Fire: Tales of Elemental Spirits (13 page)

ʺDon't you worry about that,ʺ said Miri, who found taking Leslie for a trail ride twice a week a nice change from her nervous kindergarteners, ʺI'm going to get it out of Mal later.ʺ

During this conversation Miri hadn't been paying attention to how far they'd come. It was true that Leslie could trot, and Miri was considering whether it was time to risk a canter. It would be really great—not to mention having Mal in his sister's hip pocket for the rest of his life—if his girlfriend could canter by the time his birthday picnic happened.

And then Peggy, bombproof Peggy, shied.

She didn't shy very far, and she shied into Balthazar, who put his ears back and held his ground. Leslie, who was only clumsy and not a fool, merely said ʺ
ugh
ʺ and dragged herself back upright again; a good instinctive convulsive grab for Peggy's mane had kept her in the saddle. Both horses were standing, tense and alert, looking in the same direction. Miri now noticed that Flame was standing right in front of them, looking in the same direction too, with his tail and his hackles raised.

ʺDamn,ʺ said Miri. ʺI didn't notice where we'd got to. I wouldn't have brought you here, although it's not usually as bad as this.ʺ

ʺ
What
isn't?ʺ said Leslie.

ʺOur haunted graveyard,ʺ said Miri. ʺDon't tell me you haven't heard that story?ʺ

ʺOh,ʺ said Leslie. ʺI guess. But I thought it was like Pegasus and unicorns.ʺ

ʺWhen I got old enough to answer back, I used to tell my parents that if they're going to bring a six-year-old whose favorite bedtime stories are all fairy tales to a haunted farm then they deserved what they got. There's still a rumor for anyone who remembers that my parents got the place cheap because of the graveyard, although the fact that the house only had electricity downstairs and the only indoor plumbing was the pump in the kitchen might have had something to do with it too.ʺ

ʺWow,ʺ said Leslie.

ʺYeah. We moved in the beginning of the summer so we had all summer to get a toilet and a shower put in. Mom and Dad decided I was old enough to have my baths in the pond but Mal had to have his in a plastic tub in the kitchen.ʺ She smiled reminiscently. ʺI don't think he's ever forgiven me. Anyway. I don't know what the graveyard's problem is and a lot of the time it's perfectly fine, you can go in there and look around and nothing happens. There's only six tombstones—all the same family—they all died within a few weeks of each other, in 1871. Probably flu or something, Dad says. It must have been awful for whoever was left, whoever buried them. When I started school here the kids all said that nobody had lived in the house since. It took me a few years to figure out that they didn't have electricity out here in 1871.ʺ

ʺYou mean,ʺ Leslie said, ʺthat it still spooks you.ʺ

ʺYeah,ʺ said Miri, whose own hackles were trying to rise. There was a big tree to one side of the little path into the graveyard that led off the trail they were standing on. Every time she blinked there were, briefly, goblins sitting in its branches, chittering at her. ʺWho wouldn't prefer unicorns? The only reason I know it's usually okay is because Mal comes here a lot. He likes it. He likes it partly because his big sister is afraid of it—the big sister who got to have her baths in the pond when he had to have his in a big plastic tub in the kitchen, when she was six and he was four. But I think he really does like it too. He says the sky is bluer there or something. And he says if it's having a bad day he goes away again. I never bring the trail rides this way—in case of bad days. Like today.ʺ

ʺI thought we were still out in the middle of the reserve,ʺ said Leslie.

ʺThat's one of the things I don't like about it, the graveyard,ʺ said Miri. ʺIt's like you'll be out in the middle of the reserve and then suddenly you're coming this way. Usually I notice that time and geography have folded themselves up again and turn off before we get here, but I didn't today.ʺ

ʺDoes it happen to other people?ʺ

ʺOh, yeah. That's why the kids at school were so happy to tell me I lived on a haunted farm. And I know that a lot of people told Mom she'd never get a riding stable going here because of it.ʺ

ʺI've lived here all my life and I'd never heard about it,ʺ said Leslie.

Miri told herself to get a grip, of course there were no goblins. It was a bright day, and maybe she'd been staring into flickering leaf-and-sunlight patterns too long and too hard and her eyes were tired. ʺDad says even ghosts wear out eventually, like socks, and Mom says that the riding stable probably just sort of outnumbers it—them—now. You know, like when the development went up around the old Danforth house. When the first couple of houses went up the old Danforth place totally dominated. Now you can hardly see it. We're the development.ʺ She swallowed hard, and forced herself to look away. But she looked back again almost immediately. Flame was still standing, staring at the path, and at the tree. As if he saw goblins in its branches. ʺBut if you go to the tourist center at the reserve and look at the map, there's a red box around the boundary with our farm and down at the bottom it says that there's something wrong with the earth's magnetic field here and it's easy to get lost so pay extra attention to the trail markers and don't use your compass.ʺ

ʺMaybe that's it.ʺ

ʺI don't think magnetic weirdness makes horses shy
sometimes,
ʺ said Miri.

ʺLook at Flame,ʺ Leslie said wonderingly.

