by Amy Brown
‘There’s another letter,’ Nellie said, while everyone else was quietly chewing.
‘I don’t want to talk about it now. Let’s just enjoy our dinner.’ There was a cask of red wine on the sideboard near the table. Flora leaned over and filled her cup — it had a photo of a tabby cat on the side and a quote from Abraham Lincoln: No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.
‘I think it’s important,’ Nellie said, reaching back to the kitchen bench for the official-looking letter.
‘What’s it about, Flora?’ Andy asked. She looked worried now, too. Only Jade and Casey seemed to be giving the meal the appreciation it deserved.
‘Nothing to worry about. That’s the end of the matter,’ Flora snapped.
‘Tell you later,’ Nellie whispered to Andy and Jade.
It was only nine when the girls followed Nellie down the dark path between the house and the sleep-out. Casey was still inside, helping himself to Aunt Flora’s wine and ranting about talkback radio.
‘Has Andy warned you what time we get up at Samudra, Jade?’ Nellie asked, setting the alarm on her cellphone.
‘No.’
‘Look.’ Nellie passed Jade the phone. The alarm was set to buzz at five-thirty.
‘Every morning?’
‘Rain or shine.’
Jade’s eyes travelled again over the childish posters and open suitcase next to the sagging double bed. ‘How long have you been working here?’ Jade asked Nellie.
‘About a year.’ Nellie disappeared behind the bathroom curtain with a small bundle of clothes. The shower started.
Jade carefully climbed the ladder to the top bunk. She would have preferred to sleep on the bottom, but it was clearly Andy’s favoured spot. Hoping that she wouldn’t roll off the bunk onto the floor during the night, Jade wriggled into her sleeping bag, making the old bunk bed creak.
‘When I first stayed here, I fell off the top bunk,’ Andy called up, from the safety of the bottom. ‘It was horrible — I didn’t just fall on the floor, but my wrist caught on that sticking-out bit of wire, see?’
Jade looked at the side of the bunk — there did seem to be a broken spring angling out. She shuddered.
‘You woke up hanging from that?’
‘Yeah. I was lucky it only caught on a couple of layers of skin. Still hurt lots, though.’
Jade couldn’t ask Andy to swap beds with her, not after her trauma. She would just have to keep still during the night.
‘What was that letter?’ Andy asked Nellie, whose face was now free of make-up and glowing pink from the hot shower.
‘Hold your horses. Let me find what I’m looking for.’ She was rummaging in her chaotic suitcase.
‘You can talk while you look.’
‘No, I can’t. Actually — yes, I can. Found it!’ She brandished a nail file triumphantly.
Sitting up in bed, filing her long, filthy fingernails, Nellie broke the bad news: the ominous, official-looking letter was from the council.
‘It said something about “zoning changes” and “requisitioning the land for infrastructure purposes”. All I really know is that Flora’s been chucking these letters away for the last couple of months, but they keep coming. I don’t think she can ignore it much longer.’
‘So the council wants to close the riding school?’ Andy asked, in a small voice.
‘Basically, yeah.’
‘We have to do something!’ Jade was thinking of Pip. This was her new home — a good new home.
‘That’s what I think, but Flora won’t listen,’ Nellie said.
‘We need a good plan. I’ll get some paper and a pen,’ Andy said, starting to get out of her sleeping bag.
‘Not right now,’ Nellie ordered. ‘We have to be up in less than eight hours. Now, we sleep; tomorrow, we’ll plan.’
Sitting together at the kitchen table, Jade and Andy agreed that they needed two different alarm clocks in the sleep-out: one set to five-thirty for Nellie, and another at six for them.
‘Shall we just go out and start doing something useful, like mucking out the paddocks?’ Jade asked.
‘No, unless Flora tells us to do it, it’s probably the wrong thing — and I know that from experience,’ Andy replied. ‘How long does it take to put on some make-up?’
They had both finished their breakfast and still there was no sign of Nellie, whom they had left peering into the bathroom mirror with her mouth open, holding a mascara wand.
‘Hello, early birds!’ Flora went straight to the kettle, and, finding it recently boiled, quickly made an instant coffee. ‘Sleep well?’
