Best Friends (12 page)

“Yeah, but the problem is that it almost guarantees me more angora next year.”

“Pass it on, girl!” Lisa declared, giving Stevie a big hug.

Then Lisa looked at Carole and her envelope. “Your turn,” she said. Carole slid a finger under the flap and took out a Christmas card.

When she opened the card, she found three twenty-dollar bills, a ten, and a five. The note said: “If only one of us can ride in the CI, it has to be you. Go for blue! Love, Stevie.”

“Stevie!” Carole said. “How could you—Where did you—What?”

“Where’d you get the money?” Lisa asked, rephrasing Carole’s stammering into the question Carole wanted to ask.

“My boots,” said Stevie.

“But you needed those boots!” Carole said.

“They were beautiful!” Lisa told her.

“They still are beautiful,” said Stevie. “But they weren’t going to do me any good if I couldn’t afford to ride, and I couldn’t ride if I had the boots, so I sold them.”

“To whom?” Carole asked, but then she knew. “Veronica,” she said.

Stevie nodded. “It actually made me very happy to have something Veronica wanted so badly, and the only thing that made me happier was knowing you could beat her in all her classes. I probably could have beat her at dressage, but you’re better than she is in everything. That seemed more than worth the trouble just to know that.”

“But—”

“I know,” Stevie said. “You’re wondering what I’m doing here and what I intended to do at the show. Well, Veronica seemed determined to get someone to do her work, so I agreed to be her equipment manager. It was for the glory of Pine Hollow, you know. I didn’t want her to embarrass Max by having a dirty saddle.”

“Oh, Stevie!” Carole said. Her eyes were misty as she gave Stevie a hug.

“Okay, so enough about my presents,” Stevie said. “Who’s next?”

“I guess that would be me,” said Carole. She reached into her bag and pulled out packages very similar to Stevie’s, one medium one and one flat envelope.

She handed Stevie the medium one. “Aunt Joanna,” she said. Stevie looked puzzled as she opened the soft package. “I didn’t have any money for presents, either,” Carole explained. “And then …”

Stevie finished tearing off the paper. It was a dark blue heathery pullover sweater with a turtleneck.

“I love it!” Stevie said.

“I hate turtlenecks,” Carole told her. “And it was too big.”

Stevie held it up to herself. Even wearing her winter jacket, she knew it would fit her perfectly. “The color is great for me.”

“It matches all your jeans,” Lisa said.

“Yeah, that, and this color hides stains. Do you want me to write to Aunt Joanna for you?”

“No, I already did it,” said Carole, returning Stevie’s hug. “Dad always makes me write a thank-you note before I open the next present.”

Stevie shrugged out of her jacket and put the sweater on. It did fit perfectly. She put her jacket back on. “Sorry you can’t see it. But I promise you you’ll have many other opportunities in the near future. Now you open your present, Lisa.”

“I don’t know,” Carole began protesting. “It seems sort of silly.”

“No present from a friend is silly,” said Lisa. She slid her finger under the flap of the envelope. Inside was a card, and inside the card was a fifty-dollar bill, a twenty, and a five.

“Carole?” Lisa asked.

“I knew you couldn’t ask your parents for the show money, and I thought it was really important for you to go,” she said. “It’s the kind of experience that’s super important for a relatively new rider, much more important than for either Stevie or me—in spite of Stevie’s confidence in my ability to beat Veronica. And since I couldn’t go, well, it had to be you.”

“But if you had the money, you
could
go,” Lisa said. “Why give it to me?”

“It was like Stevie and her boots,” said Carole. “Only, it was my bridle that Veronica wanted. Remember that Danny’s was over a year old or whatever it was she said about ‘that ratty old thing’?”

“You sold her your bridle?” Lisa asked.

“For seventy-five dollars,” Carole said.

“But then you couldn’t ride in the show!” said Stevie.

“No, but I couldn’t anyway. I thought one of us should and chose Lisa because of the experience it would give her.”

“So what did you think you’d do while you were there? You were planning to go, weren’t you?” Stevie asked.

