No Time for Horses (15 page)

More tears and she grabbed a paper towel.
“
I
am their mother. I love them.”

“Sure you do.” I was so tired of all her
crap. I pointed to the clock. “Did you make them do their homework
before you turned them loose? Or will that be something else I need
to pull together on Sunday night?”

“You don’t have to do everything, Vicky.”

“Want to bet? If I want it done and I don’t
want to be screamed at for the next forty years, I have to. Did
Ingrid talk to you about me getting a job?”

“Yes, and I told her that I don’t see how
it’s possible. I need you here to look after the kids. She told
Rick and me that she’s going to have you start keeping track of
your hours so we can pay you. She says that if we hired someone
else, we’d be paying at least minimum wage.”

“Or more. You have five kids, remember? And I
don’t know any teen that could do what I do when it comes to
housework, cooking, cleaning, and laundry. My friends manage it
because they step up for
me
, not
you.
”

Okay, so I was the resident witch, but I had
things to get done tonight before bedtime. I left her in the
kitchen doing the big crying routine. The tears would stop as soon
as the audience left the theater. After sixteen and a half years, I
certainly knew that much. I walked down the hall to the bedroom I
shared with the girls.

Chrissy played with her blocks, stacking and
tumbling them down. The other four kids were around a table,
Skip-Bo cards laid out in front of them. I glanced at Kevin.
“Homework’s done, right?”

He nodded. “Yeah, and we all packed for
Dad’s. I even did Chrissy’s bag with her special disposable
diapers. I still don’t know if he’s coming tomorrow or not.”

“Neither does anybody else,” I said. “Thanks,
Kevin. I should have known I could count on you.”

“Are you going to play with us?” Lance asked.
“We can deal you in next time.”

“You should definitely deal me in so I can
kick your buns.”

All four of them cracked up. Cathy jumped up
and ran next door, coming back with a folding chair. “Girls against
boys?”

“No, because we outnumber them.” I sat down.
“We’ve got to be fair.”

“They can have Chrissy,” Linda said, “and
then it will be three against three.”

“Not fair since Chrissy always chews on the
cards,” I said. “No, we’ll play until I beat all of you.”

Lance hooted with laughter. “Then, we’ll be
staying up till midnight.”

“Works for me,” I said. “There’s no school
tomorrow!”

* * * *

Thursday, November 28th, 11:00 a.m.

It’d been a busy day, but not as crazy as
some Thanksgiving holidays. Darby was a professional cook at the
casino, so she organized everything. She’d stuffed the birds and
put the two turkeys in the oven by the time I made the kitchen at
six a.m. I didn’t remember buying them and when I asked, she said
the casino always treated their employees. Between her and Mom,
they’d done okay for holiday bonuses. They also had two hams that
Darby froze for other meals.

I made the pies from scratch. I’d always
liked doing those. Meanwhile, Darby set bread to rise so she could
shape rolls later. By the time the kids arrived for breakfast, she
had scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast waiting for them. Kevin was
thrilled to pieces because he and Lance could play outside with
their friends. Cathy and Linda invited theirs in for a movie day.
Chrissy toddled back and forth between the kitchen and the family
room.

When Mom joined us, she jumped in to help,
creating her wonderful salads. I wasn’t sure what that was totally
about. Did she want to make amends after the argument we had? Or
did she want to show off her maternal skills to Darby? Either way,
I wasn’t going to begin World War Three on a holiday, so I ‘went
along to get along’ as Ingrid suggested during our last group
session when we talked about surviving this holiday.

The girls helped me set the table in the
dining room. We used the fancy china that Mom bought on sale before
she married Rick. I even folded the cloth napkins, putting one at
each place. Okay, so I’d have to do a special load of laundry, but
the holidays only came once a year. The phone rang, and I answered
the landline in the dining room. “Happy Thanksgiving.”

“It’s me,” Rick said. “I’m not going to make
it back from Bellingham to pick up the kids tonight. I’ll try to
get them by noon tomorrow.”

I nearly said we hadn’t expected him, but
decided to avoid a fight instead. “I’m shopping with friends. Mom
and Darby will be at work. You can get them at the daycare.”

“Don’t take them to daycare. They’ve been
there a lot this month, and I know they’re tired of it. Just keep
them at home until I get there.”

