Tianna the Terrible (Anika Scott Series) (5 page)

"Who cares. She'll find us when she's ready," Tianna said, still giggling. "She never comes when she says anyway."

"I don't want to get in trouble," I insisted. "Maybe she'll come when she said she would because I'm here. Let's go back."

"So eat your truck first," she said, grinning. She giggled again. "You're great. Anika, my smuggling cousin, who thinks a Big Mac is a truck!"

I frowned. It wasn't all that funny, especially the part about smuggling. "I wasn't trying to smuggle," I said with my mouth full. "It was just tulip bulbs for your mom. Only they weren't supposed to come into Canada, but I didn't know that." I squirmed and added, "At least, not at first."

Tianna gave me another funny look. "Why would you buy tulip bulbs for my mother?"

I shrugged. I was tired of talking about parents, especially since Tianna acted so weird about it. "Come on, let's go."

Aunt Doreen was there. "Where were you, Tianna!" she demanded. "I've been here for hou—" She stopped mid-sentence and stared at me. "Look at you, Anika! I love your clothes and your hair. Wow! You have great taste."

I squirmed and then remembered my manners. "I'm sorry we're late, Aunt Doreen," I said. "And thank you very much for buying me these clothes and stuff. It was Tianna who helped me choose such nice things."

Maybe now she won't yell at Tianna anymore,
I thought. It didn't work.

When I said Tianna's name it was like Aunt Doreen remembered she was mad. She whirled on Tianna and demanded, "What about it, Tianna? Why were you so late? And if you can help Anika take care of her hair, why can't you do something about your own? Where's the barrette I made you put in this morning?"

Tianna just stared at her and didn't say a word. I wished I could disappear. Nobody said anything else the whole way home.

Chapter Four

After the miserable ride back from the mall with Aunt Doreen and Tianna mad at each other, I was glad to get out of the car. Going into the house was another matter. What would my parents say about my new clothes and haircut?

Mom and Daddy were talking to Uncle Kurt in the living room. All of them stopped and stared at me.

"Anika, you look terrific," Uncle Kurt said, then everybody was talking at once. I couldn't tell if Mom really liked how I looked or not.

"We will of course pay you back," Daddy said.

"No, you won't," said Aunt Doreen. "Kurt is happy to do anything for his missionary sister and her kids." She gave Uncle Kurt a fierce look and walked out.

"Hey, no fair," Sandy said. "How come you get all these new clothes and I don't?"

"Kurt," Daddy said, "we can't let you do this."

"I didn't do it, my wife did. If for once she does something nice, I'm not going to stop it," Uncle Kurt said. "Sandy is right, though. We'll have to get her some new clothes, too."

Daddy started to argue, and Mom stood up to leave and motioned me to come with her. She didn't look pleased. Sandy followed us into the bedroom. "Anika, how could you do this?" She was talking really soft so no one would hear us. "You know we don't just take things from people."

I tried to explain how it just kind of happened. "It really wasn't Aunt Doreen anyway. It was Tianna," I ended by saying. "Mom, Aunt Doreen is terrible."

"She's not really terrible," Mom said. "She's just mixed up and very angry. How much money did you spend?"

"Well, Aunt Doreen gave Tianna two hundred dollars. Tianna says nobody cares what she does with money. They must be super rich."

"Yeah," said Sandy. "It won't matter if they buy me clothes then, too."

"Whether they're well off or not has nothing to do with this," Mom said. "I don't feel at all right about taking the money in such a careless way. We can't afford to spend two hundred dollars on one outfit, Anika. We'll just have to take it back."

"Mommm, please?" I begged. "With these clothes I feel almost OK here. I need them. Besides, Uncle Kurt said we should keep them."

"That's enough!" Mom said.

At least they can't take my haircut back,
I thought. It turned out I didn't have to give any of my new stuff back. Daddy said that if we wanted to maintain a good relationship with Uncle Kurt and Aunt Doreen we'd just have to keep the clothes, because Uncle Kurt was absolutely determined that we should.

