Sea Horse

by Bonnie Bryant

  “It is?” Stevie said.

  Carole couldn’t answer her then; she was laughing too hard. Stevie began to think about it in a new light. At first, she had been angry that her daydream bubble of the blue chiffon dress and silver sandals had been burst by Phil’s blue sweater, but as she thought about it, Carole was right. The situation was ridiculous.

  Stevie laughed, too. “Can you see me in a blue chiffon dress that perfectly matches the sweater Phil’s mother made? Maybe she makes sweaters for all these formal occasions. He’ll get a black one for the senior prom, a white one for his wedding. And me? I’ll just switch chiffon outfits!”

  “Absolutely. You can get a chiffon riding outfit and a chiffon gym suit—oh, don’t forget the chiffon bathing suit …” Carole gasped with laughter.

  “I wonder what color sweater his mother will knit for that!”

  Pretty soon, Stevie was giggling even harder than Carole. Their horses seemed a little confused by the hilarity. Carole drew Starlight to a stop. Stevie pulled up next to her and they stayed there until they were in control of themselves.

  “Oh, that felt good!” Stevie said, taking a deep breath of the cool December air. Along with the laughter, the air seemed to cleanse away all the misery and self-pity that had been building up in her for days.

  “Phil must never know!” she said.

  “Maybe on your fiftieth wedding anniversary,” Carole suggested. “But before then, we have to decide what you’re really going to wear.”

  Stevie scratched her head to help her think, forgetting that she was wearing a helmet. “I’ve got it,” she declared. “If he’s wearing blue, I should, too. I’ve got a blue-plaid skirt and a white sweater that goes with it. I can wear a turtleneck under that and I’m all set, don’t you think?”

  “Sounds good to me. Didn’t you wear that when he came to your house on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, though?”

  “I’ll bet you anything he won’t notice. There, that problem’s been taken care of. Now, what’s been bugging you?” Stevie asked.

  “I think I’ve just discovered what hard work it is to train horses. And it seems to take forever until the work pays off. The thing I have to remember is that it will pay off, and in the end, it’s worth it. But I’ve been so lonely.”

  “Me, too,” Stevie said. “Malls are awful without friends.”

  “Stables aren’t much better,” Carole told her. She started Starlight walking once again and the two friends rode on into the woods in contented silence for a while.

  The woods were still filled with snow that made a squeaky sound as the horses trod through it.

  “Look, the brook!” Carole said, pointing ahead.

  There was the brook that they saw often in summer. There was a flat rock by its edge where they could sit and dangle their feet on hot, muggy days, cooling themselves from the bottom up.

  “Let’s stop for a minute,” Stevie said. “I’ve got this sudden, incredible urge to make a snowball.”

  “Only you,” Carole said, shaking her head in amazement, but she stopped and dismounted anyway. She noticed with more than a little satisfaction that Starlight stood absolutely still as she dismounted. She wrapped his reins around a thick bare branch and headed for the rock.

  Stevie tied up Topside in a similar manner and followed Carole to the rock.

  Stevie swept the snow off the flat rock onto her hand. She and Carole sat on the chilly rock while she formed the snow into a ball.

  The creek in front of them was mostly covered with a thin crust of ice, though there were iceless patches and the girls could see the water rushing along underneath, as if it took no notice of the cold.

  Stevie completed her snowball and tossed it back and forth from hand to hand.

  “Is this a Saddle Club meeting?” she asked Carole.

  “I guess any time we talk about horses and helping one another, it’s a Saddle Club meeting, don’t you think?”

  “Maybe, but I miss Lisa.”

  “I do, too,” Carole agreed. “But think how much fun she’s having, doing nothing but lazing in the tropical sun and eating pineapples and coconuts.”

  “I bet she’s bored,” Stevie said.

  “I bet she misses us,” Carole said.

  “Maybe as much as we miss her.”

  They sat quietly for a few minutes. Stevie was thinking about her friends and how much they meant to her. That reminded her of the abrupt farewell she’d delivered to Carole’s father.

