Trail Ride

by Bonnie Bryant

  It turned out that Kate was the one who had tied the rope to the branch stretching over the water. The girls took turns swinging on it and seeing who could jump the farthest. With no grown-ups to tell them to be quiet, they all felt free to do exactly as they wished, which meant whooping and hollering and splashing like maniacs. Finally they crept onto a dry boulder to warm up in the sunshine.

  Lisa climbed to her feet. “I claim this land in the name of The Saddle Club,” she declared to the world.

  Kate and Carole dissolved into giggles.

  Carole shivered happily, stretching her T-shirt down over her knees and hugging them. She couldn’t remember feeling happier in her whole life. “I don’t know about you two, but I’m ravenous.”

  Kate jumped from the boulder to the shore. “Say no more. Mom packed us a huge lunch. Fried chicken, cheese, pickles, fresh apple pie, and …”

  “Homemade biscuits?” Carole guessed.

  Kate nodded. “What else? Come on, let’s chow down.”

  The girls ate a sumptuous meal sitting in the grass under the trees. They washed everything down with fresh water from the waterfall, which Kate caught in her canteen.

  Everyone agreed it was the finest day ever.

  All too soon it was time to get dressed and head back.

  “It’s a longer ride than you think,” Kate warned them as she packed up.

  “Oh no!” Lisa cried, jumping to her feet from where she had sat to pull on her boots.

  “It’s not that bad,” Carole assured her.

  “It’s not the ride home,” Lisa said mournfully. “It’s the e-mail.”

  They all shuddered at the thought. How were they ever going to make this day sound dull to Stevie?

  IT WAS UNBELIEVABLE. I almost fell over when she said it. “I love horses, I’ve been such a fool.” Those were Dava’s exact words!

  It was after supper at the Bar None, and Carole, Lisa, and Kate were gathered around the computer, unable to believe what they were reading in Stevie’s latest e-mail.

  I was all prepared for a miserable afternoon and it turned out okay. In fact, better than okay. We talked about horses almost the whole time. It turns out that Dava and some friends went on a pleasure ride at a local stable. Actually, she confessed she only went along because a boy she liked was going. Anyway, she ended up loving it. She kept talking about how wonderful Boddington is. That’s the name of the horse she rode. She doesn’t know a lot about horses yet, but she said she’s eager to learn. She wants to take lessons, and she asked me to help talk her folks into it. Of course I said I’d be happy to.

  I swear it’s almost like she had a personality transplant, and none too soon.

  Anyway, I wanted you guys to know that things are looking up here. I really think everything’s going to turn out all right after all.

  Write soon.

  Love, Stevie

  “This is so great!” Carole exclaimed.

  Lisa, who was sitting at the keyboard, couldn’t have agreed more. “You know what this means, don’t you? It means we can tell her the truth about today.”

  “You go first with the picnic, and then I’ll fill her in on the truth about the plane ride,” Carole suggested eagerly.

  It took them a long time to finish the message to their mutual satisfaction. Finally they sent it off into cyberspace, and they all fell into bed, exhausted and satisfied.

  The next day, Lisa and Carole rose bright and early, determined to show everybody they could pull their own weight around the ranch. They made it to the ranch house in time for breakfast with the rest of the hands. Lisa couldn’t help noticing Paula’s look of surprise when they walked in.

  “So, you two ready for another hard day of picnicking?” she chuckled, clearing her plate from the table.

  Lisa looked over at Kate. “Actually, I don’t know what we’re doing today,” she confessed.

  “Come on, Paula, give them a break,” Kate coaxed. “Yesterday was their first day here. They deserved a treat.”

  Paula shrugged as if it was a matter of pure indifference to her. “Whatever, but some of us have real work to do.”

  “Anything we could help with?” Lisa offered.

  “Doubt it,” Paula replied brusquely. Wiping her hands on her jeans, she strode out the door.

  The girls took their places at the table next to Kate.

  “I don’t get it. What did we do to make her dislike us so much?” Carole asked, buttering a thick slab of toast.

  Kate shook her head. “I don’t know. I only told her good things about you.”

  “Like what?”

