Hobbyhorse

by Bonnie Bryant

  “Only if you are completely silent until I’m all the way dressed,” Lisa said fiercely.

  “Okay.” Amelia rolled over and fished Black Beauty off the bottom shelf of Lisa’s bookcase. Lisa sighed. She was used to quieter mornings, and she’d had an entire week of disruption. Still, after its awful start, the week of Amelia hadn’t gone too badly. On Tuesday, still uncomfortable sleeping in the guest room, she’d informed Amelia that she wanted her own bedroom back. Amelia had thrown a pout, and in the end Lisa had loaned her one of her model horses to make up for it, but at least she’d slept comfortably from then on.

  On Wednesday Amelia had had a bad lesson, and when she got done, she took off her helmet and threw it on the ground. Then, under Max’s cold stare, she blushed, apologized, and retrieved it meekly. She also spent half an hour rerolling leg wraps to make up for it.

  On Thursday Amelia stumbled in the aisle and ripped a hole in her hundred-dollar jodhpurs. Lisa thought she seemed rather proud of it.

  On Friday, which was yesterday, Max told her that she could go on a trail ride with The Saddle Club after Horse Wise’s unmounted meeting. It was Amelia’s first-ever trail ride. No wonder she’s so excited, Lisa thought with a smile. Trail rides were wonderful.

  Best of all, Judy had come back and opened the small abscess in Starlight’s hoof. She hadn’t had the proper instrument with her on her earlier visit. Carole had been diligent about wrapping and soaking it, and it was healing quickly.

  “Lisa, are you dressed?” Amelia asked now.

  “No,” Lisa said. She was having trouble finding a clean pair of socks. Unthinkingly she grabbed one of the drawer handles that she’d been careful not to touch all week. Ink and grease smeared across her palm. She grabbed a tissue and tried to scrub it off.

  “Because I just got to the part where Beauty falls down on the cobblestones—”

  “Let me see your hands,” Lisa interrupted. Amelia displayed two clean palms. Lisa sighed.

  “Gosh, what happened?” Amelia asked. “Your fingers are purple!”

  “Never mind.”

  “Well, anyway, when Beauty falls down—”

  Lisa went to the bathroom to wash her hands. In just a little more than twenty-four hours, Amelia would be gone, and she would have peace and quiet again. Lisa had never realized how much she liked peace and quiet.

  “Lisa?” Amelia poked her head in the bathroom door. “Aren’t you dressed yet?”

  AT BREAKFAST AMELIA hopped up and down so many times that Lisa didn’t see how she could eat. “It’s a long time until lunch,” Lisa warned her.

  “Not really,” Amelia said. She leaned over and checked her reflection in the glass door of the oven. “Does my hair look okay?”

  “Delilah will think you’re beautiful,” Lisa said dryly. To her surprise, her mother laughed. “She’ll say,” Lisa continued, “ ‘Who is this gorgeous girl? Why, it must be Amelia!’ ”

  “My parents aren’t going to recognize me when they see how well I ride,” Amelia said. She sat down, grabbed a bite of toast, swung her legs, and jumped up again.

  “Sit down,” Mr. Atwood barked.

  “I’m just going—”

  “Sit down.”

  Amelia sat. “Because my mom and dad will be here by noon,” she said. “Do you think we’ll be back from our ride by then? I want to take a really long ride. Don’t forget, Uncle Richard, you promised to bring them straight to Pine Hollow.”

  “I won’t even let them set foot in the house,” Lisa’s father promised solemnly. “As soon as they’re out of their car, I’ll put them in mine, and we’ll rush straight to that stable.” Lisa smothered a giggle.

  “Good,” Amelia said. “Because I know they’re going to be really surprised. Don’t you think they’re going to be surprised, Lisa?”

  Lisa smiled. “I sure do.” At Amelia’s request, she hadn’t told her parents that Amelia had started jumping. Amelia wanted to keep it a secret until her own parents arrived.

  Amelia’s parents had flown back to New Jersey the night before. They’d arranged to drive down to Willow Creek, spend the night with the Atwoods, and start back home early Sunday morning. Lisa was looking forward to seeing her aunt and uncle, not least because they were taking Amelia away. She’d gotten to like a lot of things about her cousin, but Amelia was still very used to getting her own way, and Lisa realized that she was very used to her usual schedule. It would be a relief to hang around Pine Hollow without having to worry about Amelia.

