Moonlight Mile

by Catherine Hapka

  “Nope,” Nina whispered back. “I guess once a pony swims the Assateague Channel, it takes a lot to scare him!”

  Jordan giggled, and Nina gave Breezy another pat. She was proud of her pony. With the show only a week away, the riders were all a little nervous—and their horses had obviously picked up on that. Marie’s mare had overjumped the crossrail even before the decorations went up, while one of the other horses had refused to canter the first three times his rider tried.

  But Breezy had been his usual calm, consistent self. I’m a lucky girl, Nina thought as she watched Marie’s mare veer back and forth several times before finally launching herself over the jump with about two feet to spare. My Breezy Boy is practically perfect!

  The rest of the lesson went just as well for the pair. By the time Miss Adaline called for the girls to dismount, Nina was smiling from ear to ear.

  “You were awesome, Breeze-man!” she murmured into his ear as she ran up her stirrups. “That show next week is going to be a blast!”

  She shivered as she thought about it, though she wasn’t really nervous. Nina didn’t usually get stage fright, since she’d been performing in dance recitals almost from the time she learned to walk. Performing in a horse show couldn’t be that different, right? If anything it would be easier, since she’d have such an amazing partner doing most of the work.

  Besides, she didn’t really care whether they won any ribbons at the show. That wasn’t what it was about for her. All she cared about was letting everyone see what a spectacular pony she had!

  Normally, English was one of Nina’s favorite classes of the day. For one thing, the teacher liked to do lots of dramatic class readings of the books they were studying, and Nina loved acting out different roles and pretending to be all kinds of other people. Besides that, the class took place in the dormer room of the old Greek Revival mansion that had been transformed into Nina’s small private school. It was fun to sit there and imagine all the interesting sights that had passed in front of these windows over the many years since the house was built.

  On this particular Tuesday afternoon, though, she wasn’t thinking about any of that. As the teacher gave the homework assignment, Nina sneaked a peek at her watch, wondering if the school day would ever end.

  Finally the final bell rang. Nina leaped to her feet, shoving her books into her battered canvas tote as she hurried toward the door. She headed straight for her locker, where she found her friend Trinity waiting for her.

  “Ready to shop?” Trinity asked eagerly. She was a tall, lanky girl with auburn hair and freckles that dotted her face and body as thickly as stars in the Milky Way. Trinity hated those freckles and was always plotting ways to rid herself of them, but Nina thought they made her friend beautiful and unique.

  “I’m ready,” Nina said. “Jordan’s meeting us at the corner of Magazine and Harmony.”

  The two girls joined the stream of students pouring toward the exit. Soon they emerged into the sticky afternoon sunshine.

  “Streetcar or cab?” Trinity asked.

  Nina consulted the clock on the bank across the street. “Streetcar,” she said. “We have time. And I want to save my money for costume stuff.”

  “And coffee, right?” Trinity said. “I’m not trekking all the way over to your part of town without hitting Jojo’s.”

  Nina laughed as she headed for the streetcar stop. “For sure.”

  As soon as the two girls settled onto the streetcar’s wooden bench seat, Trinity turned to face Nina. “So are you ever going to tell me what your costume is?” she asked, raising her voice above the clunk and clatter as the streetcar rattled down the tracks. “Otherwise even a super-­talented shopper like me is going to have trouble helping.”

  “Soon,” Nina promised. “Jordan’s been waiting since Friday to hear; she’ll never forgive me if I tell you first!”

  Trinity didn’t stop trying all through the slow ride along St. Charles Avenue, just as Nina had expected. That was exactly why she hadn’t told her about this shopping expedition until that day at lunch—Trinity was probably the least patient person Nina knew, and an expert wheedler and whiner. But she was also an expert shopper, and Nina knew she’d help her and Jordan find exactly what they needed for their costumes.

  They got off the streetcar at Eighth Street and hurried down toward Magazine, cutting across to Harmony halfway there. Nina moved fast, partly because Jordan was always early and partly so Trinity would be too busy trying to keep up to bug her about the costume. When she emerged onto Magazine, Nina spotted Jordan right away. She was leaning against a brick wall watching a couple of kids argue over some candy.

