More Than a Horse Read online

  Hoofbeats to her right made her turn. Amos was riding with a rope coiled at the ready toward a copse of trees in a gully. There was a stream at the bottom and Sassy was there, too, watching Amos coming toward him. Leeann raised her camera, but Sassy was too far away.

  Quickly she slid down the other side of the hill. Chips of rock came with her in a clatter that caught Amos's attention. Since he was looking right at her, Leeann waved and said, "Hi. I'm hiking."

  He didn't respond, but kept on the way he'd been going. Leeann hurried to get closer. Finally Sassy showed big enough in the camera's eye. Amos had gotten off his horse, which stood where he'd dropped the reins. He walked toward Sassy, who watched his approach alertly with ears turned forward. No sooner did Amos get close enough to slide a hackamore around Sassy's neck, than the horse sidestepped, dipped his head, brought it up and did something so unexpected it made Leeann laugh out loud.

  Sassy stole Amos's hat! He took its brim between his big square teeth and flipped his head up so the hat came off Amos's head.

  "Hey!" Amos yelled.

  Before he could grab Sassy, the horse danced off into the stream. There he stood in knee-deep water with Amos's hat in his teeth and a glint in his eyes. The downward angle of Sassy's head and ears with that hat hanging from his teeth was pure mischief. Leeann snapped shot after shot until she'd used up the rest of the film. If the pictures came out, they'd be hilarious.

  Amos threw Leeann a killing look, but she was too amused to be scared. He waded into the stream with his boots on and tried to lasso Sassy, hat and all. As soon as the rope was in the air, so was Sassy. He reared up and then reared again. Not letting go of the hat, he looked back over his shoulder at Amos, who started yelling at him.

  "You four-legged devil. Think you can play games with me, do you?" Amos ran forward and fell face down into the stream.

  It wasn't funny anymore. Leeann was afraid Amos would hit Sassy if he caught him now. She set her camera down and dashed up the bank ahead of the horse. When she splashed into the stream, Sassy's head swung around to face her.

  "Come on. You had your fun. Time to go back to the ranch now. Come on, sweetie, you don't want to run away from me," Leeann said.

  Apparently Sassy didn't, because he stood still as Leeann came up to him and put her arm over his neck.

  "How about giving me that hat, huh, you bad boy? It wouldn't look good on you anyway. Not your style. Let go, come on. Let go."

  "Don't you get that hat ripped up," Amos called anxiously. He looked foolish standing in the stream with water dripping off him and a pale band of skin showing below his gray hair where the hat had hidden it from the sun.

  Leeann kept stroking Sassy and talking. Finally he released the hat and Leeann caught it before it dropped into the stream. She brought it to Amos. "He was just teasing," Leeann said.

  Amos blew out air in disgust just the way a horse did. His expression was unreadable as he took the hat, rubbed it off, and set it back on his head. "Paid a week's salary for this last winter."

  "It's a nice hat," Leeann said. To her it looked like any other black felt cowboy hat, but she could see Amos took pride in it.

  He didn't thank her for getting it back. He just nodded and stepped past her as he fashioned a temporary bridle out of his rope. The now-docile Sassy allowed Amos to fit it easily over his head.

  Leeann waited until Amos had remounted and begun leading Sassy back toward the ranch. Then she picked up her camera and dragged herself after them on foot. It disappointed her that no matter what she did to help him, Amos refused to show any gratitude for it.

  Half an hour before her seven P.M. curfew, Leeann got back to the kitchen. She sat down, chin on fist, to watch Rose cook.

  "Tired?" her mother asked her.

  "Discouraged," Leeann said. She related the hat incident. When she got to the part about Sassy in the stream with Amos's hat, Rose began to laugh, and Hanna, who had come in at the beginning of the story, hooted. Leeann burst out laughing with them and felt better afterward, even if nothing had changed and it still looked as if she'd remain horseless forever.

  CHAPTER 10

  Leeann missed Kristen the day she didn't come to school. The sight of her cheek inches from her paper as she concentrated fiercely on her work had helped Leeann bring her own wandering mind back to task. Kristen's presence in class had been as comforting as the steady hum of a refrigerator in an empty house.

