Horse Talk (10 page)

“We’ll talk to Samantha tomorrow,” Carole said. “I hope April Morning isn’t in danger.” She was more and more convinced that Missa had seen April.

“If it is April, then she’s survived a long time on her own,” Lisa said comfortingly. “She’ll be okay for another week.”

After some discussion, they decided to watch a video after all. Lisa’s mom had rented
Phar Lap
, an old film about an Australian racehorse. The Saddle Club had seen it three times already, even though the ending made them all cry. They went down to make popcorn, then hauled the VCR back up to Lisa’s room. Lisa had her own TV.

“Stevie,” Lisa said as she connected the cables to the back of the TV, “I’ve been thinking about Janey ever since Wednesday evening. Before she seemed like a real brat, but Wednesday she was different. She seemed like a really nice little kid. I mean, talking about her sheep station—she seemed friendly, and she didn’t act shy at all. She really seems to know a lot about horses. I actually liked her.”

Stevie flushed a little. “I know,” she said. “She seemed like a different person to me on Wednesday, too. But I think I might know why we haven’t been getting along.” Stevie took a sip of her soda and tried to think how to explain. “I think I’ve been trying too hard to—well, not to tell Janey what to do, but something like that. I think I assumed she didn’t know much, because she was younger and from a different country and all, and so I tried to tell her everything. I don’t think I listened very much. She seemed like such
a brat right at first, but now I think that maybe she just felt uncomfortable in a new place.”

Stevie sighed. “It’s been bothering me,” she admitted. “I was so busy being a
big
sister that I forgot to be a big
sister
. And then, when she didn’t act very friendly at the start, I didn’t act very friendly back. It kind of made me mad that she wasn’t appreciating my help. I didn’t bother to get to know her very well.”

Stevie looked upset. Carole smiled. “I hope you’re right, because I’d hate to think she was really like Veronica! I bet Janey
was
really overwhelmed at first. I bet Virginia is a lot different from New Zealand. Now that she’s had a chance to get to know us, she’s more herself.”

Stevie understood what Carole was saying, but it didn’t make her feel better. “Sure,” she said. “Who wouldn’t be overwhelmed, moving to a new country? Part of my job as a big sister was to make her feel at home, and part of making her feel at home probably involved listening to her and learning something about her. I just talked—too much horse talk!” Stevie laughed. “Maybe that was the problem all along—the radio show!”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Lisa said dryly. “Don’t worry; in another week we’ll be done.”

“But I’ll still be a big sister,” Stevie said. “I’ll be a better one now.”

“We should have been more of a help,” Carole said.
“I moved enough as a child. I should have remembered how that feels.”

“We’ve been too busy with
Horse Talk
,” Lisa said. “We’re sorry.”

“That’s okay,” Stevie said. “Janey’ll be here at least another month. We’ll get another chance with her.”

Lisa and Carole looked at each other and smiled.
At least Stevie has learned something valuable from all this mess
, Lisa thought.
It might not be because of
Horse Talk,
but it’s about horse talk
. Lisa still wanted to think of her radio show as valuable. Instead, it seemed to be a bigger disaster every single week. Next Wednesday the transmitter would probably blow up just as some stupid eighth-grade boy called to ask how horses compared to emus. The explosion would probably set the tack room on fire. They would have to evacuate the horses from the stable, and Max would be so mad he would never let her ride Prancer again. Lisa sighed. “Maybe we’ll find April Morning,” she said.

Carole let out a matching sigh as the tape started to roll. She looked out Lisa’s window at the dark, cold night. “I hope she’s okay, wherever she is.”

“W
HY IS EVERYONE
trying to mess up your radio show?” May Grover asked Lisa indignantly. They were sitting in Max’s office along with the rest of the Pony Club. As soon as Max arrived, the meeting would begin.

“It’s a joke,” Lisa said wearily. “At least, it’s someone’s idea of a joke. It’s kind of been snowballing lately.”

