Horse-Sitters

by Bonnie Bryant

  “Not exactly,” Polly replied. “But you know that my whole family is going out of town, right? That’s why I needed you to ride Romeo.”

  “Right,” Carole said.

  “Well, that means my little brother Billy will be with us, too. And we just realized he hasn’t made any arrangements for Mr. Munch,” Polly explained.

  “Mr. Munch?” Carole repeated in confusion. “Who’s Mr. Munch?”

  “That’s Billy’s pet—oh, wait, hold on a minute,” Polly said. Carole heard her shouting to someone downstairs. “I’m on the phone.… Yes, I’m about to ask her.… I’ll be right there.” Polly’s breathless voice returned. “Listen, I’ve got to be quick,” she said. “The thing is, we’re leaving first thing tomorrow morning, and Mr. Munch is homeless. So we were wondering if you and your friends would look after him as well as Romeo while we’re gone, even though he’s not a horse. My parents will pay you for it, of course.”

  More money meant less time before Carole got those videos. Forgetting about the lecture she’d given Stevie, she said yes immediately.

  “Oh, great,” Polly said, sounding relieved. “We’ll drop him off at Pine Hollow tomorrow morning. I already checked with Mrs. Reg and she said that’s all right—she’ll watch him until you guys get there after school. Thanks a million, Carole. Really.”

  “You’re welcome,” Carole replied. “Just one ques—”

  But in the background, she heard someone loudly calling Polly’s name. “Hey, I’d better go,” Polly said. “I’ll see you next Wednesday night, okay? Thanks again.” And with that, she hung up.

  Carole hung up, too. She thought for a minute. She wasn’t too worried about taking on another client. It wouldn’t be nearly as much work as the others, since this one wasn’t a horse. The only question remaining was what was it? Probably a cat or a dog, but which one? The Saddle Club would have to make arrangements to keep Mr. Munch at one of their houses. But Carole didn’t want to bring a dog home, since she had a cat. And she knew that Lisa’s father was allergic to cats.

  She picked up the phone. She knew Polly was busy, but it would only take a second to ask her what sort of creature Mr. Munch was. Although Carole tried several times, the Giacomins’ line was always busy.

  Finally she shrugged and gave up. It didn’t matter. Cat or dog or guinea pig, they could figure it out tomorrow. She returned to her research.

  AFTER SCHOOL THE next day Lisa and Carole walked to Pine Hollow together. Carole filled her friend in on the strange conversation with Polly.

  “I wonder what it is,” Lisa said. “Maybe a fish?”

  “With a name like Mr. Munch, it would have to be a barracuda,” Carole said with a laugh. “I bet it’s a dog. You know Polly’s little brother, Billy. He seems like a dog kind of kid to me.”

  “You’re probably right,” Lisa said. “Anyway, taking care of a dog or something will seem easy compared to taking care of three horses. Did you have any luck finding out what to do with Memphis?”

  “A little,” Carole replied. “I had to go through practically every book I own.”

  “I’m sure you’ll do fine,” Lisa said. “I just hope I can handle Honeybee.”

  “Don’t worry,” Carole said. “We’re here to help you with her.” She grinned. “It’s Aunt Eugenia you’ll have to handle on your own.”

  “Thanks a lot,” Lisa said.

  “Just kidding,” Carole said. “Listen, I’m going to run and check on Memphis first thing. Would you take my stuff to the locker room for me?”

  “Sure,” Lisa said, taking Carole’s schoolbooks from her. “After that I’ll probably go see how Honeybee is doing.”

  “I’ll meet you there in a few minutes,” Carole said, dashing off.

  Lisa carried her things and Carole’s to the student locker area and put them away. She glanced at Stevie’s cubby. It was in its usual state of disarray, but it didn’t look as though anything had been put into it that day. She guessed Stevie hadn’t arrived yet.

  Lisa headed toward Honeybee’s stall. She was only halfway there when she heard Eugenia’s strident voice and Deborah’s quieter one.

  “The girls have to go to school, you know, Aunt Genie,” Deborah was saying.

  “That’s all very well for them,” Eugenia replied haughtily. “But what about my darling? They’re supposed to be looking after her. How can they do that properly if they don’t show up until evening?”

