Starting Gate (2 page)

Everyone stopped talking and looked at Stevie.

“Well, okay.” She shrugged apologetically. “Maybe I did jabber about California a little bit. I didn’t mean to confuse any drivers, though.”

“Okay,” said Max. “Now that we’re all clear on our destination, let’s get going.”

“Here. Let me give you Danny’s pills now.” Veronica once again waved the bottle of pills in Darrell’s face.

“For Pete’s sake, Veronica,” said Stevie. “Don’t distract him before he can even get the gate locked on the trailer. Give me the pills and I’ll give them to him later—after we’re sure he’s leaving with everything he’s supposed to take.”

“You won’t forget? Traveling makes Danny crazy.”

“Veronica, you’re what makes Danny crazy, not taking a trip to California.” Stevie took the pills from Veronica. “But I’ll give them to Darrell, just to be sure.”

“Thanks.” Veronica wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. “I think I need to go back in the office where it’s cool. I’m feeling a little faint.”

“Fine,” muttered Stevie, turning her attention back to the van. “Just faint somewhere out of the way.”

Veronica glared at Stevie, but then turned and hurried to Mrs. Reg’s air-conditioned office. Stevie tossed Danny’s tranquilizers into her backpack while Max went over a copy of all the horses’ medical forms with Darrell.

“Hey, Stevie,” Lisa called down from the loading ramp. “Don’t you want to kiss Belle good-bye?”

“Of course I do!” Stevie hurried up the ramp and into the van, where she was relieved to see all the horses munching hay inside surprisingly roomy stalls. Just as Max had said, soothing violin music was floating from Carole’s tape player. Maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all.

“Gosh,” she said as she gave Belle a long good-bye scratch behind her ears. “This looks great. These guys look more comfortable than we’ll be on the airplane!”

“I know,” agreed Lisa. “Even if they do have a nitwit for a driver, at least they’ve got a wonderful traveling stable!”

“Come on, girls!” Max’s voice echoed from the ground. “All two-legged personnel need to disembark. Darrell wants to get rolling!”

They bid their horses good-bye, then Darrell locked the back of the van and climbed into the cab. The huge engine started with a growl and all the running lights of the trailer came on. Slowly he began to drive down the driveway.

“See you in California!” he yelled at the three girls, laughing as he waved his cap out the window.

Stevie, Carole, and Lisa watched, waving, until the trailer crossed a little bridge and the van’s taillights disappeared around a curve.

“Thank heavens that’s over,” sighed Mrs. Reg, fanning herself with an old saddle pad.

“Mrs. Reg, do you really think that guy is okay?” Stevie asked worriedly. “I mean, he seemed incredibly dumb. Maybe we should have gotten some kind of special alarm to put on the back of the trailer.”

“Like what, Stevie?” laughed Lisa. “A dumb alarm?”

“I don’t know. A wrong turn alarm. A wrong state alarm.” Stevie’s hair seemed to stand on end. “Maybe even a wrong country alarm. He might take our horses to Mexico!”

“Oh, Stevie, he’s all right. He just got confused. We were all running around like chickens with our heads cut off.” Mrs. Reg gave her a kind smile. “Anyway, he’s only driving to Richmond. There an older, more reliable driver will take over.”

“That worries me even more,” admitted Stevie. “Who knows how many total strangers are going to be driving our precious horses all over the country?”

Mrs. Reg gave Stevie a quick hug. “Stevie, this is a reputable company, and they’re bonded and insured. I’m sure there won’t be any more problems.”

“Mrs. Reg is right, Stevie,” said Lisa. “Anyway, whoever drives the truck has excellent directions to Ashford Farms.”

“It’s not Ashford Farms I’m worried about,” replied Stevie. “I’m afraid they won’t be able to find California!”

“Oh, Stevie.” Carole laughed. “Why don’t we go over to TD’s and calm down with a Saddle Club meeting?”

“Good idea,” said Lisa. “There’s nothing left to do here, anyway, except miss our horses. And we’ve got lots to talk about, like our trip!”

“Well, all right,” Stevie agreed reluctantly, giving a final worried glance to the small cloud of dust the trailer had left behind.

