Lucky Horse

by Bonnie Bryant

  She carried the chicken to the table, and they both sat down to eat.

  “Mmmm,” Colonel Hanson said after he took his first bite. “This is wonderful. I guess that solar oven did okay, huh?”

  “It was great, Dad.” Carole smiled. “It was lots of fun to use.”

  “I think eating outside makes everything taste twice as good.”

  “I think eating after you’ve hiked three miles, two of them uphill, makes everything taste three times as good,” Carole added.

  Her father laughed. “Maybe it’s a combination of both.”

  They were both so hungry they finished all the chicken and potato chips, then half the plate of brownies. By the time they got the dishes cleaned up, the sun was just beginning to drop behind the tops of the tallest trees.

  “Hey, how about heading up to Mount Stringfellow?” Colonel Hanson asked. He checked his watch. “We’ve still got another half hour before sunset.”

  Carole pointed to a cluster of dark purple clouds in the northern sky. “Look at all those clouds. Do you think it might rain?”

  “Well, let’s see.” Colonel Hanson went into the tent and came back out with a small instrument in a red leather case. He faced the setting sun and squinted at the dial. “According to this electronic barometer, we’ve got nothing but high pressure all around us.” He snapped the case shut and grinned at Carole. “Those clouds don’t mean rain. They just mean that we’ll have an even more beautiful sunset to enjoy.”

  “That’s a relief,” said Carole.

  “You grab a couple of flashlights and the map, and I’ll get the telescope. We’ll have to hurry if we want to get to the top of Mount Stringfellow by sunset.”

  “How far is it?” Carole didn’t know if she was up for another hard climb, especially in the dark.

  Her dad pointed to a high mountain that loomed behind her. “Oh, just over there. I think the trail’s about half a mile long, but the rangers keep the path clear.”

  “Okay,” said Carole. “I’m game if you are. Mount Stringfellow, here we come!”

  “HERE COMES DINNER!”

  Stevie’s voice floated up from the bottom of the ladder. A second later Lisa saw the edge of what looked like a tray come poking up through the trapdoor of the hayloft.

  “Do you need some help, Stevie?” she called.

  “Yes. Grab the end of this tray so these sandwiches won’t slide off.”

  Lisa crawled across the soft hay and grasped the end of the long, skinny tray that Stevie was trying to push up the ladder. “Okay,” she called. “I’ve got it. Just let me pull it up from here.”

  “Okay.”

  Stevie let go of the tray and Lisa carefully pulled it through the trapdoor. She put it down against the back wall of the hayloft, far away from where either of them might accidentally step on it. When she had it positioned safely, she looked at it and gasped. Under a thick layer of plastic wrap were about twenty sandwiches, all cut into fancy little triangles. Lisa could see ham and cheese, turkey and cheese, bologna and cheese, and peanut butter and jelly.

  “Thanks!” Stevie’s head poked up through the trapdoor. “That was a real case of four hands being better than two.”

  “Did your mom make all this food for us?” Lisa asked in amazement.

  “Sure.” Stevie climbed the rest of the way up the ladder. “That’s our dinner.” She rattled a shoebox that she had tucked under one arm. “And this is our dessert. Two dozen chocolate coconut surprises.”

  “Stevie, this is enough food to feed ten people.”

  “Think so?” Stevie looked surprised. “I asked Mom to make extra. I figured we’d eat now, but we might get hungry again around midnight. Then we might need an early-morning snack at four A.M., then some emergency might happen that we’d need some extra nourishment for, and then we might want to eat some for breakfast in the morning.” She plopped down beside the sandwich tray. “If you multiply two people times five possible feedings, then I suppose it is like feeding ten people at once.”

  Lisa tried to figure out Stevie’s logic, but as usual, it eluded her. All she knew was that Stevie had brought more sandwiches up there than they could possibly eat.

  “Shall we have dinner now?” Stevie asked.

  Lisa nodded. “Actually, I’m pretty hungry.”

  “Me too.” Stevie began to unwrap the sandwiches, then stopped. “Oh, rats!” she exclaimed. “I forgot to bring anything to drink.”