“It’s mean,” May said, her eyes flashing. Lisa remembered that May had seemed lukewarm about the idea of a radio show at first, and she smiled. May seemed to understand what she was thinking. “You guys are going to a lot of trouble,” she said. “People shouldn’t try to mess you up. It’s not
nice
.”

Around the room, the other Pony Clubbers murmured agreement. Veronica sniffed. Lisa expected her
to say something about the triviality of radio shows in general, and
Horse Talk
in particular, but Janey cut her off, saying loudly, “We’ll all help, if we can.” There was a chorus of cheers.

“Thanks,” Stevie said quickly as Max came into the room. “Stay after the meeting, and we’ll make plans.”

Carole rolled her eyes happily at Lisa. They knew from the night before that Stevie didn’t have any plans, but she had the entire meeting to come up with one, and Stevie usually thought fast under pressure.

“O
KAY
,”
SAID
S
TEVIE
when the official meeting was over, “what we’ll do is something I call a Reverse Chad.” She divided the Pony Clubbers into several groups. Each would work from a different house. “I’ll give you all questions to ask,” she said, “and your jobs will be to dial in as often as possible. Every time you hear a busy signal, hang up and dial again immediately. If enough of us do it, we’ll be able to jam the phone lines and block most of the prank calls.”

“Depends on how many people are trying to make prank calls,” Carole muttered to Lisa. They were standing together at the back of the room.

“If we cut the pranks down by a quarter, I’d be grateful,” Lisa replied. “At least we’d get a break from unremitting stupidity.”

The office door opened, and a girl walked in. She was wearing blue jeans, tennis shoes, and a heavy
jacket, but something about the way she seemed so comfortable in a stable—and, perhaps, the stirrup-leather marks running down the inside of her jeans—told Carole that the girl was a rider. “Can we help you?” Carole asked.

The girl turned toward them. Her face looked sad and hopeful at the same time. “Judy said I should ask for The Saddle Club,” she said. “I’m Samantha Harding.”

Stevie looked up. “I’ll be right back,” she said, excusing herself from the other Pony Clubbers. She joined Lisa and Carole in introducing themselves to Samantha.

“Call me Sam,” the girl said. She flicked her short curly hair over her ears. “I heard you might know something about April.”

“Let’s talk in the locker room,” Lisa suggested. She thought Sam might not like to tell her story with twenty-eight other kids listening in. They sat down on the locker room benches, and Stevie nudged the door shut with her toe.

“Did Judy tell you what we heard?” she asked. “It wasn’t much.” She related the story of Missa’s telephone call.

“I’m sorry we didn’t find out more information from her,” Lisa said. She was a little ashamed of how little they knew. “We didn’t get her last name, or where exactly she lives, so we can’t track her down, and we
didn’t find out what the horse looked like or if she saw it more than once.”

“We thought the call was another prank until after the show ended and we had a chance to think about it,” Carole said. Like Lisa, she felt a little embarrassed. She didn’t want Sam to think that they didn’t care about her horse. “The show was sort of awful. Everyone who called in was doing it for a joke—”

Sam held up her hand. “Don’t feel bad,” she said. “I listened to the first part of your show, and I had to turn it off. I don’t know how you could stand to talk to all those idiots.” She took a deep breath. “Most of them sounded like they wouldn’t know a horse if it kicked them.”

Sam reached into her jacket pocket. “I brought some pictures of April. I can’t let you keep them, because they’re all I have, but I thought you’d like to look at them.” She held out two snapshots of a gray mare. One showed her standing still, without any tack; the other showed her leaping a large stone fence with impressive form.

“Wow,” Lisa said. “She’s gorgeous.”

“Yes, I think so, too.” Sam gave a bitter snort. “How would I know, though? I own this horse, and I’ve never even seen her except in a video and these photographs. I’ve never gotten to pet her or ride her. She was supposed to be my birthday present. I keep praying that we’ll find her by Christmas.”

Carole could feel Sam’s pain. “We’ll do whatever we can to help you find her,” she promised.