“Sure. I couldn’t let you guys look after the horses by yourselves. And somehow Veronica convinced me that I might possibly be useful to her as a coach while Max was busy with ‘all those other kids.’ That’s the way she put it.”

“You were going to work for Veronica?” Lisa asked.

“I personally thought of it as working for Danny, but you can put it any way you want.”

“Oh, Carole!” Lisa said. “The way I put it is that you must be the best friend in the whole world to make such a sacrifice for me! Thank you!” She gave her a hug.

“Enough, enough!” Stevie said. “Let’s have more presents! Lisa, it’s your turn.”

“Well, this may seem a little odd,” Lisa began, trying to hide a smile on her face.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t bring any presents!” Stevie teased.

“No, I brought presents,” Lisa assured her. “It’s just that it’s going to seem a little weird.” She got up from the table and went to her bag. She took out one medium-sized
package and one flat envelope. She handed the medium-sized package to Carole.

Lisa started giggling before Carole got the first piece of tape loose. Stevie suspected she knew the cause and began laughing as well. Lisa nodded at her, and that was enough to get Carole laughing before the sweater was revealed.

“A great-aunt,” she said by way of explanation. “I don’t even know her. I haven’t seen her since I was a toddler, and she never sends me presents, but I guess she felt bad because of my parents’ split, and someone told her I loved horses. So …”

Carole took off the last piece of tissue and held up the sweater. It was completely, totally, utterly covered with horses.

“I think they’re stampeding,” said Lisa.

“It’s perfect!” said Carole.

Both Lisa and Stevie began laughing in earnest. There was almost nobody in the world who would wear that sweater except one Carole Hanson, who loved every horse that ever was, even knitted ones!

“I knew you’d like it!” Lisa said.

“Much better than I like turtlenecks,” Carole said.

“And much better than I like angora,” said Stevie.

“And better than I like knitted horses,” said Lisa.

Carole removed her jacket and put on her new
sweater. It wasn’t exactly ugly, though it was a touch garish. It really was a horse-lover’s sweater, and as much as Lisa liked horses, the thing had practically been made for Carole.

“What a Christmas!” Carole said.

“What relatives we’ve got!” said Lisa.

“What’s the other present?” asked Stevie. She held up the envelope.

“Um, well …” Lisa began. She couldn’t finish the thought before Stevie had the envelope open. In it was a card from Lisa, and inside the card were seven ten-dollar bills and one five-dollar bill.

“Lisa?” Stevie asked. “What’s this about?”

“Well, I figured that anyone with the most beautiful boots in the world should have a chance to whup the person with the biggest ego in the world at a difficult skill like dressage.”

“But how’d you get the money?” Carole asked. “Your parents? You can’t give Stevie the money they gave you.”

“No, I couldn’t ever work up the courage to ask them,” Lisa said. “Though they might have said okay, and then I would have felt worse. That was what made me make the final decision.”

“Which was?” Stevie asked, still holding the money in her hand.

“Well, it turned out that I also had something Veronica wanted.”

“The application!” Carole said. “I was wondering where she got it.”

“It was this big deal. Her parents had made all these plane and hotel reservations and she couldn’t tell them she’d blown it. So she kept demanding that I give her the application. Finally I told her I would—for a price.” She nodded at the bills in Stevie’s hand. “Oh, and there was one other thing.”

“You’re supposed to be working for her, too?” Carole asked.

Lisa nodded. “Groom,” she said. “That’s my title. Or it was until the snow started falling.”

Carole snorted with laughter. Stevie and Lisa joined in.

“Can you see her in the Four Seasons?” Stevie uttered while she shook with giggles.

“Wondering where we are?” Carole said.

“And there’s nobody there?” Lisa added.

“No horse,” said Carole.

“No bridle,” Stevie said, laughing.

“No equipment manager, no coach, no groom!”

“And no money!” Stevie held up her cash triumphantly.

“Perfect,” said Lisa.

“Absolutely,” Stevie agreed. “We got the best of Veronica
just when she must have thought she’d gotten the best of all of us.”

“Well, that, too,” said Lisa. “But I meant that this seems like a perfect Christmas. We didn’t all get what we wanted, like the chance to see our friends ride in the show, but we’ve each got a nice new sweater, and now we’re going to have some time for nothing but horses!”

