Summer Rider

by Bonnie Bryant

  “Why?” Lisa asked.

  “I don’t know,” Stevie replied. “I just feel like I need to see them one more time to really convince myself that our plan failed.” The word tasted bad as it left her mouth. The Saddle Club had never failed at something this important before.

  Lisa was nodding, looking thoughtful. “Believe it or not, that actually makes sense,” she said. “I’d come with you, except I really want to do some reading …”

  “Forget about that for once, will you?” Stevie snapped. “It’s the last day at camp. You can read all the way home in the van if you want to. But please come along now, okay?”

  Lisa looked uncertain, but finally she nodded. “Okay.”

  “You two go ahead,” Carole said. “I’m going to stay here.”

  Stevie gave her a surprised look and opened her mouth to argue.

  Carole cut her off before she could say a word. “I mean it,” she said. “There’s something I have to do before we leave.”

  Stevie gave in with a shrug. “Why don’t we both ride Major,” she said to Lisa. “That way I won’t have to redo Belle’s bandages.”

  As soon as her friends had disappeared into the barn, Carole began searching for Betty. She was determined to find out the whole story of what had happened to Piper. Since Barry had made it clear that he wasn’t going to tell her anything, she would ask Betty. And this time she wasn’t going to take “none of your business” for an answer.

  Carole found Betty in one of the sheds. The instructor was making a list of the equipment there, adding notes about what would happen to it when the camp closed.

  “It’s not a very fun task,” she told Carole. “But I could use some help if you’ve got a few minutes.”

  “Sure,” Carole said. She took the paper and pencil Betty handed her and began digging through one of the toolboxes, writing down the names of the items she found there. After working in silence for a moment, she cleared her throat. “Betty,” she said. “There’s something I have to ask you.”

  “I hope it’s not about what I’m going to do with myself starting Monday,” Betty said. “Because I have no idea. None of us does, really.”

  Carole shook her head. “That’s not it,” she said as she dropped a pair of pliers back into the box. “It has nothing to do with Moose Hill’s closing.”

  Betty looked surprised. “Ask away, then.”

  “It’s about Piper,” Carole began. “I need to know what happened to her.”

  Betty looked even more surprised, as well as a little cautious. “I’m not sure why you’re asking, but I really think Barry’s the one you should talk to about this. All I know is that she had to leave for personal reasons.”

  “I know that’s not true.” Normally Carole would never have the guts to say such a thing to an adult, but she was getting desperate. She couldn’t help thinking that Lisa’s peace of mind was depending on her. “I overheard you and Barry talking about it last night by the pond. You said she was in the hospital. I’m sorry for eavesdropping, but I know you know what happened to her, and I’ve really got to find out the truth. For Lisa’s sake.”

  “Lisa? What does she have to do with this?” Betty asked quickly. “I know they were cabin mates, but—”

  “Lisa hasn’t been the same since Piper disappeared,” Carole replied. “Her whole personality has changed. She barely sleeps, she skips half her meals, and she never seems to smile anymore.” Carole didn’t realize how true the last part was until she said it. Lisa had the kind of smile that brought her whole face to life, and Carole hadn’t seen it in far too long.

  Betty’s shoulders sagged. “Oh, no,” she said, sinking down onto a pile of empty feed sacks. “It can’t be.”

  Her face had gone pale, and Carole felt frightened, though she wasn’t sure why. “What?” she whispered. “Please, you have to tell me.”

  “I guess I do,” Betty said. She took a deep breath. “Carole, have you ever heard of a disease called anorexia nervosa?”

  Carole nodded. “We studied it in health class last year. It’s when people starve themselves to lose weight.”

  “That’s right,” Betty said. “But there’s more to it than that. It’s an eating disorder, but it’s really about more than losing weight. It seems to be mostly about being in control. And it’s all too common among teenage girls who seem to have everything going for them. Girls like Piper.”

