Tight Rein

by Bonnie Bryant

  Carole smiled warmly. “I don’t think you’re silly at all,” she said. She thought about saying more, about how important she thought it was that Lisa not give up with Barq, and how much Lisa could learn from riding different types of horses, but she decided not to. From Lisa’s outburst the day before, Carole had gathered that her friend needed support but probably didn’t want to hear much advice.

  Carole set her spoon down in her empty dish. “You were right, it wasn’t too early for a sundae. But we’d better get back. If we wait too long, Belle might get hungry enough to snack on that grain.”

  “Wait,” Lisa said. “You’ve got fudge sauce on your chin.” She handed Carole her napkin. “What about me?”

  Carole inspected her. “You’re clean.”

  CHAD WAS SITTING on a hay bale outside Belle’s stall, but when he saw them he stood up right away. “She hasn’t eaten,” he said. “I even took the grain out of the bucket and tried to stick it in her mouth, but she wouldn’t eat it. She didn’t seem to like it at all.”

  Carole tried not to laugh at her mental image of Chad poking grain between Belle’s lips.

  “Poor Belle,” murmured Lisa.

  Carole pressed her lips tight together. She would not laugh. They observed the suffering horse in silence.

  “Lisa and I can walk you home,” Carole offered at last. She needed to get away from bright-eyed Belle before she had hysterics. His riding lessons obviously hadn’t taught Chad much about horses if he really believed this one was sick. Carole wouldn’t have been fooled for a moment. Belle’s coat was dull, sure, but it looked dirty.

  “You’re not both going to leave her, are you?” Chad asked anxiously. “Can someone else watch her? I mean, she hasn’t eaten at all.”

  “I’ll stay with her,” Lisa said. “You’re totally right, someone should, and I don’t think anyone else is scheduled for this morning.”

  Carole’s eyebrows rose. “ ‘Scheduled’?” she mouthed behind Chad’s back.

  “Thank you, Chad,” Lisa continued. “I’m sure you’ve made a difference. She may not have gotten better, but at least she hasn’t gotten any worse.”

  Carole turned away. Lisa and Chad could see her shoulders quivering. “I’m sorry,” Carole said, choking.

  “She’ll be okay,” Chad said, desperately trying to comfort Carole. He’d certainly never seen Carole Hanson cry!

  “I’ll watch her now,” Lisa commanded. “You two go.” She had to get Carole out of here before she ruined everything. Carole was just about to explode with laughter.

  Chad heard the urgency in Lisa’s voice and understood that she didn’t want Carole upset any further. “Let’s go,” he said gently. He put his hand on Carole’s shoulder and guided her down the aisle. Carole, overcome, covered her face with her hands.

  Lisa steeled herself against a similar outburst. It wouldn’t be so funny, she thought, if he weren’t swallowing everything, hook, line, and sinker. They had Chad completely in their power. She grabbed a brush and began to clean the dirt off Belle.

  “IT’LL BE OKAY,” Chad repeated for perhaps the hundredth time as they walked up the sidewalk toward the Lakes’ house. Carole nodded. She still didn’t trust herself to speak.

  “Look,” Chad continued, pointing to the second story of the house, “there’s Stevie waving.”

  Carole waved back. As they came closer, she could see the anxious expression on Stevie’s face. Stevie opened her window and sailed a paper airplane down.

  Chad looked over Carole’s shoulder as she unfolded it. Why a vet? the note said. Is Belle sick?

  Chad looked at Carole. Carole felt her stomach drop. What could she possibly say? She didn’t want to make Stevie think there was something wrong with Belle—she knew how much it would worry Stevie. And yet Chad was watching. So far, he believed them.

  Carole bit her lip. Finally she called up to the window, “She’s not eating.”

  Carole hoped Stevie would be content with that much of an explanation, but she didn’t really expect that she would be. After all, if something was wrong with Starlight, Carole would demand to know all the details. So Carole wasn’t really surprised when, a moment later, a second airplane flew out of Stevie’s window. Colic? it read.

