Starting Gate

by Bonnie Bryant

  The starting gun went off. By the time everyone realized that the race was truly under way, Skye had carried his egg halfway down the track.

  “Hurry!” Lisa called. “Only hurry carefully!”

  Skye rounded the barrel at the end of the arena, then started home. Soon, with his egg safely in his spoon, he crossed the finish line and tagged Lisa. She cantered away, rounding the barrel with her own egg barely wobbling. She came back and tagged Carole, who never made a false move. Then it was Stevie’s turn.

  “Yee-hii!” Stevie gave a wild Western yell as she urged her pony into an easy canter. Her egg wobbled once, but she settled down deep in the saddle and carried it without another bounce. She rounded the barrel smoothly, then cantered toward the finish line, the egg hardly moving in the spoon.

  “Come on, Stevie, come on!” yelled Carole and Lisa, aware that the fourth Sunnyside rider was gaining fast.

  “Coming!” said Stevie. She looked over her shoulder once, then gave her horse an extra squeeze. They bounded over the finish line, the egg still unbroken.

  “We’ve got our winner, folks!” the announcer cried over the speaker as Stevie accepted the congratulations of her friends. “It was close, but four blue ribbons go to the Horse Wise team from Willow Creek, Virginia, our first-place winners for the day!”

  “And an extra blue ribbon for Stevie Lake,” whispered Skye. “Our prizewinning gossip for the day!”

  “HEY, GUYS!” MAX’s voice rang out over the crowd. “Congratulations!”

  The Horse Wise team turned. Max and Deborah, carrying Maxi, walked toward them, big smiles on their faces.

  “I’m so proud of you!” Max leaned forward and shook Skye’s hand. “Nice job of filling in at the last minute, Skye.”

  “Mostly I just did what the girls told me to do,” Skye admitted shyly. “And hoped I could hang on!”

  “You looked like a real pro out there.” Deborah gave Skye a warm smile, but there was a troubled look in her eyes.

  “Is everything okay, Deborah?” Stevie asked, holding out her arms for Maxi.

  “I may as well tell all of you the bad news now,” Deborah said as she placed Maxi in Stevie’s arms. She sighed. “I’m afraid that our horses are still somewhere between here and Willow Creek. I was supposed to meet the van an hour ago at the stable, but it hasn’t shown up. I’ve called the shipping company, but all I get is an answering machine. Mrs. Reg is calling from Virginia, too.”

  “Oh no,” said Stevie, wincing as Maxi tugged on a lock of her honey blond hair. “I knew something like this would happen. I knew that van driver was an idiot!”

  “What’ll we do, Max?” Carole cried. “We’re supposed to ride tomorrow, and the horses will need to rest beforehand. We can’t ride if they’re woozy and exhausted from a cross-country van trip.”

  “I don’t know,” Max said, frowning deeply.

  “Well, don’t panic yet,” said Deborah. “I’m still working on it from this end, and Mrs. Reg is on the case at the other end. Between us, we’re going to make sure that something gets done!” She gave Maxi a quick kiss on her forehead. “You stay here with the girls, honey. Mommy’s going to go give the shipping company a piece of her mind!”

  Everyone watched as Deborah hurried over to the pay phone.

  “Max, you think the horses are all right, don’t you?” Lisa asked as Deborah punched in her phone card number.

  “Oh, the horses will be fine, Lisa,” Max said with a smile. “It’s the van company I’m worried about now. With my wife calling from one coast and my mother calling from the other, those poor fools don’t have a chance!”

  They all laughed as Max took Maxi from Stevie’s arms. “You guys have done a super job this morning—I hope you’re planning to have some fun this afternoon.”

  Stevie frowned. “Actually, we haven’t given it much thought.”

  “Have you given any thought to what might be wrong with Veronica?” asked Max. “Deborah talked to her, and all she would say was that she felt awful, but she wouldn’t see a doctor.”

  Stevie looked at her friends and shrugged. “Beats me, Max,” she replied. “She was fine last night before she dug into that plate of sweetbreads.”

  “Sweetbreads?” Max wrinkled his nose and grimaced. “Well, after Deborah reaches the trucking company, I think we’re going to take Maxi to Knott’s Berry Farm.” He smiled at the girls and Skye. “Want to join us?”