"I'll get more clothes than you," Sandy said. "I won't waste it all on one outfit."

"So?" I said.

"Come on, let's go watch TV," she said and headed downstairs.

The next day was Sunday, and we didn't go to church. Mom and Daddy both slept until midmorning, then we had a family church like we do when we're camping. Daddy read the Bible and asked us questions. Aunt Doreen didn't get up, but Uncle Kurt and Tianna both sat with us. After church Uncle Kurt stayed and talked to Mom and Daddy for ages.

At lunch he said, "You know, Kevin, I'm starting to think the Bible's worth listening to. I want to get back to a more traditional life-style. You know, women should stay home and serve and obey their husbands."

"Christianity isn't about tradition," Daddy explained. "It's about total submission to a loving God by both men and women. Ephesians chapter five says that the husband should lay down his life for his wife, the way Christ laid down his life for the church."

Uncle Kurt didn't seem to hear. He said, "I think things would be a lot better if people stuck to traditional family roles."

Aunt Doreen walked into the room in her bathrobe just then. She glared at Uncle Kurt's back on her way over to the fridge. I held my breath waiting for the fight, but she grabbed an apple out of the fridge, poured a cup of coffee, and left the room.

After lunch Uncle Kurt said, "OK, who's ready to go to Parkers'?"

It turned out that the Parkers were people he knew who owned a ranch south of Calgary.

"I couldn't let my nieces come to Alberta without getting a look at a real ranch," Uncle Kurt said, poking Sandy in the ribs.

"Do they have horses?" I asked. I'm absolutely crazy about horses. Of course, Sandy asked about kittens because cats are her thing.

Uncle Kurt nodded and laughed. "No respectable ranch would be without horses or kittens."

"Kurt, I'm sorry, but Kevin should take it easy," Mom said as she stacked the dishes. My stomach twisted. Daddy couldn't get tired because then he'd get really sick again.

"I'm sure I could manage, since Kurt has gone to all this trouble," Daddy said. But he looked really tired.

"You promised!" I blurted. "You promised to rest."

"Anika!" Mom said.

"But you did!" I insisted.

"Anika's right, Hazel," Daddy said, "and so are you. I did promise." He turned to Kurt. "There's no reason Hazel and the kids couldn't go. I'm sure Anika and Sandy would just hate that." He looked at us with a twinkle in his eyes.

"You'd better get out of your new clothes, though, Anika," Mom said. "Ranches in the spring aren't the cleanest things in the world. This should be fun."

Tianna had been standing at the door from the hall, watching. Now she said, "I'm going over to Sharra's this afternoon."

"Tianna, get ready," Uncle Kurt snapped at her. "You're coming, too. You haven't been to Parkers' since last fall."

"You never even asked if I wanted to go with you when you went before. What am I supposed to do? Get there by myself or something?" she demanded.

"I don't want any lip from you," he snapped. "I'm offering to take you now, and you're coming whether you want to or not."

When I went to get changed, Tianna followed me into the bedroom. She sat on my bed, hugged her knees, and said, "I wish my mom and dad were more like yours. It seems like mine are always either yelling at me or fighting with each other."

She looked so sad. "You could come and live with us," I said without thinking. I stuffed my head into a sweatshirt and didn't hear what she said next.

Outside the city we drove for miles down gravel roads that were as straight as a ruler. The land was flat except for the shining white, jagged mountains in the distance. Everything was bare, brown, and muddy. There were humps of dirty snow in the ditches. When we got out of Uncle Kurt's pickup truck, the wind was cold.

"How come everybody here likes spring so much?" I asked, hugging my arms and trying to step around the muddiest patches.

"I guess you have to live through winter to appreciate it," Mom said.

I promised myself right then and there that I'd never live in a place where there was winter.

Mrs. Parker had long, straight hair and a nice smile. She hugged Tianna. "I'm so glad your dad brought you with him. I've missed you," she said. "It's nice to meet your cousins, too."