  “Well … like how Stevie could make any horse dance on the head of a pin.”

  Carole nodded. “But what did you tell her about Lisa and me?”

  Kate considered a moment while she nibbled unenthusiastically on a piece of crisp bacon. “I told her that you can jump a horse through the eye of a needle without brushing the edges, and that Lisa is a riding prodigy who learns so fast she would probably be able to do Paula’s job almost as well as she could by the end of the visit.”

  Lisa groaned. “No wonder she doesn’t like us. She must think we have heads bigger than this entire state.”

  “You think I overdid it then?” Kate said sheepishly.

  Carole patted her on the back. “Yeah, but thanks for the compliments.”

  “I think we should show her we’re not really so bad,” Lisa said thoughtfully. “I hate to leave her with such a negative opinion of us.”

  “What can we do?” Carole asked. “What does Paula admire in people, Kate?”

  Kate smiled. “Hard work.”

  After a hasty breakfast the day passed in a whirl of activity. Buoyed by a determination to prove themselves worthy to the touchy wrangler, the girls tackled chore after chore: moving a small herd of cattle from one paddock to another, cleaning tack, getting horses ready for the guests, feeding the animals, shoveling manure. They did anything and everything that was asked of them. They even helped prepare and serve the dinner for the staff and guests that evening.

  Lisa wiped her hands on a kitchen towel and collapsed in a chair. “That’s it. Every last pot is scrubbed and every last dish is dried.”

  “You girls certainly deserve time off for good behavior,” Kate’s mother told them. “I want you to have some fun tomorrow.” With that, she shooed them out of the kitchen.

  “You know, it actually was a fun day,” Carole said as she booted up the computer to e-mail Stevie.

  Lisa frowned. “The only bad part is, as hard as we worked, I didn’t see Paula all day. Which means she didn’t see us, either.”

  “Guess you’ll have to be satisfied with a job well done,” Kate told her.

  “I can live with that.”

  “Oh no, I don’t believe it,” Carole groaned, staring at the computer screen. “You guys had better have a look at this.”

  They gathered around her to read Stevie’s latest e-mail.

  What a double-dealing two-faced cat that Dava has turned out to be! It was all an act! She totally suckered me in! She never loved horses, except for a stuffed one a friend gave her. She said she couldn’t resist teasing me. I can’t stand her—I’d like to wipe that self-satisfied little smirk off her face. What a cow! I would rather spend an entire afternoon with Veronica diAngelo than one more minute with Dava! Yes, she’s actually that bad. But I can’t get away from her. This afternoon I have to go to Robin’s bridal shower, and Dava’s going to be there, too.

  You guys, on the other hand, seem to be having the time of your lives. That picnic sounded like pure heaven, and right now I’d give my right arm to take Stewball for a ride. Actually I’d give Dava’s right arm to go for a ride on any horse. In fact, I’d give both of Dava’s arms, plus her legs, her scrawny stick-thin body, and her head. Especially her head! I’ve never been more miserable.

  But don’t worry about me. Keep having a great time. I’ll be fine. Really.

  Missing you, Stevie
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br />   “She sounds really desperate,” Kate said.

  Carole nodded. “Yeah. That line about Veronica is a dead giveaway.”

  “That’s her mortal enemy back at your riding stable, right?” Kate asked.

  “Uh-huh. Stevie volunteering to spend time with her is like Dorothy offering to hang with the Wicked Witch of the West,” Lisa told her. “I wish there was something we could do to help.”

  Carole gave a hearty sigh. “At least our e-mail back won’t be overly exciting. I’ll tell her about how Paula doesn’t like us.”

  “Yeah,” said Lisa. “And don’t forget to mention all the chores Kate made us do.”

  “I did not!”

  “Be sure to describe the agony of my dishpan hands after she insisted we wash all the dishes,” Lisa continued.

  “I did not,” Kate repeated. “You guys volunteered!” She put her hands on her hips. “If you’re so exhausted, maybe you shouldn’t come with me tomorrow.”

  Lisa was filled with anticipation. “Where? Is it as good as the pond?”

  Kate shrugged. “Different.”