‘Yes. We could have slept longer, though,’ Andy muttered.
‘Nell up yet?’
‘Yes.’
‘Preening?’
‘Yes.’
‘But you two are ready?’
The girls nodded.
‘Good-o. Gimme two ticks to finish my coffee, then we’ll get started. Lots to do today: the front paddocks need mucking out, Sam wants a good groom, the babies need worming, Pip and Pikelet could do with a sea walk, and my endurance friends Mata and Ngaire are coming for a ride after lunch. Don’t let me forget anything! Oh, and Jade, if you ever find yourself without a job to do, there’s always tack to be cleaned.’
Jade nodded. It wasn’t her favourite horsey task, but at least she knew how to be useful now.
‘Are there lessons today?’ Andy asked.
‘Yep, but Nellie can deal with that. Quiet twin boys, Ralph and Paul — she gets the best out of them.’
‘Are my ears burning?’ Nellie, like Flora, made a beeline for the kettle and coffee mugs. Her face, which half an hour ago had been pale and puffy with sleep, was now perfectly made up.
‘Andy was asking about today’s lessons. It’s just the Charleston twins today, right?’
‘Yep, and they’re a piece of cake.’
‘Good. So you won’t mind if we leave you to it after lunch? I’m going to teach these two about endurance riding.’
‘I know about endurance,’ Andy protested.
‘You can always learn more.’
Jade and Andy’s first job of the day was a dull, dirty one. Andy with the wheelbarrow, and Jade with the shovels, watched enviously as Nellie put a halter on Samudra and brought him back to the yards to be groomed. He jogged elegantly beside her, whinnying to the mares in the paddock across the track. Nellie stroked his muscular chestnut neck fondly.
‘He’s her favourite, too,’ Andy said unnecessarily. ‘He’s everyone’s favourite really.’
‘I can see why,’ Jade sighed. ‘Now, let’s make his paddock more comfortable.’
The mucking-out took, approximately, forever. Jade wished they had started with the most difficult paddock — the mares’ — and saved Samudra’s relatively clean quarters for a treat at the end. It wasn’t just because Samudra didn’t share his paddock with five others, he actually seemed toilet-trained — the majority of his droppings were all in the far-left corner.
‘When can we see him count?’ Jade asked Andy, holding her lower back as she straightened up, then stretching out her sore arms.
‘Let’s do the mares’ paddock, then ask Nellie to show us his trick. That way Flora won’t think we’re skiving off.’
By the time they had finished clearing away the mares’ mess, Samudra’s summer coat was glistening. Nellie had even untangled his long flaxen mane with leave-in conditioner.
‘Aren’t you looking handsome?’ she crooned, kissing the stallion’s dished nose. His nostrils flared intelligently.
‘Nellie, Jade doesn’t believe that Sam can count.’
Nellie stared. ‘Do you doubt my boy’s intelligence, Jade?’
‘No. I’ve just never met a horse that could count. How can you tell?’
‘Watch this.’ Nellie stood slightly to one side of the stallion and clicked her tongue. ‘Sam, one.’
Jade watched as Sam daintily lifted a polished front hoof and tapp
ed it once on the yard’s sandy ground.
‘Two,’ Nellie continued, staring into Sam’s unnervingly clever eyes.
The polished hoof tapped twice this time.
Jade gasped. ‘How does he know?’
‘Three.’
The hoof tapped three times.
‘Do the even more amazing thing, Nell,’ Andy begged, enjoying Jade’s disbelief.
‘Okay,’ Nellie gave a little smile. ‘Sam, two plus two.’
Just as before, the hoof tapped the ground, but four times now.
‘Will he do it for me?’ Jade asked.
‘Probably not,’ Andy quickly replied. ‘I’ve only ever seen him do it for Nellie or Flora.’
‘There must be a trick to it, then,’ Jade reasoned. ‘One more time?’
Nellie shook her head. ‘He’s not a circus performer; he’s my darling boy and I don’t want him to get bored.’
‘I just want to work out how you do it.’
‘A magician never reveals her tricks,’ Nellie said. ‘Now, shouldn’t you two be finishing off the ponies’ paddock?’
