Shelby remembered how she'd slid out of the saddle a few days before on the trail. She already had a talent for it. And she could bring Blue as well. He was so quiet and easy. He was sure to be calm and reliable in front of a crowd. They might even pay her. It was perfect!
Her eyes drifted past the girl. On the other side of the arena there was a trail bike leaning on its stand and, sitting cross-legged in front of it, in his bike-riding leathers, was Chad. Her heart beat faster for a second and then she frowned.
Chad had asked her to go with him to see the circus. It was almost, but not quite, a date. He was supposed to ring her. She had been dreading that call. All night she'd waited. She'd frozen the few times that the phone rang, but then when it was someone else she was disappointed.
It seems he got over his shyness after all! she thought, and then she felt guilty. After all, she hadn't waited for him to call before coming here either.
When Shelby looked again the girl was back on the quarter horse, crouching like a jockey. She urged the horse into a canter. This time she stood, turning her palms up and smiling just as the older man had.
Chad clapped and put his fingers in his mouth for an ear-piercing whistle. 'You're the best!' he called out.
Shelby reddened, angry at Chad for saying he would ring her when he didn't intend to. She also felt silly for telling everyone about the hot chips. Now if anyone talked about it she would be embarrassed.
She looked away from Chad to a row of four ramshackle stables that faced the house. They were old but sturdy, made of corrugated iron with timber half doors.
Three white faces poked out of the stable doors. Shelby wondered if they were Lipizzans – the original Spanish dancing horses. She'd only ever seen them on television and in pictures, but she knew they were elegant, athletic and took years to train.
While she watched, absorbed in her thoughts, a fourth horse head emerged from within the stable to watch what was happening outside. This one was a dark face. Shelby recognised it immediately.
It was Diablo.
12 Karma
Shelby backed out of the shrubbery and scrambled into the saddle. She gathered up the reins. Obviously she had to tell Mrs Edel straightaway. But what would happen if Chad was still there when the police came? Would they assume he had something to do with it? She was cross with him, but she didn't want him to get into trouble. What if he had only met the circus people today? Would the police accuse him falsely? She really should warn him – or at least see what she could find out first. She should go back and ask questions, find out all she could.
Shelby slipped out of the saddle and slid the reins over Blue's ears. She would ask them about the stallion.
But what if it was a conspiracy and Chad was involved? Shelby had got the impression that Lindsey and Hayley already seemed to think he was a bit shady. Shelby hadn't known him for as long as Lindsey. She could be putting herself in danger going in there.
What if all of those horses were stolen? Surely they wouldn't go around the countryside performing on stolen horses. Maybe the total audacity was what made the scheme work? Or it could be an elaborate front. Perhaps there was no circus at all – in which case, she should inform the police straightaway.
She hadn't had much luck with the police before. It seemed to Shelby that they were either on the wrong person's side, or their procedures prevented them from doing anything useful.
Shelby rubbed her sweaty hands on the thighs of her joddies. Every other time she'd found herself in a situation like this she'd done the wrong thing and got herself in more trouble. This time she wanted to get it right.
'What is the opposite of what I would normally do?' she asked Blue.
He chewed on his bit as though he was thinking about it.
'Yes, that's what I thought.' Shelby stepped into the stirrup and threw her leg over him again and they set off down the trail. She leaned over Blue's neck, feeling the wind in her face and the whistle in her ears. At the next intersection she turned left, spraying stones as they took the corner and galloped up the hill
– straight home to her parents. In the back yard she slipped off the bridle and loosened the girth. Blue settled in to munching the lawn. Shelby's dad didn't like having Blue in the garden because he chewed the plants and trampled the vegies, but this was an emergency.
She heard the back door slide open.
'Shel!' her mother said, surprised. 'What are you doing here?'
'Mum, I need your advice.'
Inside, Shelby pulled out one of the dining chairs. She explained about Diablo, the circus and about Chad being her um friend.
'So do you think I should find out what happened first? Do you think I should ask them to give Diablo back? Then I could take him straight to the stables, and everything will be solved! But where am I going to say I found him? I don't want to have to lie. I suck at lying, anyway.'
'I'm pleased to hear it,' her mother remarked.
'I could tell those circus people to put Diablo in Mrs Edel's back paddock at night, and then maybe Mrs Edel might think that we just didn't see him before. She's not going to believe that, is she? But she might not care once he's back. What should I do?'
Shelby's mum patted her arm. 'You need to tell Brenda Edel straightaway.'
