The Painted Horse (10 page)

The back doors were closed and the ambulance took off with a wail of its siren. Stevie thought this was pretty neat. Even if she hadn’t done any of the things she’d expected to do in New York, she’d done a lot of exciting things.

“How are you feeling?” Stevie asked Ms. Dodge.

“A little tired,” Ms. Dodge admitted, “and a little shaky. I’m not used to having this much excitement in my life.”

“Who is?” Stevie said, taking Ms. Dodge’s hand.

When they got to the hospital, the attendants rolled the stretcher out of the ambulance, snapped down its legs, then pushed it into the emergency room.

Stevie had expected the emergency room to be like the ones on television programs, with people running back and forth. Instead, Ms. Dodge was given a pile of forms to fill out and then was told to wait. She filled the forms out, handed them in, and then nothing happened.

“They’re waiting for us at the hotel,” Ms. Dodge said. “The van is supposed to leave any minute.”

Stevie reached into her pocket and pulled out Officer Hill’s card. “I have an idea,” she said. She went over to the nurse who was handling the arriving patients and gave her the card. “My teacher was in an accident in Central Park, and this policeman wants to make sure that she gets good treatment.” She gave the nurse the card.

The nurse’s eyebrows shot up. “Why didn’t you say so in the first place?” Within minutes, Ms. Dodge had been whisked away to a treatment room.

She came back a little while later with her ankle wrapped and a crutch under one arm. “It’s just a sprain,” she said. “We can get a cab back to the hotel and everything will be fine.”

As they were riding in the cab, Ms. Dodge said, “How did you get me taken care of so fast?”

“I dropped a name,” said Stevie casually.

“Whose name?” said Ms. Dodge.

“Officer Hill’s, the mounted policeman who helped us in the park,” Stevie said. They rode in silence for a minute. “I think it would be nice if you sent him a note to tell him that it’s nothing but a sprain.”

Ms. Dodge smiled. “I believe I will.”

* * *

B
Y
THE
TIME
the class had boarded the van, everyone was exhausted. Stevie sat in a window seat, and Ms. Dodge sat next to her with her ankle stretched out into the aisle.

“What a trip,” Ms. Dodge sighed.

“There’s only one problem,” Stevie said gloomily. “I’m going to get an F. I never found an object.”

“It’s too bad you couldn’t have written your paper on that carousel horse,” Ms. Dodge said. “I have the feeling that it would have been a wonderful paper.”

“You know something funny?” Stevie said.

Ms. Dodge shook her head.

“When I was looking for help, I happened to pass the carousel, and I took a picture of that horse. And I bought a postcard of the carousel at the Dairy.”

“That’s fantastic, Stevie. I’m so glad,” said Ms. Dodge.

“But there’s still a problem,” Stevie said. “Those are my only illustrations. I’ll have to write seven pages of text.” Stevie wasn’t like Lisa. She didn’t like writing very much.

“Hmmm,” said Ms. Dodge. “I think I have an idea. You know the postcards that you bought at the Metropolitan Museum and the historical society?”

“The ones that made everyone so mad?” Stevie said.

Ms. Dodge nodded. “Those are from the same period as your carousel horse. They would show what that era
was like. Also, if I were you, I’d put in something about the Muybridge photographs. He worked in the same period as well.”

“I could be looking at an A,” Stevie said with wonder.

“It’s a possibility,” said Ms. Dodge with a smile.

T
HE
VAN
DROPPED
the kids off at school late on Friday night, and it was even later before Stevie was picked up by her parents. But the next morning when she woke up, she was raring to go. She hadn’t called Lisa or Carole the night before. Now she could hardly wait.

She figured that calling them at seven
A.M.
was unfair. It was, after all, vacation.

Seven-thirty seemed a little early, too.

But 7:31 seemed just right. She called Carole first.

Carole answered the phone sounding sleepy.

“We got your storm,” Stevie said.

“What?” said Carole.

Stevie explained how the storm had traveled up the
coast to New York and how it had turned to hail and how she was lucky it hadn’t made small holes in her head and how she had fallen in love with a wooden horse named Ralph and how Ms. Dodge had fallen in love with a policeman with a sandy mustache.