  "Is Kristen sick or something?" Leeann asked the horse group at lunch.

  "She must be dying," Zach said. "She's never yet missed a day of school."

  "And you should know," Alan said, "because you're always here."

  "Right, I don't take extra vacation days whenever I want, like some guys," Zach said.

  "Listen, even the teachers take mental health days," Alan said.

  "Just so they can sleep in?" Zach asked.

  "Oh, stop it, you two," Joy said. She leaned forward and told Leeann, "One day Kristen came in with a fever of 103 and her mother had to come get her because she was too weak to walk home. Next day, she was right back in school."

  That alarmed Leeann. She ate the chicken salad sandwich her mother had made her so fast that twenty-five minutes of the lunch hour were left. "I think I'll run over to Kristen's house and see what's wrong," she said.

  "We're not allowed to leave school property," Joy warned her. "They call your folks if they catch you."

  "My mother would understand," Leeann said.

  "I'll go with you," Zach said. "We'll act like we're heading for the ball field and cut back to the parking lot from there."

  "One kid's less likely to be seen than two," Leeann told him.

  "And you know what they'll think if they catch you leaving together," Joy said.

  "Woo, woo, woo!" Alan mocked. Zach's jaw tightened in embarrassment.

  "Anyway, thanks for offering, Zach," Leeann said. She patted his shoulder on the way to the garbage can to dump her sandwich wrappings.

  No one stopped her as she crossed the parking lot. She walked the short distance along the highway to Kristen's house and pulled the string on a bell hanging outside the wooden gate.

  "Yes?" The large, stern-faced lady with artificial-looking black hair stared at Leeann suspiciously without opening the gate very far. Leeann had no doubt this was the grandmother.

  "Um." Suddenly Leeann realized a phone call would have made more sense. What if the grandmother asked what Leeann was doing out of school? "Does Kristen want her homework for math?" Leeann improvised rapidly.

  The grandmother frowned. "Kristen's in school. What about her homework?"

  "Oh, ah, I thought ... I thought she lost it," Leeann said. "Bye," she added and fled before the grandmother could uncover her flimsy deceit.

  Where was Kristen? Leeann wondered if she'd run away from home. But she'd never leave Moley behind, and the horse was too rickety to go with her. Moley! It struck Leeann as she slipped into the now-empty cafeteria that Kristen might be with her horse. And by asking her ogre of a grandmother about her, Leeann could have roused the woman's suspicions and set her searching for her granddaughter. Leeann hoped she hadn't gotten her friend in trouble.

  Impulsive. She was too impulsive. Rose said it was something she needed to work on, and it certainly was. It had already gotten her in trouble with Amos and Mr. Holden, and now it had possibly gotten Kristen in trouble as well. For the umpteenth time, Leeann made up her mind to think twice before she acted. But it was hard to break the habit of reacting too fast, especially when her feelings were involved.

  Leeann fretted her way through the rest of the afternoon.

  In the hall on the way to science class, Joy asked her what she'd found out at Kristen's house. Immediately Leeann confessed what she'd done.

  "Tell you what," Joy said sympathetically. "I'll call her, and if her grandmother answers, I'll pretend I'm inviting Kristen to bring her horse over to my house."

  "Thanks, Joy," Leeann said gratefully. "And w
ould you call me as soon as you talk to her?"

  "Sure," Joy said. "Oh, and Leeann, I meant to tell you. My dad's going to ask Mr. Holden about riding lessons for Joey. Mom said she'll bring Joey to the ranch if she has to. Ever since that time you got him on Sassy, Joey keeps talking about riding a horse. But he won't go near Dancer. He says he wants 'that girl's horse.'" Joy laughed as if she thought her brother's persistence was cute.

  "Is Dancer calmer?"

  "Not much. He shies away from me whenever I go near him. I'm going to start taking piano lessons so I won't have that much time to spend with him anymore. I wish I'd never picked that stupid horse."

  "Maybe you should take him back to the person you bought him from."

  "Yeah, but last night I told Dad I wanted to sell Dancer and get another horse and he got mad at me. He says I give up too easy. He wants me to keep trying to train Dancer. Some birthday present, huh?"