Andy and Jade both groaned. They needn’t have worried, though, because Flora relieved them of their duty after about ten minutes. The youngsters needed to be given worming paste, and this was a job that required all hands on deck.
Jade’s task was to hold the tubes and pass them to Flora, who would inject the paste into the corners of the two-year-olds’ mouths. Nellie would hold the lead rope and Andy would shoo away the others or help hold down the head of the colt or filly in question.
To Jade’s surprise, most of the babies seemed to enjoy the paste; all other horses Jade had ever watched being wormed hated the stuff.
‘They’re being really good,’ Jade marvelled.
‘At this age, they just want something in their mouth. They love the attention, too. Andy, can you please stop Artie from chewing the back of my T-shirt?’
‘Sorry!’ Andy had been distracted by young Mahler, with whom she was clearly besotted.
The last job before lunch was extremely pleasant. Swapping their track pants for shorts and their jodhpur boots for jandals, Jade and Andy took the ‘senior citizens’, as Flora had started calling them, for a stroll in the sea.
The morning had shaped up to be hot and still, and both elderly ponies were drowsy and amenable in the heat. Knotting the lead rope into makeshift reins and using the side of a trough as a mounting block, Andy hopped onto Pikelet’s wide, bare back.
Jade did the same with Pip. It was lovely feeling her old pony’s hot black coat against her bare legs. Better still was feeling Pip’s sound gait — although her stride was a little stiff, there was no sign of lameness.
Keeping their heels down, so as not to let their jandals slide off, Andy and Jade walked their ponies at a lazy pace past Casey. He was sitting on the shady side of his container, reading a book and holding a thin roll-your-own cigarette.
‘Ladies,’ he greeted them formally, without looking up from the page.
Andy giggled.
As the ponies’ hooves hit the sand, Pip’s ears pricked and her stride quickened. Jade patted her old pony’s neck. ‘You could get used to this, couldn’t you?’
Pip sniffed the salty air. She certainly seemed happy rather than nervous at the new surroundings.
‘Has she been in the sea before?’ Andy asked, taking the lead with Pikelet, who knew exactly what to do.
‘Not with me.’
‘She’s cool — I reckon she’ll just follow Pikelet when she sees how much fun we’re having.’
The tide was quite high, but the sea was calm. The waves were rolling in slowly, breaking against Pikelet’s shins.
‘Now, you know not to drink it, don’t you?’ Jade lectured Pip as she walked eagerly to the water.
Pip didn’t drink — she could smell the salt. Nor did she shy from the waves or even pause when Andy and Pikelet led them out deeper, until the calm water was lapping against Jade’s own feet.
‘Isn’t this fun, girl?’ Jade said, lying forward and hugging her pony’s neck. ‘Lucky old you will get to do this as much as you like now.’
Pip seemed to have taken to Pikelet, Jade noticed, pleased. While Taniwha was pacing the fence line, whinnying to his old paddock mate, Pip and Pikelet were sniffing politely at each other’s nostrils.
‘They’re kissing,’ Andy said, slipping a little on her wet jandals as she slid off her pony’s back.
When the old ponies had been escorted back to their respective paddocks, the girls sluiced the sand off their feet and went into the kitchen for lunch. There was a delicious smell of frying fish.
‘Jade, this is Mata and Ngaire. They had some luck out in the boat this morning,’ Flora said, from her post at the frying pan.
‘How many did you catch?’ Andy asked, embracing the two middle-aged women.
‘It was a good haul, eh Mata?’ Ngaire said. ‘Six kahawai — none undersized.’
‘Lucky for us,’ Flora said. ‘Otherwise it would’ve been cheese toasties for lunch. Fried fish and potatoes is a treat.’
Jade was sometimes a bit wary of fish. If it was too ‘fishy’ — tuna, for example — she couldn’t stomach it. But the fresh white fillets of kahawai tasted perfect, of nothing but the sea and the lemon, salt and pepper that Aunt Flora had added as seasoning.
Polishing off the last crispy wedge of potato from her plate, Jade joined Flora at the sink, offering to help dry the small pile of dishes.
‘No, we’ll just leave them in the rack. You and Andy go and get your ponies ready. Nellie, who are the twins going to ride?’
‘Dumpling and Secrets.’