'What if I dob on those circus people and Mrs Edel goes nuts? There will be a big fight and it will be my fault.'
'Honey, Mrs Edel is a grown-up. She's not going to do anything like that. And besides, it's not our business what happens afterwards. If your circus people didn't steal Diablo then I'm sure they will be able to explain what happened, and if they did steal him . . .' She shrugged. 'They will get their just desserts.'
Shelby looked her mother in the eye. 'Do you really think that's how it works though, Mum? Do you think the bad people get in trouble and the good people get rewarded? It's just that I don't think that actually happens in real life. You see all those people on the news who die, or have horrible injuries, and they're not bad. And . . .' She paused. 'Maybe I am simplifying it, but I think we're pretty good in this family, but there are kids at school who are mean and they have things much easier than we do.'
Shelby's mother thought about it for a moment. 'Probably those kids will be slimy slugs in the next life.'
'Do you think that's how it works? Really? Because I'm beginning to wonder.'
Her mother laughed and shook her head. 'I don't know, honey. You really are becoming a teenager, aren't you?'
'What's my age got to do with anything?'
'That's what being a teen is all about – questioning the assumptions and simplicity that governed your youth, discovering complexity and contradictions, and then being depressed by it.'
Shelby curled her lip, wondering if talking to her mother had been the right choice after all. 'I just want to know what's the right thing to do.'
Her mother laughed again. 'Go and ring Brenda Edel and I'll make us a snack. She'll be very pleased to hear from you, no doubt.'
Shelby sighed, remembering when her mother used to know the answers to all her questions. She punched the familiar number into the cordless phone with her thumb and bit her lip while she waited.
'Mrs Edel? It's Shelby. I found Diablo. He's in the Gully on the other side. Do you know where that big water tower is? Just near there.'
Lindsey's mother took so long to say anything that Shelby thought she might have hung up accidentally. 'Hello?'
'Is . . . is he dead?' she whispered.
'No, he's fine!' Shelby assured her. 'At least, I could only see his face. He's upright, though. He's with horse people – in a stable. I don't think they stole him. I'm sure that they were going to ring, but their phone was cut off in the storm. They may not even have the phone connected yet.' Shelby chewed her fingernail. 'Maybe that's what happened, anyway. I left so I could ring you straightaway.'
'Thank you, Shelby.'
Mrs Edel sounded as though she was crying and Shelby was embarrassed so she got off the phone
as soon as she could.
Shelby sat down again and her mother placed a plate of crackers with Vegemite on the table for them to share. Shelby squeezed the crackers together to make worms.
'I did the right thing.'
Her mother smiled. 'Yes, you did.'
13 The Barney
After her snack Shelby headed back into the Gully and across the causeway to take Blue home. At the riding school tack shed she stopped to unbuckle Blue's saddle and then she led him around to the wash-bay.
In the distance she could see that the Edels' float was out of the shed with the tailgate down. Several of the agisters were gathered at Diablo's yard. Over their heads Shelby could just make out the tall stallion in his stable. Shelby was keen to find out the latest news, but she had to get Blue settled first.
Erin spotted her and waved. Shelby was pleased to see her jogging towards the wash-bay, obviously bursting with news.
'There was a barney! I can't believe you missed the whole thing!' Erin puffed.
'What happened?' Shelby adjusted the temperature, spraying the water against her palm, and then hosed Blue's muddy legs.
'Well!' Erin's eyes were wide. 'After you rang, we hooked up the float and drove over there. And I was the one who called that police officer on the way – the boy one, not the girl one, because she's mean. I didn't get to ring triple O though. That would have been cool. Instead I rang his private line, which was on his business card. Anyway, we get there and there are all these foreign people.'
'Foreign people?' Shelby repeated, moving the spray to Blue's sweaty neck. She couldn't remember seeing any foreign people.
'You know, like, of Middle Eastern appearance. They stole Diablo! And your boyfriend was there – he's friends with them!'
'He's not my boyfriend.' Shelby concentrated on hosing around Blue's face and ears for a moment, hoping that Erin wouldn't notice her expression. She wished she'd hadn't brought up the whole hot chips business with Erin. She was never going to let it go, and every time she brought it up Shelby would feel like a goose. 'So you know for sure they stole Diablo?'
