Horse Magic

by Bonnie Bryant

  “Well, Phil is awfully good at that part, that’s for sure,” Carole said admiringly. “He almost had me convinced with that invisible knife business.”

  Just then Phil finished another trick. After the applause died down, he clapped his hands. “And now, my talented assistant, Dinah the Dynamic, will bring me a riding crop for my next trick.”

  Dinah winked at her friends and hurried out, holding the crop. The kids shrieked with laughter as she pretended the crop was stuck to her hand. Phil did a very convincing job of pretending to yank on it with all his might, while Dinah herself frantically tried to shake it loose.

  Suddenly Stevie remembered something. She had hung her Betsy Ross flag on the fence of the outdoor ring during dinner and never picked it up afterward. Stevie had solemnly sworn to her mother that she would take good care of it. If it rained again and the flag got soaked, Mrs. Lake might never forgive her. Stevie sighed. She hated to miss even a few minutes of the magic show, but she knew she would hate being grounded for life much more. “I’ll be right back,” she whispered to Carole.

  Carole just nodded, her eyes glued to Phil, who was now pretending to put a spell on the riding crop so that it would let go of Dinah.

  Stevie crept out of the indoor ring quietly, not wanting to distract the kids from Phil’s act. She needn’t have worried, though—Phil’s audience was completely engrossed. Stevie was glad to see that the kids were having fun. All kids deserved to have fun, no matter how poor they were or where they lived. And to have fun with horses around—that was even better, in Stevie’s opinion.

  Outside, Stevie quickly spotted her flag still hanging on the fence where she’d left it. She grabbed it and hurried back inside, shivering a little. The sun had gone down and the air was damp and chilly.

  As she was heading back toward the indoor ring, Stevie heard a familiar whinny. She turned down the aisle and went to Belle’s stall. The mare was looking out over the half door.

  “Hi, girl,” Stevie whispered, giving her a pat. Then she gasped. Someone had braided the horse’s mane! The neat rows of dark hair were plaited with black and orange ribbons. The ends fluttered gaily in the air.

  Stevie fingered the tight braids. Then she slipped inside the stall to get a look at the mare’s tail. Sure enough, it was also braided with black and orange ribbons, looking neat and trim enough to step out in a show—a Halloween show.

  “But who?” Stevie muttered. Who could have done this? She was already convinced that Phil wasn’t the poltergeist, and this proved it once again. He and Dinah had been busy setting up in the indoor ring the last time Stevie had seen Belle. And although for one crazy moment Stevie suspected Carole simply because the braider had done such a professional job, she knew that Carole couldn’t have done it either. For one thing, Carole hadn’t been out of Stevie’s sight for more than five minutes at a time for the last couple of hours, and this braiding job had certainly taken a lot more than five minutes. For another thing, Stevie was sure that Carole wasn’t the poltergeist. It wasn’t like her. And besides, she hadn’t even been around when some of the pranks had happened—the first appearance of the poltergeist book, for instance.

  Stevie sighed and gave Belle a farewell pat. “Well, if a poltergeist did this, he sure knows what he’s doing,” she told the horse. “He could get a job with any stable in the country.”

  She turned and walked back to the indoor ring, arriving just in time for Phil’s grand finale. She watched as he made a series of objects disappear inside a big red horse blanket, then made them reappear again throughout the audience. It was an impressive trick, but Stevie wasn’t really concentrating on it. She was too busy thinking about an even more mysterious trick—Belle’s braided mane and tail. She knew it had taken more than sleight of hand to do that. It had taken know-how and, more importantly, time.

  “Okay, everyone,” Max said, stepping forward after Phil had finished. “Let’s have a big hand for the Magnificent Marsteno and his talented assistant, Dinah the Dynamic.”

  The kids cheered loud and long. Stevie could tell they had all loved the show, and she felt proud of Phil.

  “And now,” Max continued, “it’s time for something special. Who wants to go trick-or-treating?”

  Every hand in the place went up, including Stevie’s, Carole’s, Lisa’s, Dinah’s, and Phil’s.

