Summer Horse

by Bonnie Bryant

  “I’m sure she’ll be ready,” Carole said, trying to raise one of her clay horse’s legs to make him look as if he were prancing. In the process, she accidentally squashed his head. She did her best to fix it as she continued to talk. “You’ve got her in really good shape, and she’s so naturally athletic. She’ll probably have a ball.”

  Lisa cleared her throat. “I was thinking about maybe entering, too,” she said shyly. In the past couple of days, she had realized what a strong jumper Major was. On his back, she was sure she could at least avoid embarrassing herself. And riding in the event would be a great experience.

  Carole and Stevie looked surprised. “Really?” Carole asked immediately. “Do you think you’re ready for that?”

  She regretted her thoughtless words immediately when she saw Lisa’s face fall.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean it that way,” Carole said, abandoning her sculpture and turning to Lisa. “I just meant you don’t have to decide yet if you don’t want to.”

  But Lisa knew what Carole was really thinking—that Lisa wasn’t good enough for that kind of event yet. Stevie was thinking the same thing. Lisa could tell by the look on her face. What made them think they were still so much more advanced than her? Lisa was getting a little tired of always being automatically labeled the weakest rider of the three. Maybe this was as good a time as any to prove that she wasn’t their inferior anymore.

  “I’ve already decided,” she said firmly. “I am going to enter that show jumping event. And you’d better watch out, because I just might surprise everybody and win!”

  She switched off the pottery wheel. The vase she had been making was pretty good, but the rim was definitely uneven. Lisa smashed the clay down into a ball and put it away.

  “What are you doing?” Stevie asked.

  “I’ve had enough arts and crafts for now,” Lisa replied. “I’m going back to my cabin. See you later.”

  Carole watched her go. “Whew,” she said. “I guess I put my foot in my mouth that time.”

  “Don’t worry,” Stevie said. “She’s probably just dying to get back to War and Peace or whatever she’s reading now.”

  “The Great Gatsby,” Carole corrected. She frowned anxiously. “I hope that’s it. She seemed kind of insulted by what I said.”

  “She’ll get over it,” Stevie said. “She’s probably just tired and hungry. It’s been a long day.”

  “I guess you’re right,” Carole said.

  By this time, most of the other campers had left to go to dinner. The arts and crafts room was almost deserted.

  “Come on,” Stevie said. “I’m just about done with this.” She sat back and gave her sculpture a critical look. Most people would probably recognize it as a human head, but beyond that it was rather difficult to describe. The nose tapered almost to a point, one ear was a little higher than the other, and several pieces of hair had fallen off, leaving blank patches on the head.

  Carole looked at it and laughed. “Who’s that supposed to be?”

  “It started off as a self-portrait,” Stevie admitted with a grin. “But if you tell anyone I said that, I’ll deny it. Even my last school picture was more flattering.”

  “Well, I’m the last one to make fun of you,” Carole said, gesturing at her own sculpture. “Still, even if nobody else can tell it’s a horse, I know it’s supposed to be Starlight. And that’s all that matters.” She carefully picked up the sculpture and carried it over to an empty shelf to dry.

  “Right,” Stevie said. “And if anybody asks, you can just tell them it’s an abstract modernist piece and they obviously just don’t get it.” She picked up her own creation and set it next to Carole’s. “Normally I would give this masterpiece to Phil, but right now I’m not sure he deserves it. I think I’ll give it to my parents. They won’t mind if it’s a little strange-looking. After all, they hang every one of my darling little brother Michael’s hideous space warrior pictures on the refrigerator.”

  The two girls cleaned up the table where they had been working and then washed their hands in the sink. Carole rubbed her stomach. “All that creating made me hungry,” she said. “Let’s go to dinner.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Stevie said. She paused on the threshold and glanced at their sculptures, sitting side by side on the shelf. “But you know what? I don’t think our cabin should do a sculpting demonstration for the talent show.”

  WHEN LISA ARRIVED at Cabin Six, Piper was the only one there. She was wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt, and her hair was tied back in a ponytail.