Miri was looking at Flame, and thinking about the way the guy who'd been bouncing her fender had thrown up his hands and screamed. She didn't think Flame was reacting to the earth's magnetic field either. And it wasn't only Flame; both horses were staring straight at the little path that led only to the old cemetery. Some horses like to wind themselves up, so they can dance and act foolish; Peggy and Balthazar weren't like that. If they were tense and worried, they were tense and worried for a reason.

ʺLet's get out of here,ʺ she said. ʺThere's a good stretch for trotting up ahead. Have I taught you half-seat yet?ʺ

Miri cheated, teaching Leslie to canter. She taught her half-seat at the trot, and one day, when she was nicely balanced, her head up and looking straight ahead, her hands lightly but firmly against Peggy's neck, Miri said, ʺPeggy,
canTER,
ʺ and Peggy, veteran of many hours in the arena on a longe line, cantered. Balthazar, veteran of many beginner trail rides, kept pace exactly, in case some kind of rescue was required. But Leslie gave a little, quickly repressed squeak, and then settled down, keeping both her legs and hands steady. ʺAnd
waaaaalk,
ʺ said Miri at the end of the wide bit of path, and both horses dropped calmly back to a walk. Leslie turned a shining face to Miri, and Miri leaned over and patted her leg.

ʺThat was
terrific,
ʺ she said. ʺPerfect. Now we're going to go back into the arena so you can learn to sit the canter, and
you are not going to stiffen up on me,
and then you're going to have the best birthday picnic ride that anyone has ever had, okay?ʺ

The day of the picnic dawned grey and drizzly and Leslie was on the phone to the farm at seven, twittering about the weather.

Miri had been expecting this, and had the portable in her pocket so she could answer at the first ring, before anyone had the opportunity to get testy about it. Everyone was usually awake by seven, but her father and brother would be pre-articulate, and cranky. Miri made suitable soothing noises to Leslie, including saying (truthfully) that it was burning off, and that the weather report had promised a fine day. She didn't add that the weather report had also said thunderstorms moving in overnight—it was a lunchtime picnic, after all—nor did she add that she didn't like the way Flame was behaving.

To any riding stable without an indoor arena, the weather was of paramount, and frequently bitter, importance, and she and her mother grasped any straw of prediction. Miri had discovered that Flame predicted the weather rather well by the way he met it when they first went outdoors in the morning, for Miri to feed the horses. If he went out blithely, head and tail high, then there was a fine day coming; to whatever extent he was slinky and furtive, to that extent it would be a miserable day. She told herself that his present manner, which seemed to be that there was something coming to get him which was immediately behind him whichever way he stood, leaped or swapped ends, was probably his response to the approaching storms; these would be the first thunderstorms they'd had since she brought him home from the pound. She just hoped it didn't mean the storms would get here early; she wanted Mal's picnic ride to go well almost as badly as Leslie did.

She let her eleven o'clock lesson warm up a few minutes longer than usual so she could say ʺhappy birthdayʺ and ʺhave funʺ as Mal and Leslie set off; also to run a falsely casual eye over Peggy and make sure that in her agony of perfection Leslie hadn't done something like forget to tighten Peggy's girth. When Mal graciously allowed a small giggling group of his admirers to wish him happy birthday Miri took the opportunity to take hold of Leslie's heel and give it a vicious yank. ʺ
Relax,
ʺ she said. ʺRemember
relax
? You're already crouching and you're not out of the stable-yard yet.ʺ

Leslie gave a shaky laugh, and the heel in Miri's hand dropped about two inches. ʺKeep thinking about Peggy,ʺ said Miri. ʺYou want her to have a good time too, right? Just nudge her forward gently—keep your hands and legs
steady.
Try—oh—try to make her take the bit down to her ankles—till you're holding the reins by the buckle. Do that every time you notice you've been crouching. Well, maybe not
every
time. That'll keep you busy.ʺ

Mal, in his detestably easy way, swung up into Twilight's saddle. He wasn't wearing his helmet, and out of the corner of her eye Miri just saw their mother bursting out of the barn where she was overseeing the Kindergarten Quadrille team tacking up, when Mal leaned over, put his hand on the back of Leslie's neck, and kissed her. For quite a long time. Jane was now standing beside Miri, who felt she could almost hear Jane's mouth closing with a snap. She could see several of the Quadrille members watching this performance in varying postures of longing and despair—and Leslie was quite pink by the time he stopped. Mal being Mal, he would know perfectly well that his mother had just almost bitten his head off for not putting his helmet on
before
he mounted. But he didn't look their way as he unslung the helmet over his arm and carefully strapped it in place; and he gave a careless wave as they rode out of the yard. Leslie waved too, but she looked back, her expression a combination of joy and consternation.

ʺThey're too young to be that serious,ʺ said Jane.

Miri silently agreed that that hadn't been any old birthday kiss. ʺYou and Dad were just that age,ʺ she said. ʺAnd I was born two years later, and you told Gran you were waiting tables while she looked after me when you were training three-year-olds and Dad was in college, and we're all still alive to tell the story.ʺ

Jane grimaced. ʺDon't remind me. I don't suppose you'd buy ‘that's different'?ʺ

ʺNo,ʺ said Miri. ʺA baby wouldn't be nearly as much trouble as Dorothy.ʺ