Horse Talk

by Bonnie Bryant

  “Are you there, Stevie?” Carole asked over a hiss of static. Stevie managed to press the button on the walkie-talkie and hold it against her ear.

  “We’re here,” she said. “We’re heading out.”

  “Just checking,” Carole said. “They can hear you on the air.”

  “We’re Horse Talk, coming to you live from Pine Hollow with an exciting search and rescue in progress,” Lisa said. “We’ve been looking for a missing mare, April Morning, and she was just seen in one of our listeners’ backyards.” Lisa gave Missa’s address. “A mounted rescue crew is on the way, but the mare is moving. Any listeners who live in the area, please look out your windows now. If you see a horse, call in. We need to find this mare.”

  “I see her!” said a caller who sounded like an elderly woman. “She’s walking right across the middle of my backyard!”

  “Which direction?” Carole asked, at the same time as Lisa asked, “What’s your address?” The lady told them both. “Sounds like April’s heading back toward the woods,” Lisa commented.

  “Stevie, where are you?” Carole asked. She reported the latest movements.

  Stevie, listening, looked across the field. Galloping bareback was one of the greatest thrills on earth. Bareback riding required very good balance, since there was no saddle to help the rider stay on. However, it also allowed the rider to really feel the motion of the horse she was riding—it was almost like being part of the horse. Beside Stevie, Nickel and Janey were flying, and Sam on Calypso was close on their heels.

  “We’re catty-corner from the gate that goes into the woods,” Stevie said. “We’ll be in the subdivision in three minutes.” She took the walkie-talkie away from her ear.

  “Less,” Janey commented, “if we don’t take the time to open that gate.”

  “You mean jump it?” Stevie asked. The wooden gate was solid, certainly jumpable, but it looked at least four feet high. It looked huge.

  “It’ll save time,” Sam said. Stevie remembered that Sam was an event rider, and Calypso, a Thoroughbred, was a skilled jumper. They could probably take the fence, and she felt as if she could, too. But she was responsible for her little sister.

  “On Nickel?” she asked Janey as they galloped across the field.

  Janey grinned. “It looks smaller than the gate on our sheep pasture at home, and I jump that all the time,” she said. When Stevie hesitated, she added, “Don’t tell Max, but May and I were playing puissance the other day, and Nickel jumped a rail five feet high.”

  Stevie had to laugh. “You know best,” she said. She pointed Belle toward the gate. “Hang on tight!”

  Inside the stable, the phone was ringing off the hook. Several more people had seen April, who seemed to be taking a tour of the subdivision backyards. Lisa took the calls and wrote down the addresses. Some of the addresses weren’t making sense. Lisa was afraid that some of the calls must be false alarms. But how could she tell? Carole kept in touch with Stevie and traced their progress on the map. “I think they jumped that corner gate,” she reported to Lisa.

  Lisa grinned. “Bet it saved time.” She was beginning to worry a little bit about not having enough time. For once, Horse Talk was flying by.

  “We’re in the subdivision now,” Stevie reported via the walkie-talkie. “We’ve slowed to a walk. A lot of people are out on their front lawns watching us.”

  “We’re famous,” Janey said cheerily, waving left and right.

  “Turn left on Rosewood Street,” Carole said. “The horse should be—”

  “No, wait!” Lisa, taking another call, waved to Carole. “The horse went through some backyards!”

  “Can you cut through to Oakdale?” Carole asked Stevie.

  “Where’s Oakdale?” Stevie asked.

  “Can’t do it,” Sam said. “There’s a swimming pool in the way.”

  “Okay, turn left at the swimming pool, then right. You should be able to see her once you get around the corner,” Carole said.

  Sam looked anxiously from side to side. “I don’t see her.”

  “She took off!” Lisa said. “She’s gone back the other way! Listeners, please don’t run after the horse! You’ll just make her run away!”

  Stevie, Sam, and Janey looked at the crowded subdivision streets. “We can’t lose her now,” Sam said, tears in her eyes.

  “We won’t,” Stevie promised.

  “Horse Talk!” Lisa answered the phone.