  “Hello,” Lisa called out politely. She smiled at Eugenia, pretending not to have heard her remark. “How are you doing today, Ms. Eugenia?”

  “Very well, my dear,” the woman replied rather stiffly. “Can I assume you’re here to take care of your duties now?”

  “That’s right,” Lisa said. “I came straight here from school. I thought I’d give Honeybee a good grooming and then let her out in the paddock for an hour or so to stretch her legs.”

  “That sounds good, doesn’t it, Aunt Genie?” Deborah prompted.

  “Harrumph. Well, it sounds all right, yes,” Eugenia said. “But if you don’t mind, young lady, I’d like to look Honeybee over after her grooming. Satisfy myself that the job is being done right.”

  Lisa did her best to maintain her polite smile. “Certainly,” she said.

  “Do you really think that’s necessary, Aunt Genie?” Deborah said. “These girls know what they’re doing. You know Max swears by them.”

  “Yes, well, that’s hardly a sterling recommendation, now, is it?” Eugenia replied with a frown.

  Deborah laughed. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with you,” she said fondly, giving Eugenia’s arm a squeeze. “Come on, now, let’s get out of Lisa’s way. The least you can do is let her work in peace. We can go up to the house and have a cup of tea. By the time we get back, I’m sure Honeybee will be looking her best.” She winked at Lisa and led Eugenia away.

  As soon as they disappeared, Lisa let out a sigh of relief. No wonder Max seemed so nervous around Eugenia—but it still seemed strange that he would let himself be intimidated. The stranger thing, though, was how Deborah acted around her. Most of the time Deborah actually seemed to find the bossy old woman amusing. Lisa shook her head. It was all very odd.

  Just then Carole appeared from around the corner. “Thank goodness you’re here,” Lisa said. “Where’s Stevie?”

  “She hasn’t turned up yet,” Carole said. “I’m sure she’s on her way. What’s going on?”

  “Aunt Eugenia,” Lisa said. At Carole’s puzzled look, Lisa quickly explained. “So I need all the help I can get if Honeybee is going to pass inspection when Eugenia gets back from her tea break.”

  Carole nodded. “No problem. We’re all in this together. But first I want to stop by Mrs. Reg’s office and make sure Mr. Munch arrived safely.”

  “And find out what sort of fish, flesh, or fowl he is,” Lisa added. “I’m right behind you. I’m dying of curiosity.”

  The girls hurried toward Mrs. Reg’s office off the tack room. When they arrived, Mrs. Reg was on the phone. She gestured for the girls to sit in the wooden chairs across from her while she finished her conversation.

  “Yes, I think that’s everything,” she was saying. “Now hurry up and get back here. Red already took the adult beginner class out on the trail, but I’m sure he could use your help when they return.” She listened for a moment. “Yes, they’re both here. They decided to go to the museum tomorrow morning. Listen, I have to go. Carole and Lisa are here. See you soon.” She hung up and turned to the girls. “Honestly, that Max! He went to the store to pick up a few things hours ago, and now he calls to see if I want him to stop and get anything else while he’s in town.” She shook her head. “For the last day or so it seems he’s spent more time running errands than he’s spent here.”

  Lisa tried not to smile. She had the funniest feeling she knew why Max was avoiding Pine Hollow as much as possible. He was just trying to stay out of Eugenia’s way. And Lisa didn’t blame him.

  Meanwhil
e Carole had spotted a large wire cage in the back corner of Mrs. Reg’s office. There was a cloth tossed over it so she couldn’t see inside.

  Mrs. Reg followed her gaze. “Let me guess,” she said. “You’re here to pick up Mr. Munch.”

  Carole nodded. “Is that him? Er, we’re not sure—That is, Polly didn’t tell me—I mean—”

  “She means we have no idea what kind of animal Mr. Munch is,” Lisa interrupted. “Polly forgot to tell her.”

  Mrs. Reg laughed. “Oh, really! Well, then you’re in for a surprise.” She bent over and pulled the cloth off the cage. Inside sat a three-foot-long green lizard.

  Carole gasped. “What on earth is that?”

  “It’s an iguana,” Mrs. Reg said. “They make quite good pets, actually. Max had one as a boy. It was quite an unusual thing then, but nowadays they’re fairly common.”