  “I’ll go down to the refrigerator and get a couple of sodas,” Lisa said.

  “Great,” said Stevie. “I’ll fix our plates.”

  Lisa climbed down the ladder and hurried to the office, where she got two cold cans of soda and scribbled an IOU on the memo pad attached to the refrigerator door. By the time she got back to the hayloft, Stevie had their plates arranged—each with a sandwich, chips, and two chocolate coconut surprises.

  “Here.” Stevie held out one plate to Lisa. “I gave you a turkey and cheese and bologna and cheese.”

  “Thanks.” Lisa smiled. “Everything looks great.”

  They relaxed in the hay and began to eat. Below them they could hear Belle munching on her hay, and next to her Starlight was noisily slurping water.

  “Sounds like this is dinnertime for everybody at Pine Hollow, doesn’t it?” giggled Stevie, reaching for her second sandwich.

  “I feel just like one of the horses,” said Lisa with a laugh. “Eating in the hay and sleeping in the hayloft.” She took a sip of soda, then reached in her backpack for her pencil and paper. “I’m going to make a list of all the chores we need to do tomorrow. I’d hate to get so involved in one thing that we forget to do something else. We don’t want to disappoint Max.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Stevie said as she retrieved another sandwich. “And don’t forget, we promised Carole we’d take extra-special care of Starlight.”

  Lisa looked at Stevie and frowned. “Maybe we ought to tackle some of these chores tonight. That way we’ll have less to do tomorrow. Maybe we could even go for a ride in the afternoon.”

  “Oh, they’ll wait,” Stevie said, her mouth full. “We don’t absolutely have to do anything right this second.” She crunched a potato chip and thought a minute. “Although I guess we could groom Starlight tonight. He would enjoy it, and we’ve got enough time before dark.”

  Lisa smiled. “Why don’t we do that as soon as we finish eating?”

  “Okay,” said Stevie, turning back to the sandwich tray.

  In a few minutes they were through. Lisa put their dirty paper plates in a bag she’d brought for garbage, then put the soda cans aside to be recycled. She was about to close up the chocolate coconut surprises when she caught a glimpse of the sandwich tray. It was almost empty.

  “Stevie!” she cried, astonished. “Did we actually eat all these sandwiches?”

  Stevie crawled over and looked at the tray. “Well, you ate two and I ate—uh, I guess I lost count after the third.” She grinned and patted her stomach. “It’s amazing how hungry taking care of twenty-five horses can make you.”

  Lisa looked at her friend. “Would that be anything like ‘eating like a horse’?”

  Stevie shrugged and laughed. “In this case it’s more like eating for a horse. Only it’s twenty-five horses instead of just one.”

  “Oh, Stevie.” Lisa shook her head with a sigh.

  “Well, now I’m ready to give Starlight the most energetic grooming he’s ever had!”

  The girls covered their meager leftovers with plastic wrap and climbed down the ladder. Most of the horses were standing quietly in their stalls, either dozing on their feet or idly chewing small mouthfuls of hay. When the girls opened Starlight’s stall, they found him awake but wearing a heavy-lidded, sleepy look.

  “I think he might have been drifting off to sleep,” Lisa whispered.

  “That’s okay,” replied Stevie. “This will be just like a body massage. After this grooming he’ll probably fall asleep the minute we leave h
is stall.”

  The girls got brushes and currycombs and each took one side of Starlight. He seemed surprised to have two people grooming him at the same time, but he stood calmly and gave a little nicker of pleasure. Soon they had his deep mahogany coat shining and all the tangles worked out of his dark mane.

  “Think we can skip the hoof polish, since all he’s going to do is go to sleep?” asked Lisa.

  “I think so,” said Stevie. “But we’ll do that, too, before Carole gets back.”

  Lisa gave Starlight a pat. “I wonder what Carole’s doing right now?”

  “Probably roasting marshmallows with her dad.” Stevie wiped the front of Starlight’s nose with a soft cloth. “Starlight, your person is out with her father right now, but she’ll be back on Monday, so don’t worry.”

