Horse Magic

by Bonnie Bryant

  “So you still think Phil is responsible for the weird things that have been happening around here?” Lisa asked.

  “Of course,” Stevie replied a little impatiently. “Who else could it be?”

  “I don’t know,” Lisa said. “But it seems like some of these pranks would be hard for Phil to have done. I mean, what about that first thing, the saddle soap that disappeared on Tuesday. He wasn’t even at Pine Hollow that day.”

  “So what’s the explanation?” Stevie asked. “Do you really think a poltergeist is behind everything?”

  “Of course not,” Lisa said. “I’m just saying that most of it could have been coincidence. Maybe Mrs. Reg didn’t put as much soap in that bucket as she thought she did. Maybe those cats chased a mouse into the tack room …”

  “Only the black cats?” Stevie said skeptically. “And then who shut the door—the mouse? No, I don’t think so. Besides, that book turning up in the aisle was definitely no coincidence. Somebody put it there, and I’m sure that somebody was Phil. And I’m going to prove it.” With that, she settled down to work.

  A few minutes later, Lisa peered over Stevie’s shoulder at the list. “How many more names do we have to do?”

  “After the one I’m doing now, about half a dozen,” Stevie replied.

  Lisa stood up and stretched. “Well, we’re running low on safety pins,” she said. “I’d better go see if Mrs. Reg has any.” She wandered out of the locker room and down the hall toward Mrs. Reg’s office. As she got closer, she heard giggles coming from the tack room. She glanced in as she walked past, then froze. Phil and Dinah were inside, their heads close together, talking and laughing. Phil’s magic bag was lying near the door, unopened.

  At that second Phil looked up and met Lisa’s eyes. He stopped talking immediately and jumped to his feet awkwardly. “Oh—um—hi, Lisa,” he stammered. “I didn’t know you were standing there.”

  Dinah stood up too. Her face was beet red. “We were just—um—talking about the show,” she said. “You know, practicing.”

  “Okay,” Lisa said, backing away from the doorway. “Sorry I interrupted.” She hurried into Mrs. Reg’s office. No one was there, but Lisa spotted a small basket full of paper clips and safety pins on the desk. She grabbed a few of the pins, quickly scribbled Mrs. Reg a note telling her what she’d taken, and left. She didn’t look into the tack room as she hurried past.

  * * *

  “… SO THEN PHIL looked really embarrassed and said something about not seeing me standing there,” Lisa told Carole over the phone. Lisa had called as soon as she arrived home from Pine Hollow. She hadn’t said a word to Stevie about what she had seen in the tack room. She hadn’t known what to say. But Lisa figured that if anybody could offer a sound second opinion on the situation, it was Carole.

  “And then what?” Carole asked.

  “Then Dinah said they were practicing, and then I left,” Lisa said.

  Carole sighed. “And that’s all? So what?”

  “So it just seemed really weird,” Lisa said. “It was like I was catching them doing something—I don’t know—wrong.”

  “What are you suggesting, Lisa?” Carole asked, sounding mystified.

  Lisa took a deep breath. She really wasn’t sure herself. “I don’t know,” she said. “I just got the feeling that they wished I hadn’t seen them right then. Like maybe they were doing something they wouldn’t want Stevie to find out about.”

  “Oh, come on, Lisa,” Carole said with a laugh. “I know you don’t like Dinah very much, but if you’re suggesting what I think you’re suggesting—that she and Phil are having some kind of secret romance behind Stevie’s back—you’re just plain crazy. Neither of them would ever do something like that.”

  “How can you be so sure?” Lisa asked, a little stung by Carole’s words.

  “I just am,” Carole replied firmly. “And you can be, too, believe me. Just because you and Dinah don’t get along, that doesn’t make her a bad person.”

  “I know what I saw,” Lisa objected. “And whether I like Dinah or not, I know there was something weird going on.”

  “Just forget about it, Lisa,” Carole said. “They were probably just afraid you’d overheard one of Phil’s precious trade secrets, that’s all. Anything else you thought you saw was your own imagination working overtime. Maybe you’ve been reading too many of those teen magazine articles about cheating boyfriends or something.”

