AJ,” Amberley said in her soft voice, “we know you’re upset about being at the bottom of the list. The more we practice the better we’ll get, and then Coach won’t be on us so much.”

  I whirled around and glared at them. “Look, get off my back. I can’t practice, I don’t have time, I have more important things to do. Now leave me alone.”

  They walked off without another word. I shuffled up the steps, knowing I had hurt their feelings. Again. I shook my head. I didn’t have the most even temper in the world, but somehow I had become this hateful person who said all kinds of mean things. None of my problems were Lisa’s and Amberley’s fault. I just didn’t know how to deal with everything that was going on, so now I was taking it out on my friends. I felt awful.

  The next two days I hardly said two words to anyone at school. Lisa and Amberley seemed to be staying out of my way since I didn’t even see them at noon, but I could hardly blame them, after the way I had treated them. I didn’t even think about cheerleading practice, and every day I rushed home to treat Sunni’s leg and wrap ice cubes in the bandages. They melted so fast they didn’t seem to be doing anything but leaving a yucky mess.

  Home wasn’t a pleasant place to be, either. We were all thinking about the divorce, but no one was talking about it. In fact, we were hardly talking to each other at all, not even at dinner. Mom was walking around with a perpetual frown and barely even looked at us kids. The tension in the house was so thick it was like waiting for sap to drip out of maple trees, only I felt it was more like waiting for somebody to strike a match. I knew there was going to be a big blow-up sometime.

  Thursday afternoon I had barely gotten home when Amberley and Lisa showed up.

  Amberley said, “Look, AJ, we know you’re mad at us and that you’re upset about our cheerleading scores, but we think there’s something else wrong, too. Maybe we could help.”

  “Nothing’s wrong, and you couldn’t help, anyway.”

  I went into the barn and without turning around, said, “Why don’t you just go home? You can’t help.” My voice was hoarse with tears, but I hoped they wouldn’t notice.

  They followed me into the barn. When they saw Sunni’s bandaged leg, Lisa said, “What happened? I didn’t know anything was wrong except the bout of colic.”

  Amberley slipped her arm around me. “AJ, we’re your friends. Can we do something to help with Sunni?”

  I felt terrible. I had been so nasty to them, and now they wanted to help me. I slid down to the dirt floor and wiped my nose with my hand. “Okay, you might as well know everything.” They sat down with me, and I told them about my parents’ divorce, about why I had ridden Sunni so hard it made her colic, and the stone bruise I hadn’t noticed until it became infected. For a few minutes, there was no sound in the barn except for the horses moving around in their stalls.

  Lisa absently scratched in the dirt with a piece of alfalfa. “AJ, I am really sorry about your parents getting a divorce. I know that must be scary. We cannot help with that problem, but maybe we can help with Sunni. So, what can we do? Can we walk her or help change her bandages?”

  I looked at her and Amberley. I had to apologize, no matter how hard it was.

  “Look, I, um, I’m sorry I’ve been so mean. I’ve been feeling so awful but it wasn’t fair to take it all out on you guys. I’m really glad you’re here. Honest. And, uh, thanks for letting me talk about everything. It helps.”

  Amberley said, “What can we do?”

  “Well, I’m going to ask Andrew if he’ll drive Sunni up to Bear Creek Lake on Saturday so we can put her in the lake. That icy water might help her leg more than the ice cubes are doing. We could probably use some help getting her into the lake.”

  They said they would go, and Lisa added, “You know, AJ, my dad might be willing to take Sunni in our trailer. That is, if Andrew cannot do it. I can ask my dad if you would like for me to.”

  “Are you sure your dad wouldn’t mind? I mean, he doesn’t even know me, and that’s a lot to ask. It’s a long way up to Bear Creek Lake.”

  Lisa grinned and said with a bit of a superior air, “My dad will do practically anything I ask him to do, so do not worry, he will do it. Just call if you need to.”

  * * * *

  When Mom came in from work, I asked, “Mom, can Andrew take me and Sunni up to Bear Creek Lake on Saturday? The icy water in the lake will help take the swelling down. Please?”

  “I don’t know, the lake is a long drive up the mountain. You can ask him, but remember that he hasn’t been driving all that long. If he is the least bit hesitant, I don’t want you to badger him about it. Understood?”

  I nodded and started to open the freezer door. Mom said, “AJ, I’ve got fresh veggies for dinner, we don’t need anything out of the freezer.”

  “I’m getting some frozen peas out. I’m going to wrap them around Sunni’s leg to help with the swelling. The ice cubes melt right away so they aren’t doing any good.”

