“Um, we’re kinda busy.”
“Are you guys mad at me?”
The three girls exchanged glances but said nothing.
Little was said as they groomed their horses. Felicia was glad to start the lesson. Astride Star, she focused on keeping her feet in their stirrups, looking straight ahead at the target points, moving easily with her mount, she and Morning Star a team. She listened to her instructor’s constant voice including her in the lesson. But when it was over, the others talked briefly, and only to each other. They left without saying good-bye.
The barn was quiet, with only the sounds of horses’ breath, the chewing of hay, the scraping of a hoof. Felicia brushed Star with long strokes. “I think you’re the best horse in the world.”
The horse stood solid and accepting. Felicia looked into one dark eye. “Are the other horses ever mean to you? I think I saw a mark where you’d been nipped.” Felicia checked the rump but the mark was gone. She remembered the photos of Star when she’d been rescued, so thin and dejected. Francine said that the horses hadn’t been fed or even given water. They had to drink from a brackish pond or from puddles on the ground. “Why are people so miserable? There’s no good reason for it.” Felicia stopped brushing and stroked the horse’s face with her hand. “Are you my best friend, maybe my only friend?”
“What’s that?” Francine came out of her office.
Felicia separated strands of mane hair. “Nothing.”
“You’re all alone tonight. Where are the others?”
“They left.”
“Without you? They never do that.”
Felicia started to brush Star again, although her coat was glossy. She wished Francine would go away. She didn’t want to have to answer any questions.
“Is something wrong?”
Felicia’s throat tightened, sealing her words inside. She shook her head, putting down the brush and picking up a broom.
“Here, I’ll do that while you put Star in her stall.” Francine took the broom and gave Star a friendly slap on her rear. “Would you like a lift home? I have to get some groceries. I could swing by your place.”
Felicia shook her head, trying to hide her face.
“Have you girls had a falling out?”
Felicia led Star to her stall and removed the lead rope and halter. The horse received one last pat before the door slid shut.
“Bring me a shovel, and we’ll finish this up. You can help me with the graining and watering, then I’ll drive you home.”
Francine’s truck smelled like the barn, a mix of hay and animal hair. She brushed the seat clean for Felicia with her hand. “It’s not a limo, but it gets me from A to B.” There was a muted roar as the key turned in the ignition. “Muffler’s packing it in.”
Felicia settled in the seat, comforted by the rough warmth of the vehicle and her instructor’s friendly chatter.
“I don’t know what’s going on with you and your pals, but remember, these things happen to everybody at some time or another.”
“Did it ever happen to you?”
“Me? Hah! The horse nut, more interested in riding than wearing the latest fashions and knowing what was ‘in’ at the moment. Of course it happened to me, happened all the time.”
“What did you do?”
“I had a horse named Apollo. He was so beautiful. We rode perfectly together—it was like magic. I had another friend who liked to ride. I decided I didn’t care what the gang at school thought of me.”
“Oh.”
“Do you know what?” Francine didn’t wait for Felicia’s assent. “I think you just have to believe in yourself. You’re a smart girl.” Francine found a country music station on the radio. When a commercial came on, she turned down the volume. “And another thing. You’re a very good rider.”
“I am?”
“A natural.”
“I like riding. It’s a wonderful, powerful feeling. And I love Star.”
“She’s a beauty.” The truck pulled up to Felicia’s house.
Felicia dropped her gear on a chair in the front hall. The cat rubbed against her legs, but when she picked him up, he arched out of her grasp, leapt to the floor, and made straight for her grandmother’s lap. Once there, he stretched one paw up toward Florence’s face and began to purr.
“Even the cat doesn’t like me!”
Florence set aside her mending and the cat. “What’s wrong?”
“Everyone hates me!”
Florence opened her arms to her granddaughter. “Now then, tell me what’s happened.”
Felicia wept as she described the behavior of the girls.
“Why do you think they’re acting this way?” Florence asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Girls! They’ll probably be over this by tomorrow.”
“I want to talk to my friends in the city. I wish we had a computer and the Internet so I could chat with them all the time. Is it all right if I use the phone to call my friends?”
“Certainly, darling. You do that. It will make you feel better.”
Felicia punched in Rosalee’s number. Luckily Lenore was at Rosalee’s house.
“I miss you two. What’s new, what’s happening?”
“Very exciting stuff. We’re working together on a history project.”
“That’s exactly what I’ve been doing! What’s yours about?”
“We’re doing the ‘Chinese Industrial State.’ Can you believe it? It is so boring we are turning into stone.”
“Ours was family history and the history of Plainsville.”
“Poor Felicia. When are you coming down to escape it? Come and stay with us.”
“Actually, why don’t you two come up here? Our school is putting on a play, and I’m in it.”
“Are you singing and dancing?”
“Singing, anyway.”