  WHEN MRS. ATWOOD let the girls out at Pine Hollow, Amelia ran toward the stable almost before the car had stopped. Just as quickly, Carole came running out and swooped Lisa into a hug as she got out of the car. “Judy just left, and guess what!” she cried. “Starlight’s fine! I can ride him again!”

  “Wonderful!”

  “Starlight’s okay?” Amelia stuck her head back out the stable door and came flying back to Carole. “Is he really okay?”

  Carole’s eyes shined with happiness. “He really is. So I can go on your trail ride with you.”

  “Yeah! I’ll go tell Delilah!” Amelia scampered back to the building.

  “No running in the stable!” Carole shouted after her.

  “Sorry!” Amelia called back.

  “I’ve told her that three hundred times,” Lisa said. “She doesn’t listen.”

  “She listens,” Carole said. “She just doesn’t remember.”

  “And yet somehow,” Lisa countered, “she had been able to remember every single little thing Max or you have taught her all week, from how to wrap a horse’s leg to the difference between Pelham and Kimblewicke bits, not to mention the entire plot of Black Beauty, which I believe she’s now reading for the third straight time.”

  “That’s because she wants to run, whether she’s in the stable or not,” Carole said.

  Lisa rolled her eyes in agreement. “I’m so happy about Starlight, Carole. I hoped and hoped he’d be better by today.”

  “Because you don’t want to go on a trail ride without Max’s esteemed assistant instructor along to handle Amelia,” Carole teased.

  “Because it hasn’t seemed right riding without both of my best friends,” Lisa countered.

  “HI, MAY!” AMELIA said as they went into the office for the Horse Wise meeting.

  “Hi!” May shouted. She scooted over a little to make room for Amelia to sit. A lot of the other kids who had been in mini-camp with Amelia smiled and talked to her, too. She had made some friends.

  “I saw that your ponies are still here,” Amelia said to the Pony Tails. “I thought Mr. Grover was coming to get them last night.”

  “He had to go see a horse for a client instead,” May explained. “And this morning he’s taking one of his young horses to a one-day dressage show, just for experience. He’s going to pick our ponies up when he gets back this evening.”

  “Great!” Amelia said. “That means you can come on our trail ride!”

  “Super!” Jasmine said.

  “Oh no,” Lisa groaned. “I thought we’d just have to keep an eye on Amelia. Now there’s four of them.”

  “The Pony Tails are pretty self-sufficient,” Stevie reminded her.

  “As long as they don’t start wanting to gallop,” Lisa said. “They’ll get Amelia all fired up.”

  “Starlight won’t be galloping,” Carole said. “Just walking and trotting. That will be enough for Amelia, too, and it ought to be enough for the Pony Tails.”

  “It’ll have to be,” Lisa said resolutely.

  IT WAS. AFTERWARD, even Lisa had to admit that she’d rarely been on such a nice trail ride. The weather was perfect for winter—crystal clear, with a warm sun and no wind—and the ground was firm. Amelia was so euphoric by the idea of riding outside a ring, in actual woods, that she listened to everything the older girls said, and Delilah pricked her ears and stepped out with obvious enjoyment. The Pony Tails seemed to feel some responsibility toward Amelia, too.

  “Make
sure you never get too relaxed,” Corey advised her. “You don’t want to be tense, either, but remember that anything can happen out on a trail. A deer might suddenly leap across the path and startle your horse, so you’ve always got to be ready for something to happen.”

  Amelia sat up a little straighter. “Oh, look at that stream!” she exclaimed.

  They looked. It was the same stream they passed or crossed on every single trail ride they ever went on.

  “That’s Willow Creek. In warm weather we take off our boots and go wading in it,” Lisa said.

  “It’s so beautiful!” Amelia said.

  Carole looked down at the creek. She liked it, but she saw it so often that she rarely looked at it closely. Amelia was right—it flowed eagerly over rocks, through curving banks that in summer were overhung with ferns. Today, back on Starlight again, Carole felt as joyful as Amelia. “It is beautiful,” she said fervently.

  Amelia turned in the saddle. “You are so lucky,” she said to Lisa. “At my stable, we don’t have any trails at all.”