  “Hi,” Piper said when Lisa entered. “I was just about to go for a run. Want to come?” She began to stretch.

  Lisa flopped onto her bunk. “No thanks,” she said. “I hate jogging. Don’t tell my dance teacher, though. She’s always trying to convince me I should run every day.”

  “You take dance?” Piper asked, looking interested. “What kind?”

  “Ballet,” Lisa replied. “I’ve been taking classes for almost five years now. Other than the jogging stuff, I really like it.”

  Piper turned the stretch she was doing into a plié. “I used to take ballet, too,” she said. “All through elementary school. Now I take a modern dance class three times a week.”

  “Really?” Suddenly Lisa sat up. “Hey, that gives me a great idea. Why don’t we do a dance number for the talent show?”

  “That’s perfect!” Piper said, stopping her stretching long enough to clap her hands and smile. “I was afraid we’d end up just doing some kind of embarrassingly silly skit or something. But with the two of us working together, we should be able to come up with a really great number.”

  Lisa reached into the cubby next to her bunk for a pencil and paper. “Come on,” she said excitedly. “Let’s start writing down some ideas. The other girls in the cabin probably don’t have much dance experience, so we’ll want to start rehearsals as soon as we can.”

  Piper stopped stretching and sat down next to her. “How about making it a sort of modern jazz piece?” she suggested. “I know Betty is a jazz fan. I’m sure she’d let us borrow her boom box and one of her tapes.”

  “That sounds really great,” Lisa agreed. She had never tried jazz dancing, but she had seen other people do it and she was sure she could do it if she rehearsed enough. It seemed like fun.

  “We should be sure to pick a fast song,” Piper said. “That way we can have lots of cool kicks and flashy moves and jumps in the choreography. Like this, maybe.” She stood and executed a graceful leap across the cabin floor.

  Lisa clapped. “That was great!” she cried. “If we all do that in unison, it will look fantastic.” For the next fifteen minutes, the two girls were busy writing down ideas.

  Finally Lisa paused and glanced at her watch. “This all sounds perfect so far,” she said. “What do you say we take a break and go to dinner? Maybe we can talk more about it there.”

  “You go ahead,” Piper said. She stood up and did a few more stretches. “I still want to get that run in.”

  “But you’ll miss dinner,” Lisa protested.

  Piper shrugged. “It’s okay,” she said. “I had a huge lunch. I’m not even hungry right now. I can grab something from the snack machine in the rec hall if I get hungry later.” With a wave, she hurried out of the cabin. Lisa heard her sneakers pounding down the path toward the woods.

  Lisa stood up to put away the pencil and paper. Piper had self-discipline, that was for sure. Lisa couldn’t help admiring the older girl even more. She glanced at the open bag of books beside her bunk and sighed. She could use a little more of that kind of discipline herself.

  Suddenly she decided there was no reason she couldn’t at least try to follow Piper’s example. “If she can do it, so can I,” she murmured. Skipping one meal was a good idea anyway. She could stand to lose a couple of pounds no matter what anybody else said. And if she could lose the weight then she could do anything—and it would all be as easy for her as it was for Piper.


  She sat down again on her bunk and picked up The Great Gatsby, willing herself to ignore her grumbling stomach. Opening to the first chapter, she started to read.

  “I HOPE SHE’S not mad at me,” Carole said worriedly. She and Stevie were almost finished with their dinners, and Lisa still hadn’t shown up in the mess hall.

  Stevie buttered her third roll. The rolls were still warm from the oven, and they tasted delicious after a strenuous day of riding. “She doesn’t know what she’s missing,” she commented. “These rolls are fantastic. They almost make me forget that a certain someone didn’t even try to come sit with us, even though we saved him a seat.” Phil was sitting across the room with his cabin mates again.

  Carole ignored Stevie’s comment. She was still feeling anxious about Lisa. “I wasn’t very sensitive when we were talking about the show-jumping event,” she said. “Lisa really is a good rider. As her friends, it’s our job to remind her how far she’s come, not how much farther she has to go. Even though I was surprised she was thinking about riding in the event, I shouldn’t have said so.”