“Good enough for us. We’ll check with our parents and let you know.”
“Please, please, please—I’m dying to see you. My Aunt Vi is going to be driving in from the city. Maybe she could give you a ride.”
As Felicia said good-bye, she heard the loud slam of a car door. Delia burst into the house, threw her purse and jacket on a chair.
“Now what?” asked Florence.
“The worst thing possible. I think I’m going to be fired!”
CHAPTER 31
Flower
FLOWER CROUCHED down below the window to where her mother and baby brother lay sleeping.
“Hey there!”
Flower sucked in her breath and held it.
“I saw you, I know you’re there.”
The voice penetrated Cleo’s sleep. Her eyes snapped awake. “What?”
“There’s someone outside.”
Cleo scrambled to her feet, grasped Gabriel to her chest with one arm and held Flower with her other hand.
“Where can we hide?” Flower whispered her urgent question. They looked around the large, bare space.
“Outside. We’ll find your father.” They started for the door and then stopped in their tracks. Before them, in the opening, framed by the sunlight, stood a young boy.
“Good day.” He smiled into the gloom. Cleo and Flower remained still, didn’t respond. He stepped inside and dropped a sack over his shoulder and onto the floor. “I brought you supplies.”
Flower drew close to her mother. “Supplies?” she said.
The boy opened the sack. “Blankets, two of them, and some bread.”
Eldon appeared in the doorway behind him. “You brought us these things? Did your Pa send you?”
“Yup.”
“Your name?”
“Not supposed to tell. It’s a secret.”
“That�
�s right. I forgot. Thank you, and please thank your Pa.”
“Actually, my name’s Ned, short for Edward. My Pa is…”
“That’s all right. We’ll keep it a secret. We don’t want your Pa to have any trouble.”
Cleo ran a hand over one of the blankets. Gabriel peeked out from his sling. Ned smiled at him and held out a finger for the baby, who immediately grasped it.
“Why do babies always do that? They like to hold your finger.” Ned smiled at Gabriel. “Do you folks know about this place?”
“Not a thing.”
Ned told them it was an abandoned mill, once a busy place, owned by his grandfather. They followed him down slippery stone steps to the lowest level. There, the river water flowed by. “You can leave from here, and no one can see you.”
“Into the water?”
“Or in a boat.”
“Is this place a secret?” asked Eldon.
“Not really a secret, except no one ever comes here but me and my Pa. Someday Pa is going to start it up again. Now we just do some fishing.” He turned to Flower. “Do you like to fish? There’s a special place I go.”
“I don’t know how.”
“I’ll show you.”
Flower looked to her father for direction. Eldon said, “Show me this place. It can’t be far from us. Flower doesn’t know how to swim.”
Ned led them to a quiet pool. The water eddied lazily around three large rocks. Eldon nodded, satisfied that they were within shouting distance.
When he was gone, Ned asked, “What’s your name?”
“Flower.”
“Flower? Like the ones that grow in the garden? I’ll show you how I can catch a fish with a flower.” He picked up a long stick, removed a knife from a leather sheath on his belt, and began to trim one end.
“You have a knife?”
“I’m a boy, aren’t I?”
“Yes.”
“Why don’t you get me a pretty flower, Flower.” Ned pulled some string from his pocket and tied it to one end of the stick while she found a faded blossom. “That’ll do.” He attached it to a hook at the end of the string and plopped it into the water. They watched as it bobbed on the surface.
“Where’s the fish?”
“You have to wait for it. Give it time to notice the bait.”
“Do fish like flowers?”
“They think it’s a bug. They like to eat bugs.”
“Do you know how to swim?”
“Of course.”
“What if you were swimming and a fish happened by, would it bite you?”
Ned laughed out loud. “No! I guess a snake might bite you.”
“A snake?” Flower drew her feet up under her skirt.
“Look!”
Flower saw nothing at first, then a dark shape beneath the surface, the snap of an open mouth. Ned jerked back on the line and pulled the fish up onto the rock. Its scales gleamed in the sunlight. They watched as it flopped helplessly, gills opening and closing.
“It can’t breathe!” Flower hated seeing the struggle for air. “Throw it back in the water.” But Ned picked up a stone and brought it down hard on the fish’s head. It twitched and then was still.
“Here’s your dinner.” He presented it to her with pride.
Eldon built a small fire, and the family enjoyed the fish. Flower licked her fingers and remembered eating the squirrels that Samuel had caught.
They sat by the fire until dusk; then Eldon poured water on the flames, and they went back into the building. The blankets made their bedding down warmer and more comfortable. Eldon and Gabriel fell asleep immediately, but Flower and her mother lay awake. Flower described Ned’s fishing expertise.
“He’s a helpful boy,” said Cleo.
“He thinks I’m silly, even my name, I think.”
“You’re not silly.”
“Ma, tell me again how you chose my name.”