  Jordan spotted Nina, too. “You finally made it!” she exclaimed, hurrying toward them.

  “Chill, we’re early.” Trinity collapsed against the wall, digging into her bag for her lip gloss. “Anyway, just so you know, Nina told me all about her fabulous costume idea on the way here.”

  “Stop, I did not!” Nina gave Trinity a playful punch on the arm. “You know I wouldn’t do that to you, J.”

  “At this point, I don’t even care,” Jordan said. “Just tell me already!”

  “Yeah, spill, Peralt,” Trinity added.

  Nina grinned. “Okay. So you know my family’s lived in New Orleans forever, right? Well, way back in the Civil War days, we had this ancestor . . .”

  She went on from there, telling the two girls about Serena. As she talked, Jordan’s eyes went wide.

  “Oh my gosh,” she said when Nina finished. “I’m so not sure this is a good idea.”

  “What are you talking about? It’s genius!” Trinity grinned. “So we’re basically looking for, like, some ghostly Civil War–type rags or something, right?”

  “Pretty much.” Nina glanced at the vintage shop across the way, the reason for their meeting spot. “Although I can do the rag part myself—if we can find something that can pass for the right era, I’ll make sure it looks ghostly and tattered, as if the wearer has been wandering the wild wasteland between the worlds for years and years.” She wiggled her fingers spookily at her friends.

  Jordan shuddered. “Stop!” she said. “Are you sure you want to do this? You just said Serena likes to punish people in your family when they get too happy. Don’t you think she’d also punish someone who uses her life story to try to win a costume class?”

  Nina laughed. “You sound like my grandma,” she said. “Come on, let’s shop. This place might have some stuff for your costume too.”

  Jordan still looked uneasy. But she followed Nina and Trinity across the street and into the shop.

  “Nina!” The shop owner looked up from folding a stack of antique handkerchiefs. She was a small woman in her fifties with close-cropped graying hair and cat’s-eye glasses hanging on a chain around her neck. Nina had known her all her life, since she’d been friends with Nina’s mother even longer than that.

  “Hey, Miss Marie,” Nina greeted her. “Happy Tuesday.”

  “Same to you, darling.” Marie’s round face and enormous smile made her look like the Cheshire cat. “Remind me, Nina, when’s Eva’s show again? I want to make sure I’m there to cheer her on.”

  “Starts weekend after next,” Nina said. “I know she’ll be happy to see you there.”

  Marie jotted a note on the calendar beside the old-­fashioned cash register, then perched her glasses on her nose and peered at all three girls. “Looking for something special today, ladies?” she asked.

  “Just browsing,” Jordan said.

  Nina nodded. “We’re looking for costumes, but we’re not quite sure what we’re looking for,” she explained.

  The shop owner pursed her lips. “I understand. Half the fun is in the search, hmm? Just let me know if I can help.”

  She went back to her work as Nina and her friends headed deeper into the shop. “Okay, let’s spread out,”
Trinity said briskly. “We have a lot of stores to cover today.”

  Marie’s shop was crammed with treasures. It was tempting to stop and examine everything that looked interesting, but Nina tried to stay focused. There wasn’t much time to pull two costumes together, and she wanted them to be perfect. So she barely paused over a gorgeous tie-dyed tank top, and only held up a cool old sundress in front of her instead of trying it on.

  Still, she didn’t find anything that seemed right for her Serena outfit, or for Jordan’s Mardi Gras costume either. Finally she pushed past a rack of plus-size dresses to get to the back corner of the store. That was where Marie usually kept what she called “oddities”—pieces that didn’t really fit anywhere else. Nina wasn’t sure what she might find there that would work for either her costume or Jordan’s, but she could never resist taking a peek at that rack. It was where some of her favorite finds had come from, including her fringed poncho and a cool embroidered vintage apron she’d turned into a lampshade.

  This time there wasn’t much on the oddities rack—just a couple of bathrobes, a fake fur coat, and a few other things. Nina was about to turn away when she noticed beige fabric peeking out from behind the fur.