A
FEW MINUTES
later The Saddle Club settled into their regular booth at TD’s, the local ice-cream shop where the girls held many of their meetings. They had formed The Saddle Club a while back, when they had discovered they had something in common: They were all totally crazy about horses. So far the club had three regular members—Stevie, Lisa, and Carole—and several out-of-town members. The only rules were that members had to love horses and help each other out whenever possible.

“What are you going to have today, girls?” asked their usual waitress.

“A small chocolate malt for me, please,” said Lisa.

“Me too,” added Carole.

The waitress scribbled on her pad, then waited for Stevie to decide.

“I’d like a lime and orange sherbet sundae with fudge sauce and marshmallows, please,” said Stevie, smiling.

“Is that with marshmallow cream or just regular marshmallows?” the waitress asked with a shudder.

“Uh, marshmallow cream today,” Stevie replied.

“Coming up,” the waitress said, shaking her head.

“And mint chips.”

“Coming up.”

“Oh, and don’t forget the cherry.”

“Who could?”

“Thanks.” Stevie watched as the waitress took their order to the counter, then she turned to her friends, her eyes wide with excitement.

“Can you believe that in less than a week we’re actually going to be competing in a Pony Club competition in California?”

“No,” said Carole, tossing her long dark hair. “But then I can’t believe that Veronica and I are entered in the same hunter-jumper class. Imagine traveling three thousand miles to team up with the snootiest, most spoiled rider at Pine Hollow!”

“Oh, you’ll see lots of other riders there besides
Veronica, Carole,” Lisa reminded her. “I know I’ll see lots of great riding in my equitation class.”

“And I’ll be competing against some wonderful dressage riders,” Stevie added. “I’m just glad all four of us will be competing as a team in the mounted games.”

“The Saddle Club should do great,” said Carole. “I just hope Veronica cooperates.”

“She probably won’t, but what else is new?” Stevie grinned as the waitress handed her a bowl of pastel-colored ice cream covered with dark brown sauce, white goo, bright green chips, and the promised red cherry.

“I just hope we haven’t forgotten anything,” said Lisa as she took a swallow of chocolate malt.

“Did you get suntan lotion for the wonderful tan you’ll get?” asked Carole.

Lisa nodded. “My mother already packed it.”

“Did you get an autograph book for the thousands of movie stars we’ll see?” asked Stevie.

Lisa nodded again. “I’m bringing something even more wonderful than that.”

“What?” Stevie and Carole asked together.

“I’ve got Skye Ransom’s phone number. I read in a fan magazine that he’s filming a movie about racehorses. Maybe when he’s not shooting, he can come and watch us compete.”

“Wow,” said Stevie. “That would be great. We haven’t seen Skye in a long time.”

“Maybe we could go visit him when we’re not competing, too,” said Carole. “It would be fun to be on a movie set with him again.”

“I think this is going to be one of our greatest trips of all time!” said Stevie.

“Me too,” agreed Carole. “I only hope our horses enjoy it half as much as we will!”

“L
OOK DOWN THERE
, Stevie!” Carole teased. “It looks like Darrell and our horses!”

Stevie shifted little Maxi Regnery to her left knee and leaned across Carole’s seat. Thousands of feet below them, on a thin gray ribbon of highway, Stevie saw what looked like a bright red horse trailer, crawling along like an ant.

“You really think so?” Stevie lifted one eyebrow in curiosity.

“No.” Carole laughed and shook her head. “Even if Darrell were the best horse driver in the world, I don’t think he could possibly have driven our horses this far west.”

“Yeah, Stevie,” said Lisa from the aisle seat.
“We’ve already begun our descent to L.A. Darrell’s probably still trying to figure out how to get to Richmond.”

“Don’t say that, you guys!” Stevie cried. “If our horses don’t show up, then this whole trip will be a total waste!”

“Calm down, Stevie,” said Carole. “We’re just kidding. Mrs. Reg assured us that Darrell would turn the truck over to a more experienced driver in Richmond. Our horses are probably rolling through Arkansas right now, munching hay and listening to Mozart.”

“Yeeoowww!” Stevie jumped as Maxi chomped down on one of her fingers. “And little Maxi is up here, munching on me!”

