She reached for her pillow and hugged it tight until the tears slowed down. Then she lay on her bed, exhausted and spent. She looked around her room. Everything there seemed familiar, but not comforting. She’d cried all right, but it hadn’t changed anything. She was still unhappy and confused. She looked at her horse posters and the model horses on her bookshelves. She loved them, every one of them. Each was special to her. Then her eyes came to the foil-covered chocolate horse. The repair work she’d done on his leg hadn’t held up. He’d fallen over and gotten even more damaged, smashing his nose when he went.
Stevie stood up from her bed and went to examine him. She’d loved the neat way his ears were so perky and the way his tail fanned out as if brushed by a breeze. A lot of times when people were making horse models of one kind or another, they were sort of phony looking, but not this chocolate horse. He’d been a beauty. Stevie had really loved him. But he didn’t look lovable now. He just looked broken down and even a little melted from when Stevie had left him in the window in the sunlight. That part wasn’t Alex’s fault. She could only blame him for the broken leg. On the other hand, the melted part wouldn’t have been so noticeable if it hadn’t been for the broken leg. Maybe it was Alex’s fault. Maybe everything was Alex’s fault. Maybe nothing was.
Stevie lay back down on her bed and, finally, fell asleep, exhausted and still confused.
“WOW! WE DID a wonderful job, didn’t we?” Carole asked, walking into the totally transformed feed building. No longer was it a mere shack to hold grains and grass. It was a perfectly decorated old Western dance hall. Everywhere she looked, there were bright red, white, and pink streamers. Red hearts and lanterns hung from the rafters, and the hay bales made perfect benches for kids to sit on when they weren’t dancing.
“And look at the food!” Lisa said excitedly. They hadn’t been in charge of food. Someone else had done that, and they’d done a wonderful job. Everything was red, white, and pink. There were apples, cherries, fruit punch, cupcakes decorated with pink and red frosting, and even some cookies that had had food dye added to make them pink.
“Not only does it look pretty, it also looks good,” Phil said, leading the way to the refreshments.
“Except for the pink cookies,” said Cam. “I just can’t get too excited about pink chocolate-chip cookies.”
“Until you have a taste,” Carole said, nibbling cautiously at one. “They taste just like the real thing.”
Cam tried one and relented, agreeing that they did, at least, taste good.
“Wait until our St. Patrick’s Day dance and they all turn green,” said Lisa. “Those take a lot more courage to taste.”
“I’ll pass,” Cam said.
“All the more for the rest of us,” Phil said brightly.
That remark made Lisa smile. It was exactly the kind of thing Stevie would have said. She missed Stevie. She and Carole had missed Stevie a lot over the last ten days. Lisa loved being with Carole, and Carole loved being with Lisa, but each knew that when Stevie was with them, they had more fun. They also suspected that Stevie had more fun when she was with both of them. Carole and Lisa had talked about it as they were getting ready for the dance that afternoon, and they’d agreed together that, when it came to The Saddle Club, the three of them together were better than each of them apart. Or, as Lisa had put it, the sum was greater than the parts.
Carole had liked that idea. It was a way of saying how important The Saddle Club was to each of them. Being together had a way of bringing out the best in each of them. Now, however, they weren’t together. They were still apart, and Lisa and Carole both missed Stevie and wished they’d succeeded in talking her into coming to the dance. So did Phil, but there didn’t seem to be any point in dwelling on it.
“Come on, now,” Phil said, as if he’d been reading their minds. “Let’s focus on having fun tonight. And unless my ears deceive me, I do believe I hear a fiddle warming up. I think it’s about time for the first dance to begin.”
Phil was right. They finished their cups of fruit punch and headed for the center of the dance floor, where a lot of kids were getting ready for the dance to begin. The four of them found two other couples and made a square with them.
The caller demonstrated all the moves he’d be calling by, temporarily partnering up with Lisa. It didn’t look terribly complicated until he added: “Of course, you all will be doing this at about six times the speed we’ve just done it.”