  "I'd say it was," Leeann said. "Dancer's beautiful. I'd be glad to work with him if he were mine." She shrugged. "I'd help you with him if we lived closer."

  "Would you, Leeann? How about if you come to my house on the bus with me and then my mother could drive you home?"

  "Maybe," Leeann said.

  That evening she was called to the phone in the office. Without preamble, Joy said, "Kristen spent the day in the barn with Moley. He can't get up and he's breathing hard. Her grandmother didn't know she cut school because Kristen left: the house like she was going to school, but she ducked out to the barn instead. Then she pretended to be coming home from school at the regular time and went to see Moley as usual. You won't believe what her grandmother said when Kristen told her Moley was down."

  Leeann thought of the vertical lines dug deep as judgment between the grandmother's nose and lips. "What?" she asked.

  "She said, 'Too bad. Sounds like he's had it.' Isn't that rotten? And she wouldn't call the vet or anything. And Kristen can't cut two days in a row or the office'll call home to find out why she's not in school."

  "What can we do?" Leeann asked.

  "I don't know. Kristen was crying so hard she could barely talk to me. She said she's not leaving Moley no matter what they do to her. She's spending the night with him."

  After the phone call, Leeann found Rose and explained the situation to her. "Would you drive me to Kristen's house? I want to stay in the barn with her tonight so she won't be alone."

  "Leeann, I can't do that without permission from Kristen's mother or grandmother. Suppose they found you there?"

  "But Kristen shouldn't be alone with a dying horse, Rose."

  Rose sighed. "All right then. We'll go over and talk to them."

  "The grandmother's a witch," Leeann warned.

  "Come on, Leeann, don't exaggerate. You don't really know the woman," Rose said.

  Leeann was leaning on the front desk, waiting for her mother, when the phone call came in from Joy's father. She heard Mr. Holden talking to Mr. Childs as if the two of them were old friends.

  "You don't say, Gordon. That boy of yours actually rode one of our horses? Well, I'll be! Sassy?" Mr. Holden's eyes found Leeann's over the desk. "Oh, yes, I know which one Sassy is. Well, the horse's steady enough once a rider's on his back, but keeping him in a corral's not so easy. Amos'd probably pay you to take that animal off his hands. Want a good horse cheap?"

  Leeann held her breath. But Joy's father must have said one horse was enough to handle.

  "Yes, I know," Mr. Holden said. "They're a big responsibility. Sure, you can bring the boy here to ride. Well, I don't know." His eyes stayed fixed on Leeann. She stiffened.

  "Oh, it's possible Leeann could handle the horse, but anyone can do that. It's catching Sassy that's the problem ... okay, I'll put you down for two o'clock, and if Joey likes it, we'll make that a standing date. Fine. Glad you called."

  Mr. Holden put down the receiver. He looked at Leeann and shrugged. "Too bad Amos is down on you. I'd have been glad to let you handle this. I doubt any of our wranglers'll be much good with a boy like him. If none of them work out, you may get your chance yet."

  "I hope so. I mean, I'd really like to do it," Leeann said.

  "Yes, your mother told me how you feel about horses. I'm sorry you got off on the wrong foot here, Leeann."

  "Me too," she said.

  Rose came out then. "Ready, Leeann?"

  "Just a minute, and I will be." Leeann raced back to their cabin and grabbed a jacket, a blanket, and a pillow in case she was allowed to stay with Kristen. The car ride to Kristen's house only took twenty minutes. The grandmother came to the gate again. Even in jeans and a sweatshirt she was imposing.

  "Kristen's gone to bed," she said when Rose explained that Leeann was a school friend of Kristen's and was concerned about her.

  "But her horse—we understood the horse is sick," Rose said.

  "It's an old horse and it's dying," the grandmother said stiffly. "We'll take care of it. No need for you or your daughter to worry." She was barely holding the gate ajar as if they might try to force their way in. And she hadn't once glanced at Leeann.

  "Well," Rose said helplessly, "if there's anything we can do."

  "Nothing, thank you." The woman put on a cardboard smile. "Nice of you to be so neighborly." She shut the gate without even waiting for them to turn away from it.

  "She thinks we're busybodies," Rose said. "I'm sorry, Leeann. You may be right about her disposition. She's one tough lady."