“That’s nice,” Carole said, but she didn’t sound very excited.

“What do you mean, That’s
nice
’?” Stevie said. “That was the dull stuff. I haven’t told you the exciting stuff yet. Like riding in an ambulance. We have to have a Saddle Club meeting right away.”

There was a long pause. Finally Carole said, “Totally.”

“Are you sick or something?” Stevie said.

“No,” said Carole. “Lisa’s here, though. Our sleep was interrupted.… We’ll have to tell you about it later.”

“Meet you at Pine Hollow at nine?” Stevie said.

“Sure,” said Carole.

What is going on?
thought Stevie.

W
HEN
S
TEVIE
GOT
to Pine Hollow, Red O’Malley was raking the ring with two assistant grooms.

“What’s up, Red?” said Stevie.

“A waste of time, if you ask my opinion,” said Red.

“How come?” asked Stevie, leaning on the fence.

“The ring will get dry when it gets dry,” said Red. “There’s no point rushing it.”

Red was really annoyed about something. It seemed as
if everyone was in a grumpy mood. Stevie wondered why.

When she entered the stable, Stevie breathed the smell of horses and hay. “I’ve been away too long,” she said. She went to Belle’s stall and hugged her neck. “I met a horse just like you called Billy. He was a police horse,” Stevie said. “And I met another horse, not as great as you, but almost. He’s wood. And he can’t talk. He just goes around in circles.” Belle shook her head. Stevie pulled a carrot out of her pocket and fed it to Belle.

“Hi,” came a voice from the other side of the stall door. It was Carole.

“Carole!” Stevie said. She scooted out of the stall and hugged her. “I’m so glad to be back. I’ve got a million things to tell you.”

“That’s good,” said Carole in a flat voice.

“Tell me everything you’ve been doing,” Stevie said. “Don’t leave out a single thing.”

“Er,” said Carole.

Lisa was right behind Carole. Stevie threw her arms around her and said, “It’s been a million years.” She stood back. “I want to hear it all.”

Lisa and Carole exchanged looks. The looks meant something, but Stevie couldn’t tell what.

“We’d better do this in private,” Carole said.

“Right,” said Lisa.

“Let’s find an empty stall,” Carole said. “We can talk in there.”

Carole and Lisa sounded so gloomy that Stevie was worried. “Did the sky fall in?” she asked when they’d found a stall.

“If only the sky
had
fallen in,” Carole said. She flopped down onto the clean straw and looked at Lisa. “I guess I’d better tell her.”

“I’ll tell her,” Lisa said.

Stevie could tell that each of them was trying to save the other one from breaking some horrible news. She put her hand on her stomach. “I’m getting nervous.”

Lisa opened her mouth, put her head back, took a deep breath, and said, “It’s like this.” Then she stopped.

“It can’t be that bad,” said Stevie, trying to make a joke out of it.

Lisa and Carole didn’t even smile.

“WCTV is running a special feature called ‘Genius Kids,’ ” said Lisa. “And they’ve been shooting here.”

“This is a problem?” said Stevie. “So they picked Carole and she’s going to be famous.”

“Not exactly,” said Lisa. “They picked Veronica.”

Stevie gasped. “Why?”

“Her father knows the man who owns the station,” Lisa explained.

“Figures,” Stevie said. “The rat. But what can you do?
Those things happen.” She grinned. “I bet she made a total fool of herself.”

“Not exactly,” said Lisa.

“But she always does,” Stevie said.

“Not this time,” Carole said. “Lisa and I covered for her and made her look good.”

“You made
Veronica
look good?” Stevie said.

“We had to for Pine Hollow,” Lisa explained. “We didn’t want Max to look bad.”

Stevie thought about it. “That makes sense. It must have been tough. But I bet Max was proud of you. I’m proud of you, too.”

“That’s not what’s bothering us,” said Carole.

“We made Veronica look so good that someone sent a tape of ‘Genius Kids’ to a fancy Hollywood talent agency,” Lisa said. “Take a deep breath.”