  “Say, Carole, tell me about the Marine who saved his entire regiment. How did he do it?” she asked.

  “You must have been talking to my father,” Carole said. “Didn’t he tell you the answer?”

  “No, I hung up too fast. I just wanted to talk to you, then. So, how did he save the regiment?”

  “He shot the cook.”

  “I can’t wait until Lisa gets back,” Stevie said.

  “So she can tell us all about San Marco?”

  Stevie grinned. “No, so I can tell her that awful joke!”

  WHEN LISA WENT to her room to put on her dress for dinner, she found a note slipped under her door. She picked it up, put her towel on the cushion of the chair by her mirror, and sat down to read. It was from Frederica.

  “You are cordially invited to a private horseback-riding picnic tomorrow. Come to the stable at eleven and wear a bathing suit under your breeches.”

  That was all it said, and she couldn’t wait to find out what it all meant!

  The next day, Lisa slept late, not getting up until almost nine o’clock. She met her parents down at the pool and joined in on a game of water polo. At ten-fifteen, she returned to her room, put on a dry suit, and put her riding clothes over it.

  Lisa met Jill on her way to the stable.

  “Isn’t this exciting?” Jill asked. “Just you and me and Frederica. It’s her day off from the stable, so she’s taking us on a special picnic.”

  “We’ll have a ball,” Lisa said.

  “Right, as long as we stay on the beach and don’t go up on any of those cliffs.” Jill couldn’t help shivering.

  “I’m pretty sure the reason we’re wearing our suits is because we’re going on the beach,” Lisa said. Jill seemed relieved to hear the confirmation.

  “Listen, I haven’t thanked you enough or apologized for being such a jerk—” Jill began.

  “Don’t worry. I think I deserved it at least a little bit,” Lisa said. “Besides, your being a jerk helped me get angry and that helped me figure out what was wrong. I should thank you.”

  Jill laughed. So did Lisa. It felt very good.

  The last of the trail riders was leaving for the morning when Jill and Lisa arrived at the stable. Frederica greeted them both cheerfully.

  “Are you ready for our party?” she asked.

  “You bet!” Lisa said.

  “Okay, then, Step One: your horses. Lisa, you pick first.”

  “Jasper, of course,” Lisa said without hesitation. “He and I have been through a lot together.”

  “And over a lot together, as well,” Frederica said. “If I recall, that included a four-foot fence.”

  “You what?” Jill asked, astounded.

  “I had to get to you the fastest way,” Lisa began.

  “So she talked good old Jasper into going over that fence,” Frederica said, pointing to the schooling ring.

  Jill’s jaw dropped. “I thought you were just beginning to jump,” she said.

  “I am,” Lisa said. “And I guess I’m beginning to get the hang of it at the same time,” she joked.

  “Boy, I’m lucky you were there when Tiger took off.”

  “I think you were,” Frederica agreed. “Lisa put on quite a riding display. But, now, speaking of riding, which horse do you choose, Jill?”

  Jill thought for a moment. “Tiger, of course. We’ve been through a lot together as well. We had a great trail ride yesterday and, as long as we don’t park him under any coconut palms, I’m sure he’l
l be fine.”

  “I thought so,” Frederica said. She turned to the stable. “Alain, bring them out for the girls,” she said. Alain emerged, leading Tiger and Jasper, ail tacked up and ready to go. Frederica had known their answers before she’d asked them.

  Lisa and Jill checked their tack and then mounted up.

  “Let’s go,” Frederica said as soon as she was in the saddle of her own horse.

  “Uh, excuse me,” Lisa said, “but where’s the picnic? Shouldn’t we be carrying sandwiches or something?”

  “Ah, no problem,” Frederica said. “Alain is meeting us at the picnic place. It’s his day off, too. He’s driving the Jeep and he has to take the shortcut along the beach. Since we have the benefit of being on horseback, we get to mosey along the long way. Ready?”

  They were.