  “Hey,” said a man’s voice. “You know the missing horse you guys are tailing? My wife just caught it in our backyard. She’s leading it round to the front.”

  Lisa gestured frantically to Carole. “Tell Stevie!”

  Carole pushed the button in on the walkie-talkie, but Stevie preempted her. “We see her!” Stevie shouted. Ahead of them, standing surrounded by people on someone’s front lawn, an elegant gray mare lifted her head as she sensed the approaching horses. The mare’s nostrils widened, and she gave a loud, excited whinny.

  Sam galloped Calypso over the last twenty feet. Stevie followed. She kept her finger on the Transmit button and held the walkie-talkie high. Listeners across Willow Creek heard Sam’s joyful shout: “April! You’re alive!”

  STEVIE PUT THE walkie-talkie back to her mouth. “This is Stevie Lake, reporting live for Horse Talk. The missing horse has been found.” She clicked the walkie-talkie off.

  At Pine Hollow, the click was followed by a moment of silence. Neither Carole nor Lisa knew exactly what to say next. Carole had tears in her eyes. Lisa couldn’t believe what had just happened. She leaned over and spoke into the microphone. “Thank you, Willow Creek. On behalf of Samantha Harding, owner of April Morning, the horse that survived a terrible crash and has been missing for almost four months but that was found here this afternoon, thanks very much to all of you who listened and called in. My cohost, Carole Hanson, joins me in thanking also the many people who supported the radio school project and our show, Horse Talk, especially our instructor, Max Regnery, who owns Pine Hollow. This is our final show.”

  “Thanks also to the many sponsors who are making the radio school project possible,” Carole added smoothly. “We didn’t want to interrupt our live, breaking coverage of the rescue of April Morning, so we’ll play all our advertisements now.” She slid the ad tape into the deck and clicked off the microphone.

  Lisa laughed. “I forgot all about the advertisements! How long will they last if we run them all together?”

  Carole looked at the clock. “Too long. They’ll probably all get on, but we won’t be able to play our exit music.” She grinned at Lisa. “I’d say, though, that we made our exit in style.”

  “Saddle Club style,” said Lisa. She looked at the radio equipment. “I can’t believe we ended like that.”

  “It’s a lot better than the way we began,” said Carole. “I think I’ll call Judy and ask her if she can come here. April ought to be examined right away.”

  Lisa nodded. “I’ll go find Max and see if he can take April back to Fox Meadow in his trailer.”

  She stepped out of the stable just in time to see Judy pull up into the drive. “Carole!” Lisa called. “She’s already here!”

  Carole joined Lisa, and they ran to greet Judy. “We were just going to call you!” Carole said. “We’ve got a horse coming—”

  “I know.” Judy was grinning from ear to ear. “I was listening on my radio in the truck. Quite a story! How long will it take for them to get back here?”

  “Not too long,” Lisa said. She muttered to Carole, “I hope they don’t try to jump that gate leading April.”

  “Not in her condition,” Carole agreed.

  “I’ll find Max,” Lisa said, remembering her initial intention.

  Judy pointed. “He’s right there.”

  Lisa turned and saw Max hooking his horse trailer to his pickup truck. “Max! Did you hear?”

  Like Judy, he was smiling. “Of course I heard! We were listening in the office. You guys did great!”
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  “Oh.” Lisa blushed. “It wasn’t us, it was everyone who called in. They found the horse—we just followed their lead.”

  “Your show attracted a lot of listeners,” Max said with a wicked grin.

  “Don’t remind me,” Lisa said.

  “Look!” said Carole. “Here they come!”

  Nickel streaked into the yard with Janey whooping like an Amazon princess on his back. They slid to a stop right in front of Max, and Lisa wondered briefly if the pony would ever be the same again. How could he revert to giving lessons to beginners after a season with Janey? Lisa decided it was Max’s problem.

  Stevie followed on Belle. She’d gathered her into as close a semblance to a collected dressage trot as she could manage bareback, and she made Belle prance and turn circles around Sam.

  But everyone was watching Sam. Riding Calypso, she sat tall and proud while tears of happiness glistened on her cheeks. Sam was leading April Morning. The gray mare seemed happy to be in the company of other horses again. She trotted briskly, her ears pricked forward and her tail held high.