“Rick, the good sales start at midnight.” I
heaved a dramatic sigh before he could. “I’m going to hit the
stores for Christmas. Did you want me to shop for you again this
year?”

“No, Tessa will.”

“I hope you’ve asked her.” I heard the buzzer
on the oven. “Got to go. I have to get my pies in the oven. Have a
happy holiday.”

I hung up and turned to see Linda staring at
me, struggling to hold back the tears. “Guess what, sweetie? Your
dad won’t be back tonight, so we get to go to the movies after we
eat. Why don’t you and Cathy go pick a chick flick for us?”

“How will we get there?” Linda asked. “Mommy
and Darby gotta go to work.”

“I’m calling Jack. He can take the boys to a
gross monster thing and watch zombies eat brains. It will be great.
I won’t have to go with him. I can see a good movie with my
favorite sisters.”

“All right!” Linda pelted back to the family
room, calling for Cathy.

And I turned to the phone so I could dial up
my fave hero.

Chapter
Fifteen

Friday,
November 29th, 4:00 a.m.

We folded up the car seats and left them with
Penny in one of her storage rooms. She promised me that she
wouldn’t give them to Rick if he showed up to collect the kids
because he had a set in his car. However, she’d be giving him the
monthly bill and warned me that he’d probably go ballistic when he
saw it. Frankly, I didn’t care. If he didn’t like how much it cost
to have his kids looked after almost every day, he could ‘daddy up’
and take some responsibility.

Once we were in the car and headed for the
mall, Felicia pulled through our favorite espresso stand. While we
waited for our order, she glanced in the rearview mirror at me.
“Robin and I talked. If you ever need a place to live, I’m good
with you in my room. I’ve already taken most of my clothes to
Pullman, and there’s plenty of space in the closet.”

“The good part about it is that you won’t
have to change schools,” Robin said. “You can drive down with me
and Dad in the mornings.”

“I’d only go with Jack a couple times a week
if I were you,” Felicia added. “That way the folks won’t think
you’re only there to be with him. They know better, but once your
mom gets started, stuff happens.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I know it, but at least she
came up with the money for the kids’ presents and this year, she’s
not writing Rick’s names on the gift tags. Her counselor told her
that he needs to be a father and Mom needs to let him.”

“Good point.” Felicia passed around the cups.
“Now, let’s go grab Gwen and Porter so we can hit the doorbuster
sales. Sierra’s meeting us at the outlet mall.”

Rick had picked up the kids when we returned
to the daycare on Friday. That made it easy for me to smuggle their
Christmas presents into the basement bedroom closet. So far, Mom
hadn’t rented it, and I still spent a lot of time down there when
everyone else was home. That night, I’d gone to Gwen’s.

We’d hung out watching TV and eating popcorn,
debating over who was hotter. Daniel Radcliffe or Josh Hutcherson.
Since we couldn’t decide, it meant we had to alternate movies
between the Harry Potter series and
The Hunger Games
. We
crashed out on the living room floor, and Gwen’s mom sent us off to
bed when she arrived home from work.

* * * *

Saturday, November 30th, 10:00 a.m.

After breakfast, we headed up to Shamrock
Stable. Gwen would take a lesson while I worked. I groomed and
saddled the horses that lived in the stalls adjacent to the indoor
arena. White-haired, stocky in jeans, and a tight-fitting
sweatshirt, Meredith, the regular Saturday instructor, scowled when
she saw me. She ordered me to clean the stalls and scrub water tubs
while she taught her classes.

Wow. She’d started out on the wrong side of
the bed before she ever got to the barn. What was the big deal
about horse care? It didn’t bother me to look after the four-legged
brigade. Was she one of those instructors who thought that stable
management was for flunkies, the way that Mom and Rick figured
housework and child care were for me, not them? Well, their
crap-fest was good training for life 101.

I zoomed through the chores before I headed
over to deal with Aladdin. I haltered and groomed him, feeding
pieces of carrots to him and Summertime. I saw Sierra come into the
barn and waved at her. “Over here. Are you looking for me?”

“Yeah, Mom sent me down to see how you’re
doing. Meredith can be a bit hard to work with at times.”