  “Come on,” Carole said to her friends. “Let’s go get saddled up.” Since Mr. Toll’s hay wagon wasn’t large enough for everyone, most of the Pine Hollow students were going to ride alongside it on their horses. They hurried away to get ready.

  A few minutes later, everyone gathered outside the stable entrance. Carole glanced at Belle’s mane and tail, which were still braided with the bright Halloween ribbons.

  “Nice look for Belle, Stevie,” she commented. “When did you do it?”

  Stevie bit her lip. “Oh, yeah—um—thanks,” she said, avoiding the question. She didn’t want to go into details about the poltergeist’s latest trick right now—not until she’d figured out who had done it.

  “Is Mr. Toll here yet?” Lisa asked Max.

  “He should be arriving any minute,” Max replied, glancing at his watch.

  As if on cue, a jingling sound came from the road. A moment later the wagon rolled into sight. Mr. Toll was sitting in front, holding the long reins with which he drove his team—a perfectly matched pair of sturdy black workhorses. The horses trotted up the drive and stopped in front of the waiting crowd. Mr. Toll climbed down from his perch and went to greet Max.

  Meanwhile, Stevie grabbed Dinah by the arm and pulled her forward. “What a lucky break!” she exclaimed.

  “What?” Dinah asked, looking confused.

  Carole and Lisa were confused, too. They exchanged a glance and followed Stevie and Dinah toward the wagon. Phil was right behind them.

  “This is her!” Stevie walked up to one of the black workhorses and laid a hand on its huge neck. “It’s Black Magic! Isn’t she wonderful?”

  Carole and Lisa gasped. So this was what Stevie had planned to humiliate Dinah!

  But Dinah didn’t miss a beat. She rushed forward. “Oh, yes!” she squealed, reaching up to pat the gigantic mare on her nose. “She’s everything you said she was, Stevie! No, she’s even more wonderful than you said she was. Why, I think she’s the most beautiful horse I’ve ever seen in my life!”

  Stevie looked confused for a second, then started to look annoyed. She was beginning to have the funniest feeling that she was the one who had been had, not Dinah—especially since the rest of her friends were giggling wildly. “But—but—” she sputtered. “You mean you knew?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Stevie,” Dinah said innocently, flinging an arm around Black Magic’s neck. The horse was so big that she had to stand on tiptoes to do it. “You’ve been telling me all week long about this incredible horse, and now here she is.”

  Carole grinned. “She’s got you there, Stevie,” she said. “You can’t tell me that this big girl isn’t pretty incredible.”

  Stevie pouted for a second, then smiled. “I guess you’re right,” she admitted, giving Black Magic another pat. Then she joined in the laughter. Even though the joke had been on her, it had been pretty funny, and Stevie could certainly appreciate that.

  “Come on, everyone,” Max called to them. “It’s time to go.”

  The Saddle Club and their friends hurried to mount their horses, which were waiting patiently near the ring, while the visiting kids clambered into the soft, scratchy piles of hay in the back of Mr. Toll’s wagon.

  “Ready when you are, Mr. Toll,” Max called.

  The old farmer nodded and took his position in the driver’s seat. “We’re off, then,” he said gruffly. With a flick of the reins, he clucked to his team, and the two big horses stepped off into the cool evening.

  “Look at the mist,” Lisa commented to Carole as they rode after the wagon at a walk.

  Carole looked around at the wispy
gray mist that floated just above the ground all around them, a reminder of the damp, rainy weather they’d been having. “It’s pretty spooky-looking, isn’t it?” she commented.

  Stevie overheard. “Perfect trick-or-treating weather!” she declared happily.

  THE FOLLOWING DAY passed quickly. First Dinah left for the airport, after promising Stevie, Carole, and Lisa that she would return soon for another visit. She also invited all of them to visit her in Vermont anytime.

  Then it was time to return to Pine Hollow. After the trick-or-treating hayride the evening before, the exhausted but happy city kids had climbed back onto their bus, clutching bags of candy and other goodies and mumbling sleepy good-byes to their hosts. Max had sent the older kids home soon afterward, after extracting promises from them all that they would return the next day to help clean up.

