Boy on a Black Horse (11 page)

“Been looking through my old mags,” Topher said, mostly to Chav. “Took a while to find him.” He opened the magazine to the page he was marking with his finger. I didn't want to look, because I knew what I'd see, but I had to look anyway. Sure enough. A big glossy picture of Rom, with “
MISSING:
Fuerza Epica of Spanish Dancer Ranch” printed underneath.

“He's a grand champion Spanish Barb,” Topher said. “Worth about ninety thousand dollars.”

That shook me. And I saw Liana turn pale. “Oh no,” she whispered.

Everyone was staring at Chav. He looked through us. “They had him in a razor-wire pen,” he said in that quiet, gritty way of his, “with this big pig-faced farm horse stud beating up on him. Too big for him to handle. Kicking him and driving him into the wire, cutting him open. He was bleeding all over. No way I was going to leave him in there.”

Topher looked shocked and surprised. “There's no razor wire at the Spanish Dancer Ranch,” he said. “I've been there.”

“I'm telling you the truth.” Chav's voice went so soft I knew he was scorching mad.

“I believe you. Give me some credit. Where did you find Rom? What state?”

Chav shook his head.

“For crying out loud, I'm not a cop. I'm not going to haul you away.” Now Topher was a little mad, but he got past it. “Okay, what month, then?”

“Spring.”

“You sure?”

“Yes. Warm weather.”

“The horse has been missing since January.” Topher gave Chav a quizzical look. “I think you stole him from whoever stole him in the first place.”

Chav said nothing. “Is that better?” Liana asked Topher anxiously.

“Maybe not technically. But it makes me feel better.” Topher gave Liana a one-armed hug at the same time he was giving Chav his wry look again. “Chav, we've got to get the horse back to Spanish Dancer Ranch.”

Chav had that black-ice glare in his eyes, but he looked straight at Topher. “They will treat him right there? They will not beat him or put him in wire fence?”

“God, no.” Topher let go of Liana and studied Chav. “You're quite a kid, you know? Anybody else would be asking what's going to happen to them, but you're worried about the horse.”

“I don't care what happens to me.”

Topher looked at Chav some more, then said, “The scary thing is, I almost believe that.”

Chav said nothing.

“Well, I care, damn it,” Topher said. “Will you let me handle it?”

Chav didn't say no.

Silence must have been answer enough. Topher headed toward the phone, then seemed to remember he was not at home. “Can I make a long-distance call?” he asked Liana. “I'll—”

“You will
not
pay for it,” she snapped before he could offer. “For God's sake.”

That made him grin as he dialed the number in the magazine ad. But he got serious as he waited for somebody to answer.

Somebody did. “Yes, this is about Fuerza Epica,” Topher barked into the phone in a voice that didn't sound like his. “You want to know where he is, there's got to be no questions asked, or I'm hanging up right now. What? No, you're not putting me on hold. You heard what I said. Do I hang up?” He listened a moment. “Okay, do that. I'll call back.”

He disconnected the phone with his finger and told us, “They're getting the boss.”

Liana nodded. We were all standing there watching Topher, including Chav and Baval and Chavali. Nobody said a word. It was like we were afraid to say anything.

He called back in a few minutes, and this time apparently a different person answered the phone, and Topher said in his normal voice, a soft drawl, “Okay, no questions asked? Good. You want to write down some directions? No, it's okay, ma'am, you I trust.” This was somebody he knew something about. He gave his name, phone number, and directions to his farm. “The horse hasn't been with me long,” he said. “He's scarred up some, he's been mistreated, but not by anybody I know. Not recently. He seems fine now.” A pause. “No, I can't tell you more. Sorry, ma'am. I'll expect you this evening, then.”

He hung up and stood there looking at the phone.

Then he looked at Chav like he was trying to think of what to say. But all he came up with was, “Rom's going tonight.”

Chav stood silent and rigid beside me, all dressed in black as if for a funeral, and I could practically hear his heart breaking. I snapped, “Topher, he
knows
. He
heard
.”