  Frederica led the girls and their horses on an unfamiliar trail. As with the trail they knew from the intermediate ride, it, too, changed terrain, from grassy field to palm grove to beach to brook to brush-covered hillside. And, it seemed to Lisa, every time they rounded a bend, they had another spectacular view of the stunning turquoise sea. Fortunately for Jill, none of those views involved being close to the edges of any cliffs.

  “It’s hard to believe I’ve only got two more days here,” Lisa said wistfully. “I can’t stand the idea of never seeing this again.”

  “It will be here when you come back,” Frederica said. “And so will I.” Lisa found that a very comforting thought.

  The bridle path then led through the brush and down a hill toward the beach.

  “We’re picnicking at the far end of this beach. We can take a canter about halfway and then walk the final quarter mile. Ready?”

  When they reached the hard-packed sand at the edge of the ocean, Frederica signaled for them to begin their canter. Lisa reached back with her heel and touched Jasper behind his girth on the left side. He responded instantly, as ready to go as she was. The ocean lay to her right, stretching endlessly toward the pale blue sky. To her left lay the whole island of San Marco, now almost familiar to Lisa. And ahead lay a long, lazy stretch of empty beach, white sand glistening in the bright sun. Its beauty nearly took Lisa’s breath away.

  Lisa barely thought about her riding. The setbacks of those first two days on the trail were behind her. Her body moved naturally with the gentle rocking of Jasper’s canter, and she adjusted her balance with the curve of the beach and its slope to the water without thinking about it. Jasper splashed almost playfully in the shallow waves at the edge of the water. Lisa loved the sound. In fact, she loved everything about this ride and so did Jasper, her very own sea horse.

  From her very first lesson, Lisa had understood that riding fast was not necessarily what riding was about. Riding well was the most important thing. And riding wasn’t even necessarily the most important thing about being with horses. Taking care of them properly meant earning the right to ride. Still, there was a part of her that loved a ride like this more than anything she’d ever done with a horse. The breeze came in off the ocean briskly. It brushed through Jasper’s mane and her own hair, sweeping it off her shoulders. For a moment, Lisa imagined herself and Jasper as the sole inhabitants of San Marco. They would live off the fruit trees and she would ride every day. It would be wonderful.

  At last the group rounded the point of the beach and came upon another long crescent of sparkling white sand. Lisa knew that this was the spot where they were going to have their picnic. It had to be. Directly in front of her were the strangest, most wonderful rock formations she had ever seen. The largest rock, which stretched level from the side of the cliff to a distance well out into the water, had a series of tall tunnels through it, which gave it the appearance of having legs.

  “We call this Aqueduct Rock,” Frederica said, slowing to a walk.

  “I’m not surprised,” Lisa said. Jill looked at her curiously. “It looks just like one,” Lisa explained. “An aqueduct is an old-fashioned Roman water pipe, kind of like a bridge.”

  “There’s a cave beyond it, too,” Frederica informed them. “You can explore after we eat.”

  “Before we go swimming for the second time,” Jill said.

  “Third, maybe,” Lisa suggested.

  “Or fourth,” Frederica added. “We’re just here to have fun. Once the horses are taken care of, we can relax.”

  A few minutes later, they met up with Alain, who had parked the Jeep just off the beach on a dirt road. He had cool water and hay for the horses. Lisa helped him untack the animals and feed them while Frederica and Jill set up the picnic. Lisa was a little surprised by how much water Alain let the horses drink, but then she realized that she was in a tropical climate and the horses needed more water in hot weather like this than they did in the cooler weather at home.

  “Race you to the rock out there,” Jill said, challenging Lisa on her return to the beach.

  “Hold up, there,” Frederica said. “I have a few things to say first. Number one, sunscreen.” She held out the bottle and saw to it that Lisa and Jill slathered on appropriate amounts. “Number two, although the water is calm here, these rocks can have some very sharp edges. Use your common sense and be careful. Number three, have fun.”

  With that, Frederica lowered herself onto her towel and began soaking in the warm sunshine.