  Mom looked at me like she thought I’d lost my mind, and without another word, she headed upstairs to change her work clothes. I took several packages of frozen peas out of the freezer and went back to Sunni’s stall. I unwrapped the first layer of the leg bandages, and starting at Sunni’s knee, I taped three packages of peas down her leg to the hoof. Then I rewrapped her leg, patted her for a few minutes, and left.

  At dinner, Mom asked, “AJ, where did you get the idea of putting frozen peas on Sunni’s leg?”

  Before I could answer, the twins burst into giggles. “Frozen peas…” Sarah said.

  “….on a horse’s leg?” Suzanne asked. They started giggling.

  “She’ll be a walking…”

  “…vegetable stand,” Suzanne finished. They were giggling so hard they could hardly talk.

  A walking vegetable stand? Only the twins could come up with an image like that. They were high-fiving each other and laughing. In a minute, we were all laughing. It felt good to laugh as a family, because things had been so tense between all of us for the last week.

  Finally I managed to say, “I read on the internet that if you hurt yourself, you can put a package of frozen peas on the injury to keep the swelling down. If it works on humans, it ought to work on horses.”

  Andrew coughed and sputtered. “What happens when the peas thaw out? She’ll have green slime running down her leg.”

  That set the twins off again. I glared at Andrew. “ Ha ha. You’re so not funny.”

  Mom wiped her eyes with her napkin. “Why don’t we go to the drugstore after dinner, and you can buy a couple of those reusable ice packs that you keep in the freezer. We’ll freeze them, and you can put one on her leg before you go to bed.”

  She turned to Andrew. “AJ wants to take Sunni up to the lake on Saturday so she can get her into the cold water. If you feel confident about driving the truck and trailer up the mountain, you can do it. What do you think?”

  “I think it would be okay, Mom. I’ll just take it real slow and careful, and we’ll be fine.”

  I jumped up and ran around the table to hug him. He frowned and pushed me away. “Aw come on, don’t get all mushy. Besides, I’m just doing this for Sunni, not for you.” When he winked I knew he was kidding.

  After Mom and I got back with the ice packs, I wrapped one around Sunni’s leg, put a new bandage on, and put the peas back into the freezer with a note that said, ‘Sunni’s peas.’ I didn’t want to get E.coli or whatever that stuff is because one of the twins decided to help with dinner and cooked the wrong peas. Besides, I might need to use them again.

  On the way to the lake on Saturday, Amberley and Lisa were sitting in the back seat, and Lisa was doing all the talking. I looked back to say something and saw that Amberley’s face was white and looked all pinched up. She was leaning her head against the side of the truck.

  “Amberley, what’s wrong? Are you car sick?”

  She gave
me that forlorn little smile of hers. “No, I’m okay. I’m having a little trouble breathing, but it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

  “Hmm,” I said doubtfully, “it doesn’t sound like ‘nothing’ to me. Should we take you back home?”

  We were halfway up the mountain to the lake, but I didn’t know if Andrew’s cell phone had service this far away from town. I was worried that Amberley would need some kind of help but we wouldn’t be able to do anything for her.

  “No, I’m fine, really,” she said. “Please don’t worry about me, everything is okay.”

  My stomach flip-flopped and I knew what she said wasn’t true, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it now. I made up my mind to talk to Amberley as soon as we got home. In another few minutes, we were at the lake, and Andrew carefully parked as close to the water’s edge as he could. We put the trailer ramp down, but Sunni just stood there. Oh, this was going to be great fun, getting her to back down the ramp when she didn’t even want to move.

  After about twenty minutes of pushing and pulling, we managed to get Sunni down the ramp and to the edge of the water. She took one look at the lake and pulled back abruptly on her lead line. The jolt lifted me off my feet. Amberley grabbed the lead line to keep Sunni from running off, but then dropped it immediately with a painful cry. Her hands would not close over the rope and she sat down so suddenly on the ground that it was almost like someone had dropped her with a karate chop. I was scared for her, but I was too busy helping Andrew get Sunni calmed down and under control to do anything for her.

  Lisa helped Amberley up and we waded out into the icy lake until the mare’s legs were submerged up to her knees. We stood holding Sunni in place without saying a word. The lake was freezing and nobody wanted to talk. The silence was only broken by an occasional Thud! as a pine cone fell to the ground. It wasn’t long before we began to shiver. We watched the skin ripple on Sunni’s back under her thick chestnut coat, and I knew that she was cold, too. Still, I was determined to keep her in the water as long as we could stand it ourselves.