  Lisa and Carole tried to press her for more details, but it was no use. They were going to have to wait to find out about Kate’s next surprise.

  LISA WAS THE first out of bed. She roused Carole, who yawned and stretched and scratched at her ankle. “The local fauna picking on you?” Lisa asked sympathetically as she slipped into her old jeans, feeling a twinge of guilt that she hadn’t actually worn any of the new clothes her mother had bought her yet.

  “Guess so. If there’s a mosquito within a mile, I’m the one it heads for,” Carole lamented. “Hey, Kate! Up and at ’em!”

  Kate slowly sat up in bed and, with hardly a word, began to pull on her clothes.

  Lisa was surprised. Usually Kate bounded out of bed full of life and fun. “Everything okay?” she asked tentatively.

  “I didn’t sleep well, that’s all. I couldn’t seem to get comfortable.”

  “You still want to go out today?” Carole asked.

  “Let me see. I can stay at the ranch and do more chores, or I can take my friends on another adventure.” She gave Carole a smile. “You do the math.”

  “We’re outta here!” Carole and Lisa exclaimed.

  The day’s plans were almost derailed by Mrs. Devine at breakfast. “Kate,” she said with concern, “You look a little flushed. Are you all right?”

  Kate dodged the hand her mother put out to feel her forehead. “I’m fine, Mom.”

  “Well, okay,” her mother said. “Maybe some fresh air would do you good.”

  The girls saddled up and headed off, this time with Kate taking them in the opposite direction of the pond. After a brief ride over a few hills and through a small wooded area, Kate announced they were there.

  The girls sat on their horses and looked over a deep horseshoe-shaped canyon. From their position at the rounded curve of the back of the horseshoe, Lisa could see the rocky left and right branches stretching away on either side of them. The steep walls looked treacherous and uninviting. “Exactly what are we doing here?” She gulped, backing chocolate a little farther from the edge.

  Kate pulled her neckerchief off and wiped at her sweaty forehead. “Prepare to journey with me back through time,” she announced grandly. “Back to the days when dinosaurs ruled the earth!”

  Carole guffawed. “Have you been out in the sun too long?”

  Lisa did think Kate looked overheated.

  Kate urged Stewball down a rocky slope. “Forward, nonbelievers!”

  Moving cautiously, the horses sent tiny rivers of rocks rolling down the steep grade before them. Lisa was glad Chocolate was such a reliable horse; a fall down these rocks would be a nasty experience.

  At the bottom, Kate paused in front of a house-sized boulder. “The doorway to the past is the doorway to the future.”

  “Will you stop already?” Carole told her. “Pretty soon you’ll be gazing into crystal balls and reading tea leaves.”

  Kate laughed. “All right, come on. I want to introduce you to some friends.” She led them around the boulder and into a beehive of activity.

  Lisa pulled Chocolate to a halt, staring with wonder at the sight in front of her.

  Much of the floor of the canyon had been roped off into small sections. There were people everywhere. Some were pushing what appeared to be wheelbarrows full of dirt from place to place; others were meticulously sifting the soil through large screens. A few individuals were simply crouching in place, staring fixedly at the ground. Lisa could even see distant figures standing on a scaffold suspended high up on the canyon wall.

  “What on earth is going on here?” Lisa asked. “Are they building something?”

  “This looks like an archaeological dig,” Carole said almost breathlessly.

  Kate clucked Stewball forward. “That’s exactly what it is. Can you believe our luck? The university has started a dinosaur dig practically in the Bar None’s backyard!”

  Lisa was enthralled. She had always wanted to see a real dig in action. In her fantasies it had always been somewhere in Egypt, with pyramids and mummies scattered around, but dinosaurs were even better. “When did they get here?”

  “At the beginning of summer. I was going to tell you over the phone, but then I decided to make it a surprise. Come on, I’ll introduce you to Professor Jackson. He’s the paleontologist in charge of the whole thing.”

  “He won’t mind our being here?” Lisa asked.

  “Naw, I’ve been down here lots of times. He said I could come by whenever I want. I think he’s hoping to recruit me as another worker,” she laughed.