  Lisa and Jill ran to the water and splashed through the gentle surf until it was deep enough to swim. The rock outcrop they were racing to was about fifty yards away from the beach and almost seemed to grow out of the water. Lisa tried to imagine what kind of volcanic eruption would end up with that single rock fifty yards from the shore. By the time she’d arrived, she’d decided she couldn’t know and it didn’t matter; she was just glad it was there.

  Jill was a good swimmer and beat Lisa to the rock. She found footing on the near side and climbed up carefully. Lisa followed close behind her.

  The rock was mostly flat on top, though it was uneven enough to have indentations that formed little pools when the gentle waves occasionally splashed up on it.

  “Look!” Jill cried out, gazing into one of the pools. Lisa joined her, crouching down on her haunches to look.

  There, in about three inches of water, was what seemed to be a whole miniature world.

  “There’s an anemone!” Jill said.

  “And look! A teeny crab!” Lisa said, pointing to a creature no bigger than her fingernail, scurrying through his small home.

  Lisa shaded her eyes and searched through the little pool. She found some of the shells Ben had showed her. One, looking like a miniature turban with a pointed top, even had something living in it. “Some kind of snail, I think,” Lisa said, observing the creature withdraw into its shell.

  “And here are some mussels or something,” Jill said, pointing to a section of the pool almost covered with tiny black half-open shells.

  They spent another few minutes looking at the pool, and discovered that it had minnows living in it as well. Exploration of other tidal pools on the rock revealed more anemones, more crabs, some starfish, and even one brightly colored yellow fish, which seemed uncomfortable in the small amount of water. Very carefully, Lisa lifted it in her hand and tossed it back into the ocean. It was gone in an instant.

  “I hope that was the right thing to do,” she said.

  “I know it was,” Jill told her. “That fish was way too big for this little pool, and who knows when another wave would have come and given it a lift back to the ocean.

  “Check this out,” she added, pointing to a very odd creature crawling near another pool. It was a crab about the size of a quarter, and it had managed to cover itself with pieces of shell and rocks.

  “My friend Ben told me about them,” Lisa said. “They’re called decorator crabs. Aren’t they neat? And these animals over here are baby shrimp.” She pointed to crescent-shaped creatures about half an inch long.

  Jill giggled. “They look like barber poles. Look at the red-and-white stripes.”


  “I guess the red is supposed to camouflage them in cocktail sauce,” Lisa joked.

  When they finished exploring the tidal pools, it seemed like a good idea to go swimming again.

  The girls examined the best way to get off the rock and then found something they thought many swimmers before them must have found as well. Halfway down to the water, on the side of the rock, there was a ledge that served as a perfect diving platform.

  Lisa slipped into the water first to make sure it was deep and free of rocks. When she knew it was safe, she returned to the outcrop, climbed back up to the platform, and dived into the blue water. It felt wonderful.

  Jill followed her in and the two of them raced back to the beach. This time, Lisa won. They toweled themselves dry and joined Frederica and Alain at the picnic site.

  Both Jill and Lisa were famished. The picnic, prepared for them especially by the hotel kitchen, was wonderful. They ate it quickly, though, because there was still so much to do.

  After lunch, Frederica and Alain showed them through the caves, which had been carved out of volcanic rock by eons of waves and tides. They weren’t deep or scary caves, but they were lots of fun. Their floors were sandy while the walls and ceilings were craggy and rough. Lisa’s mind slipped back to her daydream of living alone on the island with Jasper. She decided that if she did, she would definitely make a cave like this her home, unless—

  “Does the tide still come in here?” she asked.

  “Oh, yes,” Frederica said. “In fact, this whole beach just about disappears at high tide, and that’s at four o’clock today.”

  So much for her cozy home!

  As they came out of the final cave, Lisa looked at the ocean and noticed the change. The rock she and Jill had swum to was now nearly submerged. The waves licked at the edge of the towel where they had sat for lunch. The beach was slowly being covered by water.

  “How long have we got?” she asked.

  Frederica consulted her watch. “We should leave in an hour,” she said.

  “Then we haven’t got a second to spare,” Lisa told Jill. “Let us know when a half hour is up and we’ll help with the cleanup and tacking up, okay?”