  “You mean Piper has anorexia?” The thought made Carole go cold all over. Piper had seemed so perfect, so smart and successful. And Carole’s health teacher had told the class that some victims of anorexia got so sick that they eventually died. Carole set down the list she had been making and sat down next to Betty. “I can’t believe it. She was thin, but she didn’t look sick.”

  Betty sighed. “I know it isn’t easy to believe, but I’m afraid it’s true. Piper has been struggling with anorexia for years. In the past year she seemed to finally be getting over it for good, and that’s why her parents decided to let her come to camp. But once she arrived, she stopped eating again. Fortunately her parents had told Barry about her history, and as soon as he realized what was happening he called them. It took him a while to catch on, though—Piper has had anorexia for so long that she’s become an expert at hiding her problem from the people around her.”

  “I still can’t believe it,” Carole said, shaking her head. “She seemed so normal. Well, better than normal, actually. She’s a fantastic rider.” But even as she said it, she remembered that Piper had rarely come to meals, and she had eaten very little when she had. Also, she had exercised almost nonstop—if she wasn’t riding, she was swimming or jogging or playing tennis.

  “I know,” Betty said, nodding. “She was one of the best riders at camp because she liked to succeed. But anorexics often feel such a driving need to succeed, to control their own lives, that they feel they must control every bite that enters their mouth. Their need to be thin sort of takes over their mind, and they’ll do anything to lose just one more pound.”

  Carole felt bad for Piper, but she was even more worried about Lisa. “Could—Could Lisa’s weird behavior mean that living with Piper made her get anorexia?”

  “Anorexia isn’t contagious the way the flu or measles is,” Betty said. She gave Carole a searching look. “But if Lisa is acting as oddly as you say, I suppose it’s possible that Piper’s behavior somehow influenced her own. I’m no expert, though. If you’re really worried, you have to see that she gets professional help.”

  “I don’t know …” Carole thought hard for a moment. Piper had obviously had a strong effect on Lisa, and not necessarily a good one. But maybe all Lisa needed was to find out what had happened to her friend. Once she realized what she was doing, she would stop—she was too sensible not to. Once camp was over, maybe all of them, including Lisa, could put this behind them.

  “I’ll speak to Barry about Lisa if you like,” Betty offered. “Or if you’d rather he didn’t know, I could call Lisa’s parents and talk to them about it.”

  Carole stood up and rubbed her forehead. This was too much for her to take in all at once. Lisa really did seem to be in some kind of trouble, but Carole wasn’t sure that calling in the adults was the right thing to do. Somehow, that seemed like a betrayal of everything The Saddle Club stood for. If Lisa’s problems didn’t go away on their own once they left camp, maybe Carole and Stevie could figure out a way to help her. “Don’t do anything yet, okay?” she said. “Let me think about it first.”

  Betty nodded reluctantly. “Please let me know what you decide,” she said. “If Lisa’s in the kind of trouble you’re afraid of, she needs help fast.”

  MEANWHILE LISA AND Stevie were riding bareback through the forest toward the spot where the bulldozers had been heading. They didn’t talk much as they rode, letting Major choose his own pace along the sun-dappled trails.

  As they neared their goal, the sound of motors came to them. “What do you think they’re doing?” Stevie asked in surp
rise. She had expected the machinery to be waiting silently for Monday morning, when it could begin chewing its way through the forest.

  Lisa just shrugged. “There’s only one way to find out.”

  The girls rode toward the noise. The closer they got, the louder it was. “It’s a good thing we’re both riding Major,” Stevie said. “There’s no way Belle would get this close to that kind of racket.”

  Finally they came upon the same caravan of machinery they had seen before. Once again, the giant machines were on the move, crawling along the wide dirt road through the forest. Stevie urged Major forward, and the horse stepped out onto the road ahead of the first bulldozer.

  The same man, Bill, was driving. He frowned when he saw the horse and cut the motor. “You again?” he said, recognizing Stevie. He didn’t sound very happy to see her.

  “Me again,” Stevie replied grimly. “Where are you guys going this time? I thought you weren’t supposed to start work until next week.”

