Carole (7 page)

Okay, I didn’t think
anything
could make me feel better about not getting to go to Moose Hill this year. But then along came Kate.… I still can hardly believe we’re going out to the Bar None again! I have never been so glad that Kate’s father was a pilot in the Marines, or that he retired, or that he has that part-time job flying that businessman’s private plane, or that the businessman has to come to Washington a lot, or that we live so close to Washington.… Oh, you know what I mean. Sometimes I think we’re the luckiest girls in the world! I can’t wait to see Kate again, and Colonel and Mrs. Devine, and Christine and John and of course wonderful Stewball. Riding Stewball again just might even make me forget how unfair it is that practically everyone else in the entire world has their own horse except for me. But I almost feel like Stewball is mine—he’s like my horse away from home! Ha ha!

Anyway, I don’t know if you two will even see this message before we leave tomorrow, since it’s, like, three
A.M
. right now. But I was just too excited to sleep!

Git along, little dogies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s amazing how even the nighttime sounds are different here at the Bar None than they are at home. I’m lying on my bunk in our usual cabin right now, writing this. The others are asleep already, and I’ll probably join them soon—it’s been a long and exciting day. But I’m still a little too keyed up to sleep quite yet.

By the way, I’ve discovered yet another horse-related career: horseback acting! I don’t think that’s the career for me, though. It’s not quite as easy as it looks, as Stevie discovered.

It all started when Kate announced, almost as soon as we arrived yesterday afternoon, that she had volunteered all of us (herself and Christine included) to play robbery victims in the Wild West show in Two Mile Creek. It’s a reenactment of a Wild West bank robbery and shoot-’em-up that’s held every day on the main street of town. It’s really fun to watch, and we were all thrilled at the idea of being a part of it.

But that wasn’t the only big news Kate had for us. We were sitting down to dinner last night when she turned to me, Stevie, and Lisa. “I almost forgot to tell you about the auction,” she told us. “It’s just about the biggest news around here right now. I was about to tell you before, but then we got distracted talking about other things, and I forgot.”

“An auction?” I asked, not really understanding what she meant at first. Actually, I was picturing this auction I went to with Dad once where they were selling a whole bunch of musty old rifles and Civil War uniforms and other military
memorabilia. The only interesting things they had at that auction were a few pieces of antique tack. “What kind?”

“The best kind—a horse auction,” Kate said. She explained that ever since Walter and John Brightstar had started working at the Bar None, the Devines had more well-trained horses than they knew what to do with. “It’s going to take place at the end of the week,” Kate went on. “My mom seems determined to make it into a big event. She’s going to sell a lot of baked goods and canned preserves, and she’ll have sandwiches and things for sale, too.”

“It sounds perfect,” I declared.

“Good,” Kate said, her eyes sparkling. “Because I promised Mom and Dad that you guys would help out. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Mind?” Stevie raised an eyebrow. “The only thing we’d mind is if you
didn’t
let us help!”

We talked about the auction and the Wild West show all through dinner. By the time we finished it was still light out, so we went out to the big corral near the barn to say hello to the horses. I was happy to see Berry again, and Lisa was glad to see Chocolate. But nobody was as thrilled as Stevie was to see Stewball. I swear, sometimes I think that girl and that horse were separated at birth! They have more in common (namely their fun-loving, mischievous, slightly ornery personalities) than most people do with their actual blood relatives! Ha ha!

Naturally, I couldn’t wait to see Moonglow, the mare Kate got at the wild horse roundup, and Moonglow’s foal, Felix. Kate had told me a lot about the two of them in letters and
phone calls, but I hadn’t seen them yet in person, since she got them right after our last visit to the Bar None.

“Where are they?” I asked her eagerly. “I’m dying to see them.”

“They’re in the barn,” Kate said.

“Why are you keeping them in the barn?” I asked, glancing at the herd of horses in the corral in front of us. “Isn’t Felix old enough to stay out with the herd yet?”

“Oh, he’s old enough, all right,” Kate said with a laugh. “I can’t remember if I explained why I named him Felix.”

“It is an unusual name for a horse,” I said.

“But a good name for a cat, right?” Kate said. “And you know what they say about cats and curiosity. Well, Felix is about the most curious foal I ever met. Last week he decided to see how a cactus would taste.”

“Oh no!” I exclaimed. “Is he okay?”

“Oh, sure. The cactus was tiny and definitely took the worst of it,” Kate assured me. “We’re just keeping Felix and his mama inside for a week or two until we’re sure he’s completely healed.” She chuckled. “He may be nosy, but he’s not stupid. I don’t think he’ll make that mistake again. Come on, I’ll introduce you to them.”

We headed into the barn, leaving the others out by the corral. Moonglow and Felix were just as wonderful as I was expecting. Moonglow is a gorgeous pale gray mare, and even though she was a wild horse not too long ago, she’s already really sweet and friendly, though a little shy with new people. And Felix is positively adorable! His little
bottlebrush tail never stopped moving, and he ran right over and sort of bleated at Kate and me as soon as we approached the stall. It was so cute! I’m sure Kate will have a lot of fun training them both, especially with Walter’s and John’s expert help. It almost made me wish I had a foal to train—at least until I remembered how much work I still have to do with Starlight!

Anyway, we went to bed pretty soon after that since we were tired from the trip out. This morning we woke up bright and early for one of Phyllis Devine’s five-star ranch breakfasts, then got ready to head into town to rehearse for the bank robbery show. Christine had ridden over from her house before breakfast, so all five of us rode to Two Mile Creek together. While we were in the corral getting our horses, John Brightstar saw us and asked where we were going. When he heard the answer, he burst out laughing, then teased us mercilessly about being in the “Wild West Dude Show,” as he called it.