Stevie took a deep breath.

“Skye Ransom is going to make another horse movie,” Carole said.

“I know that,” Stevie said. “I heard it in New York.”

“And Veronica may be in it,” said Lisa.

“No way,” Stevie said.

“There’s going to be a talent scout at the Spring Tune-Up,” Lisa said.

Stevie got a devilish look. “So then we make Veronica look like an idiot. That shouldn’t be hard.” But then
she thought of Ms. Dodge and all the things she’d learned on the trip. “No,” she said. “We’re going to help Veronica do her best.”

“What?” said Lisa. “Is this Stevie Lake I’m talking to?”

“I learned a lot on my trip to New York. I realized that I need to be more generous,” Stevie said.

Lisa and Carole exchanged worried looks. This wasn’t the Stevie they knew and loved.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Lisa said.

“I’m the best I’ve ever been in my life,” Stevie said.

Carole thought about it for a minute and then sighed. “You’re right. If we make Veronica look bad, then Pine Hollow will look bad.”

“Absolutely,” Stevie said. “And if the talent scout thinks Veronica should be in Skye’s movie, then she should be in Skye’s movie.”

Lisa and Carole exchanged amazed looks. These were admirable sentiments, but they didn’t sound much like Stevie.

“Let’s go help Red rake the ring,” Stevie said. She jumped up and headed outside.

Lisa and Carole followed. “That must have been some trip,” Carole said.

When they got outside, Red was in an even worse mood. “Watch yourself!” he snapped at one of the assistant grooms. “You’re acting like you never saw a rake
before.” Red was usually kind and helpful to the assistant grooms.

“We’ve come to help,” Stevie said over the fence.

“The rakes are over there,” Red said.

The girls got rakes and joined Red and the other grooms in the ring. “You better do it perfectly or Veronica will be on your case,” Red said. Red and Veronica had lots of run-ins because Veronica felt she was too grand to take care of her horse. “You think she’s unbearable now,” he continued, “wait until she’s starred in a movie.”

“That’s a scary thought,” Carole said.

“If Veronica stars in a movie, I’m moving to Mars,” Red said.

A white Mercedes pulled up outside the ring. Veronica jumped out. She was wearing a tan silk blouse, a cream-colored riding jacket, suede breeches, and mahogany riding boots. Her hair was sleek and shining, as usual. But there was something new about it.

There was a blond streak in Veronica’s black hair.

“What happened to your hair?” Lisa said.

Veronica touched her hair with a superior smile. “All the stars have streaks.”

A man got out of the car. He was wearing a trim blue suit and shiny black loafers, gold chains, a collarless shirt, and black sunglasses.

“I want you to meet Joe Rock,” Veronica said. “He’s
from FMG. That’s Famous Management Group. They handle all the world’s top stars.”

“Yeah, yeah,” said Mr. Rock. He turned to Stevie. “Get me a cup of coffee, will you, honey? I’m practically asleep.”

“Absolutely,” said Stevie. “Do you take cream and sugar?”

“Two sugars, no cream,” said Mr. Rock. “And make sure it’s boiling hot, honey. I can’t take lukewarm coffee.”

“Absolutely,” Stevie said. She rushed off to the stable office to get the coffee.

Lisa and Carole looked at each other and laughed. This was a Stevie they’d never seen before.

“I think they brainwashed her in New York,” Carole said.

“That’s the only possible explanation,” said Lisa.

In a few minutes, Stevie came back with the coffee. It was steaming.

“Excellent,” said Mr. Rock. “Now find me somewhere to sit, kid. Joe Rock does not sit in bleachers. Not in this suit.” He looked at his expensive clothes with pride.

“Sure,” Stevie said, rushing off again.

Mr. Rock turned to Veronica. “This is a cute little dump you’ve got here.”

“It’s nowhere,” said Veronica, patting her hair. “I can’t wait to leave.”

“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch, babe,” said Mr. Rock.

Stevie came back with a wooden chair from the stable’s office. “Should I put it next to the bleachers?” she said.

“That would be good,” Mr. Rock said. “Plus, get me a pillow. That chair looks hard.”