No Horse Wanted (17 page)

It was my turn to stare at the blonde
Mini-Me. “What are you doing?”

“Well, I thought if you two were fighting,
I’d show everyone that you’re not a bitch, but now I’m showing this
school that I like Vicky.”

“You’re Ms. Popularity,” I said, pointing out
the obvious.

“Yes, but I only use my power for good.” Dani
beamed at Vicky as she joined us. “Hey, Robin was telling me that
she babysat for you last week.”

“Yeah and my mother may never recover.” Vicky
sat down on my left side. “She wants us to stop being friends
now.”

“Not going to happen,” I said. “I’d never
give up the girl who ate paste with me in kindergarten.”

Vicky smiled and Dani laughed. Then, Dani
said, “Well, sign me up to babysit this Friday.”

“What?” Vicky stared at her. “No way.”

“Yes, way,” Dani told her. “Football bores
me, and this would give me a great reason to skip the game.”

I thought she might be overdoing it, but for
some reason Vicky bought it. She spent the next ten minutes telling
Dani about making dinner and the rest of the chores, but Dani just
steamrolled over the objections and the two of them set it up for
the game in two weeks. After all, my folks had this Friday
covered.

“Is this table reserved for a hen party or
can a guy have this chair?” Harry didn’t wait. He sat down on the
other side of Dani, and a couple minutes later, Jack was there by
Vicky. Soon Porter and Gwen showed up. Then, Bill and Steve
arrived. I was sorry when the bell rang and ended the best lunch
I’d had this year.

Vicky headed off to the gym for P.E. Dani and
I ambled toward Science. “Vicky was straight up with you,” I said.
“Her mom really does expect her to do a ton of household chores and
look after the kids, too.”

“Don’t stress over it,” Dani told me. “I’ll
work the kids. That’s how I learned about doing laundry and
cleaning. My
au pair
taught me.”

“Your what?” I asked.

“She’s kind of like a nanny, chauffer and
tutor all rolled into one,” Dani explained. “My folks travel a lot
on business, and she’ll go with me to Vicky’s. With the two of us,
we’ll whip those kids into shape, no problem.”

“I’d say so.” I grinned at her as we entered
the classroom. “I’ll bet you’ll be the next one kicked out of
Vicky’s house.”

“Possibly, but if I am, we’ll get Porter or
Gwen or somebody else responsible enough to cover her chores so
Vicky can do what she needs to do.” Dani followed me over to my
desk. “Anyway, I wondered if you’d like to come with me to a horse
show next Saturday. I could use some help with Lady. You won’t
freak if she starts looking around for Charm and he won’t be there
this time.”

“What would I do?” I asked. “My older sister
does three day eventing. Mom does endurance riding and Jack games.
Dad ropes. I’m really not into all this speeding around on horses.
I like Twaziem. He stands around and eats and lets me brush him and
talk to him about life.”

Dani laughed. “You’d help my dad groom Lady
and change her saddles and keep her area clean if there aren’t any
stalls available for the entrants. Watch my stuff and make sure
nobody steals anything. Things like that.”

“I’ll have to check with my folks,” I said,
“and arrange to miss my lesson with Rocky. Since it’d be ground
school at a horse show, I think she’ll be flexible.”

The rest of the day flew by. To my amazement,
Olivia was right about Cedar and Kanisha. They ran with us. If this
kept up, Gwen, Porter, and I wouldn’t be the Three Musketeers
anymore. We’d be the six somethings, even if I couldn’t figure out
what. Practice ran late so all I was able to do was check that my
Mustang was still in the lot on my way to Dad’s office.

Then, Dad and I were on the way home. When we
arrived, he had to park behind the sheriff’s car and the vet’s
truck. I didn’t go to the house. I headed straight for the barn.
What was wrong with Twaziem? Why was Dr. Larry here? Had Twaz
colicked again? And what was up with the cop? Couldn’t he look at
the calendar?

When I reached the barn, I found Mom in the
arena with my horse while Dr. Larry looked him over. “What’s
wrong?” I demanded.

“Just a checkup, Robin,” Dr. Larry told me,
tying a string on a thermometer. “I wanted to be here this time
when Officer Yardley came to see Twaziem.”

I eyed the big, burly cop. “You said a week.
That would be tomorrow not today.”