Erin put her hands on her hips. 'Of course they did! He was there, wasn't he? You saw! They didn't even try to deny it. Anyway, you haven't heard the whole story. We arrive and Mrs Edel is yelling at them and they are yelling back, but we couldn't understand them, because half of it was in, you know, like, Arabic or whatever. Lindsey's mum swore! She goes, "You stole my horse, you bleep"– insert swear word here – and then they yelled back that she couldn't prove it. And then the police arrived with sirens and everything. Then there was kind of a tussle. That little guy says that Lindsey's mum owes him for a new fence or vet bills or something! Can you believe it? I'm sure Mrs Edel would have punched him if the police weren't watching. Meanwhile, Lindsey is practically dragging Diablo out of the stable and this other girl tries to stop her. But we got Diablo on the float and he's fine. I can't believe you missed it! It was très dramatic.'
'Très?' Shelby took the scraper from the fence and began sloughing the water from Blue's back.
'It's French. Here, check out the pics.' Erin pulled her mobile out of her pocket and started pressing buttons.
'You were taking photos?' Shelby asked.
Erin stared at her. 'For evidence, Shel. Jeez!' She handed across the phone.
Shelby squinted at the picture. There was Diablo, head up, eyes wide and nostrils flared. The lead rope was taut. Hanging on to one end was Lindsey, red-faced. The trick-riding girl was holding on to the other end.
'Look at the next one,' Erin said.
Shelby pressed the forward button. There was Mrs Edel, toe-to-toe with the man in the waistcoat. She could just make out Constable Bidgood behind them.
Erin peeked over her shoulder. 'No, look at the next one.'
Shelby switched to the next picture. It was Chad. His eyes were squeezed shut, making his face crease into angles. His hands were bunched into fists at his sides and he was shouting. Chad was one of them. He was part of it all.
'I don't think you should see him any more, Shel. Not after this. I wouldn't have anything to do with him if I were you.'
'I wasn't "seeing him", Erin,' Shelby mumbled.
'Hurry up.' Erin tugged at her shirt. 'I want to hear what's happening now.'
'You go. I have to finish with Blue.' Shelby shrugged away from her friend. She was grouchy. She knew there was going to be a fight. She knew the whole time.
14 A Different Version
Shelby huffed as she climbed into the car. 'That's the last time I come to you for advice! You said that Mrs Edel was a grown-up. Now there's been a barney, and it's my fault!'
They drove for a while in silence. Shelby had her arms folded and glared out the window.
Her mother took a deep breath. 'Your um friend rang. He told me what happened.'
'Great,' Shelby grumbled.
Questions tumbled around in her head. Did Chad ring because he had seen her hiding in the bushes? Had her mother told Chad that Shelby was the one who informed the Edels where Diablo was? Most of all, why was she feeling guilty when the circus people were the ones in the wrong?
'This will blow over, Shelby. I know it seems like a big deal now, but by next week everyone will have calmed down and will be able to see the situation with a different perspective.'
'Yeah, right,' Shelby scoffed.
Her mother went on. 'What you need to under-stand is that when people are emotional – when they are afraid – they will lash out. They're not able to listen to anything else even when it's logical and reasonable. They're so busy being emotional about their own thing that they don't want to hear someone else's point of view.'
It made sense to Shelby. On occasions she had jumped to conclusions herself.
'Brenda has her horse back now,' her mother added. 'I'm sure in a few days' time, when she has calmed down, she will drop the charges against Chad and his friends. She might even be a big enough person to apologise.'
Shelby stared at her mother. 'Chad has been arrested?'
Shelby's mum frowned. 'I assumed you knew. When Chad rang he'd just come home from the police station. Brenda Edel has pressed charges against them all.'
By now the car was in their street. Shelby's mother pulled the car into their driveway and turned off the ignition.
'But Chad only just met those people! He's got nothing to do with them stealing Diablo,' Shelby protested.
Her mother blinked. 'According to Chad, they didn't steal him.'
'But Erin said . . . I don't get it,' Shelby said.
'He left a phone number for you.'
Shelby opened the car door.
Her mother stopped her. 'Shelby, he sounds like a nice boy – very straightforward and sensible. Lots of boys his age don't talk to adults. They just grunt. Chad's parents must have brought him up well. I'm looking forward to meeting him. Perhaps you could invite him around for a barbecue some time?'
Shelby smiled. Her mother approved of sensibleness above all other virtues. It was odd, though. Her mother didn't usually encourage her to bring friends home. Erin had slept over a few times, but mostly Shelby went to other people's houses.
'Now you're jumping to conclusions, Mum. It really was just hot chips.'
Her mother arched an eyebrow at her. 'Hot chips in a skirt.'
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