Friendly Foal (17 page)

“Nah. I'll probably crash early. Or maybe I'll catch a horror flick on TV.”

Dad tried to get me to look at him, but I stared straight ahead. It wasn't
my
fault Sal wasn't going to Summer's party. She could go. So what if Brian was there?

“Well, why don't you come over and celebrate with us?” Dad offered. “Madeline's coming over. And Lizzy and Geri have cooked up enough for an army.”

In the reflection of the windowpane I caught a glimpse of Sal's face. I thought I saw her eyes flicker, then go out.

“No. That's okay, Mr. Willis. But thanks. I'd feel weird.”

“We'd love to have you,” Dad insisted. “Are you sure, Sal?”

“I'm sure.”

Dad pulled up in front of the Cracker house, and Sal hopped out.

“Winnie,” she said before she shut the cab door, “be cool.” She smiled at Dad. “Thanks for the ride and everything, Mr. Willis.”

She bumped the truck door shut, then walked toward the house.

Dad didn't pull away.

My stomach felt like harness horses were racing in it. I kept imagining Sal in that house, alone, watching a horror movie. Crying.

I leaned across and threw open the door. “Sal! Come back!”

Sal turned around, frowning.

“Come back!” I shouted. “I'm not going to that party either.”

Sal retraced her steps, still scowling. “I thought you said you
were
going.”

“You know me. I'm not big on parties. Come on. We'll celebrate with Amigo and Nickers and the foal. How's that?”

“And
me!”
Dad added.

“And the slightly crazy Willis clan,” I agreed.

Sal grinned. “Yeah?” She shrugged. “I was kind of looking forward to that horror flick . . . but okay.”

“Good. Get in,” I said.

Sal shook her head. “Need to change first. And a hot bath. It's stopped storming. I'll just walk over later.”

“Won't hear of it,” Dad insisted. “How's this? I'll drop Winnie back home. She can use a shower herself. Then I'll pick up Madeline and Mason and swing back over here for you. Maybe in an hour? Will that work?”

“Cool.” This time Sal trotted to the house and waved before going inside.

I'd like to say that I felt great and was looking forward to greeting in the new year more than ever. But I didn't feel great. I'd probably never get invited to another New Year's Eve party. For sure, not one of Summer's parties.

Dad dropped me off at home, and I went straight to the phone and dialed Summer's number. I had to look it up. It's not like Summer and I are phone buddies.

The phone rang four times before someone picked up. “Hello?” It was a guy's voice. Young. But not Richard.

“I'm sorry. I was trying to call Spidells'.”

“Winnie? Is that you?”

“Grant?”

“Yeah. I got roped into setting up tables. You wouldn't believe it over here. Summer and her mom have gone crazy decorating. Hey, do you have a way to get here? We could get somebody to give you a lift. It's still pretty wicked out there. You don't want to walk.”

“I'm not coming.” My stupid voice cracked.

“You're not? I thought Summer said you were.”

“I was. That's why I'm calling. Things have changed. So I won't be there.”

“Why, Winnie?” Grant sounded like he really wanted to know. Like it mattered.

So I told him. Maybe I shouldn't have, but it all came out. About Sal. About Brian. About how I'd decided to stay so Sal wouldn't end up alone at her grandmother's house.

“Well, I'm sorry you won't be here, Winnie.” He sounded like he meant it. “Sal's lucky to have you for a friend.” In the background I heard Summer shouting and someone else laughing. “I've got to go,” Grant said. “Happy New Year, Winnie.”

He hung up before I could wish him the same. But I guess
he
didn't need it.

I hung up and saw Lizzy and Geri staring at me.

“That was a really good thing you did, Winnie,” Lizzy said. “You're a good friend.”

“And Lizzy knows everything about being a good friend,” Geri added. “Must run in the family.”

“Come on,” Lizzy said, taking my hand, “let's get you ready for
our
party!”

By the time we heard Dad's truck pull up, we were all ready. Lizzy and Geri wore matching black stretch pants and frog-green shirts, and I wore my
famous
skirt and blouse.

Mason came thundering into the house first, looking like a miniature orchestra conductor in a black suit and tie, which he wriggled out of before he reached the kitchen. “New Year!” he shouted. “New Year!”

I lifted him up and swung him around. “New Year to you too, Mason!”

Dad was taking Madeline's coat.

I peered behind them. “Where's Sal? Dad! Did you forget to pick her up?” It would be so like my dad.

I caught a glance between Madeline and Dad. Then she said, “I'll go see if I can help Lizzy in the kitchen.”

