by Chris Platt
“What? I thought you had a plan!”
Cara shrugged.
“I can’t be out here very long,” Ali said. “What if Danny wakes my mom and dad?”
“Well then, we’d better go ahead and have a look in the barn.” Cara pulled a small flashlight from her back pocket. “I’ll turn this on once we get inside. It doesn’t put out much light, but I don’t want anyone to be able to see us from the road. For now, be careful where you step. There’s a lot of junk lying around.”
Ali crept through the shallow ditch. She snagged her foot on an old board hidden in the weeds and fell to her knees, crying out as her teeth clacked together.
The dogs began barking again and a light came on in a window across the street.
“Run!” Cara hissed.
Ali got to her feet and ran, praying that no more surprises hid in the dark. They slipped inside the barn, and she and Cara flattened themselves against the wall. Ali listened for the sound of someone coming after them, but all she could hear was the pounding of her heart and her gasping breath.
The dogs quieted and Ali could hear the chirp of crickets again. Her breathing slowed and her heartbeat returned to near normal. Then her sense of smell kicked in and she grimaced. The barn stank like it hadn’t been cleaned in ages.
“Can you smell that?” she whispered. She was surprised to hear the soft nicker of a horse.
“They’re here!” Cara clicked on her flashlight and a small beam of light cut through the darkness. The girls crept forward toward the large box stall.
“Oh my gosh!” Ali stared in horror at the two horses, who were pathetically thin and covered in their own filth. Cara’s flashlight revealed empty water tubs standing on their sides. There wasn’t a scrap of food in sight.
The black gelding was lying down. Was he was too weak to stand? His markings reminded her so much of her pony, Max….
The white mare took a step toward them and her knees buckled, sending her skittering sideways. She crashed against the side of the stall and leaned there, barely holding herself upright.
The neighbor’s dogs began barking again.
Ali stood there, taking it all in, but the terrible sight before her made her want to flee. If things looked this bad in the small beam of light, how much worse would the situation be in the broad light of day?
“What are we going to do?” Cara asked.
Ali looked at the darker Appy, seeing the hurt in his body and the pain in his eyes. For a moment, she was transported back to the day her sweet Max was put down and sadness engulfed her.
Ali took a breath, pushing those feelings aside. She couldn’t help Max, but she and Cara had to do something for these horses before it was too late.
“They need food and water.” Ali motioned for her friend to shine the flashlight around the inside of the barn. “Let’s see what we can find.”
“There’s got to be a water spigot close by,” Cara said just as the beam of light landed on a broken water pipe.
“Bummer.”
“Go outside and check for a tap close to the barn,” Cara said. “I’ll look in here for some hay or grain.”
Ali grabbed a bucket and found the tap outside. She filled the pail and returned, letting herself into the horses’ stall. The black gelding lifted his head, his dull eyes wary and untrusting. “Easy, big guy.” She squatted down beside him, placing the water bucket beneath his muzzle.
The white mare nickered and took a feeble step forward, begging for a drink. “It’s your turn next,” Ali assured her. “I think your stablemate is a little worse off than you.”
The gelding stuck his muzzle into the bucket and sloshed the water around with his lips, but he didn’t drink at first. Then he seemed to come out of his stupor and greedily gulped the cool water.
“Maybe you’d better not let him have too much at one time,” Cara said from the hayloft. “Looks like they haven’t had anything to drink for a while. Too much now might make them sick.”
Just then the gelding choked, coughing hard and tipping over the bucket.
“Oh, no!” Ali jumped to her feet. What had she done?
“What happened?” Cara climbed out of the hayloft. “Is he okay?”
Ali looked from Cara to the coughing Appy, unsure what to do. She’d never seen a horse choke before. The Heimlich maneuver was definitely out of the question.
The gelding coughed and wheezed, then collapsed onto his side, his legs thrashing against the filthy floor of the stall. After a few more seconds, he rolled into a more upright position. The coughing had stopped, but his breathing was still heavy. Ali wasn’t sure if this was a good sign or not.