  “What’s said is said,” Stevie said philosophically, taking a large bite of her roll. After chewing and swallowing, she added, “The only thing we can do is find her and talk to her. If she’s mad at you, she’s probably mad at me, too, I’m sure I looked just as surprised as you sounded.”

  “You’re right,” Carole said, setting down the piece of fried chicken she was holding. “Hurry up and finish eating. Then we’ll go to her cabin and apologize.”

  A few minutes later the two girls knocked gently on the door of Cabin Six. There was no answer, so they pushed the door open and peeked inside. The cabin was dark and empty.

  “Now what?” Stevie asked as she and Carole stood on the path in front of the cabin. It was a cloudy evening, and the woods seemed darker than usual. “She wasn’t at dinner; she’s not in the cabin. Where is she?”

  “Maybe she went for a swim,” Carole suggested. “Let’s go down to the pond and—”

  Suddenly Stevie held up her hand. “Shhh. Did you hear that?”

  “Hear what?”

  Stevie listened carefully for a moment. The sound came again—the sound of something or someone moving through the woods somewhere behind Cabin Six. “That!”

  “Maybe it’s Lisa,” Carole said. “Maybe she went for a walk and she’s just getting back. Come on, let’s go see,” She started around the side of the cabin. The underbrush was creeping up on the structure, and it wasn’t easy getting through in some spots.

  Stevie kicked a dead branch out of the way. “This isn’t exactly the ideal terrain for a walk.” She looked ahead and caught a glimpse of something moving through the trees about a dozen yards away from them. She squinted, trying to see more clearly in the dusky dimness of the forest. “Did you see that?”

  “What?” Carole asked, looking up from the vine she was untangling from around her leg. She was glad it wasn’t poison ivy.

  But by the time Stevie pointed it out, the shape was gone. “It wasn’t Lisa, anyway,” she said. “Too big. It sort of looked like a man in dark clothes—like maybe in a business suit.”

  Carole looked skeptical. “What would a businessman be doing out there in the woods?”

  “Who knows?” Stevie said. “For all we know, he could be an ax murderer or something. Maybe we should report it.”

  Now Carole looked suspicious. “Oh, really?” she said. “The more I think about it, the more this seems like a Stevie Lake prank to me. Are you sure you’re not just trying to trick me into reporting something ridiculous and making a fool of myself in front of Barry?”

  “Of course not,” Stevie said, sounding wounded. “I really did see someone. Or something. Maybe it was a bear.”

  “A bear? In a business suit?” Carole said.

  Stevie sighed. “Come on,” she said, fighting her way back through the weeds and vines to the front of the cabin. “Let’s keep looking for Lisa. I bet she’s at the pond.”

  The two girls walked down to the swimming pond. Sure enough, Lisa was there. She waved at her friends and swam to the shallows by the small beach.

  “We’ve been looking everywhere for you,” Stevie said. “We missed you at dinner.”

  Lisa squeezed some water out of her hair. “I wasn’t really hungry,” she said. That wasn’t exactly true, but she did feel a lot better now that she had finished several chapters of her book. “I just came down here to cool off. Why don’t you come in?”

  Carole was glad that Lisa didn’t seem angry. “We’d better not right now,” she said. “We should let our dinners settle. But I did want to talk to you. I’m sorry about what I said earlier—there’s no reason you shouldn’t be in the show-jumping competition.”

  “No need to apologize,” Lisa said with a shrug. “I know you meant well.” Her earlier anger had passed. After all, her friends would realize how wrong they were soon enough. There was no sense in making a big deal about it in the meantime.

  Stevie looked up at the sound of a door swinging shut on one of the boys’ cabins across the pond. “Hey, there’s Phil,” she said. Then she frowned. “Ugh. He’s with Todd. At least they don’t have those stupid skateboards with them for a change.” She grabbed Carole’s arm. “Come on, let’s go say hi. Maybe you can distract Todd long enough for me to talk to Phil for a few minutes.” She was only half joking. “Want to come, Lisa?”