Dad finished hanging up their coats, then turned to me. “Sal wasn't there, Winnie.”

“What do you mean she wasn't there?”

“I honked. I knocked. I even prowled around the house and peeked in windows, against my better judgment. Madeline insisted. But nobody was home.”

“But she
had
to be there!”

“Look,” Dad said. “Maybe she just stepped out to a neighbor's or something. Or maybe she started walking over.”

But I could tell he didn't believe that any more than I did.

I called Sal, but nobody answered. How could she do that? I slammed the receiver. I'd never speak to Sal again—not that she'd notice. It wasn't fair. I'd done what Lizzy and Dad did with their
friends
. I'd been there for Sal, even when she'd showed up hours, or a whole day, late. And where had it gotten me?

Here. While everyone else in my class was at Summer's.

For the next hour I ate Lizzy's cookies and tried to act like I was having a good time. I even ate one of Madeline's sandwiches. She'd brought them over in her battery-powered bun warmer, which had overheated and nearly fried the tuna.

I thought Sal might at least call me and let me know where she'd gone. I even rehearsed what I'd say to her, how I'd tell her off. But the phone just hung there on the wall, not ringing once.

“Would you like me to run over and see if your friend's home now, Winnie?” Madeline offered.

I shook my head. “Thanks for asking, though.”

I waited until Mason fell asleep on the couch. Then I made my escape for the barn.

But before I reached the front door Lizzy caught me. “Here.” She handed me a small bag that smelled like molasses. “I made these treats for the horses. I'm sorry about Sal, Winnie.”

“Well, don't be,” I snapped.
“I'm
not.”

A few stars peeked around night clouds as I walked to the barn, but I couldn't see the North Star, no matter how hard I looked.

Nickers greeted me as soon as I stepped inside the barn. I slipped into the stall with Nickers and Friendly and breathed in the smell of hay and horse as if I'd swum up from deep water and needed oxygen.

“Hey, guys,” I said, putting one arm around each of them. “Nice to be with creatures I can count on.” I gave them Lizzy's homemade treats that looked like everything horses love held together with molasses. Nickers gobbled hers down, and Friendly lipped hers and nibbled some of the oats. Lizzy had even made one for Annie Goat.

Amigo came up when I went into his stall. And for the first time he nickered to me. Then he downed his treat in two bites.

After a while the horses went back to their hay nets, and I moved outside to the paddock. I pulled out a bale of hay and sat on that, leaning against the barn. I still couldn't see Catman's North Star, even when I looked through the
V
of the tree.

“Winnie?” Lizzy called from the barn.

Maybe Sal had finally called. “Out here, Lizzy!”

She came out, hugging her arms and shivering. I could tell by her expression that she didn't bring good news.

“Sal didn't call, huh?” I said.

“No. But Hawk did. She tried to call you at Summer's to wish you Happy New Year. She wants you to call her tomorrow. She was on her dad's cell.”

“Is that all, Lizzy?”

“No. Nate called to wish us Happy New Year. Winnie, he said Sal and Brian are back together. They went to Summer's party. I'm so sorry.”

Big, fat surprise.

I didn't say anything. I couldn't. So this was how the old year would end and the new year begin.

“Come on inside, Winnie,” Lizzy urged. “In a half hour it will be the new year.”

“I'll be in pretty soon, Lizzy.”

She tried to talk me into coming with her. Finally she gave up and ran back to the house.

I opened the stalls and let Amigo into the paddock. Nickers pushed open her stall door, and she and Friendly trotted out too. The three of them pranced around the paddock. I knew those horses, and they'd come to trust me.

If Sal were a horse, I'd have had a chance of understanding her.
So how come everything works with horses, and nothing works with humans?
I asked God.

I sat on the bale, stared up at the sky, and tried to imagine what Summer and Sal and my classmates were doing at that exact moment. Then I tried to imagine what was going on in Sal's head. That's what I'd done with Amigo. I do it with all horses. I try to think like they do.

Sal probably needed to feel a part of Summer's crowd, to believe she had a boyfriend. She didn't have a Lizzy. Her dad didn't sound like my dad. I didn't think she had Jesus as a friend either. But she still didn't have to act so tough around me, like she didn't even care that I gave up the party for her.

The branches creaked inside their icy shells like they wanted out. Sal had a pretty hard shell. I wondered if she ever wanted out. Lizzy told me once that bugs have their skeletons on the outside. The hard outside protects their soft insides. Maybe that's how it was with Sal.