  Lisa giggled at Starlight’s utterly passive expression. “He doesn’t look worried at all.”

  “Well, you never know. I just wanted to reassure him that life would return to normal.”

  “Then you should announce that on the PA system. All these horses are probably wondering why two people are suddenly sleeping in their hayloft.” Lisa glanced over at Starlight’s water bucket. “Look, he’s almost finished his water. I’ll go bring him some more and put some fresh hay in his crib while you finish up.”

  Lisa went to get more hay and water while Stevie put the last touches on Starlight’s grooming. A few moments later he stood there gleaming, with both his water bucket and hay crib full

  “Good night, Starlight,” Stevie called.

  “Sleep tight,” added Lisa with a giggle. “Don’t let the bedbugs bite!”

  “Speaking of sleeping tight, how about we go back to the loft?” Stevie said with a yawn. “I know it’s early, but I guess when you sleep with horses, you feel like going to bed when they do.”

  “Suits me,” said Lisa.

  They climbed back into the loft and spread their sleeping bags out next to each other. Lisa read for a few minutes, and Stevie played one of her electronic games, but soon they found their own eyelids drooping.

  “I think I’m going to sleep,” yawned Stevie. “We’ll have a hectic enough day tomorrow. We may as well be rested for it.”

  “Right,” said Lisa, catching Stevie’s yawn. She closed her book and zipped up her sleeping bag. “Good night, Stevie.”

  “Good night, Lisa,” Stevie replied. “Good night, Belle and Starlight,” she whispered through the cracks in the floor, just before she turned over and closed her eyes to sleep.

  “COME ON, DAD! If you hurry, we can make it!” Carole bounded ahead of her father to the top of Mount Stringfellow, just in time to see the last rays of sunlight disappear behind a stunning pink-and-purple cloud bank. For a minute the whole mountaintop was bathed in a soft violet glow; then the sun slipped beneath the horizon and the light faded to dusk.

  “Did you see that sunset?” Carole asked as her father came trotting up the path, carrying the telescope over one shoulder.

  “I think I saw the grand finale about fifty feet below, through the trees.” Colonel Hanson’s breath came heavily.

  Carole sighed. “It was so beautiful! If we’d gotten up here about five minutes earlier, we could have seen the whole thing from here. At least we saw most of it on the way up.”

  Colonel Hanson surveyed the darkening sky around the top of the mountain. “Now we won’t have to wait as long for the stars. I hear they come out up here fast, just like flashbulbs at a rock concert.”

  “Is that so?” Carole couldn’t help smiling at her father’s choice of words. He sounded as if he were more at home at rock concerts than on a Marine Corps base.

  “Yep.” Colonel Hanson grinned. “Let’s set up the telescope so we can see them up close.”

  Carole turned in a circle. The bare top of the mountain offered a long-range view for miles in every direction. “Which way should we point it?”

  “Let’s try east,” Colonel Hanson suggested, walking over to the opposite side of the mountaintop from where the sun went down. “Planets usually follow the path of the sun, more or less, so they should rise in the east, just like it does.”

  Carole followed her father and held the body of the telescope steady while he adjusted the legs. He aimed the lens at a point in the distant sky and smiled at Carole.

  “You take the first watch,” he said, pointing to an eyepiece on the side of the telescope.

  Carole bent over and looked through the lens. She expected to see a million tiny lights twinkling, but all she saw was a circle of dark gray.

  “I can’t see anything,” she said, disappointed.

  “Let me have a look,” Colonel Hanson replied. “Maybe it’s not adjusted right.”

  Carole moved back and let her father have a turn. “Hmm,” she heard him say. “I see something, but it’s nothing like a star.” He tilted the telescope to the right. “There it is again.… It’s a big cloud bank!”

  He straightened up and frowned at Carole. “I don’t get it. I checked the electronic barometer twice before we came up here. It showed no signs of a front coming through, yet I’m seeing a whole bunch of clouds.”

  “Maybe a fast storm system’s moving in. We learned about those in the meteorology unit of earth science last year.”