  A truck zoomed by on the road; its headlights slashed the darkness. When it was gone, only the halo of lights over the gas pumps and the golden seam of light leaking from the curtained windows of the house across from Kristen's remained to break the loneliness of the night.

  "I bet Kristen's snuck out and is in the shed now," Leeann said.

  "Maybe, honey, but we'd just get her in trouble if you went out there to see and got caught by her grandmother. The best we can do right now is to leave."

  Zach called after Leeann returned to the ranch. "So how's Kristen making out?" he asked.

  "I don't know." Leeann told him what the grandmother had said.

  "Poor kid," Zach said. "That horse is like the only thing she ever talks about."

  "Besides her grandmother."

  "Yeah, besides the dragon lady."

  The next morning Kristen walked into the classroom and went directly to her seat near the window. The corners of her mouth were turned down in mourning and her face was white. Leeann, Alan, and Zach were gathered around Joy's desk, but Kristen didn't even look their way.

  "Kristen," Leeann called. "What happened?" She went to Kristen, followed by Joy. Kristen kept her eyes straight ahead.

  "I wanted to stay with you last night," Leeann said. "My mother brought me to your house. Did your grandmother tell you?"

  Kristen shook her head, her face expressionless. She didn't look at Leeann.

  "Well, I was there. But your grandmother said ... what happened, Kristen?" Leeann knelt down next to her and touched her arm. "Please tell me."

  "They took Moley away. Grandma called a truck and they put Moley in a sling and took him away. I wanted to bury him next to the barn, but Grandma said we'd have to dig too big a hole." Silent tears coursed down Kristen's face. Leeann put her arms around her.

  "Oh, Kristen, I'm so sorry. Your poor old horse," Joy said tearfully, and she, too, hugged Kristen. Meanwhile Zach and Alan hovered nearby.

  "Sorry, Kristen," Zach said. "Moley was a great horse."

  "Sorry, Kristen," Alan echoed.

  The bell for homeroom rang. "We have to help Kristen to the girls' room. She's had a tragedy in her family," Joy announced dramatically when Ms. Morabita told them to take their seats. Ms. Morabita raised an eyebrow, but she let the three girls go without question.

  Kristen had stopped crying by the time they got to the bathroom.

  "I'll be all right," she said after she had washed her face. "We'd better get back to class."

  Joy and Leeann looked at each othe
r and Joy shrugged. Silently the three girls returned to English class.

  Every time Leeann looked, tears were trickling down Kristen's cheeks as she doggedly worked on the vocabulary exercises they'd been assigned. It was only when they were walking to lunch together, following the other three, that Kristen burst out, "I hate my grandma. I just hate her. I wish she was the one who'd died."

  "Moley was old," Leeann reminded her. "Your grandmother couldn't keep him from dying, Kristen."

  "But she's so mean. She wouldn't let me stay with him. She locked me in my room, and—oh, Leeann, he was my only friend." Her voice choked.

  "Well, now you've got me," Leeann said. "I'm not as big as Moley, but at least I can talk."

  Kristen laughed and gave a Leeann a grateful hug.

  Joy insisted on buying Kristen lunch. Kristen thanked her and said she wasn't hungry. "Eat something," Joy said. "You'll feel better."

  "Mother talk. You have that down pat," Alan said. "I could be dying and my mother would tell me to eat something."

  "Always does make me feel better to eat," Zach said. He was, as usual, putting away twice as much food as any of them.

  Kristen picked up the pizza Joy had bought her. "Thanks, Joy," she said, and ate the whole piece.

  To cheer everybody up, Leeann told about how Sassy had stolen Amos's hat. "It was so funny I almost burst out laughing, but I was afraid he'd get mad, so I stifled it," she said.

  "Wasn't he glad you got his hat back for him?" Alan asked.

  "I don't think Amos has any glad in him," Leeann said.

  Joy talked about how excited her little brother was that he was going to get a riding session on Sassy. "He wants 'that girl' to help him," Joy said. "That's what he calls you, Leeann, 'that girl.'"

  "I wish I could help him," Leeann said, "but they won't let me."

  "I heard about a riding program for disabled kids," Kristen said.