A Star Discovered (9 page)

14

The Visitor

THE NEXT MORNING found Mary and Jody straddling the lowest and thickest branch of the horse chestnut tree in the side yard
of the big stone farmhouse, shelling corn off of the cob by hand for the Muscovy ducks that roamed freely on the property.
The squatty white ducks fought each other greedily for the hard kernels of corn dropping from the tree, swallowing them whole
and pecking the ground for more. The girls would normally be giggling at the antics of the funny-looking fowl, but this morning
they were too lost in thoughts of Star and the dreadful possibility of losing him. Neither of them wanted to be the first
to bring up the subject, so they sat apathetically loosening the corn from the cob with their thumbs and watching in silence
as each yellow kernel dropped to the ground.

The silence was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a car’s tires crunching on the gravel of the long farm lane. Mary and
Jody looked up to see a small blue sedan pull up in the driveway of the farmhouse and a man with a clipboard in his hand emerge
and knock on the door.

“They’re not home,” Mary said quietly so that only Jody could hear. “They’re off to market to sell naked chickens.”

Jody giggled in spite of herself as they continued to watch the man. He knocked once more and then turned and got back in
his car. But rather than driving out the lane, he steered toward the house trailer where the Mooneys lived. Mary and Jody
peered through the leaves of the horse chestnut tree as the man got out of his car once more and spoke to Annie, who was out
in the front yard playing with Heath. Annie disappeared into the trailer and soon reappeared with her father, who began a
long conversation with the man. Mary and Jody watched him gesture and point at various spots around the farm, first at the
farmhouse, and then the barn, and finally at Lucky Foot Stable.

“What in the world do you think he wants?” Jody asked, throwing her empty corncob to the ground, where the Muscovys fought
over it until they realized there was no corn left.

“I don’t know. Maybe he’s a salesman. Willie said a man stopped by last week and wanted to paint the barn, and another one
came that wanted to put a new roof on. Mr. McMurray’s always turning them away,” Mary answered indifferently. “Come on, let’s
go down to Lucky Foot and bring Star in and groom him. Maybe we should put his saddle and bridle on and walk him around the
farm. We’re going to have to start putting some of our weight on him soon to get him used to the feel of it.”

Jody didn’t reply but tears once again sprang to her eyes. Maybe Star wouldn’t be around long enough to start putting their
weight on him.
What
were they going to do
?

The girls swung down together from the thick branch of the tree, scattering ducks every which way, and linked arms on their
way to the stable. As they passed the house trailer, the man with the clipboard was walking toward the big white dairy barn
with Mr. Mooney, and Annie and Heath were nowhere to be seen.

“Wow, Mr. Mooney is spending a lot of time with that man. Mr. McMurray usually just sends them on their way,” Mary observed.

“Mare, maybe he wants to buy the farm!” Jody cried in a sudden panic. “Willie said Mr. McMurray was thinking about selling
it!”

“Well, if he wanted to buy the farm, he would have to talk to Mr. McMurray, not Mr. Mooney,” Mary replied matter-of-factly.
“Let’s not worry about that until we know what it’s all about. We have other things to worry about, you know.”

This was the first reference to the trouble with Star, and still Jody could not bring herself to talk about it. Oh, if only
not talking about it would make it go away!

Mary and Jody entered the cool stillness of Lucky Foot and were calmed by the sight of Finnegan sleeping peacefully in a spot
of sun just inside the stable doors and Colonel Sanders strutting around pecking at imaginary pieces of grain on the dirt
floor. They went silently to the Dutch doors leading to the paddock and leaned over. Star was napping on his feet at the far
end, the tip of his nose almost touching the ground.

“Star!” Jody called softly. “Wake up, little guy!”

Now it was Mary’s turn to get a lump in her throat as Star raised his head and nickered softly at the sight of the two girls.

“Hey, buddy, come on over,” Jody called again. Star stretched himself fore and aft like a dog, shook his head and yawned,
then strolled over to where Mary and Jody waited with hands outstretched. He sniffed both of their hands in turn, looking
for treats and then snorting wetly in their faces. Mary and Jody giggled through their tears and opened the bottom of the
Dutch door to lead him in for grooming. When Mary turned to open his stall door, Annie was standing in the middle of the stable
aisle.

“Hi,” she said.

“Geez, Annie, you scared me to death!” Mary yelped. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, that’s not a very nice greeting,” Annie commented, peering over the top of her horn-rimmed glasses. “Can’t I come visit
once in a while?”

“Sure you can, Annie,” Jody answered, leading Star into his stall. “We just didn’t see you there, that’s all. You surprised
us.”

Annie didn’t reply, but she leaned over the top board of Star’s stall and held her hand out to him. Star instantly began licking
her palm. Mary and Jody looked at each other, a little peeved at the effect Annie seemed to have on all members of the animal
kingdom.

“So, how’s he doing, anyway?” she asked, continuing to give Star a taste of her palm.

“He’s doing fine,” Mary said shortly.

“But we’re not,” Jody added glumly. Since Annie already knew about the dilemma, Jody figured it was OK to bring it up. And
somehow it seemed easier for Jody to talk about it with Annie around instead of with just Mary. “We have less than a month
to figure it out, and we don’t know what to do.”

“Hmmph,” Annie replied, never turning away from Star. The only sound in the stable was a gentle snore coming from the sleeping
Finnegan and the low intermittent cluck of Colonel Sanders who was still searching for stray pieces of grain.