  Carole shrugged unhappily. Chad watched her, his hands on his hips. “We’re afraid it might be,” Carole said at last, even though her heart was breaking at the thought of what she was doing to Stevie. Stevie gasped. She shut her eyes, slammed the window down, and backed away, disappearing from view.

  “You didn’t have a choice,” Chad told Carole solemnly. “She deserves to know the truth.”

  Carole walked miserably back to Pine Hollow. Stevie deserved the truth, all right—and Carole had told her a lie.

  Chad walked into his house. He stopped in the entryway. Even from so far away, he could hear his sister’s sobs.

  “LISA?” MAX STUCK HIS HEAD out of his office door just as Lisa walked into the stable. “Did you remember that Judy’s coming to do Belle’s teeth this morning?”

  “Of course,” Lisa said. “That’s why I’m here so early. Carole and I are both going to help.”

  Max smiled. “Great. I’ve got an early lesson, so I can’t attend to it, though I’m sure my mom or Red could have if you two couldn’t. But it’s a good chance to learn something, especially since you said you’d never seen teeth floated before.”

  Lisa grimaced. “It seems like everything is a good chance to learn something,” she complained. “I never quit learning!”

  Max came out of his office. He crossed his arms and spoke to her seriously. “I agree it gets frustrating sometimes,” he said. “But I think one of the truly wonderful things about horses is that they’ve always got something new to teach us, if we stay willing to learn. No one can ever know everything about horses.

  “In fact,” he continued with a small grin, “sometimes I used to feel just the way you probably do—as though someday, if I tried hard enough, I could know everything. Then I got a chance to talk to one of Nigel Hawthorne’s friends. At the time, this friend was the top-ranked event rider in the entire world.”

  “Wow,” Lisa said softly. Nigel was a world-class rider, and they’d all gone to several events to watch him ride. Lisa could hardly imagine anyone being a better rider than Nigel.

  “Yes,” Max said, “and that man, the champion, told me that every day he learned something new. He’d ridden on four Olympic teams, and he said he still hoped that someday he’d learn how to be a really good rider. So don’t give in to your discouragement, Lisa. You can’t know everything, but you have learned a lot.”

  “But that’s not my problem, Max,” Lisa protested. “I don’t want to know everything. I just want to know more than Stevie and Carole do.” As soon as she said it she felt shocked. How could she feel that way about her best friends? But she did!

  Max didn’t look shocked. He gave her face a gentle pat. “I know,” he said. “But you can’t control that—you can’t change what Stevie and Carole know. All you can do is keep improving yourself. You made a good start with that yesterday, when you did so well in your lesson with Barg. You really learned lengthening, Lisa, and you might not have, at least not so completely, if you hadn’t had to struggle with it for a while.”

  “I guess,” Lisa said, smiling at the memory of finally, finally, sailing through those wide-spaced poles without a single whack. “I’m glad you understand, Max. I don’t really want to be better than Stevie or Carole—and yet I do.”

  “That’s okay,” Max said. “Just keep things in perspective, all right? It’s not often I have a student who learns as quickly as you.” He looked up as they heard a sudden noise in the driveway. “There’s Judy’s truck, and my student’s car.”

  “And Carole,” Lisa said, seeing her friend walk up the driveway. Carole usually took a bus from her house to a stop near Pine Hollow. Lisa went to greet her friend, comforted by the fact that Max seemed to understand her feelings. A hors
e of my own would help, she thought, but I still wouldn’t know as much as Carole. About horses, anyway, she corrected herself. I probably know more about ballet.

  “Hey, Carole, do you know what a battement tendu is?” she asked as Carole came closer. She smiled mischievously at the look of bewilderment on her friend’s face. “This!” She elevated herself on one foot and tapped the other gracefully around her ankle.

  “Okay,” Carole said, giving Lisa a puzzled look. “What’s it for?”

  “Nothing, I just wondered if you knew.” Lisa lifted her chin, moved her arms into a graceful port des bras, and carried herself down the stable aisle on demi-pointes. “We’d better get Belle out for Judy.”

  CAROLE HELD BELLE on a lead rope in the center aisle. “It’s best not to put her on cross-ties for something like this,” she explained to Lisa. “If she decides to protest and flips her head back hard enough, she could flip herself over. The cross-ties would break, of course, but she could hurt herself, and besides, it’s easier to control her with the lead rope.”