  “Tell me about it,” Bill said, looking disgruntled. The other machines had stopped and were idling behind him. “Believe me, it wasn’t my choice to work on a Saturday. But we’ve got orders to take the equipment to the edge of the woods.” He jerked his chin in the direction of camp. “Apparently there’s some kind of pond down there that needs to be filled in first thing.”

  Stevie and Lisa gasped in horror. The swimming pond! “But why would they want to get rid of the pond?” Lisa cried. Would nothing be spared?

  Bill shrugged. “Don’t ask me,” he said brusquely. “I just follow orders. Now if you’ll get that beast of yours out of the road, we’ll be on our way. There’s a game on TV in a couple of hours, and I’d like to be home to see it.”

  Stevie shook her head. “Sorry,” she said, not sounding sorry at all. “I’m afraid we can’t do that.”

  The worker looked almost as surprised as Lisa felt at Stevie’s words. “No joking around now, kids,” he said. “We’ve got work to do.”

  “You can do it on Monday when the papers are signed,” Stevie said. She slid down from Major’s back and stood in the road in front of the big machine, her hands on her hips. “Until then, Moose Hill still belongs to us. And we don’t want your horrible machines lurking around our swimming pond.” To everyone’s amazement, she lay down in the dusty road in front of the bulldozer’s wheels.

  Bill just rolled his eyes and started the motor. Lisa gasped, horrified, but Bill turned the wheel sharply, moving carefully around Stevie’s prostrate form. The rest of the drivers threw their vehicles into gear, preparing to follow.

  As soon as Stevie realized what was happening, she leaped to her feet. “We’ve got to stop them!” she cried to Lisa over the roar of the motors. Even steady, fearless Major was beginning to look nervous at the noise, but Stevie hardly noticed. Suddenly it seemed very important to stop this. This might be the last day of existence for Moose Hill Riding Camp, and Stevie thought the camp should be allowed to pass that day in peace, without greedy machines threatening its best places.

  Lisa wasn’t sure what they were supposed to do. There were only two of them, and they weren’t going to be able to keep Major there much longer. Besides, even if they managed to block the road, the heavy machines could crash their way around them through the underbrush. It seemed hopeless.

  But Stevie wasn’t giving up this time. She hadn’t been able to save Moose Hill from being sold, and that made it seem even more important to do this. “Help me up,” she called, stretching her arms up over Major’s back. Once Lisa had hauled her aboard, Stevie turned the horse back toward camp. “We’ll be back!” she yelled at the workmen as Major cantered away.

  Moments later Stevie was racing around camp, rounding up all the campers she could find and sending them running into the woods toward the construction workers. A few kids had already left, but most of those who remained were eager to join Stevie’s impromptu protest.

  Stevie was about to head back into the woods herself when she ran into Lisa coming out of the stable. “Have you seen Carole?” Stevie asked her.

  Lisa shook her head. “Not since we got back.”

  “Well, there’s no time to look for her now,” Stevie said breathlessly. She grabbed Lisa’s hand and dragged her toward the woods. “Too bad—she’ll be sorry she missed this. Come on, let’s get back out there!”

  AT THAT MOMENT Carole was sitting in a quiet spot behind the mess hall, picking at the overgrown grass next to the building and thinking hard. She was completely unaware of the hubbub around camp that Stevie had started, because she had been in this very spot since leaving Betty.

  She was doing her best to figure out what to do about Lisa, but for some reason the failed fund-raiser kept getting mixed up in her thoughts. Carole had always thought that almost any problem could be solved if you had good friends helping you. That was the idea behind the Saddle Club rule about members helping each other. This time it hadn’t worked for Moose Hill, and Carole was beginning to wonder if it would work any better for Lisa.

  As much as she hated to admit it, Carole was beginning to think that Lisa’s problem might be too big for The Saddle Club to handle. The camp problem had been, too, but she had no regrets about their attempt to fix that. They had taken their best shot, and though they hadn’t succeeded in the end, there was no harm done. As she thought about what Betty had told her about anorexia, though, Carole feared that if she and Stevie tried and failed to solve Lisa’s problem, they might actually make things worse. The Moose Hill sale had been intimidating because of the huge amount of money involved. But money was just money. Lisa’s health might be at stake, and that was much more intimidating than the other problem could ever have been, even if they had needed to raise thirty million dollars instead of thirty thousand.