  “Thanks,” Skye replied. “But I’ve got a late-afternoon call.”

  “Would you like a little more help with Mabel before you start shooting?” asked Carole.

  “Sure.” Skye grinned. “That would be great, if you’ve got the time to do it.”

  “How about we do Knott’s Berry Farm some other time, Max?” Stevie asked. “Skye really needs our help.”

  “Not a problem,” Max replied. “Just keep us posted where you’re going to be, and we’ll see you later.”

  He lifted Maxi into her carrier as The Saddle Club followed Skye out to the parking lot. At the very back of the lot stood Stephan, patiently waiting beside the black limo.

  “Everything go well, sir?” Stephan asked, holding the door open for Skye and the girls.

  “Everything went great, Stephan,” Skye replied happily, gesturing toward the four blue ribbons in Stevie’s hand. “For a couple of hours, I was actually having fun riding a horse.”

  “And doing it well, I see,” said Stephan, grinning at the sea of blue.

  “Oh, let’s hurry back to the stable,” said Lisa. “Maybe if we work hard with Mabel, you can start having fun riding her.”

  “I don’t know.” Skye gave a defeated sigh. “But I’m sure willing to try.”

  After just a few moments, Stephan had dropped them at the entrance of the stable. The whole place was deserted, except for the movie horses, calmly munching hay in their stalls. Slowly, the group made their way down to Mabel’s stall. As soon as they got to within ten feet of her door, her head poked out and she stared at them, the whites of her eyes showing nervously.

  “Oh boy,” said Skye. “Looks like the old Mabel is back.”

  “Hang on,” Carole whispered. “Give her a chance to get used to us again.”

  The others stood back while Carole approached Mabel using the Monty Roberts way, not looking at the mare and keeping her fingers curled close to her palms. At first Mabel looked frightened; then, as Carole drew closer, her ears began to twitch forward with interest and her eyes showed less alarm.

  “Good girl,” Carole said softly, still not looking directly into Mabel’s face. “How about some nice apple?”

  She held out a tiny bit of apple on her palm. At first Mabel acted as if she were going to lunge forward and grab the snack along with a few of Carole’s fingers, but suddenly she seemed to remember her previous lesson. Gently, she reached forward and took the apple, her lips barely brushing against Carole’s hand.

  “Good girl!” Carole reached up and rubbed Mabel’s soft nose. “You remembered!”

  “Wow!” said Skye, amazed at the suddenly calm and docile horse. “That’s terrific!”

  “Why don’t you come feed her some apple, Skye?” suggested Carole. “That way you two can become friends.”

  Stevie and Lisa watched as Skye stepped forward and gave Mabel some apple in the same way Carole had. After a few minutes Mabel was eating out of his hand, and just a little while later she’d allowed him to clip a line to her halter and lead her out of the stall.

  “Oh, Skye,” Lisa whispered as he led Mabel past her, “this is so wonderful! She’s like a totally different animal!”

  Skye smiled, but the expression froze on his face as angry words rang out behind them.

  “What in the world is going on here?”

  Everyone turned. George Gamble stood there, his face red with rage.

  “Who are you?” he demanded, staring straight at Skye. “And how dare you touch that horse! Do you have any idea how much that animal is worth?”r />
  Stevie glanced at Lisa. Skye hadn’t bothered to remove his wig or his pizza delivery shirt. George didn’t seem to recognize him!

  “Uh, I’m j-just a f-friend of theirs.” Skye pretended to stutter nervously at George’s rampage.

  “Yes, and I know exactly who they are,” George snarled, turning toward the girls. “They are the so-called friends of the great Skye Ransom, that incompetent who thinks he can invite total strangers into my stable and meddle with my horses!”

  “We were j-just petting her,” Skye stuttered again, staying in his role as the pizza guy.

  “Yeah, I bet you were.” George stalked over and grabbed the lead rope from Skye’s hands, and Mabel whinnied with fear. “If Fred were here this wouldn’t happen. I wouldn’t have to put up with this nonsense from people who just wander in from Virginia and poke their noses where they don’t belong!”

