Calico Horses and the Patchwork Trail (33 page)

They walked on in silence. Danny kicked a few stones and watched the trail of dust across the ground. The sage was thick and the ground looked like cracked leather. In the distance a few horses were huddled together with their heads down. A red stallion raised its head, sniffing. Two boys were walking toward his band of mares and he sniffed the air again and let out a rumble, sending a warning to his family. The mares looked up, swishing their tales and waiting for the stallion’s command. One of the black mares refused to look up and continued grazing. She was perfectly happy foraging here and ignored the stomping feet of the older mares. The stallion neighed loudly with his head up and his ears fully alert, watching as the two boys came closer. The band moved away and one of the foals let out a nicker and began galloping in circles. The reluctant black mare remained in her stubborn stance and turned away from the band in search of a tasty root to nibble. The two boys were now close enough to be heard and she lifted her head and sniffed.

“That black horse is so beautiful,” Foot said. “Look how the sun sparkles off its coat. It looks like ink.”

“Yeah, but why isn’t it with the rest of the horses? Do you think it’s sick or something? They usually all stay together,” Danny asked.

“Who says they have to stay together. Maybe it wants to learn to do stuff on its own.”

“Oh, yeah, like you?” Danny scoffed.

“What’s that supposed to mean, you jerk?” Foot asked, shoving Danny.

“Stop hitting me. You’re the jerk. I bet you don’t even know how to make a peanut butter sandwich,” Danny sneered as he lunged for Foot’s backpack. “Did your mommy pack it for you? Oooh, let me look and see what mommy packed today.”

Foot threw the backpack down and jumped on Danny. The two boys were punching and rolling on the ground as the dust billowed around, nearly covering them. “I’m gonna make you eat rocks!” snarled Foot.

Danny gritted his teeth as he kicked Foot. “Be careful. You might get dirty, oooooh noooo, your mommy will have to clean you up. I bet she still washes your hair.”

The stallion pinned his ears back and ran toward the stubborn mare in order to herd her back to the others. The mare snorted defiantly and began tossing her head and stomping her feet. The stallion nipped her on the shoulder and she yelped. Suddenly, the two horses were galloping toward the unsuspecting boys. The young mare was startled by the cloud of dust that seemed to have grown into two boys as she slid to a stop before them. The stallion seemed furious as he reared high in the air and crashed down onto the ground sending tremors that shook the now frightened boys. Foot grabbed Danny and they tried to move away. The stallion lowered his head and ran toward the black mare, which cantered back to the family of horses that were off in the distance. The stallion turned toward the boys. They looked at one another in silence. Two boys and a horse in a standoff as the sound of thunder began beating like a drum. The stallion was panting hard and the boys felt their hearts racing. Off in the distance a hawk circled against the darkening sky. The air seemed to suddenly change as the temperature began dropping. The Calico Mountains grew a dim shade of purple, as lightning ripped overhead in the stormy sky. Foot shivered, danger seeming to wash over him. The stallion looked at the boys one last time before turning and galloping off to lead his family to safety.

The boys said nothing as they quickly gathered their belongings and headed home.

Chapter 52

August seemed to bring a dusty dry heat that seeped into every crevice. Brenda felt her hair wilt as she waited for the air conditioning in the car to kick in. Even my car is having a hard time adjusting to this desert heat, she thought. She glanced into the rearview mirror yet again. I really need to look fresh so I can land this job. I’m the perfect candidate—all I need is for someone to give me a chance. She had applied to every casino in town and the interviews seemed endless. So far, there had been only two callbacks. The first was sheer humiliation as they had offered her a salary that wouldn’t scratch the surface on the stack of bills piling up on the kitchen counter. She had worked as a dealer for over ten years and had been paid well in New Jersey. How could I have thought I would merely be swapping zip codes? Casinos were always looking for experienced people or at least this is what she had been told by her supervisors back home. But here she was coaxing her hair to look like the woman in the ad on the can of hairspray she had purchased for yet another job interview. She thought back to the latest phone call from her lawyer’s office. They had asked a few questions about some forms she was filing but she knew down deep they really wanted to know when they could expect their next check. Yes, she needed to get this job and today was the day, she thought, as another strand of hair melted its way across her sunglasses. Darn hairspray lady, she thought. I bet she lives in Alaska where hair stays frozen in place.