  Carole stretched out on the grass, trying to figure out what to do. If she gave up before even trying to help Lisa through whatever she was going through, did that make her a bad friend? And if Lisa’s closest friends couldn’t help her, who could?

  Suddenly Carole sat bolt upright. One part of her mind had just accepted what she had to do to be a real friend to Lisa—make sure she talked to a professional, as Betty had suggested. But another part had just realized what she could still do to save Moose Hill. It wasn’t too late. She jumped to her feet and ran toward the equipment shed as fast as she could.

  BY THE TIME the protesters returned to camp, it was all settled. Stevie, Lisa, Phil, and Todd came out of the woods together.

  “Did you see the look on that guy’s face when those girls joined hands and made a circle around his bulldozer and started singing ‘We Shall Overcome’?” Phil asked Stevie with a grin.

  Stevie nodded, feeling tired but oddly triumphant. They had done what they could. They had stopped the interlopers—for the day, at least. The construction workers had done their best to resist the protesters. But after more than a dozen campers had started swarming around them, they had had no choice but to give up, and they had done so with rather bad grace, stomping off toward the main road and muttering about calling their union.

  “Stevie!” a voice called. Stevie looked up and saw Carole running toward her with a big grin on her face.

  “Where were you?” Stevie asked. “You missed all the excitement.”

  Carole’s grin got even broader. “Correction,” she said. “You missed the excitement. Moose Hill is saved!”

  Stevie narrowed her eyes and stared at her friend. “You’re talking about the construction workers, right?” she said.

  “What construction workers?” Carole asked. She didn’t bother to wait for an answer, but went on, almost dancing with her eagerness to share the news. “No, I’m talking about the camp. Barry is buying it after all. He already talked to the Winters, and it’s all settled.”

  Stevie and the others gasped, and everyone began talking at once, trying to find out what had happened.

  Carole laughed and held up her hands for silence. “It’s true,” she said. “Al
though I wasn’t being quite accurate when I said Barry is buying Moose Hill. I should have said Barry and his partners are buying it.”

  “His partners?” Lisa said. “What are you talking about?”

  For a second Carole’s grin wavered as she looked at Lisa and thought about what they still had to do to help her. But there would be time for that soon enough. “You know how Barry was always saying that the people who worked here were such good friends—like a big family?” she said. “Well, I started thinking about that. When something goes wrong, who do you turn to? Your family and friends, right?”

  The others nodded, waiting for her to go on.

  “Well, I was sort of thinking about that kind of thing,” Carole said. She didn’t plan to explain why she had been thinking that, at least not until she, Stevie, and Lisa were alone. “And for some reason I suddenly remembered how Mike the stable hand had donated his whole savings account to the cause. Then it all seemed so simple. Lots of people love Moose Hill just as much as Barry. Why shouldn’t they all join forces—and buy it and run it as a team?”

  Stevie slapped her forehead. Carole was right. The answer now seemed so obvious it was almost painful. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that before now!” she exclaimed. “I’ve been racking my brains to come up with a way to raise money, and the answer was right here in front of me all along. It’s perfect. Carole, you’re brilliant!”

  Carole smiled modestly. “I don’t know about that,” she said. “Even though I was the one to put two and two together, I prefer to think of it as a team effort.”

  Stevie grinned. “I’ll buy that,” she said, and everyone laughed. “So it’s really all settled? Moose Hill is safe?”

  “Absolutely,” Carole said. “Even though Barry and his partners won’t be able to pay up front like the developers, they’re working out a deal with the Winters. It turns out Barry was right when he said they’d rather see this place stay a camp.” She shrugged. “But the bottom line is, Team Barry has more than enough money now. Enough of the other employees are interested—including Betty and the cook and a whole bunch of others—that they hardly even need the money we raised with our fund-raiser.”