  As Stevie watched George tug Mabel back to her stall, she realized why he looked so familiar to her—the black hair, the dark, brooding eyes, the slightly crooked nose looked just like Fred Gamble’s, another young actor who had played a number of roles similar to Skye’s. Though the fan magazines called them rivals, Fred had never been cast in any of the good roles that Skye had gotten, and he’d never shown any particular acting talent on the screen. However, if George was Fred’s brother, then he would think that Fred should have been cast in this role instead of Skye. So he was making life hard for Skye on purpose. If Skye got fired from the movie, Fred could come in and take his place! Stevie jumped as George slammed Mabel’s stall door shut. This was the meanest, most underhanded plot she’d ever discovered!

  “All of you have about thirty seconds to get out of here!” George growled. “And if I ever see any of you in this barn again, I’m calling the police!”

  “C-Come on,” Skye said shakily, still pretending to be a dork. “He means business!”

  They hurried out of the stable while George watched them go. Back in the bright sunshine, Carole spotted a shady hill that overlooked the stable and racetrack. It looked just like the hill they sat on so often in Virginia.

  “Come on!” she said, tugging at Skye’s shirtsleeve. “Saddle Club meeting. Now!”

  Without another word, they hurried to the top of the hill and sat down beneath a shady oak tree. As they caught their breath they could see George storming out of the stable and over into one of the movie trailers.

  “What is going on?” Lisa cried. “That guy is the rudest person I’ve ever met in my life!”

  “That’s George Gamble,” explained Skye. “You might have heard of his little brother.”

  “You mean Fred Gamble, the actor?” Stevie asked, her eyes bright.

  Skye nodded. “My big rival in Hollywood.”

  “You’re kidding!” Lisa cried. “That guy is Fred Gamble’s brother?”

  “He sure is. And remember Marcella, the girl who was flirting with Shev Bayliss?”

  Stevie frowned—she hadn’t realized that Shev and Marcella were an item—but Carole and Lisa nodded.

  “Well, she’s Fred and George’s sister.”

  Carole lifted an eyebrow. “But if she’s the film’s animal coordinator, isn’t she George’s boss?”

  Skye nodded. “That’s right. They both signed on to do this movie thinking Fred would get the part. But the producer hired me instead, and they’ve been furious ever since.”

  “And that’s why they’re making your life miserable,” said Lisa. “If you fail and get fired, then Fred can take over your role.”

  Skye sighed and threw a pebble down the hill. “That’s about the size of it.”

  “Wow!” Carole slumped back against the tree. “We’re up against a whole lot more than just retraining a nervous mare. We need to retrain a whole bunch of powerful people!”

  For a moment they all just stared at the stable, watching as one of George’s assistants led a horse out for some exercise.

  “What can we do?” said Lisa. “I’ve never tried to reeducate grown-ups in basic stuff like manners and respect.”

  Stevie snapped her fingers. “I know! If our own horses ever get here from Virginia, we could have the van drivers come over here to the set. Then we could lure George and Shev and Marcella into the trailer and lock the door! Then we could tell the van driver to take them up to Anchorage, Alaska. By the time they got there, the movie would already be made!”

  Everyone looked at Stevie for a moment, then they burst out laughing.

  “That’s a great idea, Stevie,” chuckled Skye. “But this is really a horse problem more than a people problem. Pretty soon I’m going to have to ride Mabel in a race. Not only will I have to stay on, but I’m going to have to win, and win convincingly.”

  “But nobody else in the movie will really be trying to beat you, will they?” asked Carole.

  “No,” Skye admitted. “We’ll all be pretending. But I will have to get Mabel to gallop without throwing me. Maybe I should just give up and get them to use a stunt double instead of trying to ride in the race myself. But I hate to do it—it feels like cheating somehow. And I know I can ride convincingly if I could just get the chance.”

  “Of course you can,” Lisa said firmly. “And we were making some progress today. I mean, Mabel did let you snap a line on her and lead her out of her stall.”

  “Yeah, and then George stormed in and scared the poor horse half to death,” said Carole. “Mabel probably doesn’t know what to think, now.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to try my shove-everybody-in-an-In-Transit-van scheme?” Stevie asked hopefully.