The mare stumbled over, pushing the bucket aside as she tried to suck up the spilled water that pooled in a muddy mess on the floor.
“Ugh! That is so gross. Don’t drink that.” Ali gently pushed the mare away, then picked up the bucket and went to fetch more water.
When she returned, Ali tried to make sure the mare sipped the liquid slowly. It was almost impossible. She buried her muzzle in the bucket, and Ali had to keep pulling it back after every few sips. Cara tried to help, gently tugging on the mare’s head. It was a difficult task, even with two of them.
When they finished, Ali offered water to the gelding again. He hesitated, but finally drank.
“That has to be a good sign,” Cara said. “If he refused water, he might be too far gone.”
“Did you find any food?”
Cara shook her head. “Not a single stem of hay or a handful of oats to be found. We could pick some of the grass from next door. It doesn’t look like they’ve mowed their lawn in a while.”
They moved silently to the neighbor’s yard and picked as much of the new summer grass as they could carry. When they reentered the barn, the white mare whinnied weakly and pawed at the wall. The crickets grew quiet at the sudden banging on the wooden wall, but at least the neighbor dogs didn’t bark this time.
“Shhhh.” Cara placed her hand on the mare’s nose, trying to quiet her. The horse smelled the grass and stretched her lips toward the bunch Cara held in her other hand. “Wow, she’s really hungry!”
“I’m going to try feeding the black horse.” Ali hunkered down and placed the fresh blades of grass right under his nose, but he barely looked at her. She tickled the underside of his chin with the blades. “He doesn’t seem to want any.”
“That’s not good.” Cara paused for a moment and the white mare whinnied loudly, demanding more food.
The neighbor’s dogs began barking again. “Keep her quiet or we’re gonna get caught!” Ali groaned. “Better turn off the flashlight so nobody sees it if they look outside.” With the click of the switch, the barn was plunged into total darkness.
A moment later, a bright beam of light cut through the barn, startling Ali and blinding her with its brightness.
“What’s going on out here?”
“Oh, no!” Cara hissed, opening the door to the stall. “It’s Mrs. Marshall! Run!”
Three
Ali scrambled to her feet and bolted out the stall door behind Cara. They tore through the barn, the light from Mrs. Marshall’s flashlight bouncing crazily around the room.
“Stop!” the old lady hollered. “You kids get back here! I’m going to call the police!”
They ran out the back door of the barn and pounded down the road. Ali pumped her arms, trying to gain more speed. She didn’t know where they were going, and she didn’t really care. She’d been a fool to go to Mrs. Marshall’s place. Her parents were going to be furious.
After what seemed like forever, they stopped in the cover of a large tree. Ali bent over and sucked in huge gulps of air. She’d never run so fast or so far in her entire life. When her vision cleared, she looked around and noticed they were in sight of her house.
“You okay?” Cara panted.
Ali took several more deep breaths, trying to calm down before answering. “No, I’m not okay! We’re going to get in a lot of tro
uble!”
She stared at her house, looking for a sign that her parents had noticed she was gone. It was dark and quiet. Did she dare hope that Danny had kept this adventure to himself?
“We’re going to be fine,” Cara assured her. “We got away. No one followed us.”
Ali took a good hard look at her friend. “Just because we got away with it doesn’t make it right. We shouldn’t have gone onto Mrs. Marshall’s property. She saw us. She could have us arrested.”
“Maybe we will get into trouble, but at least now we know what happened to the horses. They need help. What are we going to do?”
Ali tried to come up with an answer. She couldn’t get the image of the gelding, his ribs sticking out, and the poor mare, who could hardly hold her own weight, out of her mind. “I don’t think the black one will make it much longer,” she admitted.
Cara jammed her hands into her pockets and stared up at the moon. “We’re going to have to turn in Mrs. Marshall. Maybe Animal Control will do something this time, once they know things are even worse than before.”