“This was the only slot your vet had free.”
Officer Yardley made another note on the papers in his case. “So,
you said he’s fifteen hands and he weighs seven hundred and fifty
pounds.”

“Yes.” Dr. Larry avoided Twaziem’s kick. “In
a minute, I’ll have his temp for you.” He winked at me. “Want to
help? It’s not as gross as cleaning out an impaction.”

“He looks different. What did you do to him?”
The cop looked at me. “Just good grooming?”

“No, my brother and I gave him a bath,” I
said. “It got all the dead lice off him.”

I walked up beside Mom and petted Twaziem’s
brown neck, then I straightened out his black forelock. He nudged
me, but I didn’t have any carrots. “I’ll bring some later,” I
promised.

Mom gave me a steady look. “What will you do
later?”

“Carrots.”

She nodded, then jerked her head toward the
bucket at the other end of the arena. “Right there. He couldn’t
have a lollipop like the doctors used to give you, so when Larry
called, I went out to the garden.”

I went over to the bucket. Talk about someone
going above and beyond. As Jack said, Mom was the greatest. In her
jeans, sweatshirt and boots, she looked like she’d spent the day in
the barn, not in her crafts room. I wondered if she’d been able to
do any of the sewing she wanted to get done. Her busy season
started right after Halloween and ran through New Year’s when she
sold all the quilts, wall hangings and stuffed toy critters she
made.

I grabbed two carrots and went back to give
them to Twaziem. I hated to say the cop was right about anything,
but Twaz’s reddish brown coat had started to gleam. It still
stretched tightly over his ribs, and his hip bones stuck out and
up, but he was a little fatter. The bumps of his spine weren’t as
prominent.

Crunch. One carrot was slicked up. Ears
twitching, he chewed and stomped again when Dr. Larry picked up his
tail. “Stop it,” I told him. “You have this done every time he
comes to see you.”

“It doesn’t mean he likes it.” Mom glanced
across the ring as the other door opened and Dad came toward us.
He’d taken time to change from his accounting suit to his jeans and
western shirt. He held a sheaf of papers in his hand.

He nodded at the cop, then smiled at the vet.
“You didn’t come get your report on Twaziem, Robbie, so I brought
it with me.”

“I’ll have to write in the facts from today.”
I went to take Twaziem’s tail from the vet. “I’m monitoring how he
improves from day to day and what I’m doing with him.”

“I’ll bet I know who taught you that.” Dr.
Larry slid the thermometer inside my horse’s rear, keeping hold of
the string. “In a minute, you can add his temp. Have you dewormed
him yet?”

“No, it’s too soon. I have to wait another
week or he could have a reaction from all the poisons introduced to
his system.”

“Poisons?” Officer Yardley looked super
interested, as if he’d just won the lottery.

I hoped he never played poker. He was so easy
to hook. I widened my eyes and tried to appear innocent, like a
sappy actress in a late night movie. “Hello. You don’t think lice
powder is talcum, do you? It couldn’t have killed the parasites
without toxic elements. And worming paste does, too, or it wouldn’t
eliminate the internal ones.”

The excitement faded from his face and I
thought,
Gotcha
.

I turned back to the veterinarian. “When I
deworm him, I’m thinking he should just have a light dose. I was
reading about colic on the Internet and one of the sites warned
that dead worms could cause an impaction.”

“You’re right.” Dr. Larry gently pulled out
the thermometer, sidestepping so Twaziem kicked the air. “Lost a
horse last year when that happened. And he was healthy, not
debilitated like this fellow.” Another kick from the horse and
another quick step away by the vet. It looked like a strange sort
of dance. Frowning, Dr. Larry shook his head. “He really hates
me.”

“It’s not you.” I dropped Twaziem’s tail and
glanced at my folks in time to see Mom tighten her hold on the lead
to keep the horse from biting Dad. “Not you in particular, I mean.
He has gender issues. I don’t know exactly what Caine did to him
besides hitting him with a manure fork, but Twaziem has issues with
guys.”

“How do you know someone hit him?” Dr. Larry
asked.

“Because he threatens Jack whenever he tries
to clean the stall, but I can use the fork around him and Twaz just
eats. I know the girls did something to his grain. He sniffs it and
plays with it before he tries just a mouthful. He won’t touch any
of the supplements that Rocky says he’s supposed to have. And he
goes berserk if you’re in the stall when he has the grain, so I
only go in when he eats hay.”