  Carole couldn’t help counting the cadence of April’s trot: one-two, one-two, her steps as even and firm as they should be. So the accident hadn’t left April permanently lame.

  Sam slid off Calypso and hugged April. Lisa came up to take Calypso, and Sam hugged her, too. Then Sam hugged Stevie, Carole, and Janey; then she hugged Judy and Max; last, she hugged April again. “She looks so great,” she said. “Can you believe it?”

  “She’s prettier than her photograph,” Carole said honestly. “She’s a fantastic-looking horse.”

  “I can’t wait to see her baby,” Stevie added.

  Sam patted April’s midsection. “She still looks pregnant; that’s one good sign.” None of The Saddle Club had mentioned it, but they all knew that the mare could have miscarried because of the crash.

  Judy came forward with her stethoscope. “Let me listen.” April held still while Judy pressed the stethoscope along her belly. Judy’s grin told The Saddle Club what they wanted to know before Judy said a word. “The foal’s got a nice, healthy heartbeat,” she said. Sam threw her arms around April again, and The Saddle Club gave each other a high fifteen.

  “She’s got a scar back here,” Judy reported, continuing her examination. “She could have used stitches on it, probably, but other than that, she seems fine. She’ll need some blood work and a more thorough exam in a few days, but she’s in amazing condition, all things considered.”

  Another car pulled up in the driveway. “Mom!” Sam called out. “Dad! We found her!”

  Sam’s parents got out and joined the celebration. “We heard on the radio,” Mrs. Harding said. “I’m so thrilled!” She hugged her daughter.

  “Where are the young ladies who put on that radio show?” asked Mr. Harding. Sam introduced him to The Saddle Club. He pulled out his wallet. “I think you ladies deserve a reward.”

  “Oh, no.” Carole shook her head. “Not for finding April. We’d always help a horse. We don’t need a reward.”

  “We’re grateful to April for helping us with our radio show,” Lisa added. “It was much more interesting today.”

  Mr. Harding laughed. “It was certainly interesting.” He put most of his money away, but he insisted that they take enough to buy themselves an ice cream. “Don’t think of it as a reward,” he said. “Think of it as a gift from Sam and April.”

  “And you’ll have to come see the foal when it’s born,” Sam added.

  “We’d love to,” said Carole. “You’ll have to come back and visit, too. Come ride with us sometime.”

  “I’d like that.” Sam turned to her horse. “Come on, darling, let’s get you home.”

  “Here,” Mrs. Harding said, handing something to Sam. “I put this in the car, in case we needed it.” Sam held it up, grinning. It was a leather halter with a brass nameplate reading APRIL MORNING—SAM HARDING.

  “I worried I’d never get to use this,” Sam said. She gave Stevie her halter back and led April into Max’s trailer.

  In a moment Sam, her parents, Max, and Judy were all gone. The Saddle Club stood alone in the suddenly quiet driveway, Lisa still clutching Calypso’s lead. Even Janey and Nickel had vanished.

  “Well,” Carole said, looking down at the money in her hand, “I don’t know about you guys, but after that I could certainly use an ice cream.”

  “Let me put Calypso away,” Lisa said.

  “I’ll go ask Janey if she wants to come,” Stevie said. “You guys should have seen her galloping bareback. She’s amazing! I’m going to miss her when she goes home.”

  * * *

  JANEY WAS BRUSHING Nickel’s forelock. The pony was already cooled and snug in his stall, and just outside the door Stevie saw a bucket covered with a towel. “Red said I could give Nickel a hot bran mash,” Janey explained. “I just mixed it, so it’s not ready yet.”

  “Do you want to go get some ice cream?” Stevie asked.

  “No, thanks.” Janey smiled. “My mom’s going to pick me up pretty soon. We have to go into the city and meet my dad, and Mom’s going to be mad enough when she sees how dirty I am. I was supposed to try to stay clean today. So she’d better not have to come looking for me, too, or I’ll really catch it.”

  “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.”

  AT 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.