“Sorry, Stevie.” Deborah Regnery leaned up from the seat behind Stevie, where she was sitting. She clapped her hands and held out her arms for Maxi. “I should have warned you—she’s cutting teeth and chewing on everything. I’ll buckle her into her seat now.”

“No problem.” Stevie laughed, rubbing the four small tooth marks on her finger. “Just as long as she doesn’t act like Belle and mistake me for a carrot!”

The plane gave a small lurch, and the pilot’s voice came over the intercom. “Ladies and gentlemen, please keep your seat belts fastened for our final approach to Los Angeles International Airport. We
should be landing in approximately fifteen minutes. Currently, the weather in Los Angeles is clear and seventy-eight degrees. We’ve enjoyed having you on this flight, and hope you’ll fly with us again soon.”

“California, here we come!” Stevie grinned at her friends as they all tightened their seat belts and prepared to land.

A little while later all seven of them hurried through the huge Los Angeles airport, trying to get to the right baggage carousel. Max had Maxi in a carrier on his back, and the little girl’s eyes popped at the activity swirling around them. All sorts of people hurried past—bearded men in turbans, three women dressed in bright yellow saris, two men wearing black cowboy hats and carrying big guitar cases. Lots of different languages and accents floated through the air.

“This is nuts,” whispered Stevie as a man carrying a big silver vulture-shaped kite almost ran into a flight attendant.

“No.” Carole laughed. “This is California. Keep your eyes peeled. We might see somebody famous.”

Peering curiously at everyone who wore sunglasses, they hurried down a long corridor until Max pointed them to the carousel where their luggage would be unloaded.

“Whew!” gasped Deborah, taking Maxi in her arms. “That was quite a stroll.”

“You got that right.” Max checked his boarding
pass to make sure they were in the correct place. “How many bags are we waiting for?”

“One for me,” said Stevie.

“One for each of us,” added Lisa and Carole.

“I’ve got three,” replied Veronica, carelessly shrugging her shoulders.

“Well, we may as well make ourselves comfortable.” Max sighed. “This will probably take a while.”

The girls sat down and waited for their luggage to roll onto the carousel. “Let’s make some plans,” said Lisa, leaning back in her seat. “Today is Tuesday. We’ve got two whole days to enjoy California before the horses get here. What should we do?”

“We could go and watch some of the other events at the rally.” Carole glanced at her watch. “It started fifteen minutes ago.”

“That would be fun,” agreed Stevie. “But we’ll be spending most of the weekend there already. It might be cool to do some other California-type things until the horses get here.”

“Like go to Disneyland?” asked Lisa, waving back at Maxi, who was playing peekaboo from her mother’s arms.

“Yes. And Knott’s Berry Farm,” Stevie suggested. “Both those places are lots of fun.”

“And don’t forget the La Brea Tar Pits,” added Carole.

“Oh, who would possibly want to see a bunch of old fossils when you can go shopping?” sneered Veronica. “My mother told me there are some wonderful new shops on Rodeo Drive.”

“I don’t think my budget will allow shopping on Rodeo Drive,” Lisa answered with a sigh.

“Mine won’t, either,” said Stevie. “Anyway, shopping sounds like a waste of perfectly good California sunshine.”

“Look!” Carole cried, her brown eyes wide. “Do you see what I see?” She pointed to the other side of the baggage carousel, where a tall, white-haired man in a blue blazer was holding a sign that had
THE SADDLE CLUB
printed on it in bright red letters.

Stevie shook her head. “I must be having an attack of jet lag. I could almost swear that says ‘The Saddle Club.’ ”

Lisa looked at the sign. “It does say ‘The Saddle Club.’ I just had my eyes checked last month, and my vision’s twenty-twenty.”

Stevie looked at her friends. “Do you think Skye could have found out when our plane was landing and sent someone to meet us?”

Carole shrugged, but Lisa giggled. “I think all he had to do was read the e-mail I sent him!”

“Lisa!” Carole cried. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“I don’t know.” Lisa grinned. “I guess I wanted it
to be a surprise. Also, I wasn’t sure how often Skye checked his e-mail when he’s making a movie.”