  “I don’t think that’s possible with the barometer reading as high as it was.” Colonel Hanson shook his head. “I think it must be just a quick-moving part of a ‘partly cloudy’ forecast. Why don’t we sit down and wait for it to clear?”

  “Okay,” said Carole. She was happy to be up on Mount Stringfellow. It was beautiful, with or without the stars. She sat down close to the telescope, and her father sat beside her.

  “Want to tell knock-knock jokes?” he asked.

  “No, Dad. That’s Stevie’s thing. Let’s play a game. Let’s take turns naming all the movies with one-name titles.”

  “Okay,” Colonel Hanson chuckled. “You go first.”

  “Amistad,” said Carole.

  “Rocky,” her father replied.

  “Mulan,” Carole shot back.

  “Indiscreet.” Colonel Hanson laughed.

  “In the Street?” Carole frowned. “Dad, that’s three words.”

  “No, Carole. I-n-d-i-s-c-r-e-e-t. Indiscreet. Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman.”

  “The movies have to be from the age of sound, Dad,” Carole warned with a grin.

  “That one is—it’s from 1958.”

  “Well, then, the last twenty-five years. Something I could have seen on the late show.”

  “Okay, okay.”

  The night remained dark and without stars. Carole and her dad played on, laughing, almost forgetting about the telescope altogether. Finally Carole saw something on the distant horizon.

  “Look!” she said, rising to her feet. At first she was afraid it was something ominous, like a thundercloud, but then she realized her father had been right. What she was seeing was the last edge of a cloud cover, and the breeze that had suddenly begun to blow across Mount Stringfellow was sweeping the clouds ahead of it.

  “I think it’s going to clear up!” she cried.

  They stepped back over to the telescope. When they looked up just a few minutes later, the sky was filled with a billion glorious stars, twinkling just like camera flashes at a rock concert, only never going out.

  “Oh, wow!” Carole breathed.

  “Now we’re cooking,” said Colonel Hanson. “Let’s see what we can bring into focus.”

  Carole lay on her back and looked up into the sky while her father adjusted the focus on the telescope. She felt as if the stars were so close she could reach out and touch them.

  “Awwrriiiight!” her father cried. “Carole! Come have a look at this!”

  Carole hurried over to the telescope. She looked through the eyepiece, expecting to see more glittering stars. Instead she saw a beautiful yellow planet with deep silver rings around it. “Gosh,” she cried, “the rings of Saturn!”

  “Pret
ty impressive, huh?” Her father asked, smiling.

  “I can’t believe that’s really Saturn. And I’m actually seeing it right now, with my own eyes!”

  “You sure are. The light that we’re seeing from Saturn right now left the planet back when we were having supper. It takes a little over an hour to get to Earth. Want to see if we can find Jupiter?”

  “Absolutely!”

  Carole stepped back to let her father readjust the telescope.

  “Can you name the planets of the solar system in order?” he asked as he turned the knobs on the eyepiece.

  “Uh, I used to be able to, but I get confused after Jupiter,” Carole admitted.

  Colonel Hanson grinned. “Just remember My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets.”

  “ ‘My very educated mother …’ ” Carole frowned a moment, then smiled. “Oh, I get it. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Cool, Dad. Now I’ll never forget again.”

  “Okay, come have a look at this.”

  Carole looked through the eyepiece again. This time, instead of a yellow planet with silver rings, she saw a huge golden striped ball with a pink swirl on one side. “Wow! Is that Jupiter?”

  “None other.”

  “It’s so big!” she cried. “It practically fills the whole lens.”

  “It’s the biggest planet in the solar system,” her father explained. “In fact, the gravitational pull of Jupiter helps keep Earth in her orbit. How’s that for a big ecosystem?”

  “Unbelievable,” breathed Carole.

  They looked at the stars for the rest of the evening, finding Mars and Venus and some nebulae that could be seen only with a telescope. Carole could have stargazed forever, but when Colonel Hanson checked his watch and saw that it was eleven o’clock, he suggested they turn in.

  “I think we’d better go back to our camp now, honey,” he said. “It’s been a long day, and it’s time for us to hit the hay.”