Horse Talk (13 page)

“Some other time,” Stevie promised. “We eat a lot of ice cream in this country.” She started to walk back to where Lisa and Carole were waiting.

“Stevie!” Janey called.

“Yes?”

“Wasn’t that gate smashing?”

Stevie grinned at the enthusiasm in Janey’s voice. “This whole afternoon,” she answered, “has been smashing.”

A
T
TD’
S
,
THE
ice cream parlor just down the road from Pine Hollow, The Saddle Club slumped into their favorite booth with shared expressions of relief. “Being a knight on a bay horse,” said Stevie, “is tiring.”

“So is being a media celebrity,” said Lisa.

Carole laughed. “So is being a regular person,” she said, “because that’s what we are.”

Their usual waitress came up to the table. Instead of giving them her usual scowl, however, she smiled. “I caught your show today,” she said. “Nice work.”

“You listen to the radio?” asked Lisa. Somehow she’d never thought of the waitress as doing anything but waitressing.

“Of course,” the waitress. “And listen, I told the manager here what you kids did, and he says your sundaes
are on the house. The only catch is”—she winked at Stevie—“they gotta be normal sundaes. Stuff regular human beings would eat.” Stevie was known for ordering sundaes that only Stevie would eat.

“Thanks!” Lisa said, a little amazed by the offer but willing to accept a free sundae nonetheless. “I’ll take hot butterscotch on vanilla ice cream.”

“I’d like marshmallow topping on chocolate,” said Carole. “And a big glass of water.”

Stevie looked agonized. “I’ll have crème de menthe topping …,” she said. She paused.

“What kind of ice cream?” the waitress prompted her. “Vanilla? Chocolate chip?”

“Peanut butter,” mumbled Stevie.

The waitress snapped her order pad shut. “That’s not free,” she said. “That is not a normal sundae.” She walked away.

“I couldn’t help it!” Stevie said in response to her friends’ laughter. “It was the only thing that sounded good to me. It doesn’t matter if it’s not free—we’ve got the money from Sam and April.”

“Yeah,” said Lisa. “I have to tell you, we’ve had a lot of Saddle Club projects. Some have been better, and some have been worse, but
Horse Talk
was definitely the weirdest. I can’t believe how it all worked out.”

“It was pretty disgusting there for a while,” Carole agreed. “Last week, I figured it was just about the worst Saddle Club project on record. Now that we’ve found
April—well, if it weren’t for all the bad stuff in the first three weeks, this would have been one of the best projects.”

“I’m going to kill Chad,” Stevie muttered.

“Yeah,” said Lisa, “but you know, the first week wasn’t great either, when no one called in.”

“It’s amazing how many people were listening to today’s show,” said Carole. “I guess we have to consider
Horse Talk
a success.”

“They were just listening to hear themselves make stupid jokes at our expense,” Lisa argued. “I’m not sure that counts as a success.”

“But as soon as things got serious, they quit calling in with jokes,” Carole pointed out. “You were really great on the air, but the callers were paying attention, too.”

“Typical Chad,” Stevie said. “He didn’t mind making fun of us—I mean, really making fun of us—and he didn’t mind getting all his friends to make fun of us, too. But he does know enough to quit joking when he needs to. A missing pregnant horse is no joke. Even slimeballs like my brother understand that.”

“And you even understand slimeballs like your brother,” Lisa said, teasing her. “It’s amazing.”

Stevie shook her head. “Funny, isn’t it? When you consider how little I understood Janey. At first, I mean. She’s a terrific kid. I guess in the beginning we just didn’t understand each other’s background.”

Lisa and Carole grinned at each other. “I think that at first you didn’t realize Janey
had
a background,” Lisa said. “As soon as you started listening to what she had to say, you started liking her.”

“I agree,” Carole said. “But you’re not the only person who wasn’t listening well this month. Think how close Lisa and I came to ignoring Missa! We almost didn’t realize she was serious.” She grinned. “Remember the bad lesson I had, before
Horse Talk
? Max said I wasn’t listening to Starlight then, either.”

Lisa used her fork to make prick marks on her placemat. “I guess we all learned a lot about listening this month. More than I would have thought.”

The waitress appeared with their three sundaes. Setting them down in front of The Saddle Club, she announced, “They’re all three on the house. The manager and I decided that peanut butter and crème de menthe is pretty tame for
you
.” This last was directed at Stevie.

“I know,” Stevie said. “I really wanted shredded coconut, too.”

“Then you should have said so,” the waitress declared. She walked away.

“Really, Stevie!” Lisa scolded. “Why didn’t you say what you wanted? You might have learned a lot about listening, but now you need to learn to talk!”

Carole laughed. “I never thought I’d hear anyone say that to Stevie Lake!”

Stevie rolled her eyes at them and lifted a giant spoonful of ice cream to her lips. She swallowed the bite before speaking. “I’ll work on it,” she promised. “Tomorrow morning, I’m going to have a little chat with Chad.”

B
ONNIE
B
RYANT
is the author of many books for young readers, including novelizations of movie hits such as
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
and
Honey, I Blew Up the Kid
, written under her married name, B. B. Hiller.

Ms. Bryant began writing The Saddle Club in 1986. Although she had done some riding before that, she intensified her studies then and found herself learning right along with her characters Stevie, Carole, and Lisa. She claims that they are all much better riders than she is.

Ms. Bryant was born and raised in New York City. She still lives there, in Greenwich Village, with her two sons.