In a matter of seconds the dancers started whirling around the floor, shaking hands, going in opposite circles, swinging around, first one way, then another, ducking under joined hands and skipping every which way. When the music finally stopped, Carole was breathless.
“It seemed like it was going to be impossible,” Carole said. “But it didn’t turn out to be so hard.”
“Except for the part where you were going the wrong way, you mean,” Phil teased.
“Lisa did it first!”
“Yeah, I did,” Lisa confessed. “But I was just testing.”
She had another chance to “test” a few minutes later when they did another dance, this time more complicated, and more fun. It seemed to Lisa that the whole room whirled with the excitement of the dance and the confusion of attempts to follow the caller’s instructions. She loved every minute of it and had to agree with an earlier observation from Stevie that Phil was a marvelous dancer.
Then the four of them sat down on the bales of hay for a few minutes to catch their breath.
“Everybody looks so wonderful,” Cam observed. “And so different.”
It was true. At Pine Hollow almost all the riding that was done was English riding. English riders sometimes had a bad habit of thinking that their way of riding was “better” than Western riding. The Saddle Club had learned that one way wasn’t at all better than the other. They were really just different. And when it came right down to it, they weren’t even all that different, because they had a lot more in common than not. Looking at the crowd at Pine Hollow that night, Carole and Lisa realized that there was a little more respect for Western styles and ideas than they had thought. It seemed that everybody had jeans, cowboy boots, and a Western shirt on. The girls who weren’t wearing jeans were wearing big circular skirts with puffy crinolines underneath. One of the girls wore a girl’s riding skirt. It had a wide split skirt and was edged with a buckskin fringe.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many string ties in one room before,” Cam remarked, tugging idly with the strings on his tie as he spoke.
“I’m sorry Stevie isn’t here to see this,” said Carole. “She’s always been a big one for costume parties, and this definitely qualifies as that.”
Lisa was going to agree, but she got interrupted when the caller announced the start of a Virginia reel.
For that dance the caller decided to pair everybody up differently. He had the boys make a small circle, and the girls a larger circle outside the smaller circle. They danced in opposite directions until the music stopped and then they were each facing their new partners. Lisa thought of it as a sort of “Musical Partners.” She’d been having fun dancing with Phil, but she was very aware of the fact that he was Stevie’s boyfriend, and if she danced with him exclusively all night, some people might get the wrong idea. She found herself dancing with Adam Levine for the Virginia reel and then with Joe Novick for the square dance that followed. It wasn’t until almost halfway through the evening that Phil found her and brought her over to the bale of hay that they’d staked out for themselves earlier.
“It’s almost time for the contest dance,” Phil said. “I think we should be partners for that.”
“And I think we should win,” Lisa agreed. “After all, who better to take flowers, balloons, and hearts over to the Lakes’ house than you and me?”
“Not so fast there,” said Carole. “There’s no guarantee at all that you’re going to win. Cam and I have been doing a pretty darn good job on the dance floor. I think you’ll find
some stiff competition from us.”
“Not if it’s another reel dance,” Lisa said. “I was absolutely wonderful doing it.”
“You were? I didn’t see you at all,” Carole said.
“That’s what I mean,” Lisa teased. “I was going so fast, you couldn’t even see me.”
Both Carole and Lisa knew the joking was all in fun. If either of them won the dance contest, both of them would take the balloons to Alex. They knew that.
The caller picked up his microphone and tapped into it. “May I have your attention, please,” he began. That meant this definitely was the contest dance. He explained about Alex, although everybody there already knew, but not everybody knew he was coming home from the hospital the next day. There was a joyful cheer when the man gave the dancers that news. Then he explained about the dance contest.
“So, now, everybody get your best partner and let’s begin. However, I must tell you my throat is a little tired, so I’m going to sit this one out. The dance contest is going to be a twist!”
Carole’s face lit up. Carole’s father was a nostalgia buff, and his favorite nostalgic time was the fifties and sixties. His favorite nostalgic dance was the twist. He’d taught Carole how to do it almost before she could walk. Nobody, but nobody, was better at it than she was.