“But if we report her, we’ll have to admit we were in her barn,” Ali said. “We could get in lots of trouble.”
“Maybe we don’t give our names?”
Ali thought for a moment. “With Caller ID, they’d know exactly where the call came from,” she said. “We wouldn’t remain anonymous for very long.” She crossed her arms and paced a few steps up and back. How had she gotten involved with this?
Ali took a deep breath and slowly let it out. She’d gotten involved because two horses were in desperate need of attention. The adults were taking too long. “We’ll figure things out in the morning,” she said. “It’s too late to call anyone at this hour. We gave them water and some grass. Hopefully, that will be enough to get them through the next few hours. Right now I’ve got to get back into the house before my parents find out I’m gone. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She ran up the front walk, slowing when she reached the creaky porch steps. The door was unlocked, just as she’d left it. She held her breath as she entered the house and crept past her parents’ bedroom. She felt lower than a snake’s belly in a tire rut.
A muffled cry came from Danny’s room. She paused at the top of the stairs, listening. It came again, like something from a spooky movie, and the hair on her arms stood straight up. She crept closer and pressed her ear against the wood. Danny was moaning and thrashing, the bedsprings squealing in protest.
“Danny?” She spoke softly, trying not to wake their parents. He was probably having another bad dream—he’d had a lot of them since he’d returned. They made her mom really upset.
“Danny?” She turned the doorknob, finding it unlocked. Her brother let out another tortured howl.
Ali stepped into the room, not sure what to do. “Danny!” she hissed. How could their parents sleep through all this noise? “Danny, wake up!” She took him by the shoulder, shaking him gently.
Danny sat up bolt upright and lashed out. His knuckles grazed Ali’s cheek and she fell backwards, her feet tangled in the twisted covers.
“Ali …?” Danny sounded confused—but also more like his old self. He leaned over the side of the bed and peered at her. “What happened?”
“You were having a bad dream. I tried to wake you, but …” She rubbed her cheek as she stood. Had he left a mark?
A flash of regret passed over Danny’s face, then his eyes narrowed and his mouth hardened into a thin line. He pointed toward the door. “I told everyone to stay out of my room. You shouldn’t have come in here. Now get out!”
“What’s going on up there?” Their father’s voice rose from the bottom of the staircase.
Ali’s mouth went dry. Would Danny be angry enough to tell her parents that she’d snuck out of the house? She locked eyes with her brother, willing him not to say anything.
“Everything’s fine, Dad,” Danny hollered. “I’ll see you in the morning.” He waited until he heard the downstairs bedroom door close, then turned to Ali. “Don’t say anything to Mom and Dad about this, okay? They worry about me enough already—especially Mom.” He tucked his injured leg back under the sheets, then rolled over and pulled the covers up around him, effectively dismissing her.
Ali rubbed her cheek. She’d only been trying to help. Danny hadn’t meant to hit her, but the meanness in his voice afterward had been deliberate.
Danny insisted he was fine. But the truth was, he wasn’t. He needed help. Why couldn’t he see that? Why couldn’t her parents do something?
Back in her room, Ali stepped out of her jeans and into her pajamas. Morning would be here soon and she’d have to figure out what to do about the Appaloosas. And her parents would have to decide what to do about Danny.
“Well, what’s the verdict?” Cara asked the next morning as soon as Ali sat down on the bus. “If we don’t do something quickly, those horses won’t make it.”
As the bus passed the Marshall place, both girls turned to scrutinize the property. There was no sign of the horses or Mrs. Marshall. She hoped the poor animals could hold on a bit longer. Ali wrestled with her thoughts a moment, then turned to Cara. “We’ve got to do it. We have to make sure Animal Control knows how bad things have gotten. There’s no way they can let Mrs. Marshall off with just a lecture again if they see the state of those horses. This time, they’ll have to do something.”
Cara nodded solemnly and they rode the rest of the way in silence.
The morning classes dragged, but lunch finally arrived. The girls ate quickly, then left the cafeteria to use the phone outside the nurse’s station.