  Lisa bit her lip. When Carole put it that way, her suspicions did seem a little silly. After all, no matter how Lisa felt about Dinah, she knew that Phil was a good person and that he really cared about Stevie. “Maybe you’re right,” she said reluctantly.

  “Of course I am,” Carole said. “Don’t worry. Dinah will only be here for a couple more days. You’ll have to put up with her at my house tomorrow night and at Pine Hollow on Saturday, and then she’ll go back to Vermont and things will get back to normal.”

  “Back to normal,” Lisa repeated slowly. She wished she could believe it.

  ON FRIDAY EVENING Stevie, Dinah, Lisa, and Carole were gathered in the Hansons’ living room for a sleepover. Bright and early the next morning Colonel Hanson was going to drive them all to Pine Hollow to set up for the Halloween event.

  “That was a terrific dinner, Colonel Hanson,” Dinah said, rubbing her stomach as Carole’s father walked into the room, dishtowel in hand. “Thanks for inviting us.”

  “Carole’s friends are always welcome to our food,” he replied. “Including our popcorn. How about it?”

  Stevie groaned dramatically. “I don’t know if I can eat another bite.”

  “Me neither,” Carole said. “Especially since you won’t even let us work it off by helping you with the dishes.”

  “Come on, you want to keep your strength up for tomorrow, don’t you?” Colonel Hanson said. “I know you girls worked hard all week getting ready. Besides, if you’re going to watch all these movies I rented for you, you’ll need popcorn, right? I’ll make a big batch as soon as I finish the dishes.” He hurried out of the room before the girls could reply.

  Stevie picked up the rented videos. “The Blob, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Poltergeist,” she read aloud. “Your dad is really in the Halloween spirit.” She stifled a yawn. “I just hope they’re good and scary. Otherwise I might not make it through all of them.”

  “There’s one thing I don’t understand, though,” Carole said. “Usually at this time of year Dad insists that the old horror movies are the scariest ones. He refuses to watch anything made past 1959. So why would he rent Poltergeist? That’s much more recent than the others.”

  “Did you ask him?” Lisa asked.

  Carole nodded. “He just said it looked like something we would like,” she said. “I guess it’s because I’ve been telling him about the Pine Hollow poltergeist.”

  “Well, then, let’s watch that one first,” Stevie suggested. She got up and rummaged through her backpack as Carole put the videotape into the machine. Finally Stevie found what she was looking for. “That reminds me,” she said, holding up a book. “I found that book I was telling you about, Lisa. It was in my locker today.”

  Dinah furrowed her brow. “In your locker?” she repeated. “How did it get in there? I thought you left it on the bench.”

  “I did,” Stevie said. “I thought you might have moved it.”

  Dinah shook her head. “I didn’t even see it again after we found it yesterday.”

  “Well, maybe Max put it there,” Stevie said uncertainly.

  “Do you think Max was the one who knocked down all those hats today, too?” Lisa asked. Carole and Lisa had arrived at Pine Hollow after school, and the four girls had decided to go on a quick trail ride before finishing their party planning. When they returned, they found that the poltergeist had struck yet again. The hard hats, which were kept on hooks on the wall of the student locker room, had all been knocked to the ground.

  “I guess not,” Stevi
e admitted. “That’s definitely not Max’s style.”

  “And it couldn’t have been Phil this time, either,” Lisa pointed out. “He wasn’t even there today. And the hats were fine when we left on our ride.”

  Stevie sighed. “All right, all right, I’m finally convinced that Phil couldn’t be behind all these pranks,” she said. She flipped through the pages of the poltergeist book. “I just wish I could figure out who is.” She stopped to read something in the book. Her eyes widened. “Hey, listen to this, you guys. ‘In most recorded cases, there has been at least one young person—usually a girl or young woman—living in the building haunted by the poltergeist.’ ”

  “Weird,” Carole said, “That sure seems to fit Pine Hollow. There are lots of young women and girls there, and according to Max, most of us do practically live there.” She yawned. “But I still don’t believe there’s a poltergeist haunting the stable.”

  Stevie shrugged. “I don’t either,” she said. But her friends thought she sounded a little less certain than she had before. This close to Halloween, almost anything seemed possible.