“Very observant.” Dr. Larry walked over to
the bucket and came back with a carrot. When he offered it to
Twaziem, my horse pinned his ears back and then snatched it away,
chewing the carrot extra quick before the veterinarian could change
his mind and take back the treat. “I guess I should count my
fingers,” Dr. Larry said, “but at least this time he took it from
me.”

“He’s getting better.” I went and took the
papers from Dad to show them to the vet.

There were three pages. The first was a
picture of Twaziem with the date and place where we got him. The
second listed his height and weight plus all of the food he’d been
fed at his various breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. The last page
detailed all of the activities he’d done, including the colics and
hours in the pasture with Singer.

Dr. Larry reread the final paragraph. “Good
idea, Robin. Grass is a natural laxative. Until you can deworm him,
put him out a couple hours each day. Now, about your internship.
What do your Sundays look like? That’s when I get some of my most
interesting cases, and you could learn a lot.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Monday, September 23
^rd
, 7:00 p.m.

I waited until everyone was almost finished
with supper before I brought up the subject of the horse show.
“Dani Wilkerson wants me to go with her this Saturday when she
shows Lady. I’d have to miss my ground school class, but I’d learn
a lot when I prep her horse.”

“Is Dani the girl who rode with you and Vicky
last week?” Mom spread butter on her roll. “The one on the big bay
mare?”

“That’s her,” I said. “Lady is Prince
Charming’s mother.”

“Have we met her family?” Dad asked. “Has she
ever been here?”

“No. I thought she was kind of snooty, but
she’s okay when you get to know her.”

“Most people are,” Dad said. “Is Vicky going
with you?”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “She has her
internship hours at the barn that day.”

“At least she gets to be around horses then.”
Jack spooned up the last of the potatoes. “She won’t get one of her
own now that her parents are divorcing. It’s one more piecrust
promise.”

“Piecrust promise?” It sounded familiar, but
I couldn’t place the reference. “What does that mean?”

“Promises that are easily made and easily
broken, like they say in Disney movies,” Jack answered. “Vicky’s
folks have been telling her that she can have a horse for years.
Now, since her dad’s moved out, he says he can’t afford to buy her
one. Her mom wants too much in child support.”

“Does her dad know that Vicky’s picking up a
lot of the slack around the house?” I finished my last bite of
salad. “Does he even care?”

“Not much,” Jack said. “He isn’t actually
Vick’s biological father, so he told her that she isn’t his kid
even though he’s been in the picture since she was five and he’s
the closest to a dad that she’s ever had.”

I wasn’t about to say it sucked at the dinner
table because then I’d get a lecture on my language and my parents
hadn’t actually agreed I could go with Dani yet. “That majorly
stinks.”

“Yeah.” Jack winked at me. His mindreading
skills must have been working because he definitely knew what I was
thinking. “I don’t know about letting Robin go to this horse event.
Who knows what could happen next? Maybe, she’d actually watch me
game or go to an endurance contest or a roping without griping the
whole time.”

“Stuff it, Jack.”

“In your ear, Robin.”

“Behave, both of you.” Mom smiled at Dad.
“You’re roping this Saturday. Jack’s gaming at that competition,
and Singer and I are headed for Ellensberg with Linda and her
horse. We leave Friday afternoon, and I’ll be home Sunday
afternoon.”

“Then, it sounds like this would be the
perfect time for Robbie to go with her friend,” Dad said. “If
something goes wrong, you can call me and I’ll pick you up on our
way back.”

“What about Twaziem? He’ll be home by himself
if all the horses are gone.”

“He’ll be fine,” Jack said. “I’ll load up his
manger before we leave, and we’ll lock the driveway gates.”

“And when I’m next door, I’ll ask Linda’s
husband to stop in and feed him lunch,” Mom said. “With Zeke
keeping an eye on the place, Twaziem will be just fine.”

“Then, we have a plan for the weekend.” Jack
pushed back from the table and stood. He limped toward the counter
with his plate.

“What happened to you?” Mom asked. “Did you
get hurt at football practice?”

“No, I got kicked when I was doing stalls,”
Jack said. “No worries.”

“Did you put ice on it right away?” Dad
asked. “Or were you being stupid and macho?”