“Got that right,” I said, switching out the
halter for the snaffle bridle. “She reminds me of my mother, and
it’s not a compliment. I’ve done the early morning stall pick and
watered everyone. I’d like to take Aladdin outside and do some
longeing in the round pen if that’s okay.”

“I think it’s a great idea,” Sierra said. “He
needs to learn to work in all sorts of places.”

I put the reins over Aladdin’s head. Hooking
his lead onto the halter, we started for the door. “Can you grab
the long lines and the longe rope for me?”

“You bet.” Sierra stepped into the tack
room.

I led Aladdin down the barn aisle. “Walk on,
handsome.”

Meredith opened the side gate. “Where are you
going? I need you to saddle up the horses for the next
session.”

Before I could answer, Sierra did, “That’s
your job, Meredith. Mom hired Vicky to train horses. She prepped
for your morning group, but she needs to get on-task and do her own
work now.”

I glimpsed Gwen shaking with laughter while
she held her horse. Obviously, there was a lot going on here that I
didn’t know about. Outside the barn, I asked, “Is Meredith
competing with me for the barn manager job? Was that why she had me
saddle and do the barn for her?”

“No, she’s just lazy. She tried to get Autumn
to do the work last week, and Mom went ballistic when she found
Meredith locked in the bathroom.”

“I don’t get it. How could she be locked
inside?”

“My little sister doesn’t take kindly to
people ordering her around. She even got a time-out for telling Mom
not to boss her around. So, Autumn padlocked the door shut when
Meredith went to the customer’s restroom instead of tacking
up.”

“Autumn is only seven.” I guided Aladdin to
the round pen near the large corral where we did trail rides. “It’s
all I can do to get my sisters to pick up their clothes and toys.
I’d never turn them loose with ten horses to saddle.”

“Gosh, do you think that’s why Meredith is on
probation?” Sierra opened the gate for me. “Mom would have fired
her, but she worries about being fair to people. So, she’s keeping
Autumn with her for the duration. As soon as we hire another
instructor, Meredith will be history.”

“Do you think I could teach her classes all
the time? I listened to her today and I didn’t hear her say one
positive thing to any student.”

“Don’t overload yourself,” Sierra said.
“Training horses takes a lot of patience, and you have an entire
string to work. After you do Aladdin, you need to start Gambler and
Spirit.”

I nodded. She had a point, and I couldn’t do
everything. It’d be better to focus on one job at a time. With that
in mind, I buckled the reins back to the billets so Aladdin would
continue to grow accustomed to pressure on the bit. I snapped the
longe line to his halter and sent him out to walk around me.

It took longer to gain his attention since we
were outside. I kept him walking, trotting, halting, backing, and
changing directions for almost an hour. I added in the canter and
counter canters. When he flicked his ears at me, licked, and
chewed, I decided it was time to long line drive him. I connected
the long reins to the two sides of his halter. I ran them back
through the stirrup irons and began working him around the corral
for another hour, throwing in some double-line longeing just for
the fun of it. Of course, I didn’t forget his carrots.

Once he’d totally surrendered, it was time to
break for lunch, his and mine. I took him back down to the barn and
his stall. I unfastened the shorter reins from the saddle and
removed them from his bridle. He wasn’t overheated, so it didn’t
freak me out when he tanked up on water. I checked his manger. No
hay. What was that about?

He’d worked hard this morning. He deserved
his food. I paused by the wheelbarrow parked neatly under the
stairs and found two flakes of Eastern Washington orchard grass
hay. I picked up the bigger one and took it back to him. Gambler, a
bay Morgan filly whinnied at me, but I didn’t believe her. She had
hay in her stall. “You can wait, missy.”

After I fed Aladdin, I stripped off my
gloves, vest, and helmet. I didn’t want to have to look for them,
and I knew how these games went. Growing up in Mom’s house meant
protecting what was mine, so I carried my gear with me to the
office. I opened the fridge reserved for staff. My bag wasn’t
there.

Okay, this woman was totally going down. Not
feeding the horse was one thing. I’d covered that. But taking my
lunch was downright nasty. I poked around but didn’t find my lunch
sack. It wasn’t behind the water bottles or bag of carrots. I
closed the fridge, backed up, and glanced at the garbage can.
Gross, but it had to be done. I pulled off a drink carrier and a
couple plastic water bottles, and my empty brown paper bag was
there.