  He had meant it, too. As soon as The Saddle Club arrived, he put them to work. The three girls barely had a chance to exchange a word for the next several hours, let alone discuss the events of the day before.

  So when the work was finally finished and Stevie announced, “Saddle Club meeting—TD’s,” her friends eagerly agreed. Fifteen minutes later the girls were seated in their favorite booth at Tastee Delight, the local ice cream parlor.

  While they waited for the waitress to come and take their order, Stevie pulled the poltergeist book out of her pocket and began to flip through it idly. “You know, I still can’t figure out this whole poltergeist thing,” she admitted. “I was so sure it was Phil at first. He could have done some of the tricks, like the cats in the tack room and the currycombs in my locker. But then I realized that there were lots of others he couldn’t possibly have done. He wasn’t around when the saddle soap disappeared, or when this poltergeist book first turned up on the chair. And then there was the falling hard hats—he wasn’t there that day, either. And, of course, that disgusting grain burger.”

  Stevie paused when she saw the waitress approaching.

  “What will you have, girls?” the waitress asked, pulling out her pad and giving Stevie a resigned look. Stevie was famous for the strange and often disgusting combinations of ice cream she ordered.

  Stevie didn’t disappoint the waitress this time. “I’ll have a Stevie Lake Halloween special,” she announced.

  The waitress just raised an eyebrow and waited.

  “That’s orange sherbet and black licorice ice cream,” Stevie continued. “With some ghostly white marshmallow topping. And, of course, a cherry on top.”

  The waitress wrote it all down, trying not to grimace. Then she quickly took Carole’s and Lisa’s orders and hurried away without another word.

  Stevie immediately returned to her previous topic. “So if it wasn’t Phil, who was it?” she said. “I couldn’t figure it out. For a while I thought it might have been Dinah—after all, she had the motive, and she could have done some of the pranks. She could have planted the book and the chair when she said she was going to the bathroom. And she could have done the currycomb thing just as easily as Phil.” Stevie shrugged. “But then I remembered that she hadn’t even arrived yet when the saddle soap disappeared. And she couldn’t have rounded up all those cats—she wasn’t out of my sight at all before that happened. Besides, she and Phil were both busy with the magic show during the last couple of pranks.”

  “So who do you think it was?” Carole asked.

  “Yeah, who?” Lisa added.

  Stevie was gazing into space thoughtfully, so she didn’t notice the unusually mischievous twinkle in her friends’ eyes. “I just don’t know,” she muttered. “It really bugs me. I can’t think of one person who could have pulled off all those crazy pranks.”

  “Maybe it wasn’t one person,” Lisa suggested meaningfully.

  Stevie sighed. “Don’t start with that poltergeist stuff,” she said. “Even if I can’t figure out who did it, I still am not going to believe it was some troublemaking ghost.”

  “I don’t think that’s what Lisa meant, Stevie,” Carole said with a giggle. “She didn’t mean it wasn’t one person. She meant it wasn’t one person.”

  By this time Lisa was giggling too. Stevie stared blankly from one to the other of her friends for a moment. Then a look of realization dawned on her face. “You mean, you two were in on it together?” she exclaimed.

  “Not just us,” Lisa said. “Us—and Phil and Dinah.”

  Stevie smacked herself on the forehead. “I can’t believe it!” she exclaimed. “You all ganged up on me?”

  “Well, not at first,” Carole said. “At first it was just Phil. But when he realized you were on to him, he enlisted Dinah’s help. He figured you would never suspect that the two of them were working together since they’d just met.”

  “He was right,” Stevie admitted. “I never would have thought they were working on anything together except the magic show.”

  “Of course not,” Carole said, giving Lisa a meaningful glance. “Nobody would.”

  Lisa blushed. She knew Carole was thinking of Lisa’s suspicions about Phil and Dinah.

  Luckily Stevie didn’t notice a thing. She was busy thinking back over all the pranks that had occurred during the past week and figuring out who had been responsible for each one.

  “So I guess Phil must have been behind the black cat trick,” she said.