‘When you bring the ponies into the yard, would you mind catching Poppet for me, too?’
Nellie sighed theatrically, but sure enough, when Jade and Andy went out to catch Piper and Tani, they saw Nellie bringing all three back to the yards. She hadn’t even bothered with a halter for Dumpling, who followed close on Secrets’ heels — too close for Poppet, who swished her tail irritably.
‘That’s a beaut pony.’ Ngaire admired Taniwha as Jade gave him a quick groom. ‘My boy, Basho, has a bit of Kaimanawa and Arab in him, too.’
Both Ngaire and Mata were already mounted on honest, fit-looking 15-hand horses; Ngaire’s dark brown, and Mata’s a flea-bitten grey.
‘My Issa is Basho’s brother,’ Mata said. ‘So we’re all riding similar breeds. Except you, Andy.’
‘Piper’s part Anglo-Arab,’ Andy argued, leaning down to fasten the girth. ‘That’s where she gets her pretty face from — and massive mood swings.’
By the time Flora had done the dishes and changed into riding clothes, Nellie had groomed and saddled Poppet. As two shy, blond-haired seven-year-old boys walked up the riding school driveway, the cavalcade was ready to go.
Nellie had seemed grumpy about missing out on the ride, but her grumbling vanished as she greeted her pupils.
‘Who’s going to do the best rising trot today?’ she asked the twins.
Flora smiled at Jade and Andy as they waved Nellie goodbye. ‘She pretends to be a dragon, but she’s a sweetie really. The opposite of my Poppet, I’m afraid. It’s my own fault for spoiling her. If I’d been firmer when she was young, she’d never have earned the nickname Mata gave her.’
‘What’s that?’ Jade asked.
‘Rodeo Queen.’
Both Jade and Andy tried to keep their ponies clear of Poppet, knowing that if she started a bucking display, their own volatile young mounts might join in. As it happened, their caution was unnecessary. Poppet was having a docile day, provided that she was always allowed to be the group leader. It seemed to be Flora’s favoured position, too, so no one argued.
‘Loosen your reins a bit, dear — let him have his head.’ Jade was riding next to Mata and Issa. That was the joy of a long, wide beach — being able to ride three or even four abreast.
‘I’m just nervous he might take off.’
‘Where w
ill he go?’ Mata smiled, gesturing out in front of her at the empty expanse of sand: tussocky dunes on the left, a calm outgoing tide on the right. ‘I can tell he likes my Issa. While they can walk together, he’ll be fine. Try holding the reins at the buckle.’
Jade trusted Mata. She had a quiet but firm riding style that made her seem one with her horse. Letting the reins slip through her fingers, Jade watched the bay neck in front of her stretch out.
‘See, he just wants a stretch. He’s not going anywhere.’
Piper, another one with a reputation as a runaway at pony club, also seemed settled, having chosen Basho as a walking buddy. Or maybe it was his unusually relaxed rider’s influence. Jade thought that she’d never seen Andy seem so calm and happy in the saddle. When Flora announced that they’d be trotting, neither of the unruly ponies misbehaved. In fact, with pricked ears, Tani seemed happier than he had in months. It was nice for both of them to get out of the paddock and explore.
After five minutes of listening to the satisfying thwack of hooves against wet sand, the group broke into a canter. Leaning forward slightly, and at the same time trying to stop herself from shortening the reins at every change of pace, Jade sucked in a noseful of salty breeze. She was enjoying the canter so much that for some time she didn’t notice the noise of a motor approaching from behind.
It was a blast of the horn that sent Tani off — not just Tani, but Piper and Poppet, too. Even placid Basho and Issa shied into the sea.
‘Easy, boy! Easy, my dear,’ Jade tried her most soothing voice as she sat right back, riding out the frightened bucks. Not wanting to follow the Jeep, which had now zoomed past the horses, Tani thought better of bolting into the unknown. To Jade’s relief, his bucking soon subsided and he settled back to a nervous jog with the other startled horses.
‘Can’t they read?’ Ngaire asked, exasperated. She pointed to a sign stuck at the foot of the dunes: The beach is NOT a road. ‘What …’ Ngaire paused, and Jade wondered which swear word she might choose, ‘egg heads!’