“That’s right,” Lisa agreed quickly. “If Missa calls back this week, we’ll get a lot more information out of her. We’ll try to convince her to call back. This is our last week, you know. We’ll have to make an announcement at the start of the show. I hope she’ll be listening again.” Lisa looked at Carole and Stevie to see what they thought. “Oh,” she added, remembering Stevie’s plans to jam the phone lines.

Stevie nodded, understanding. “We won’t be able to call in,” she said, “or Missa might not get through.” She smiled at Sam. “I’ll call off the Reverse Chad.”

“The what?” Sam looked startled.

“Don’t worry about it,” Lisa said. “We’ve been having a little problem with Stevie’s brother. That’s why we’ve had so many prank calls.”

“We’ve been having a big problem,” Carole corrected her. “And it’s still a problem. If Chad and his friends call in the way they did last time, Missa might not get through, either. Instead of a Reverse Chad, we’ll have our usual Normal Chad—that’s bad.”

“I could kill him,” Stevie fumed. “I can’t believe my brother managed to make this much of a mess. Maybe we could put him in jail. I’m definitely paying him back for this.”

“And all his friends, too?” Lisa asked. “We could get your parents to lock Chad in his room, maybe, but we
can’t keep every middle-school student in Willow Creek away from the phone. And don’t forget, it was Chad who called in with a real question. I don’t think he planned to have his prank get carried so far.” She wished once again that they had spoken to Chad when he had first started calling. Now it was definitely too late; too many people were involved.

“He should have,” Stevie said. “He should have thought things through.”

Lisa had to laugh, thinking about how seldom Stevie thought her own pranks through. Then she sighed. “Maybe the joke will have worn off by Wednesday. Maybe they’ll have forgotten about us.”

“I hope so,” Sam said softly. “If April is still alive, it’s really important that we find her soon.”

“We’ll do what we can,” Carole assured her. She shot a look at Stevie. “We’re not worrying about revenge this Wednesday. The only thing that matters is finding your horse.”

“Of course,” Stevie agreed. “And on Thursday we’ll murder Chad.”

They went back into the office and Stevie called off the Reverse Chad.

“Maybe it’ll help if we tell them about April,” Lisa whispered to Sam. “Do you mind?”

“Of course not,” said Sam. “Anything that might help.”

Stevie told the Pony Clubbers the story of the missing horse, and Sam passed her photographs around.

Lisa urged everyone to spread the news. “If the kids at school know why this is important, maybe they won’t mess up the show,” she said.

Polly Giacomin looked doubtful. She was in Lisa’s grade. “The ones that are doing this to you aren’t exactly considerate, or interested in horses,” she said. “I think even when we tell them it’s serious, they’ll just laugh.”

“But we will tell them,” added Adam, one of the few boys in the Pony Club. “It certainly can’t hurt.”

“Thanks,” Sam said. “It’s really important that we find her.”

As the other kids left the room, Janey came up to Sam and shyly slid her hand into the older girl’s. “I know you must feel just awful,” she said. “My Fancy’s not even lost, I know she’s safe at home with our caretakers, but I can’t stop worrying about her.”

Stevie stared at her little sister. A wave of realization swept over her. “You’ve got your own pony,” she said, “named Fancy.” She couldn’t believe how stupid she felt. All the time Janey had been muttering about ponies being fancy, Stevie had thought she was saying that the Pine Hollow ponies weren’t well bred.

“Of course,” Janey said, looking amazed. “I’ve told you all about her.”

“Right,” Stevie said, flushing a little. “I just didn’t realize that her name was Fancy.” No wonder Janey hadn’t taken to Nickel right away! She was homesick for her own pony!

“Fancy Free,” Janey explained. “She’s a Welsh cob, like Corey’s pony, only she’s a chestnut. I’ve had her three years. Every night at home I go out to the barn and feed her a carrot, right before I go to sleep. I can’t sleep well here, because I keep worrying that Mr. Durgies has forgotten her carrot. What if Fancy thinks I don’t love her anymore? What if she misses me something dreadful? I told her I’d be back before autumn, but I don’t know if she understood. But she’s a very smart pony.”