  “Uh-huh,” Lisa said, nodding. She was examining the long tools that Judy would use to file Belle’s teeth. They looked, she decided, like short snow-shovel handles with cheese graters attached to the end. One file was for coarsely grated cheese, the other for fine. Lisa knew she wouldn’t want those things anywhere near her teeth.

  Carole grimaced. Here she was, running off at the mouth again! No wonder Lisa didn’t like it.

  Lisa looked up and caught the expression on Carole’s face. “It’s okay,” she said. “In the first place, I didn’t know that, and in the second place, I know you can’t help yourself. You shouldn’t have to try. It’s the way you are. I like the way you are. You’re one of my best friends.” She smiled, and Carole smiled back in relief.

  Judy opened Belle’s mouth and felt deeply along the long, narrow sides of her jaw. “Yep, she’s got some points back there,” she said. “Stevie was right. She was really paying attention.”

  “Couldn’t she have checked Belle herself?” Lisa asked.

  “Probably not,” Carole said. “Her molars are way back behind the space where the bit rests. It’s a long reach. Anyway, Judy’s the expert.”

  Judy grinned. She knew The Saddle Club well, especially Carole, who sometimes accompanied her on her rounds. “Yes, I’m quite an expert, all right,” she said, laughing at her own joke. “This is a job for Supervet! But I left my cape at home.”

  Lisa held up one of the files. “And this thing really doesn’t hurt?”

  “It doesn’t hurt,” Judy said. “Horses don’t have any feeling in the points of their teeth, any more than you do in the tips of your nails, and even though those files look like something out of the Middle Ages, they do their job well. On the other hand, the files make a lot of noise, and, as you’ll see, bits of tooth go flying. Some horses hate it, even though it doesn’t hurt. If I remember right, Belle didn’t like this the last time.”

  Belle didn’t like it this time, either. She threw her head up the moment Judy approached with the file, and she pulled Carole backward halfway down the aisle. All Judy’s soothing words and gentle movements weren’t enough to change Belle’s mind.

  “Just like I remembered,” Judy said. “The thing to do here, girls, is give her a little tranquilizer. It’ll make things easier and safer for all of us.” She gave Belle an injection in her hip, and a few minutes later the horse was swaying woozily, her head hanging near her knees.

  “Wow,” said Lisa, impressed. “That stuff really acted fast.”

  “Yes, and it’ll go away fast, too. In an hour she’ll be completely back to normal.” Judy lifted Belle’s head and began again with the coarse file. Belle still pulled away slightly, but the spirit of resistance had left her. In a very short time her teeth were done.

  “There, now she’ll be much more comfortable,” Judy said, giving Belle a pat. “Go ahead and leave her in her stall, girls, but take out her food if she has any left. You don’t want her eating until the tranq’s worn off. Her muscles are so relaxed that she could choke.”

  Judy stepped back and admired Belle as Lisa put her back into her stall. “She’s really in tip-top shape, isn’t she? Stevie takes great care of her. I hope Stevie’s back riding soon. Max told me the story.”

  “All of it?” Carole asked.

  “All,” Judy said. “Your midnight swim and everything.” She winked. “But I feel sorry for her, I do. Especially because of camp.” She finished packing her bags and left the stable.

  Lisa leaned over the edge of Belle’s door. The mare was standing with her face to the wall, head drooping, hind leg slack. She looked truly wretched. Lisa had a hard time believing that Belle would be perfectly normal within the hour. “We should go get Chad right now,” she said to Carole. Before the tranquilizer wears off, she added to herself. Who would have guessed that Belle would need one? Judy said most horses didn’t.

  “You don’t need to get me,” a voice said near Lisa’s ear. “I’m right here.”

  Lisa jumped so quickly that she hit her elbow on the side of the stall. “Chad! I—I didn’t see you standing there.” Frantically she tried to remember what she had just said to Carole. Had she said the word tranquilizer out loud?

  “I just wanted to check on her, to see if she was any better than she was yesterday,” Chad said.