  “Wait, what’s this?” she murmured under her breath, pushing aside the coat.

  She gasped when she saw what was there: a pair of old riding breeches. Trinity heard her and peered over a rack of shirts.

  “What’d you find?” she asked. “Something good?”

  “Something spectacular.” Nina pushed her way out into the main part of the store, clutching the hanger. “Check it out!”

  She held up the breeches. Trinity grabbed them for a closer look. “Wow, these look pretty old.”

  By then Jordan had heard them and wandered over. “Are those riding pants?” She wrinkled her nose. “They smell kind of musty.”

  “I can take care of that.” Nina grabbed the breeches back from Trinity. “I’m going to try them on.”

  “You mean for your costume? Would Serena have worn that?” Jordan trailed after her toward the tiny dressing room in the opposite corner of the store.

  “Not for the costume.” Nina pushed aside the paisley curtain and stepped into the dressing room. A precarious stack of shoe boxes stood in one corner, making it even smaller than usual. “For the regular part of the show,” she called out through the curtain as she peeled off her pants.

  “You’re going to wear those in the show?” Jordan sounded faintly horrified. “But—”

  “Perfect!” Nina sang out as she pulled on the breeches. “Well, close enough to perfect, anyway.”

  She stepped out to show her friends. Trinity glanced up from digging through a pile of jeans and nodded. “Very cool,” she declared. “Very retro. I like.”

  Jordan looked less convinced. “Are you sure you want to wear those in the show?” she said. “It’ll make you look, you know, different.”

  “Exactly.” Nina smiled at her friend, knowing that Jordan always struggled to understand Nina’s love of being different, unique, interesting. “I was thinking my show outfit seemed kind of boring. I mean, navy jacket, white shirt, black boots—where’s the fun, right? These will give it the perfect touch!”

  “If you say so.” Jordan still looked dubious. But she didn’t say anything else, probably because she’d known Nina long enough to know it was pointless to argue about stuff like that.

  Meanwhile, Trinity was already turning away. “Change back, Neens, and let’s move on,” she tossed over her shoulder. “I fully approve of impulse buys, but we can’t get too distracted. And I don’t see anything that’ll work for either of your costumes in here.”

  Trinity kept them moving nonstop for the next hour plus, hitting every suitable shop within a ten-block radius. They found harlequin-print pants and a purple blazer for Jordan’s costume, and a floaty gray tunic top for Nina’s. Finally, as they left yet another resale shop with bags in hand, Jordan gestured to the coffee shop across the street.

  “I’m dying of thirst,” she said. “Let’s take a break.”

  “Exactly what I was about to say,” Trinity agreed, leading the way.

  Nina wasn’t going to argue. Jojo’s Brew was one of her favorite hangouts. She and Jordan had spent countless hours there doing homework, gobbling down delicious, freshly made beignets, or just gossiping over steaming cups of coffee or frosty iced tea.

  When they walked in, the place was packed and echoing with talk, laughter, and clinking spoons. Even in the crowd, Nina spotted Brett immediately. He was perched on a stool at the narrow counter by the front window, flanked by several friends Nina vaguely recognized from the neighborhood.

  “Oh, good,” Jordan said as she spotted her brother. “He owes me money—now I won’t have to borrow from you guys to pay for my drink. Hey, Brett!”

  Brett glanced over his shoulder. When he saw them, he leaped up and hurried over, leaving his friends behind.

  “Hey,” he said, shoving both hands in his jeans pockets. “What’s up?”

  Nina returned his smile, feeling self-conscious. “Hey,” she said. “You know Trin, right?”

  “What’s up?” Brett glanced at Trinity and nodded. “So you guys had a caffeine craving too, huh?”

  “You owe me five bucks.” Jordan held out her hand. “Pay up, okay?”

  Brett dug some crumpled bills out of his back pocket. “Whatever, here,” he said, glancing at the bags the three girls were holding. “Let me guess, you spent the rest of your money on shoes and hair ribbons and stuff.” He grinned, obviously finding his own joke hilarious, though Jordan just rolled her eyes.