  “You guys go ahead,” Lisa said. “I just got in the water—I want to swim for a while.”

  “All right,” Carole said. As Lisa backstroked out to the middle of the pond, Carole and Stevie hurried around it and caught up with the two boys.

  “Hi, Phil,” Stevie greeted her boyfriend sweetly. She glanced at Todd. “Hi, Todd,” she added in a much less enthusiastic voice. “What are you two up to?”

  “We were just going to play tennis,” Phil said.

  “Where are your rackets?” Carole asked, noticing that the boys were empty-handed.

  Todd gave her a strange look. “We’re going to use the camp rackets,” he said. “We didn’t bring our own.”

  Phil laughed. “Don’t mind Carole,” he told his new friend. “If I know her, she’s probably spent every minute since she got here at the stable. I’m surprised she even knew the tennis courts existed, let alone the equipment shed.”

  Carole blushed. It was true that she had been spending a lot of time at the stable, even if she hadn’t been enjoying it as much as usual, thanks to Ditto. “You got me,” she admitted. “I haven’t quite made it down to the courts yet.”

  “Why don’t we go check them out now?” Stevie suggested brightly. She turned to Phil. “How about it? Are you up for a game of doubles?” She smiled as she pictured herself as Phil’s teammate, winning point after point from Carole and Todd until they gave in and begged for mercy. Now that was what she called romantic.

  “Sure,” Phil said, smiling at Stevie. “Is that okay with you, Todd?”

  Todd grinned. “On one condition,” he said. “Boys against girls!”

  Phil laughed. “Good idea,” he said. “How about it, Stevie? Carole? Unless you think you can’t possibly beat us, of course …”

  There was no way Stevie could resist a challenge like that, especially from Phil. “You’re on,” she said grimly. Without another word, she stalked off toward the courts.

  Carole tried not to giggle as she hurried after Stevie and the two boys. This had the makings of an interesting game, she thought. She and Stevie were both pretty good players, and they would definitely give the boys a run for their money—especially considering the mood Stevie was in. Carole gladly banished from her mind all thoughts of the silly misunderstanding with Lisa and the much more serious misunderstanding with Ditto. This was what camp was really all about—having fun.

  CAROLE DIDN’T HAVE much fun for the next couple of days. Her relationship with Ditto wasn’t getting better over time. If anything, it was getting even worse. She was starting to do somethi
ng she never thought she’d do: lose patience with a horse. Every time Ditto misconstrued a simple command or ignored an aid, Carole regretted ever saying that she’d never met a horse she didn’t like. She had met one now, that was for sure. Several times during the week she had even thought about asking Barry to switch her to another horse. But her pride overcame that thought each time. She had never met a horse she couldn’t ride, and she wasn’t about to let Ditto break her streak.

  On the other hand, she had so much trouble controlling him that it was hard for her to pay attention in her riding classes. So far, she hadn’t won the candy bar a single time in jump class. In her equitation and general riding classes, she was lucky to make it through with a minimum of errors.

  Worst of all was dressage class. Normally Carole enjoyed dressage, though she wasn’t as crazy about it as Stevie was. But normally Carole was riding Starlight, who was a quick learner and eager to please. Ditto was just the opposite, and he absolutely refused to learn anything Carole tried to teach him about the demanding and intricate sport.

  In Friday’s dressage class, the campers were performing tests that put together all the skills they had been working on that week. As she waited her turn, Carole patted Ditto on the neck, hoping that if she acted as though she liked him, she would convince him—and herself—that she really did. He jumped nervously, and Carole gritted her teeth.

  After a moment, Ditto calmed down again. “You’re going to do your best, right, boy?” Carole whispered to the horse. He flicked one ear lazily back toward her, then took a step forward and stretched his neck down to nibble at some weeds by the fence.

  Carole pulled his head up and, after several tries, got him to step back into place. She turned to watch as Stevie began her test. As usual, both she and Belle seemed to be enjoying themselves, making their good performance look even better. When she finished, Stevie was smiling broadly.

  “Nice job,” Carole said, as her friend pulled up beside her.