  “Sorry, Stevie.” Skye gave a sad sigh. “As much as I would like to, I just don’t think it’ll work.”

  “Well, then.” Stevie looked at Carole and Lisa. “I guess The Saddle Club will just have to put our heads together and come up with another plan.”

  “GOOD GRIEF, STEVIE!” Carole said, looking at the bowl of multicolored food on Stevie’s breakfast plate. “That looks as strange as what Veronica ordered the other night.”

  “It’s my own creation,” replied Stevie, stirring the stuff with her spoon. “It’s granola with yogurt and different kinds of jam.” She took a bite and grinned. “I’ve got blueberry and strawberry and apricot all mixed up together.”

  “And it tastes okay?” Lisa asked as the waitress brought her a simple plate of scrambled eggs and bacon.

  “Tastes great,” Stevie mumbled, her mouth full. “I may write this recipe down and have it for breakfast every morning at home.”

  “Whatever.” Carole looked at Lisa and shook her head.

  “Morning, girls,” a familiar voice called. Everyone looked up as Max pulled out the chair beside Stevie. He carried Maxi and a cell phone in his arms. “How is everybody this morning?”

  “Oh, fine.” Lisa smiled. “We’re just watching Stevie eat. It’s gotten to be one of our favorite pastimes.”

  Max didn’t even bother to glance at Stevie’s bowl. He looked at the girls and started talking.

  “I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news. Our horses have not arrived.”

  “Not arrived?” cried Carole. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, both Deborah and my mother have been on the phone with these jokers for the past twenty-four hours. They’ve learned that the horses are in good condition, but there was a rock slide on the interstate in Arkansas and some kind of huge traffic jam in Oklahoma. The horses are definitely late, but nothing has been the van company’s fault.”

  “But won’t it be their fault if Veronica doesn’t get to ride this afternoon?” asked Lisa. “She can’t ride if her horse isn’t anywhere in sight.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about it, since Veronica isn’t anywhere in sight, either,” said Stevie. “By the way, where is she?”

  “She’s still holed up in her room.” Max shifted Maxi to his other knee. “She finally saw the hotel doctor last night. He said she had nothing serious, just a touch of the stomach flu.”

  “More
like a touch of sweetbreads,” chuckled Stevie as she stirred her yogurt again.

  “It’s just too bad that we’ve come all the way across the country and poor Veronica can’t even compete,” said Lisa. Then she frowned. “Wait! It’s not only Veronica today. It’s Carole, too! You were signed up for the same hunter-jumper class as Veronica, weren’t you?”

  Carole sighed and nodded.

  “And now you won’t be able to compete either, because Starlight is in the middle of a traffic jam somewhere in Oklahoma.”

  “Well, I’ve been in lots of competitions,” Carole said softly. “And I’ll be in lots more. Missing one isn’t going to kill me.” She looked at the others, then she began to blink back tears. “I am beginning to worry about Starlight, though. He and the other horses have been in that trailer an awfully long time.”

  “Hi, everybody.”

  The girls looked up. Deborah stood there, her mouth curled down in a disgusted line. Max pulled out the chair beside him and motioned for her to sit down.

  “I just wanted to let you guys know that I’ve got good news and bad news.”

  “Are the horses okay?” Carole blurted out as Stevie froze with her spoon halfway between her yogurt and her mouth.

  Deborah gave a soft smile. “Oh, yes,” she assured Carole. “The horses are fine.”

  “Thank heavens!” said Stevie.

  “I just finished talking to the man who is actually driving the van that’s carrying the horses. He said he was terribly sorry for all the delays, and he’s expecting to arrive first thing in the morning.”

  “Did he give any explanation for why the horses aren’t here now?” asked Lisa.

  “He said he got poor instructions from the first driver,” reported Deborah.

  “I knew it!” cried Stevie. “That guy was a nitwit! He didn’t even know where California was!”

  “Well, he’s no longer with the company,” said Deborah. “The man I talked to assured me that the horses are fine and healthy. In fact, he’s going to stop for the night at a place where he can let them out into a paddock so they’ll have some kind of a break from the trip.”