  “Don’t you ever listen when I talk?” she complained. “I spent like half of breakfast telling Mom how we were shopping for costume stuff today.”

  “Oh, right, the horse thing.” Brett shrugged and laughed. “I keep waiting for you to give up on that and take up a real sport.”

  Jordan frowned at her brother. “Riding is a real sport,” she retorted. “You’d know that if you had the guts to try it.”

  “Nah, I’m not a fan of prancing around in tight pants and playing with ponies.” Brett grinned at Nina. “Speaking of ponies, I hear you and your runty little spotted thing are doing this show too, huh? Hope he can see over the top of the jumps!”

  Nina wasn’t easily annoyed. Not usually, anyway. For some reason, though, Brett’s words made her feel defensive of Breezy. Typical boy—Brett obviously thought that her pony’s modest height had something to do with his abilities.

  “We’re doing it, all right,” she snapped, ignoring her friends’ surprised looks. “And we’re going to win every class we enter, too!”

  CHAPTER

  4

  “PASS ME SOME MORE OF that shrimp would you, Nina?” Uncle Oscar patted his belly. “Still got a little room left in here, I think.”

  “If not, he’ll make room!” Nina’s cousin DeeDee barked out a laugh and elbowed her longtime boyfriend, Tim, who was sitting beside her, shoveling down his second helping of Gramma Rose’s potato salad.

  Nina grinned and grabbed the dish between her and her grandmother, passing it across the table to her uncle. It was Friday night, and this week the family dinner was at Aunt Toni and Uncle Elijah’s place, a comfortable but rather small shotgun house in Bayou St. John. It was a full house that week, which meant about twenty members of Nina’s father’s family were crowded around two tables in the front room, including Nina’s four aunts and uncles, all six of her first cousins, and various spouses and significant others. Most of the little kids—Nina’s young second cousins, who numbered nine so far, with one more on the way soon from Cousin Jeremy and his wife—were eating in front of the TV in the bedroom, though baby Ella was on Grandpa Jack’s lap while her mother, Nina’s cousin Charlotte, took a break from feeding her.

  Nina was the only person in the house between the a
ges of seven and almost-thirty, but she was used to that. Her father was the youngest—by almost fifteen years—of Grandpa Jack and Gramma Rose’s five children. At forty-one he was the same age as his oldest niece, Nina’s cousin Kim. Nina’s dad had grown up with Kim and Kim’s brother, John, and Nina’s cousin Tommy, who were all within a few years of the same age. From all accounts, they’d spent their childhood running wild throughout the Seventh Ward, where Gramma Rose and Aunt Vi still lived, though the rest of the family had scattered across the city and surrounding areas.

  The weekly family dinners were always fun, no matter where they took place. But that night Nina was a little distracted. She’d been working hard on her costume all week. In her riding lesson that afternoon, Miss Adaline had kept things simple and easy, telling the students she didn’t want to wear out the horses before the big day. Afterward, Nina and Jordan had taken their mounts for a quick graze on the levee, though they’d left earlier than usual to put the finishing touches on their costumes.

  All I still have to do tonight is finish dyeing my gloves, she thought. Then I should get to the barn early to set up the stuff I’ll need to turn Breezy all ghostly. . . .

  “So Nina,” Kim said, breaking into her thoughts. “Your horse show is tomorrow, right?”

  Nina nodded and took a sip of water. “It starts at ten,” she said. “I can’t wait.”

  “We can’t wait to come and cheer you on,” Tommy’s wife, Brandy, told her. “The kids are really looking forward to it.”

  Tommy chuckled. “I’m still not sure it’s a good idea to let them that close to the ponies. I hear riding lessons are expensive.”

  “You’re telling me,” Nina’s father said. Everyone laughed at that.

  Nina’s mother helped herself to more salad. “Did we tell you all that Nina and Breezy are entering a costume class at the show?” she said. “Nina’s been working on her costume all week.”

  “That’s right.” Nina’s father smiled. “And I think some of you already know who she’s dressing up as.”