  “What a great opportunity,” Lisa said enthusiastically, hurrying to catch up.

  Kate led the way toward a small group of tents nestled against the valley wall. As the girls moved through the dig, she called and waved to several of the workers, who smiled and waved back. “There he is,” she said, pointing to a short, skinny man bending over a folding table. His clothes were dusty and rumpled, and he was mopping his face with a faded red handkerchief. He removed his hat, revealing a nearly bald head with unruly tufts of white fluff.

  “Doesn’t look much like Indiana Jones, does he?” Carole giggled.

  “He’s the real thing,” Kate told her seriously. “Professor Jackson is very distinguished in his field. A private museum is paying a lot of money to have him head this dig for them.”

  Lisa considered that. “I didn’t realize there was a lot of money to be made in archaeology.”

  The girls dismounted and Kate led them up to the table. “Hi, Professor. I brought my friends to meet you.”

  Professor Jackson looked up. “Ah, Kate, my dear. Welcome.” He swept a pair of wire-rimmed glasses off his nose and perched them jauntily on his head. “Brought me a few diggers, have you?”

  Kate nodded. “That’s me, Slaves-R-Us. Their folks will never miss them, but make sure the money is in my bank account by sundown.”

  Professor Jackson clucked his tongue. “First we’ll have to see how good they are.”

  “This is Lisa and Carole,” said Kate, making the introductions. “They’re from Willow Creek, near Washington, D.C.”

  “Is that so? I’m afraid I haven’t had the pleasure of working in your part of the country.”

  “We only have a rock quarry,” Lisa said, then felt herself redden. What a goofy thing to say.

  The professor smiled at her. “Some interesting things have turned up in rock quarries, my dear. But this part of the country does seem to have more than its fair share of artifacts. Who knows? This canyon may prove to be as famous as Dinosaur National Monument when we’re finished.”

  “Dinosaur what?” Carole asked.

  The professor looked surprised. “You’ve never heard of it?”

  Lisa and Carole shook their heads.

  “It’s an area covering about three hundred and thirty square miles in northwest Colorado and Utah. It’s protected by the government
because of all the rich fossil remains they’ve found there,” Kate told them, looking superior. “They’ve even found dinosaurs, which is how it got its name.”

  “I see you’ve been doing your homework since we last spoke,” the professor said.

  “Let me guess,” Lisa whispered in Kate’s ear. “You looked that up last night.”

  Her friend blushed.

  “By the way, have you been introduced to Joanne?” the professor asked.

  Lisa shook her head.

  “Then we shall have to fix that right away.”

  “We wouldn’t want to interrupt your work, professor,” Carole said politely.

  Lisa was disappointed. She was dying to find out more, and who better than the professor to teach them?

  “It so happens I’m heading in that direction,” he said, looking at his watch. “It’s time for me to check in with the guards anyway.”

  “Guards?” Lisa asked. “Why would you need guards?”

  “Just because these bones have been hanging around for between 65 and 245 million years doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of people competing to dig them up,” he told her. “A dinosaur skeleton in reasonable condition would bring a large amount of money on the black market.”

  Lisa was amazed. “There’s a black market for dinosaur bones?”

  “Unfortunately, yes.” He stopped next to a roped-off section of ground. “There are a lot of wealthy people in this world who like to collect unique treasures such as these and keep them locked away for only themselves to view.” He shook his head sadly. “And there are a lot of unscrupulous people who will stop at nothing to provide them with those items, as long as the price is right.”

  “Wow. I had no idea it was such a cutthroat business,” Carole said, wide-eyed.

  The professor laughed. “I’m afraid I’m prone to exaggeration, as some of my students will be happy to tell you. Usually digging through miles of dirt under the hot sun is as about as adventurous as it gets.”

  “But sometimes you do find whole dinosaur skeletons, don’t you?” Kate prodded.

  “They are few and very far between,” said a young woman who was coming to the professor’s side. “But Professor Jackson has dug up more than his fair share.” She swatted him lightly on the shoulder with obvious affection. “How am I going to make my reputation if you won’t leave anything for the rest of us to discover?”