Then Annie said, “I know what you can do.”

Mary and Jody looked at Annie, then at each other. Knowing that Mary would slowly go crazy trying to get information from
Annie, Jody took the next step.

“Well, OK, Annie. What can we do?” she asked.

“Well, there was a man here today,” Annie began.

“We know; we saw him. So what’s that got to do with Star?” Mary asked, already impatient with Annie’s reticence.

“He was looking for Mr. McMurray, but he wasn’t home,” Annie said.

“We know; we saw him go down and talk to your dad. What did he want?” Jody asked patiently.

“Well, he wanted to look around the farm. He’s looking for a specific place,” Annie continued, turning from Star for the first
time to face the girls.

“A specific place for what?” Mary almost shouted, wanting to shake Annie to get the words out of her more quickly.

“A movie,” Annie said.

Mary and Jody stared at Annie speechlessly. Finnegan let out a particularly loud snore. Then Mary found her voice, as she
always did.

“What kind of movie?” she asked breathlessly.

“I’m not sure, exactly. But the man said he was a location scout, and he needs a dairy farm for a movie, and there’s going
to be horses in it too, and he wants Willie.”

“Willie? Why does he want Willie?” Jody sputtered.

“Well, him and my dad were talking, and my dad told him that Willie works here, and what with Willie being a famous wrangler
and all . . .”

Mary and Jody looked at each other without a word. Then they turned back to Annie.

“Annie, what do you mean, a famous wrangler? What do you mean by that?” Mary demanded.

“We didn’t know the whole story either, though Willie had told my dad some of it. But when my dad told the man Willie’s whole
name, the man got real excited and said, “‘Will Riggins works here? Do you know who he is? Why, he worked with some of the
best in the business in his day. He was in demand on all the western movie sets to wrangle the horses and help the actors
with their riding. We could sure use him on this!’”

Mary’s mouth opened wide and she grabbed Jody’s arm. “Jode! This all makes sense!” she said, wide-eyed. “Do you remember the
time we went in Willie’s house to ask him where Star was, and we saw that picture of him with John Wayne? We never did ask
him about that! He must’ve worked with John Wayne and who knows who else? Oh my gosh! Willie’s famous! And he can work on
this movie and they’ll pay him, and he can use the money to save Star!”

“That’s what I thought,” Annie said, deadpan.

“But, Mary, even if they do use the farm for the movie and Willie gets a job, it’s his money. We can’t ask him to use it for
Star,” Jody cried.

Mary clamped her mouth shut tight and thought for a minute. “Well, no, we can’t. But I bet Willie will want to do it! I bet
he’ll come up with the idea all on his own.”

Then she turned to Annie and grabbed
her
arm. “Annie! Is that man still here?” she asked breathlessly.

“I think so. My dad took him around the back of the barn to talk to Willie,” she said.

Before Annie could say another word, Mary and Jody had flown out the door of Lucky Foot Stable and were headed for the big
white dairy barn. Finnegan raised his head and whined once, but then he jumped up too and took off after them as fast as he
could go.

Mary and Jody fairly flew to the dairy barn with Finnegan nipping at their heels. But when they rounded the corner and saw
Willie and Mr. Mooney standing on the barn hill in front of the big barn doors talking to the man with the clipboard, Mary
grabbed Jody’s arm and they stopped in their tracks. Then, as if out for a leisurely roam around the farm, they nonchalantly
strolled up the hill toward the trio, stopping about ten feet from where the men were engaged in serious conversation. Willie
held up his hand to the men and turned to the waiting girls with eyebrows raised.

“Um, Willie,” Mary said, smiling sweetly at the stranger. “Um, excuse us for interrupting, but we were just wondering, just
wondering if . . if . . .”

“We were just wondering if you wanted us to help feed the calves today,” Jody continued, smiling just as sweetly.

“Feed the calves? Since when do you volunteer for that job?” Willie asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at the girls.

“Well, who do we have here, Will?” asked the man, smiling with his hand outstretched. “Good afternoon, girls. I’m Ted Crowley
with Eyepatch Productions.” Ted Crowley shook hands with both girls and turned back to Willie. “Are these your barn helpers?”

“I reckon you could call them that,” Willie muttered. “Now, why don’t you girls go . . . “

“You know, we’re going to need girls just about this age for the film,” the wonderful Mr. Ted Crowley interrupted. “There
are several scenes where the lead character is teaching riding lessons, and she’ll need some students on horseback. Would
you girls be interested in helping us out with that?”

“Film? There’s going to be a film?” Mary asked innocently. “You mean like a movie?”

“Well, we hope so. We’ve been looking for a dairy farm just about like this one for our movie, and we’re hoping Mr. McMurray
will agree to it. And just by dumb luck, we found Will here, who we’re hoping will agree to accept the job of head wrangler.”

“Head wrangler!” Jody said, wide-eyed. “Does Willie know how to do that?”

“Does he know how to do it?” Mr. Crowley asked incredulously. “Well, I guess he does! Hasn’t he ever told you . . .”

“Now, now, why don’t you girls go on around the barn?” Willie interrupted, tugging vigorously on his ear lobe. “I guess I
do need some help feedin’ those calves. Why don’t you go on now and get started?”

“But, Willie, it’s only noontime, and the calves don’t get fed until three o’clock,” Mary grinned. “We have lots of time to
talk to Mr. Crowley!”

Mr. Mooney stole an amused look at Willie, who had taken off his hat and was scratching the side of his head in agitation.