Back at the bungalow Carrie opened a cupboard and stared at a box of cornflakes. Lately it seemed her mom had been buying less and less of her favorite foods. “Sorry,” Carrie turned to Milla, “I’m afraid we don’t have much of a selection.”

“It’s okay. I’m not feeling too hungry anyway,” Milla said, slumping into a chair and yawning.

“I guess I kept you up late last night with all my blubbering about Shannon,” Carrie said.

“What do you think will happen to that girl who hit her?”

“I really don’t know, I’m just glad Shannon is finally awake and talking.”

“Weird that she can’t remember anything, isn’t it? I mean she woke up and didn’t even know how she got into the hospital. That must have been scary,” said Milla.

“Mrs. Miller told my mom that Shannon kept waiting for me to come see her. At first she didn’t even remember I had moved away.” Carrie could feel the tears returning.

Milla patted her on the back. “It’s okay. She’s better now and at least you got to speak to her and get her laughing.”

“Yeah, I’m glad she’s going home soon. I can’t believe she was unconscious for almost two days, but I guess if you don’t remember anything then it must be like falling asleep…except she woke up with her head in bandages and lots of gifts that everyone sent her.” Carrie shook her head. “I still can’t believe her mom never called us. We would have sent flowers and cards and I bet we would probably have flown straight to New Jersey.”

Milla said nothing as she had heard all of this the night before. Carrie had cried and laughed, recounting endless stories of her friend Shannon. Milla sat patiently and let her friend talk. Carrie’s heart ached at the helpless feeling of wanting to do something when everything was beyond her control.

Flannel quietly slipped into the room and licked Carrie’s hand. Flannel always seemed to know when she was hurting. Carrie smiled and patted the dog on the head. “I told Shannon I was sending her more calico swatches since she’s going to be sitting around sewing while she recovers.”

“Cool,” Milla said, “that will probably make the time go faster.” Suddenly, Flannel jumped up and began barking wildly. Carrie and Milla looked up to see what had sent the dog leaping across the room. Max was sitting on top of the refrigerator cleaning himself.

“How the…” Carrie began. “Flannel down, down, girl, shhhh,” she said, pulling the clawing dog away from the refrigerator.

“How did he get in?” asked Milla, shaking her head.

“Maybe he’s a shapeshifter, I heard that sometimes cats can just appear out of nowhere,” Carrie shouted over the barking collie.

“Oh, geez, where did you hear such nonsense?” Milla asked as she eyed the cat suspiciously.

“I overheard my mom and Sam talking about Max. He has been doing some crazy stuff and Sam swears he has some special powers.” Carrie clipped the leash onto the frantic dog and shouted over her shoulder to Milla, “See if you can get that darn cat outta here, Mil.”

Carrie tried every command she knew and finally calmed the collie and led her up the steps to her bedroom.

Oh, geez, Milla thought—cats and I do not like each other, and what the heck is a shapeshifter anyway? “Here, kitty kitty,” she said, reaching for the orange cat that was now hissing and growling. She heard a knock on the door and was relieved to see Sam pop her head into the kitchen. Milla pointed to the cat and Sam looked up in surprise.

“Max, what are you doing in here? You hate that dog.” Sam pulled the reluctant cat toward the open back door. Waving goodbye with a jerk of her chin Sam pulled the door shut. Drama, Milla thought—I don’t do cat drama. Maybe the calico swatches appearing out of thin air were connected to a cat that seemed to be able to walk through locked doors. Ooky stuff. She shivered at the thought but couldn’t deny the fact that calico swatches were still appearing and no one seemed to know where or how they got there.