  Lisa knew she was lucky. “If you keep taking lessons,” she said, “next time when you come, we can go on a really long ride and jump some logs and everything.”

  Amelia beamed. Stevie rode close to Lisa. “ ‘Next time when you come’?” she repeated. “Did I hear that correctly? I couldn’t have!”

  Lisa shrugged. “Next time, I’ll make sure she doesn’t come for a whole week,” she said.

  When they rode back out of the woods, into an open field next to Pine Hollow, they could see the Atwoods’ station wagon waiting in the drive.

  “Oh!” Amelia yelled. “Mom! Dad!” She stood in the stirrups and waved, but the people standing outside the car didn’t seem to notice. Amelia dropped back into the saddle and clucked to Delilah.

  “Amelia—” Lisa warned.

  Amelia made a face. “I know. No trotting back to the stable. But we can walk fast, can’t we?”

  “Mom!” When they reached the driveway, Amelia bent down to hug and kiss her mother and father.

  “Wow,” Amelia’s father, Mr. Brandon, said. “That’s a big horse.”

  “This is Delilah,” Amelia said importantly. “She’s a very good horse. Not quite as nice as Star, of course.”

  “Well,” Mr. Brandon said, a touch uncertainly, “she certainly looks like something. She’s very big.”

  “You can pat her, Dad, she likes that,” Amelia told him.

  “Um-hm,” he said, but he didn’t move to touch the horse. Delilah turned her head to sniff him, and he jumped. Lisa grinned. Her uncle William didn’t seem too comfortable around horses. She wondered if he’d ever seen Amelia ride before.

  “Is she a Thoroughbred?” Lisa’s aunt inquired.

  “Yes,” Carole said firmly. “She’s thoroughly well bred.” Lisa, Stevie, and the Pony Tails all giggled, and even Amelia looked amused. Delilah was not a Thoroughbred or any type of purebred, but Lisa liked Carole’s way of answering the question.

  “Climb down from that horse and show us around,” Mr. Brandon offered. “I hear you had a pretty nice week.”

  Amelia looked at Carole. “First I have something really neat to show you,” she said. “Right, Carole?”

  “Right,” Carole said. She dismounted crisply while Lisa and Stevie grinned. “Just let me run Starlight inside.”

  “Carole’s been teaching me all week,” Amelia explained. “She and Max and Red taught the camp.”

  “That’s nice,” Mrs. Brandon said. “It won’t take too long, will it? We’re eager to get you back to your aunt’s house so you can tell us everything about your week.”

  Lisa sighed. Everything that was important to Amelia’s week had happened right here.

  “Aren’t you guys going to take your ponies in?” Stevie asked Jasmine.

  “No way,” Jasmine said. “We’re watching this.”

  Lisa and Stevie looked at each other and grinned again.

  “Is it some sort of secret?” Mr. Brandon asked.

  Amelia overheard and turned to him with a smile. “This is a big, big secret,” she said. “You’re going to be very impressed.”

  Carole walked out of the stable and over to the fenced riding ring. She opened the gate, and Amelia rode Delilah inside. While Amelia trotted Delilah around the edge of the ring, Carole carefully set up a row of four tiny gymnastic fences, one right after the other.

  “Okay,” Carole said to Amelia. The younger girl steadied Delilah’s trot, then carefully guided her toward the row of cross rails. Just before the first fence, she rose slightly in the saddle and grabbed a handful of Delilah’s mane. Delilah jumped the fences tidily, one after another. Amelia stayed rock steady in the saddle.

  “Yay!” Stevie and Lisa and the Pony Tails cheered.

  “She’s really getting good,” Stevie said.

  “She’s been working very hard,” Lisa replied. “Of course, talent runs in the family!”

  Amelia trotted to the end of the ring, turned Delilah, and trotted quickly back to her parents, a rapturous smile on her face. “What do you think?” she asked. “Weren’t we good? Wasn’t Delilah amazing?”

  “Very nice,” Mrs. Brandon said with a big smile. “That was awfully nice, dear. You looked just like one of the pictures in Town & Country magazine.”

  Lisa and Stevie looked at each other. Amelia’s parents didn’t understand what an accomplishment it was for her to be jumping already. They didn’t look impressed at all. “Well,” Lisa whispered, “my aunt is like my mother, so you can’t really expect her to be horse-crazy.”