“Did you plan this?” Lisa asked suspiciously.
“Moi?” Carole asked, mustering her most innocent look. It made Lisa laugh. She knew Carole hadn’t had anything to do with the dance selection. It was just really good luck.
The band got into it, and the caller, in spite of his protestations of a sore throat, began singing “The Twist.”
Carole was in her element—almost as comfortable dancing this dance as she was on horseback. She began at once and didn’t miss a beat. Cam did everything to keep up with her, and at the very least did his best to stay out of her way. She pivoted on her toes, first rising, then lowering herself as if she were crouching except that she kept her back straight, then she rose again and began circling Cam, still twisting to the very familiar music.
It really wasn’t a contest. By the second verse of the song everybody on the floor had relented and given the floor over to Carole and Cam, allowing Carole a lot more dancing space to strut her stuff, and she did just that.
Lisa was the one who started clapping to the music. Soon all the other onlookers had joined in. It seemed to inspire Carole all the more. As the band neared the end of “The Twist,” they couldn’t bear to stop watching the floor show Carole was putting on, and they slipped right into “Let’s Twist Again,” Chubby Checker’s follow-up hit to the original twist. Like the band, Carole just kept right on going. And then, when the final note was sounded, she grabbed Cam’s hand, looked up at the crowd around her, and asked, “Is it over already?”
She got the round of applause she deserved. Lisa ran out onto the floor and gave her a great big hug.
“I’m coming with you tomorrow morning,” she said, as if Carole hadn’t already known that.
“But first we’d better call Stevie and let her hear the good news,” Phil suggested.
Carole just nodded. Although she hated to admit it, she was totally out of breath. She and Cam shook hands with the caller who told her he’d never seen anyone dance the twist that well. Carole told him that meant he hadn’t ever met her father!
“Well, he should be proud of you. You were great out there!”
“I had good reason to be,” Carole explained. “See, Alex’s sister, Stevie, is my best friend. I was doing it for her.”
“Then she should be proud of you, too,” he said.
Carole thought Stevie probably would be, and now she couldn’t wait to talk to her.
Phil provided the change and placed the call. It took a few minutes to get Stevie on the phone. It seemed that there were a lot of relatives visiting at the Lakes, and the one who answered the phone didn’t know exactly where Stevie was. It took four cousins to find someone who knew exactly where she was, and then it took a while for her to find exactly where the phone was, since one of her cousins had moved the phone from her bedside table to the closet so he could make a private phone call. Stevie was pretty steamed by the time she picked up the phone.
“Hi, Stevie, it’s Phil,” he said, glad to hear her voice after all.
“Hi,” she said.
The change in Phil’s face when he heard Stevie’s voice told Lisa and Carole that something was wrong.
“Is Alex okay?” Phil asked.
“Of course Alex is okay,” Stevie said. “Is that why you called? Alex is coming home tomorrow. He’ll have to spend another two to three weeks at home in bed, being waited on hand and foot because he can’t get overtired or he could get sick all over again. But as long as we take good care of him—really good care of him—he’s going to be good as new. That’s how Alex is.”
“Um, we’re calling you from the dance,” Phil said. “Lisa and Carole are here. We wanted to talk to you, and we’ve got some news for you, too. At least Lisa and Carole were here a second ago. Let me get them. I know they want to talk to you.”
Since both Lisa and Carole were standing right next to him, that was a very odd statement for him to make to Stevie. Obviously, he needed to talk to them before they talked to Stevie.
He covered the phone with his hand. “She’s down in the dumps,” he said. “Really upset.”
“Alex?” Carole whispered the question.
“He’s fine. It’s Stevie who isn’t. Good luck.” He handed the phone to Carole. She and Lisa did the best they could to share it.
“Hi, Stevie, we miss you,” Lisa said.
“I bet you’re having a good time.”
“Not as good a time as we’d be having if you were here,” Carole assured her.
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” said Stevie glumly. “I’m really not much fun these days.”