“Speaking of which,” Carole said, “I think we’d better go give them breakfast and muck out some stalls.”

There was always plenty of work to do in a stable.

T
HE
S
ADDLE
C
LUB
began by doing the unpleasant work—mucking out stalls—but there wasn’t too much of it to do because there wasn’t any place to take the manure. They made a small pile in the barn’s only empty stall. There was plenty of fresh straw in the hayloft, and there was plenty of hay as well.

“I think I get what igloos are about,” Lisa said, removing her jacket. “It’s not exactly warm in here, but it’s much warmer than it was.”

“I guess the snow is some kind of insulator,” Carole said. She’d shed her jacket earlier.

The combined effect of the small heater in Max’s office, body heat, and the insulating snow had brought the temperature
in the stable above freezing. The water in the buckets had thawed, and the horses seemed comfortable in their blankets. Although the snow was still falling, as much as the girls could tell by looking through the frost-covered windows, the strong winds had subsided. It was oddly peaceful.

Here and there a horse snorted, neighed, or nickered. A foot stomp on the right, a munch on the left.

“Sweetest sounds in the world,” Carole said. She gave Barq a hug and a pat.

When the girls got to Danny’s stall, he was totally cooperative, the complete opposite of the horse they’d contended with in the middle of the night. His ears flopped a little, and his eyes looked a bit glassy. “That’s probably the remainder of the tranquilizer,” Carole said. “I don’t know how long it takes to wear off.”

“At least he’s in a good mood,” Stevie said, patting him on the neck. He nuzzled his nose under her hair and tickled her neck. She giggled. “And I hope he stays in this good mood forever!”

“He’s not a cranky horse,” Lisa said. Some horses just always seemed to be in a bad mood. Danny was usually quite cooperative, though rarely as docile as he was now.

“No, I was just thinking how good it would be for Veronica to have an adoring horse.”

“I think Veronica does enough adoring of herself without any help from her horse, thank you very much,” Lisa said, recalling how warm and fuzzy Veronica had been about the favor Lisa had done with her wallet and how generous she’d been when she’d practically blackmailed all three of them into working for her at the show.

Carole and Stevie agreed with that.

“Look, we may not be bowing and scraping to Lady Veronica in South Carolina, but at least we can take care of her horse,” Carole said. “Let’s give him the grooming of his life.”

“He’s not going to be in a show,” Stevie protested. “He doesn’t have to look beautiful.”

“No, but life was kind of tough on him last night,” Carole said, recalling how they’d tricked him before drugging him. “I think he could use some positive attention. And it’s a natural part of our Total Horse Day.”

That was what they called it from then on. Everything they did was part of Total Horse Day. Once they’d finished grooming Danny, his ears were perked and his coat gleamed. They all, including Danny, found that quite satisfying.

Next they went through the stable, giving every horse at least a cursory grooming. When it came to their own, they did super grooming jobs.

Stevie looked to Carole for leadership when the grooming was done. “Next?” she asked.

“We ride,” Carole said.

“But the snow …,” Lisa said.

“The indoor ring!” Carole said.

The door to the indoor ring was closed because there was no way to heat it, but if it was above freezing and they put on their jackets, they could ride as much as they wanted to—as much as their horses wanted to.

They tacked up.

“I think we should have a horse show!” said Stevie.

It seemed like a fine idea. The girls called it the Total Horse Day Invitational. There were three classes. First was the pleasure class.

“This
is
a pleasure!” Lisa declared as the three of them rode around the ring. At first they circled at a walk, and then they took turns changing gaits and directions. Lisa could feel Prancer’s delight at being able to get out of her stall and move around. She hadn’t been as frightened by the storm as Danny, but it must be unnerving for her to have all the sunlight blocked out by the snow. Lisa could feel Prancer’s strong, supple body come to life in the ring and her strides stretching. Prancer pricked up her ears at the trot and shook her head. The bay’s shiny black mane was lifted by the wind from her motion. Lisa took in a chestful of the cold winter air. Prancer did the same.