  “No,” Stevie said, “but your mother’s all right.”

  “So is my aunt, mostly,” Lisa said. She watched Amelia dismount, loosen Delilah’s girth, and run the stirrups up before hugging her parents. “But I think there are a lot of things about Amelia that she doesn’t understand.”

  Stevie nodded. “Poor Amelia.”

  “I never thought I’d say this,” Lisa said, “but I agree.”

  “I CAN’T BELIEVE it’s raining,” Carole said. She stared out the window of TD’s. The sky was overcast, and sheets of rain fell steadily from the dark gray clouds. It was a miserable day.

  “At least we’re inside, where it’s warm,” Lisa said.

  “At least we’re eating hot fudge sundaes,” Stevie added. “It was nice of your mom to bring us here, Lisa, and it was even nicer of her to treat us. That’s twice this week.”

  “We earned it,” Lisa said, in a voice of satisfaction. “My mom even said so. She said she was grateful that I’d taken up my vacation time with Amelia. Until she said that, I wasn’t even sure she realized I was doing it.” Lisa checked her watch. “Amelia should be almost back to New Jersey by now.”

  “Phew,” Stevie said. “I mean, the week turned out okay, but I’m still glad it’s over.”

  “You can say that again,” Lisa agreed.

  “Three times over,” said Carole.

  “Phew,” Stevie said. “I mean, the week—”

  “I was just kidding,” Carole interrupted quickly. Stevie grinned, and Carole flipped a tiny blob of hot fudge off her spoon toward Stevie.

  “No throwing food,” their usual waitress barked as she passed their table. Carole hid her spoon under the table. Stevie made a face, and the waitress laughed and walked away.

  “I wonder what she thinks is so funny,” Stevie said grumpily. Carole and Lisa laughed.

  “She’s probably relieved to see you eating something normal for once,” Carole joked.

  Stevie looked disgusted. “I can’t believe you made me order a regular hot fudge sundae. My reputation will be ruined!”

  Lisa shrugged airily. “My mother specifically said that she’d buy us all hot fudge sundaes. Besides, Stevie, eating normal food once in a while won’t kill you. Have pity on Carole and me.”

  “Okay,” Stevie said. “Since you had your cousin all week, and Carole had to nurse Starlight, I guess I can eat a plain sundae. It seems like an
equivalent sacrifice.”

  Carole rolled her eyes. “Lisa, aren’t we lucky to have such a good friend?”

  Lisa set her spoon down. “Yes,” she said seriously. “I’m lucky to have both of you. I don’t know what I would have done without you this week. Amelia would have driven me right up a tree.”

  “I’m lucky, too,” Carole said softly. “You’re right. Thank you.”

  “Me too,” Stevie added. “I don’t get next week’s allowance until Wednesday, and I’m flat broke, so if it weren’t for you, Lisa, I wouldn’t be eating any kind of ice cream at all.” She said it in her most sincere voice, and Lisa threw a wadded-up napkin at her. Stevie ducked. The napkin hit the waitress, who calmly picked it up, put it back on the table, smiled at them all, and walked away.

  “This goofy mood of hers is giving me the creeps,” Stevie said. Carole snorted.

  “Did you notice how much better Amelia got once she realized she was going to have to do as she was told?” Lisa asked. “I mean, she didn’t turn into an angel or anything, but she was a lot better. I could at least stand to be around her.”

  “Well, sure,” Carole said. “Raising kids is probably a lot like training horses. You can’t let horses get away with doing whatever they want, either.”

  “Trust Carole to compare Amelia to a horse,” Stevie said to Lisa.

  “I’m serious,” Carole said with a grin. “Think about it. She never really got punished, she just wasn’t allowed to get away with things, and she came around just like a horse. I’d say we got her green-broke this week. And even if she did start out monstrously, she didn’t do anyone any permanent harm.”

  Stevie snorted. “Except the hobbyhorse.”

  Carole’s face fell. “Oh. That’s right.”

  “Actually,” Lisa said, “my parents took the hobbyhorse to be restored. They said the work will take a while, but in the end the hobbyhorse should look almost as good as new.”

  “Almost,” Stevie said glumly.