Mr. Parker shook everybody's hands with a quick jerk and didn't say anything. He looked like a cowboy, only instead of a cowboy hat he wore a baseball cap that said "Cargill" on it. He wasn't very tall, but he was thin and had on muddy cowboy boots. Mr. and Mrs. Parker had three kids. Sandy took off with two of them to look for kittens.

"Didn't the black-and-white mother have her kittens in the tractor Quonset?" one kid asked as they headed off. "Come on, let's go see if she moved them."

Tianna and I ended up following Dean Parker, who is twelve, to a high wooden fence to look at some muddy horses. The way she was acting, I think Tianna kind of liked Dean.

A big black horse came over toward us. Tianna backed off, and I reached out my hand too quickly. The horse jumped back and crow-hopped twice. The other horses danced away from it, then they all stood and stared at us, their ears all pricked up. They were wonderful.

I don't think Tianna thought so. She backed up even farther when the horses were dancing around. She looked scared.

"Um, I'm going to see the kittens," she said. "You coming, Anika?"

I just shook my head without taking my eyes off of the horses. I'd only been riding twice in Kenya. These horses looked stronger and bigger than the ones there.

"Boy, are you ever lucky," I said to Dean, "having your own horses."

"I don't see what's so great about that," he said. "They're Dad's anyway, and most horses are dumber than a bag of hammers. I'd rather ride an ATV any day. I'm stuck with horses right now because there's too much water in the south quarter to take my three-wheeler through there. Hey, if you think horses are so great, why don't you come with me?"

"With you where?" I asked. "The horses are here." I wasn't about to leave. The black one was coming back over to us again. I put my hand out very slowly. "What kind of horses are they?"

"Quarter horse," Dean said. "JJ here is registered. All of them are, except Babe—that one over there with the white blaze. Dad says she's the best of the lot. Listen,

I'm not talking about leaving the horses. I'm talking about taking two of them out to check on the cows in the south quarter."

"Riding?" I asked with a squeak. "You mean going riding?"

He nodded at me like he thought I had no brain.

"Don't we have to ask permission?"

"Look, I have to do this every day. Dad made checking on the south-quarter cow herd my job during the spring calving. It's no big deal."

"That's what
you
think!" I said.

Dean made me stay outside the fence while he caught JJ and Babe and put bridles on them. He led them both out of the gate, then handed me Babe's reins. He sort of vaulted onto JJ's back and said, "Come on."

I swallowed nervously. Bareback riding! Well, I wasn't going to chicken out now. I put the reins over Babe's head, then I tried to climb on. It didn't work. Babe looked back at me. I tried again.

"Haven't you ever been riding before?" Dean asked, laughing. He got down and took Babe over to the wooden fence. "Climb on from there."

Babe's back seemed very high up—not to mention slippery—as we followed JJ down the driveway. I copied how Dean was holding the reins. It was different than how I'd learned in Kenya.
Western riding,
I thought and grinned.

We rode down the side of the road a little way, then through a gate into wide-open, taffy-colored grassland.

"Heeya!" Dean yelled, and he and JJ took off at a dead run. Big globs of mud flew up from JJ's hooves. With a lunge, Babe tore after them. I let go of the reins and grabbed her mane, holding on with my knees and hands like I'd never let go. I could feel Babe's huge muscles moving underneath me and the wind blowing in my face. I was both petrified and wildly happy all at the same time. Babe tore through an enormous puddle, and water sprayed up from her hooves in all directions.

We tore past Dean, and he yelled, "Pull back on the reins, stupid!"

I let go of Babe's mane with one hand and made a grab for the reins, which luckily were tied together so they hadn't dropped. I pulled back hard, and Babe practically sat down. I went over her head in a somersault and landed in another puddle. Babe just stood there looking at me.

"Are you all right?" Dean yelled as he galloped over.

I nodded, and he started laughing. "That was some dismount. You're lucky Babe ground ties or you'd have to catch her again. I'm going to check the cows, then I'll be right back."