Topher nodded, at me I guess, but he kept looking at Chav. Then he said, “I think you should come out to the stable with me. Say good-bye to him.”

And Chav surprised all of us. He nodded and put on the new black winter jacket Liana had bought him and went with Topher.

I just stood there and watched them walk to the car and didn't even ask to go along. Me, the all-time want-to-ride girl, staying home? But it seemed to me that this day for Chav was like the nights when he walked alone and sang to the darkness. It didn't include me.

Standing beside me, watching out the front window like I was, Baval said in a high, anxious voice, “He'll be back. He promised to stay.”

“I want to stay too,” said Chavali.

“That's right.” I took her hand. “You're going to.”

We watched Topher's beat-up Blazer drive off.

“He promised he'd stay,” Baval said again the same way.

“That's right,” I told him. I had heard Chav's promise too.

The sun was pouring in the window. Why did I feel so cold?

Topher's call came sometime after lunch. Just by the way Liana stood there after she answered the phone I knew something was wrong.

“I'll be right out, Chris.” Those were nearly the only words she said. Then she hung up and grabbed for her jacket. “Gray, stay here. You're in charge.”

“You're not going without me!” No way was I going to stay behind when I knew it had something to do with—“It's about Chav, isn't it? He's run off, right?” I got between her and the door so she couldn't get past me. “I'm going with you.”

“Gray, you can't! He took Christopher's gun.”

That shocked me silly for a minute. I stood there.

“Lock all the doors and pull the curtains. I've got to go see if I can do anything.” Liana headed past me, but I grabbed her by the arm. I'm as big as she is, bigger actually, and I'm a lot younger. If it came to a wrestling match, I doubted she could make me stay behind.

But I didn't have to fight her. I'm pretty good at arguing. “If he has a gun, what makes you think we're safe here by ourselves?” I pointed out. Not that I ever for a minute thought Chav would hurt any of us. But Aunt Lee was a parent, so she had to be scared of everything. It was in her job description.

“Damn, you're right,” she muttered. “Okay, come on, all three of you. Hurry.”

Baval and Chavali were standing there in their slippers and pj's, hanging on to each other like the roof of their lives was caving in. Probably that's how they felt. Chav had always been the solidest thing in the world to them. I threw coats around them and herded them to the car before Lee could change her mind.

They huddled together like puppies in the backseat while Lee tried out areas of her speedometer she'd never used before. All the way out to the stable the only thing she said was, “He hit Chris on the head and took the gun.”

It must have been the rifle Topher had been keeping in the corner of the stable. I asked, “Did he take Rom?”

Liana just lifted one hand like she didn't know.

There were two cop cars parked in the stable yard, their blue flashing lights looking chilly even in the sunshine. Topher was okay—I saw him first thing, standing there holding an ice pack to the back of his head. The second thing I saw was Grandpa, facing off with him.

“… withholding evidence!” Grandpa was yelling at Topher as we got out of the car. “That's a crime, but what's worse is if you'd told me about the goddamn horse, I would have taken the boy in, this wouldn't have happened.”

Topher said in that quiet way of his, “You don't know for sure what might have happened.”

“What the hell are you trying to say?”

“I'm saying it could have been worse. The boy is desperate. I didn't want him cornered.”

“You didn't want!”

“I handled it the best way I could.” Topher wasn't shouting, but he wouldn't step back and he wouldn't give in. Grandpa was all but screaming.

“You got no goddamn business handling it at all! I'd slap the cuffs on you, but I don't trust myself to do it without punching you in the nose. I take this personal. My daughter's involved.”

“What that kid's going through is everybody's business,” Topher said, real low. “And I know your daughter's involved. When this is over I have every intention of marrying your daughter if she'll have me. So I take this personal too.”

That surprised Grandpa quiet for a minute. And standing there, holding Baval and Chavali by their hands, Liana just sort of gasped. Topher turned and saw her, and his face went pink. They stared at each other.