“When you were born, I thought you were the most beautiful baby ever. I tried to think of the right name for such a baby. I looked outside at the wonder of nature and all of the flowers, and I decided that you were just like a perfect flower.”
“And Gabriel?”
“When he was born, I thought he was like a little angel from heaven, so we called him Gabriel, after the angel.”
They lay silently, listening to the breeze in the trees. “Ma, Ned said if we heard an owl’s cry four times in a row, we were supposed to go down those slippery steps. His Pa will take us away in his boat.”
“I know.”
“I hope it’s a good boat and doesn’t fall apart.”
CHAPTER 32
Felicia
FELICIA, DELIA, and Florence sat at the kitchen table, each with a mug of steaming hot chocolate.
“Now then, what’s happened?” asked Florence.
Delia blew across the mug, rippling the brown fluid. “I sold a truck.”
“Is that so bad?”
“I’m supposed to be Mr. Abbot’s secretary, not a salesperson.”
“So tell us,” said Felicia.
“I was busy as usual, filing forms, typing letters, organizing sales packages. There was this man out in the lot, looking. He kept coming in, wanting someone to help him. I told him that Mr. Abbot was in the city, and I couldn’t find Sid, the salesman.”
“Did you suggest he come back later?”
“Yes, but he was persistent. He had his eye on a red truck, said he needed one for his business. I happened to know about that vehicle. Mr. Abbot had said it was a great deal for the right person. It occurred to me that this was the right person.”
“And?”
“I couldn’t help it. I started to tell him what Mr. Abbot had said—how sturdy it was, no rust, pretty good gas mileage. Before I knew it, he wanted to buy it.”
“That’s great, Mom.”
“I know about the contracts. I prepare them all the time. He signed in all the right places. His credit check was perfect. We did the plates. I gave him the keys. He drove it off the lot.”
“What’s so bad about all that?”
“Sid came back from lunch and saw me organizing the file. He was furious, said he was going to complain to Mr. Abbot. He said I didn’t know my place.”
“There’s no need for that kind of talk,” said Florence.
“He sounds like a creep,” said Felicia.
“I just hope I can get another job here. I’ll need a reference.”
“Anyone would be lucky to have you.” Florence was indignant.
“That’s true, Mom,” said Felicia. “Everything was going so well for us. Now everything stinks. Maybe we can move back to the city.”
“There’s nothing else wrong, is there?”
Felicia cast a glance at her grandmother, who shook her head, but Delia noticed this exchange. “Tell me. Don’t keep things from me. I don’t like it.”
“Just a little girl trouble,” said Florence.
“What kind of girl trouble? Are you talking about those girls you’ve been chumming with?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Felicia hung her head, her throat tightening, “They don’t like me anymore.”
“What makes you think that?”
“They won’t look at me; they give each other looks, especially when I say something. They don’t wait for me.” Felicia’s explanation ended in tears.
“There, there, aren’t they foolish,” said Florence.
Delia stood up and went to her daughter, hugged her tight. “They certainly
are foolish. They’re not worthy of your friendship.”
Felicia accepted a tissue from her grandmother and blew her nose. “I don’t know why they’re acting this way.”
“Maybe I should speak to their parents,” said Delia.
“No, Mom! Please don’t.”
“They shouldn’t be allowed to treat you like that.”
“You mean to help me, but you’d just make it worse.”
“I might make it better.”
Felicia sat up and straightened her back, stuck out her chin. “I can handle it.”
“Let her try,” suggested Florence.
“I don’t know. For a day or two only. Then I’m getting involved.”
Felicia tried to hold on to her confidence. The next morning she dressed carefully for school, putting on the clothes that she liked and was comfortable in: jeans, her favorite long-sleeved tee, and a fleecy vest. Delia offered to drive her, and Felicia agreed. She would be spared the lonely bus ride. They pulled up in front of the school at 8:15.
“Kind of early, darling—do you mind?”
“No, it’s okay. I can read or use the Internet in the library.”
“I want get to work and speak to Mr. Abbot before Sid gets there.”
“Good luck with all that.”
“You too. Don’t forget, you deserve respect from everyone.”
“So do you, Mom.”
“I’ll tell you all about it when I get home.”
“Okay.”
“And I’ll want to hear how your day went.”
“Okay, Mom. See you tonight.”
Felicia went straight to the library, but instead of finding Mr. Allenby there, Ashley and Cynthia stood behind the main desk. Ashley looked up as Felicia came through the door, placed something in a drawer, and closed it. “Here’s the artist.” Cynthia giggled.
“I’m just getting something to read.”
“Too much studying isn’t good for you. Planning any more posters?”
Felicia started to browse bookshelves. “No.”
“Your friends were really impressed with your work, especially Sophie.”
“What?” But Felicia was talking to an empty room. The library door clicked shut.
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