  “Wow.” Lisa stared at Mr. Munch. He looked back at her, blinking lazily. “My mother would really, really hate this guy. She’s terrified of all reptiles, great and small.” She smiled. “But actually he’s kind of cute, isn’t he?” She crouched down in front of the cage and stuck her fingers in to scratch the iguana on the head. He closed his eyes, seeming to enjoy the attention.

  “He is,” Carole agreed. She frowned. “But we may have a problem here. If your mother is scared of reptiles, I guess she wouldn’t be too happy about you bringing this one home for the next week, huh?”

  “Are you kidding?” Lisa said. “She’d move out. Or rather, she’d make me move out. And take Mr. Munch with me.” She shook her head. “Sorry. If he was a dog, or maybe a bird, I could talk her into it. But a lizard? No way. Why don’t you take him? Snowball isn’t likely to bother him. He’s too big.”

  “I think he’d be more likely to bother Snowball than the other way around,” Carole said, thinking of her small black cat. “But Snowball’s not the problem. My dad is. He hates lizards.”

  “You’re kidding,” Lisa said.

  Mrs. Reg looked surprised, too. “You mean your father, a big strong Marine, would be afraid of an innocent creature like this?”

  Carole glanced at Mr. Munch. He did look innocent, but he also looked like a big, green, scaly lizard. “Believe it or not, it’s true,” she said. “He had a bad experience with lizards once during a training mission in the jungle somewhere. Something to do with his sleeping bag, I think. Now he can’t stand them.”

  “Well, then, Stevie will just have to take him,” Lisa said logically. “Her family always has lots of pets around. They won’t even notice an extra.”

  “Uh-uh,” Carole said. “Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten the Great Chameleon Escape? It was only a month or two ago.”

  Lisa gasped. “Oh, I had forgotten!”

  Mrs. Reg looked curiously from one girl to the other. “What happened?”

  “Stevie’s brother Michael had a chameleon colony in his bedroom,” Carole explained. “He was really proud of it, too. He must have had at least twenty of them in there.”

  “Until the day he forgot to latch the cover after he fed them …,” Lisa said.

  Mrs. Reg laughed. “Say no more,” she said. “I get the picture.”

  “Yep,” Carole said. “They were finding those chameleons for weeks. The day Mrs. Lake found one under her pillow and Mr. Lake found one in his shoe, they announced a ban on all lizards in the house from that day forward.”

  Lisa glanced at her watch. “We’re going to have to come up with something,” she said. “Maybe Stevie will have an idea when she gets here. In the meantime we should get started on Honeybee. I want to make sure she’s ready for her inspection.”

  “Mrs. Reg, could we possibly leave Mr. Munch here for a little while?” Carole begged. “Just until we figure out what to do with him.”

  “Well, I really can’t have him in my office,” Mrs. Reg replied. “The adult beginner class is out on the trail right now, but they’re all supposed to stop in later to pick up their new lesson schedules. I wouldn’t want anyone fainting on me—you know how funny some people can be about lizards. But I suppose it would be all right to stick him in the empty stall on the end of the row. Nobody’s likely to look in there in the next few hours.”

  “Thanks, Mrs. Reg,” Lisa said. She picked up the cage, groaning under its weight. “We’ll make sure he isn’t there long.”

  She and Carole stowed the cage in the empty stall and then hurried back to Honeybee. Working together, they managed to have the old mare gleaming in a matter of minutes. It wasn’t easy—Honeybee insisted on nipping at every new piece of equipment the girls pulled out of her grooming bucket. Luckily, however, she seemed to have grown tired of nipping at the girls themselves.

  When Eugenia returned, even she had to admit that the girls had done a fine job. “Just see that she gets this kind of care every time,” she warned. “Not just when you know I’m coming to check up on you.”

  “Of course,” Lisa said politely. “We wouldn’t dream of shirking our duties.”

  Carole was glad Lisa had spoken up, since she was sure her own response to the old woman’s rudeness would have been much different. For one thing, she didn’t even know what “shirking” meant. But in any case, she was distracted by the sight of Stevie hurrying across the aisle toward the locker room. Stevie glanced down the aisle and caught sight of her friends, but she just gave them a quick wave and kept going.

  “Stevie’s finally here,” Carole whispered to Lisa as Eugenia, with some huffing and puffing, started lifting each of Honeybee’s thick hooves to make sure they were clean.