I didn't get to see how it turned out, because I was heading into the stable. Let the adults stand around making hot air. I knew what I had to do. Somebody had to find Chav.

“Thank God.” There stood Rom, gazing at me over his stall door with eyes deep as midnight. I was sure Chav would not have taken any other horse. He was afoot, and that meant there was a chance I could catch up to him.

Quietly I got Rom out of his stall and put a bridle on him—just a bridle, there was no time for a saddle. I vaulted onto his shining black back right there in the barn, where nobody would see me in time to stop me.

This was one time I wasn't riding fat furry little Paradiddle. If I was going to find Chav, it had to be like in the poem, it had to be on the galloping black stallion, Rom, shining like black fire even in the shadows of the barn.

I felt different on Rom, like I could do anything. The Barb stallion was not tall, yet being on him felt immense.

Chav was out there somewhere carrying a gun.

Turning Rom toward the door, I whispered to his pricked black ears, “Please, we've got to find him before he does something crazy.” I'm not saying he understood. But he knew something was going on. He was quivering all over. When I tightened my legs he bunched to run. Yet his mouth listened to my grip on the reins.

I leaned forward, grabbed hold of his long mane, and let him go.

He plunged that heavy head of his and leaped into a dead run within a stride. It was like riding a thunderbolt, a streak of black lightning, the wind before a storm. I heard people yell—Topher, Grandpa, Lee—but never really saw them. By the time I blinked they were left behind, we were sweeping across the countryside.

Empty countryside. Where had Chav gone?

We were out of sight of the stable now. Every inch of me ached from the force of the black horse's galloping. I slowed Rom to a jog and tried to think, tried to imagine myself inside Chav's mind. Where would he have gone?

My life is the color of midnight
.

The black horse of anger gallops closer
.…

The world will die under his iron tread
,

And the moon in my sky is a cold dead eye
…

I had to face it: Chav was hurting enough to want to die. And angry enough to want to kill.

C
HAPTER

11

Sitting in Topher's passenger seat, on his way out to the stable, Chav felt something inside him come apart—he could almost hear it snap, like a bone breaking, only it was not a bone, it was—him. He said nothing but knew: it would soon be over. Any personal togetherness he had managed to maintain was going fast since Baval and Chavali no longer needed him. He felt like two or more people now.

Show them, one of him said. Kill them all.

Not this one too, begged the other. Not Topher.

Yes, Topher too, you wuss, you coward, you little bloody-nose crybaby, can't you do anything right? No wonder you always ended up on the floor, no wonder you could never win. You're no good. You're a loser.

Shut up. Let me alone. I just want to die.

It was as if time had skipped a few beats. Next thing he was there, walking into the stable, and Rom whinnied and nodded his long strong head out the stall door, glad to see him. “Hi, Gypsy horse,” he whispered, rubbing Rom's forehead, laying his cheek against the flannel softness of the horse's nose. It seemed to be okay to love animals. And there was no need to be afraid of Rom any longer. No need any longer to be afraid of the black stallion of anger. Whatever had to happen was going to happen.

Briefly Chav regretted not being able to give the horse to Gray. She would have liked that.

Shut up about Gray. She's just another goddamn gadjo. Kill them all
.

No, not all
.

All! Kill them. It's the only way a pansy like you will ever be somebody
.

Topher came in with the grooming box. “Gotta get him shined up for tonight,” he muttered.

Rom shone already like the death angel's black wings. Topher had been feeding him well. Brushing him. Taking good care of him.

When Topher put the grooming box down and bent over it, Chav reached for a broom handle and hit him with it, hard, on the back of the head.

Topher fell and lay still.

As if he had been rehearsing this all his life Chav walked over to the corner where the rifle stood, where he had seen it the day he brought Rom here. Yes, it was still there. He checked it—yes, it was loaded. He cradled it and took two boxes of ammunition from the wall joist above it.

Turned, and knew he should start by killing Topher.

No
.

Yes. He's a stinking gadjo
.