  “Come on, let’s start the movie,” Dinah suggested. She poked Stevie, who was still engrossed in the book. “Put that away. We should turn off the lights so the movie will be scarier.”

  Stevie tossed the book in the general direction of her bag, and the girls settled back to watch the movie. After a while Carole got up. “Give a yell if something scary happens,” she said. “I’m just going to give Dad a hand with the popcorn.”

  When she returned a few minutes later, a warm bowl of salty popcorn in her hands, the first sight she saw on the television screen was a terrifying ghostly specter reaching out to threaten a little blond girl. She watched for a moment, chills running down her spine. Then, when the scene changed, she turned back toward the darkened room. “Hey, you guys,” she complained. “I thought I told you to call me if something scary happened.” She waited for a second, but there wasn’t a sound from the other girls. “Guys?” A soft snore was the only reply. Carole switched on a lamp. All three of her friends were sound asleep.

  * * *

  SATURDAY MORNING DAWNED overcast, damp, and breezy. “Perfect Halloween weather,” Stevie announced as the four girls stepped outside and headed for the Hansons’ station wagon.

  “I hope you’re right,” Lisa said, casting an anxious glance at the gray sky. “It would be a shame if it rained today.”

  “Let’s think positively,” Carole suggested.

  “Good idea,” Dinah agreed. “Besides, it wouldn’t dare rain after all the hard work we’ve done. Stevie’s right—it’s perfect Halloween weather.”

  “Everybody ready?” Colonel Hanson asked, joining them by the car.

  “You look great, Dad!” Carole exclaimed. Her father was wearing his full dress uniform. His brass was gleaming, his shoes were polished to a shine, and every crease was perfect.

  “Thanks, sweetheart,” Colonel Hanson replied. “Now everybody into the car. We’d better hustle. You’ve got a lot to do before the kids arrive.”

  Phil was standing in the driveway when the station wagon reached Pine Hollow. “Finally!” he exclaimed as the girls and Colonel Hanson piled out of the car. “I thought you’d never get here. I’ve been waiting for at least ten minutes.”

  “Well, don’t panic,” Stevie told him. “We’re here now.”

  Colonel Hanson headed for the stable entrance. “I’m going to see what Max needs help with,” he said. “I assume you kids already know what you’re supposed to be doing.”

  “We sure do,” Stevie said as Colonel Hanson disappeared inside. She turned and started to follow him. “Let’s get started.”

  “Wait a minute,” Dinah put in. “Before we do, I have one request. Can I finally get to meet Black Magic now? You said she’d be back today from the farrier’s.”

  “Oh.” Stevie stopped in her tracks. She had been so busy planning the day’s event that she’d all but forgotten about her prank on Dinah. She thought fast. “Actually, Dinah, I forgot to tell you,” she said apologetically. “Max told me yesterday that he was sending her to stay at another stable for the day.”

  “He is?” Dinah wailed. “But why?”

  “He didn’t want her to become overexcited,” Stevie said. “He thought the kids might be too noisy for her. She’s very high-strung.”

  “Really? But I thought you said she had a sweet, friendly temperament,” Dinah said. “You said she never tried to escape because she was so calm and nice.”

  “Oh,” Stevie said. “Yeah, I did. She’s really sweet and nice as long as there’s not too much noise. That’s the one thing she can’t stand.” She shrugged. “You know how horses can be.”

  “Sure,” Dinah replied. “I’m just disappointed, that’s all. After everything you’ve told me, I’m dying to meet her. Do you think I’ll get to see her before I leave tomorrow?”

  “Oh, I’m sure of it,” Stevie said.

  “Come on, then,” Phil said. “We’d better get to work. By the way, Stevie, Max said to tell you that it’s okay to use some of the stirrups from the blue trunk for your treasure hunt.”

  “Great,” Stevie said. “I’m going to go get them.”

  “We’ll come with you,” Carole said, glancing at Lisa. “We should probably look over the ponies’ tack and make sure it’s ready for the riding lessons.”

  “Okay,” Phil said. “While you’re doing that, Dinah and I have some last-minute rehearsing to do. We’ll meet up with you again in a little while.”