  “It’s about time,” Lisa muttered back. “Since she missed out on all this fun”—she nodded toward Eugenia, who had her back to them—“I figure she owes us one. So I think it should be up to her to figure out a home for our new friend Mr. Munch.”

  Carole nodded, forcing her face into a smile as Eugenia turned toward them again. “I couldn’t agree with you more.”

  “I THINK STEVIE’S off the hook,” Carole told Lisa a few minutes later as the girls led Honeybee toward the back paddock.

  “What do you mean?” Lisa asked, yanking the lead rope out from between the mare’s teeth. She opened the paddock gate and the mare wandered through it.

  “I mean, I figured out the solution to the iguana problem,” Carole replied, latching the gate behind Honeybee. “We’ll keep him right here.”

  “At Pine Hollow?” Lisa asked. “But where? I seriously doubt Mrs. Reg is going to want him in her office all week. And he can’t stay in that empty stall. He’ll be in the way.”

  “I thought of a better place. Right over there,” Carole said, nodding toward a small shed on the far side of the paddock.

  “The garden shed?” Lisa asked. The garden shed was where Max kept the equipment he and Red used to care for the stable grounds. It was full of rakes, hoes, grass seed, and all sorts of other things. It was just large enough for all that and the riding mower Red used to mow the lawns and empty fields. Slowly a smile spread across her face. “It’s brilliant! It’s close enough for us to get to easily—”

  “But enough out of the way so nobody else is likely to see him,” Carole finished. “We’ll just have to warn Red in case he decides to mow the lawn or something.”

  “It’s a great idea,” Lisa said. “I just hope Max goes for it. He’s been so unpredictable lately. I wonder if he’s back from his shopping trip yet.”

  “Maybe we should ask Mrs. Reg instead,” Carole said.

  Lisa shrugged. “She’s sure to check with him about something like that,” she pointed out. “We might as well just ask him ourselves. Or rather,” she said, grinning, “Stevie might as well ask him herself. She owes us one, remember?”

  The girls left Honeybee nibbling at the grass in the paddock and went inside to look for Stevie. They walked by Belle’s stall, but Stevie wasn’t there. She wasn’t with Romeo, either.

  “Let’s check the tack room,” Lisa suggested.

  Carole nodded. �
�I can’t wait to see Stevie’s face when she meets Mr. Munch,” she said.

  “Well, I can’t wait to see Max’s face when Stevie asks him if we can keep Mr. Munch here,” Lisa said. She crossed her fingers and headed for the tack room.

  As the two girls rounded the corner, they heard angry voices ahead. It was Max and Veronica, and they were facing off in front of the tack room door.

  “I can’t believe you’d do something so stupid,” Max yelled, his hands on his hips.

  Veronica pouted. “I tried to tell you,” she cried. “You just haven’t been around much lately. Besides, I was sure you’d say yes. I mean, who could say no to Winston Haverford-Smythe?”

  “I’ll tell you who,” Max replied grimly. “Me, that’s who. There’s no way I can take on six extra horses right now. Especially expensive polo ponies.”

  Carole and Lisa traded quick glances. Now this sounded interesting. They both knew that polo ponies usually weren’t really ponies at all. A true pony was a horse 14.2 hands or under. A polo pony was simply a quick, strong, agile horse trained to play polo. There were many owners of polo strings in the area around Willow Creek.

  “Come on, Max,” Veronica whined. “Mr. Haverford-Smythe is a very important man. If you get on his good side, you’ll have it made in the social scene around here. Anyway, I already told him you said yes. And he really needs a place for his horses while their stable is being fumigated.”

  “Then you’ll just have to tell him you made a mistake,” Max said sternly. “I have no interest in making the social scene, and even less in taking care of half a dozen polo ponies right now.”

  “But Mr. Haverford-Smythe already gave his grooms the week off,” Veronica wheedled. “And the fumigators are scheduled to come. You have to do it. I told him Pine Hollow was the best full-service stable in the area.”

  “That’s very nice, Veronica, but the answer is still no,” Max said, folding his arms across his chest.

  “Please, Max? I’ll help,” Veronica said. “In fact, I’ll do most of the work myself.”

  “Wow,” Carole whispered. “She must really be desperate to impress this Haverford-Smythe guy.”