  “See for yourself,” Carole offered, stepping out of Chad’s way.

  He peered into Belle’s stall. He was wearing, Lisa noted with interest, a different soccer jersey. But his socks were definitely the same as yesterday’s. Lisa recognized the ladderlike run in the back of the left one.

  “Maybe you need to do some laundry,” she suggested.

  “Gosh,” Chad said, intent on the horse, “she looks worse. A whole lot worse!”

  “It’s a progressive condition, you know,” Lisa informed him.

  “The vet just left,” Carole added.

  Chad nodded. “I know. I saw her truck. I tried to wave her down so I could ask her about Belle, but she just waved back and kept driving.”

  Lisa offered a small prayer of thanks for that. “I’m afraid Belle’s much worse,” she said softly. “It’s no more than we expected, though. We’ve done all we can.”

  “Her coat looks a lot shinier, though,” Chad noted. Lisa and Carole exchanged quick glances.

  “Uh …” Lisa fumbled for a reason. We washed the dirt off her? That wouldn’t go over well! “It’s a false bloom,” she said at last. “Like in those old books, when people are dying of tuberculosis and their cheeks get all red. They begin to look healthy again just before … before the end.”

  “You think she’s got tuberculosis?” Chad sounded truly alarmed.

  “No, no—”

  “Lisa was just making a comparison,” Carole said. She added thoughtfully, “I don’t think horses get tuberculosis.”

  “Well, that’s good,” Chad said, “or Belle would probably have it.”

  Lisa and Carole didn’t know what to make of that statement, so they ignored it. The three of them watched Belle in silence for a while. The mare shifted her weight slowly between her two front feet.

  “Is she eating?” Chad asked.

  “No,” Lisa said mournfully. “Judy took her grain away. She said it could only hurt her, in the condition she’s in.”

  “Wow.” Chad sounded impressed.

  Another long silence ensued. Lisa began to wonder how they could get Chad to leave. If the tranquilizer wore off while he was watching, it would look like a medical miracle.

  “We’ve got to do something,” Chad said at last. “What do you think she needs? What’ll make her better?”

  “Only one thing,” Carole intoned in a deep, mysterious voice she’d picked up from watching fifties horror movies late at night with her father. “Stevie.”

  Chad nodded. “I know,” he whispered. “I just don’t know how to get her here. My parents are still really upset. Maybe there’s something else we
could do.” He looked up, and his face brightened. “Maybe,” he said, “we could ask Mrs. Reg.”

  Carole and Lisa whirled around. Lisa tried to conceal the expression of horror that she knew was spreading across her face. Mrs. Reg, of all people, was coming down the stable aisle, heading straight for them! There was no escape. Lisa’s plan was ruined. Mrs. Reg would not for one second believe that Belle had so much as a mosquito bite, let alone advanced colic.

  It was like, Carole thought, being trapped inside one of those late-night films. The aliens were coming to get you, and your feet couldn’t move. You couldn’t even scream. You could only watch, in horror, as your life—or, in this case, Stevie’s trip to camp—ended in horrible, oozing death. Mrs. Reg was not going to find their scheme amusing. Furthermore, she’d been nearby when Judy had given Belle the tranquilizer.

  “Mrs. Reg,” Chad said, beckoning earnestly, seemingly oblivious to the two girls’ expressions, “Belle’s really sick! She looks like she’s dying! We’ve got to do something!”

  “Let’s see,” Mrs. Reg said briskly. She came to Belle’s stall, looked inside, and then opened the door and went in. She ran her hands over Belle’s body, lifted her head, checked her gums, and looked carefully at her eyes.

  Lisa wished an earthquake would come along and swallow her on the spot. Carole wondered why the monstrous space aliens never swallowed their victims whole. They always finished them off slowly, bit by agonizing bit.

  Mrs. Reg ran her hands down Belle’s legs. Chad watched her with an expression of anxious hope. Lisa and Carole looked at each other. They both knew there was no hope.

  Mrs. Reg stood up and came out of the stall. She looked at them solemnly. Lisa felt her heart skip a beat. Carole knew this was the end.