  Carole nodded. “He got to Pine Hollow earlier than you thought he did and rounded up all the cats. Then he came into the locker room, pretending he had just arrived, and came up with an excuse to send you to the tack room.”

  “That rat!” Stevie exclaimed. “What about the book? I suppose that had to have been Dinah. She must have bought it at the mall when I was waiting in line at the pizza place. Then she planted it while I thought she was in the bathroom.”

  “Lucky for her the mall was so crowded,” Lisa commented. “Otherwise she might have had more trouble with that one.”

  “Then I guess they just took turns stealing the book back and then leaving it in strange places, like Belle’s stall,” Stevie said, thinking back. “And Dinah must have knocked down those hats. And either she or Phil must have stuffed my locker with those currycombs.”

  “Phil,” Carole confirmed, “with Dinah standing guard at the door to distract anyone who happened by. Phil was also the one who hung the bridles upside down, by the way.” She grinned. “See, the hardest part of each trick is the acting. You have to make your audience believe the impossible things they’re seeing are really happening.”

  “Very funny,” Stevie said dryly, remembering that Dinah had said the same thing during Phil’s magic act. It was true, though. Her friends had done such a good acting job that Stevie hadn’t suspected a thing. “What about the rest of the pranks?”

  “Well, Phil left Mrs. Reg’s phone in Belle’s feed box,” Lisa said. “I kind of ruined that one. I wasn’t in on the joke yet, so when I found the phone I just returned it and forgot to even mention it to you.”

  “And the grain burger?” Stevie asked, making a face as she remembered the taste.

  Lisa giggled. “That’s where Carole and I came in,” she said. “When Dinah and I were riding back to Pine Hollow after the treasure hunt, she told me she and Phil had been behind all the pranks. So I told Carole, we made up a fake burger while Phil kept you out of the way for a few minutes, and the rest is history.”

  “Well, almost,” Stevie said, giving Lisa a sidelong glance. “I’m still waiting to hear what happened out there during that rainstorm. All I know is that you and Dinah were practically at each other’s throats all week, and then presto—you’re best friends.”

  “Well, it wasn’t quite that simple,” Lisa said. Taking a deep breath, she told Stevie and Carole the whole story. “So once Dinah and I started over, we got along fine,” she finished.

  “It’s almost like Prancer ran away on purpose,” Carole said. “You know, to get you two to be friends.”

  Stevie rolled her eyes. “Come on, Carole.”

 
“Well, okay, maybe not,” Carole admitted. “But you have to admit, horses did bring Lisa and Dinah together. I always suspected that horses could solve almost any problem, and in this case it was true. And never mind about poltergeists and all that other mysterious stuff. What I’m talking about is horse magic. That’s the best kind of magic there is.”

  Lisa couldn’t help agreeing with that. “Although I think ‘horse magic’ is just another name for ‘friendship,’ ” she pointed out. “Or should that be the other way around?”

  “Well, whatever it is, I’m glad we’ve got it,” Stevie said. “After all, it was horse magic that brought The Saddle Club together.”

  “True,” Lisa said. “And that’s another thing I wanted to tell you guys. After making up with Dinah and hearing her point of view about things, I realized more than ever how great The Saddle Club really is.” She paused and smiled at Stevie. “Although I have to admit that I’m glad there’s only one major practical joker in the group!”

  Stevie grinned back. “Well, I don’t know about that,” she said. “You guys seem to be catching up.” She paused and glanced down at the poltergeist book. “There’s still a couple of tricks I can’t figure out,” she admitted.

  “Which ones?” asked Carole.

  “The disappearing soap, and the braided mane and tail,” Stevie said. “Especially the braided mane and tail. When I stopped by Belle’s stall during the magic show, someone had braided her mane and tail with those ribbons you saw. But all four of you guys were present and accounted for during the time it had to have been done. So who did it?”

  Lisa grinned. “Hmmm … must have been that darn poltergeist,” she said, shaking her head. “Pesky thing.”

  Carole nodded. “You know how they are,” she added.

  “Very funny,” Stevie said, crossing her arms.

  “Okay, okay,” Carole said. “We confess. It wasn’t the poltergeist. It was Mrs. Reg.”