Milla heard the sound of Carrie’s shower running and moved to a comfy chair in the living room to wait. She closed her eyes to calm herself and began a meditation. She had been practicing meditation for a few weeks now and it was becoming easier to just let go of all thoughts that were stressful. She sat in silence and felt her body grow heavier and her breathing become slower. Sometimes a disturbing thought would flicker in; she would ignore it and it would disappear. Brenda had told her to try this when unhappy thoughts popped into her head. It had actually worked and it seemed she had learned to brush off the mean remarks of her tormenter, Foot. Maybe this is what everyone meant when they said the best way to deal with a bully was to ignore him. Ignoring bullies was easier said than done, but lately she was able to dismiss the ugly words and concentrate on other things.

She felt drained from the previous evening and wanted to stop thinking about poor Shannon and the brutality she had suffered. Maybe it was best that Shannon didn’t remember anything. Maybe her body was helping her to heal. Milla drifted to a place where her mind wasn’t quite asleep or awake and rested.

Carrie finished combing out the tangles in her hair, switched on the blow dryer, and glanced at the clock on her nightstand. Wow, it was almost noon and she was just getting dressed. Milla had not followed her upstairs after the cat incident and Carrie wondered if she had fallen asleep. Geez, I kept her up all night talking about Shannon and she’s probably wishing she were home right now. She tossed the wet towel onto the bathroom floor and headed downstairs with Flannel following.

“Oh, my gosh,” Milla told her. “I just saw something in my meditation. It was like a movie, Carrie. I actually saw something like a movie. I have never seen images. I usually just sort of get sleepy and drift off but not all the way asleep. You know that half-world you find yourself in, like daydreaming?”

“Oh, I know what you mean,” Carrie said. “My mom said that’s called the Alpha state. It’s where your mind goes when it’s not quite asleep but you’re still aware of being awake. So what kind of movies did you see anyway?” she asked.

“It’s hard to explain. It looked like a time and place that was like in some old books, you see. The people were dressed in antique clothes and it was just like snippets of pictures. I saw some framed photos of people. I didn’t recognize any of them, the people in the photos, I mean. I have no idea what it was all about. It’s so cool that I wasn’t in a dream but I was seeing stuff while I was still awake. I even heard your hairdryer upstairs while this was going on,” Milla said.

“Anything else?” Carrie asked. “Any smells or sounds or thoughts? Remember what my mom said—sometimes after writing stuff down in our journals we can look back and see a pattern in meditations.”

“Well, all I ever write about is how I feel after my meditations and usually it’s just, I don’t know, just peaceful and I feel better somehow. It’s hard to explain. But I’ll tell ya what, I did get a strong sense of my grandmom. The entire time this little movie was playing I was thinking of my grandmom. I have this memory of us at the park and her pushing me high on the swing. Oh, Carrie, I miss her so much and I wish I knew what all of this means. I have never seen movies or images or had thoughts of anything when I meditate. It feels so…well, it feels like my grandmom was somehow just with me!”

“Wow! Nice,” Carrie said.

“Yeah…really nice,” Milla said in return.

A car door slammed and both girls looked out the window. Brenda sat in her car with her windows opened. Not realizing the girls were watching, she sang loudly along with some tune on the radio. Carrie grinned as she watched her mom shut off the engine and get out. Brenda was still singing as she walked up the path. Then she stopped and began dancing. She threw her purse onto a bench and was pulling at her hair as if she was trying to remove all traces of hairspray from her manicured ’do. The girls were now laughing uncontrollably and watched as Brenda threw her head back, opened her hands wide, and yelled to the clouds overhead: “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“What’s that all about?” Milla asked, staring out at Carrie’s mom, who was now fixing her appearance in the reflection of the window, still not realizing the girls were on the other side.

“It means better cereal…that and the fact that I can start hinting about adopting my own horse.”

Just then something fell from the air outside and landed on the windowsill. Brenda picked up the tiny square of calico fabric and held it up. She pulled up her sunglasses to have a better look and it was then that she felt eyes on her. She jumped as she became aware of Milla and Carrie staring through the window with their mouths wide open.