  The two groups headed their separate ways. “I can’t believe it,” Carole said as soon as Phil and Dinah were out of earshot.

  “What?” Lisa asked.

  “That Dinah hasn’t caught on to this whole Black Magic business yet,” Carole said. “I mean, Stevie hasn’t exactly been convincing.”

  “Hey, what do you mean by that?” Stevie asked, pretending to be hurt.

  Carole rolled her eyes. “Come on. That shoeing story was ridiculous. And why on earth would Max send one of the horses away just because some kids are coming? They see kids every day.”

  Stevie shrugged. “It is pretty amazing that she doesn’t suspect anything,” she admitted as they turned the corner toward the tack room. “But it does tie in perfectly with my master plan.”

  “Which is what?” Lisa asked.

  But just then Stevie let out a gasp. “Look!” she exclaimed. The girls had just reached the doorway of the tack room. Inside, everything was in its usual disordered state of order—except for one thing. Every bridle in the room was hung upside down on its peg.

  “Who could have done this?” Carole asked in amazement. “This must have taken forever!”

  “Maybe a poltergeist with a lot of time on its hands?” Lisa suggested weakly.

  Stevie shook her head. “This is really getting weird,” she commented. She patted her backpack. “I’m glad I brought that poltergeist book with me today. I’m beginning to think I may need it.” Her friends weren’t sure if she was joking or not. They decided not to ask.

  None of the girls had much time to think about ghosts, real or otherwise, for the next few hours. There was a lot to be done before the city kids arrived at one o’clock. While the other Pony Clubbers were hard at work preparing for the kids’ barbecue dinner and hanging decorations around the stable, Stevie was kept busy gathering a few last-minute props for the treasure hunt. Dinah and Phil had disappeared to one of their secret rehearsal places to make their final preparations. Carole and Lisa had to check over the ponies’ tack, and then the ponies themselves, for the riding lessons. Besides all that, of course, there were still the everyday chores to be done.

  “Oh, there you are,” a harried-looking Red O’Malley said, peering into the tack room, where Carole and Lisa were busy polishing the ponies’ saddles one more time. “Listen, could one of you do me a big favor? All this activity is getting to Prancer a little, and she’s kicking at her stall …”

&nbs
p; “Say no more,” Lisa said. “I’ll go try to calm her down.” It was well known at Pine Hollow that Prancer preferred young riders to adults. Lisa knew that she would have a much better chance of calming the mare than Red would.

  “Thanks, Lisa,” Red said gratefully.

  As Lisa hurried down the aisle toward Prancer’s stall, she could understand why the mare was upset. Even by Pine Hollow’s usual busy standards, the stable was awfully noisy today. Most of the horses were unperturbed—the hustle and bustle was no different from the atmosphere before a horse show or gymkhana. But Prancer was still young, and she hadn’t been at Pine Hollow as long as most of the others. Lisa knew that with time and experience the mare would learn to settle down. She smiled at the thought that Prancer was having the same problem Stevie had claimed the fictional Black Magic was having.

  “I know it’s a little noisy today, girl, but don’t be alarmed,” she murmured softly to the horse, reaching over the half door of her stall. Prancer’s ears swiveled toward her, and Lisa could have sworn the mare was listening carefully—and understanding every word. She knew that Max would scoff at that idea. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t true. “It’s a pretty exciting day for all of us,” she continued. “But it’s good-exciting, not bad-exciting. I guess it’s hard for you to tell that, though; to you, it just seems like a lot of scary extra noise.”

  Beneath the riot of other sounds, Lisa heard a softer one much closer by. She stopped talking to the horse and listened, still automatically rubbing Prancer’s velvety muzzle. Lisa frowned. The noise seemed to be coming from an unoccupied stall just across the aisle, and it sounded like whispering and giggling.

  “I’ll be back in a second, Prancer,” Lisa whispered to the mare. Prancer just blinked calmly in response and stepped over to her feed bin. Lisa’s familiar presence had settled her down already.

  Lisa tiptoed across the aisle, still listening intently. She flattened herself against the door of the stall next to the one the sounds were coming from. The voices were a little louder now.