We really didn’t pay that much attention to him, though. He’s always joking around, and besides, we were all too excited about being in the show to care much what anyone said. But I did notice that Lisa started blushing as soon as John began teasing us, and I had a pretty good idea why. The last time we visited Kate, Lisa and John became pretty good friends. More than friends, I guess—they actually kissed once or twice. Stevie and I were completely clueless about it at the time, though. It wasn’t until we were home again and Lisa sort of admitted the whole thing that we had any idea. So this time I’m
planning to keep an eye on the two of them. I don’t want to be nosy or anything, but I also don’t want to be oblivious again.

When we arrived in town, Kate introduced us to Chuck Pierce, the director of the show. He also stars in it as Outlaw Buck McClanahan, the “head varmint,” as Kate says. Chuck instructed us to tie our horses (he called them critters) to a hitching post in front of the sheriff’s office. Kate explained that Chuck liked to have some horses around during the show to give the place an authentic Wild West look. Then we headed over to the high-school gym for the rehearsal.

“First things first,” Chuck said when we got there. “We have to get you gals properly gussied up.”

“Awesome,” Stevie said. “Do we get spurs and hats like yours?”

“Not quite,” Chuck said with a smile. He pointed out a tall red-haired woman on the other side of the gym. “Go over and see Cassie, there. She’ll get you outfitted.”

We did as he said, and in a matter of minutes we were dressed in our costumes for the show. I think Stevie was a little disappointed to find out that those costumes looked more like something out of
Little House on the Prairie
than
Gunfight at the OK Corral
—in other words, long calico dresses and crisp white bonnets.

“Remember,” I told her, “we’re supposed to be the helpless victims, not the cowboys.”

Stevie still couldn’t help grumbling a little, especially when she saw Cassie emerging a moment later dressed just
like Chuck, with her long red hair pinned up and tucked under a black cowboy hat.

Next Cassie explained more about the show and our parts. “We’re a vicious band of desperadoes,” she explained with a smile. “So remember to look scared. You girls are going to be walking along innocently in front of the bank when we come out of it with our guns blazing. When we see you, each of us will grab one of you as a hostage and start dragging you toward our horses. You should all be screaming and crying out the whole time, but not so loud that the audience can’t hear the rest of the dialogue.”

“Then what happens?” I asked. When we’d seen the Wild West show before, there hadn’t been any hostages.

“While you’re being carried toward the horses, one of you faints.” She pointed to me. “Think you can do that?”

I placed one hand over my forehead and pretended to swoon, crumpling dramatically to the floor. My friends applauded my performance.

“All right, you win the part,” Cassie said with a grin. She assigned parts to the rest of the “victims.” Lisa was supposed to wriggle free of her bad guy and run for cover. Christine got to wrestle the gun away from the robber holding her and march him into the jail. And Kate and Stevie would just be carried over to the horses, where the robbers would drop them. They were supposed to run for cover offstage when the shoot-out with the posse began.

I could tell that Stevie was a bit disappointed once again. I’m sure she was hoping for a more active role. Still, I knew
that we would all have lots of fun, no matter what parts we were playing.

We practiced our section of the show a few times with Cassie and Chuck and the other robbers. Then Chuck said we had time to change out of our costumes and go grab some lunch before we had to get ready for our debut performance.

First we went to check on our horses, who were fine, and then we wandered aimlessly around town. “I couldn’t eat a thing,” Stevie declared once or twice, and I knew what she meant. I was too excited to even think about lunch.

“I’m not hungry, either,” Lisa said. “But I definitely am thirsty. I’ve never had to do so much screaming in my life.”

“Me neither.” Suddenly Stevie stopped in front of a store. “Let’s go in here a minute.”

“The candy store?” Christine said. “I thought you weren’t hungry.”

“I’m not,” Stevie replied, and she disappeared into the store. The rest of us shrugged and followed.

Like a lot of downtown Two Mile Creek, the candy store was decorated like an old-fashioned Western shop. Glass jars, filled with every kind of candy I could imagine, lined the walls. Stevie was already at the counter placing her order.

“Rock candy!” Lisa said as the shopkeeper handed Stevie a bulging paper bag. “I should have known.”

“It’s one of her favorite treats in the world,” I explained to Kate and Christine.

“It’s one of mine, too,” Christine said as Stevie rejoined us. “I hope you’re planning to share, Stevie.”

We left the shop and strolled down the sidewalk. “Don’t worry, I’ll share,” Stevie said. “But this candy is mostly for medicinal purposes. I’ve got a little bit of a sore throat from all that screaming, and I wouldn’t want to lose my voice.” She gave a weak-sounding cough.

I raised my eyebrow suspiciously. “You don’t sound very sick to me,” I told her. “But as long as you stick to that promise to share, I won’t say a word.”

Sensible Lisa suggested we should probably try to eat something other than rock candy before the show, so we headed over to a hamburger place for lunch before going back to the gym. We got dressed in our costumes again, then crowded around the full-length mirror in the locker room to make last-minute adjustments.

“Stevie, what are you doing?” Kate asked at one point.

I glanced over and saw that Stevie had a guilty look on her face. She also had her dress hitched up above her waist and was shoving the bag of rock candy deep into one of the pockets of her jeans, which she had left on beneath the long skirt.

She started babbling about her so-called sore throat again, so we teased her until she passed the candy bag around again. When we went back out into the main part of the gym, still sucking on our candy, one of the other performers asked where we’d gotten it.