Cara looked the number up on her cell phone and Ali did the dialing. Her hands shook and she tried to hand the phone to Cara, but her friend refused to take it.
Just as Ali was ready to hang up, someone answered. “Animal Control. How may I direct your call?”
This is it, Ali thought. It was time for her to step up and be brave. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.
“Hello? Are you there?”
Ali thought of the horses, desperate for water and food, and found her courage and her voice. She took a deep breath. “Er, hi…. I can’t give you my name, but I want to report a case of animal abuse.”
Four
Ali spent the rest of the school day worrying. Had they made the call in time? Would the horses be okay? She kept expecting the door to the classroom to fly open to reveal a uniformed officer, who would escort her and Cara off to juvenile hall.
“There’s no way they can trace that call to us,” Cara told her as they boarded the school bus. She plopped into the seat by the window in the first empty row. “Anyway, we did the right thing.”
“That’s true, but my parents will still hit the roof if they find out we snuck out and went to Mrs. Marshall’s.” Ali took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “But I’ll take a punishment if it means we saved those horses’ lives.”
The bus driver closed the door with a noisy bang and pulled out onto the road.
“Guess Jamie got a ride home from school,” Cara said. “Hey, look what I found online this morning.” She held her cell phone up for Ali to see. “There’s a great photo of him in the newspaper. He helped restore a bunch of bikes so they could give them to foster kids who didn’t have any.”
Ali stared at the photo of the tall, dark-haired boy with the nice smile. He seemed like a pretty great guy. She raised an eyebrow at Cara. “Stalk people much?” They both burst out laughing.
“Seriously though,” Cara said. “I think he’s cute. He smiled at you yesterday. I thought you might want to know a little more about him.”
“If I wanted to know more, I would have looked him up myself.” Ali had thought about it, actually, but she wouldn’t tell Cara that.
Cara elbowed Ali and pointed out the window. At first all Ali could see were some white trucks parked alongside the road. One of them was hitched to a horse trailer. As the bus drew closer, she realized that th
e vehicles were from Animal Control. And they were outside Mrs. Marshall’s house.
They had come! Their phone call had worked! She wanted to pump her fist in the air and yell, “YES!” But that would give them away.
Ali and Cara quietly slapped a high five. “Let’s get off at this stop so we can see what’s happening,” Cara suggested.
Ali shook her head. “I don’t think we should.”
As soon as the bus stopped, Cara was out of her seat and heading toward the door. Ali had no choice but to follow. But when Cara started walking straight toward the Marshall place, Ali balked. “What are you doing?”
“Come on!” Cara waved her forward. “Don’t you want to see what’s happening up close?”
“I don’t think we should go near that house. Mrs. Marshall might recognize us. Let’s take the long way around.”
“But I want to see the horses,” Cara said. “I want make sure they’re okay. Come on.” She linked her arm through Ali’s, dragging her forward.
Ali decided it would be best to just go along. She didn’t want to draw attention by putting up a fight.
Several neighbors were gathered along the roadside, watching the Animal Control officers. “Finally!” one woman said. “Somebody finally got through to them.”
“It took Animal Control long enough,” another replied. “Now maybe we’ll be able to get some help for those poor horses, even if Mrs. Marshall is still being stubborn.”
Ali stood on her toes, trying to catch a glimpse of the horses. The black Appy was on his feet, tied to a fence post. Her heart broke for him. His head hung down and his legs wobbled like he was ready to collapse.
It had all been worth it. Ali and Cara had almost gotten caught, but the horses had been rescued.
A part of her felt sorry for Mrs. Marshall. Surely she hadn’t meant to starve her horses. She had always taken good care of them before this. Maybe the rumors were true—maybe she was going senile. Nobody in her right mind would treat an animal this way.
They were just past the small crowd when Cara stopped. “Look! That’s Jamie holding the white Appy. What’s he doing here?” She waved and Jamie’s brows drew together like he was trying to figure out who she was.