“Stevie!” Lisa said, almost shocked by Stevie’s statement. If there was one thing that could always be counted on it was that Stevie was fun.
“It’s just that there’s so much—you know—” Stevie said.
Her friends weren’t at all sure they did know, but they also knew that there were times when it was pointless to argue with Stevie, and this appeared to be one of them.
“So much Alex,” Stevie said, completing her sentence after a pause.
“Yeah,” said Carole softly.
“Carole just won a twist contest,” Lisa began, about to tell Stevie that they’d bring the balloons over tomorrow. But Carole shook her head warningly, and Lisa immediately caught on. Maybe this wasn’t the best time to be talking about Alex.
“I wish I could have seen the contest,” said Stevie wistfully.
Lisa didn’t know what to say back. Obviously there was just about nothing she and Carole could say that would cheer their friend up.
“Here’s Phil again,” Carole said. She handed the phone to Phil, who said just a few more things to Stevie before hanging up.
The three of them and Cam stood looking at one another.
“She’s in trouble,” said Carole.
“Big time,” Phil agreed.
“Major league.”
“We’ve got to do something for her,” Lisa said.
“Definitely,” said Carole. “In fact, I’m beginning to get the feeling that this is a Saddle Club project.”
Lisa nodded. It had all the earmarks of one. Since the second requirement for membership was helping out other members—even when they didn’t know they needed help—it was time for them to join together and help Stevie. She definitely needed it, so badly that she didn’t even know.
“Time for a Saddle Club meeting,” Lisa declared. Carole agreed totally.
“ISN’T THIS CALLED breaking and entering?” Lisa whispered to Carole.
“Not when it’s your best friend’s house and you’re coming over here to bring her something, not steal something,” Carole answered her, using Stevian logic. “And besides, the
back door was open.”
The two of them slipped in through the kitchen door—the one they knew was always left open after six-thirty in the morning when Mr. Lake went for his morning run.
They had to be very quiet because they didn’t want to wake anybody up, and it wasn’t easy being quiet when they were carrying so much stuff.
First of all, there were the balloons and the hearts from the dance for Alex. Carole tiptoed upstairs to Alex’s room, now empty and clean, waiting for his return from the hospital later in the morning. This was the last time she was going to think about Alex while they were there. She and Lisa had made an agreement that this morning’s surprise was totally about Stevie. They’d promised one another they wouldn’t even mention Alex’s name while they were with Stevie.
Carole deposited the balloons and hearts in Alex’s room, then crept back downstairs to help Lisa assemble their surprise for Stevie.
“I wish Phil could be here with us,” Lisa said.
“Me too,” Carole agreed. “But there was no way he was going to convince either of his parents to drive him over here at this hour to have breakfast with his girlfriend.”
“It does sound kind of funny, I guess,” Lisa said. “Still, he really belongs here. This is a Saddle Club project, and he is part of The Saddle Club.”
“Well, there’s no point in worrying about that now. We’ve got a job to do even without Phil’s help.”
They got to work.
The girls had spent enough time at the Lakes’ to know where the plates, bowls, and glasses were. It took them only a few minutes to set up a tray. It took a little longer to put all the food on it.
First of all, there were the beverages. The girls weren’t sure whether Stevie would prefer milk or orange juice for her breakfast in bed, so they’d brought both. Then they’d agreed right away that cold cereal was just too boring, so they’d made some pancakes. Now they warmed them up in the Lakes’ microwave. They looked a little limp, but they were sure they would taste good. Lisa applied butter. Carole poured on the syrup. There were two slices of bacon and half a grapefruit. Lisa had wanted half a maraschino cherry to put over the center of the grapefruit because that always looked so pretty, but there wasn’t a maraschino cherry to be had anywhere in the Atwood kitchen. Carole had located a red pepper and sliced off a circular chunk. It wouldn’t taste like a maraschino cherry, but, the girls agreed, it looked just as pretty. They’d brought a knife, fork, and spoon from Lisa’s house. They took a napkin from the Lakes’ napkin rack. All of this was put on a tray.
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