Chocolate Horse (11 page)

Lisa turned the knob and went in. Carole followed. Lisa flipped on the wall switch.

Stevie’s eyes popped open. “What the—?”

“Surprise!” Carole and Lisa said in a single voice.

“Huh?”

“We brought you breakfast in bed,” said Lisa.

“Whuh?”

“We decided that you needed to be treated just a little bit like the wonderful person you are for at least a morning, so we made you a royal treat.”

“Wha?”

Stevie was slow to wake up. She always was that way,
and her friends always knew it. They were patient, though, and they didn’t mind explaining again once Carole had put the heavy tray down on Stevie’s bureau.

“We haven’t seen you,” Carole said. “We just needed to spend some time with you, so we decided to kill two birds with one stone.”

“What Carole means,” Lisa jumped in, “is that we wanted to do something nice for you
and
do something nice for us. For you we made breakfast. For us we planned a visit with you. So, surprise!”

Slowly but surely, it began sinking in through the cobwebs that seemed to be covering Stevie’s brain.

“How’d you … What’d you?”

Carole knew how to answer those questions. “We came in through the back door after your father went for his morning run. We brought breakfast over from Lisa’s house, where I spent the night last night after the dance.”

“Oh, right, the dance,” Stevie said, looking sad.

“So are you ready for breakfast?” Lisa chimed in cheerfully.

Stevie sat up in bed, adjusted the covers, and allowed her friends to bring the tray.

“Oh, goody, just what I was hungry for,” Stevie said, long before she actually focused on anything on the tray. “You’ve made me some—
what?”

“Breakfast,” Lisa said as if that could explain what Stevie was looking at.

Then as the whole meal came into focus, Stevie began giggling. “The pancakes and bacon look delicious,” she said, taking a little taste. “Taste delicious, too. And as you know, I do love grapefruit. But what’s this other stuff?”

“Dessert,” Carole explained. But she really didn’t have to explain it. Stevie knew exactly what it was. She recognized one of her TD’s concoctions, even with a chunk of red pepper where a maraschino cherry ought to be.

Stevie’s giggles continued. As far as Lisa and Carole were concerned, that was the nicest sound they’d heard for almost two weeks, and they hadn’t even known how much they’d missed it.

“Oh, Stevie!” Lisa began.

“We’ve missed you so much!” Carole added.

“And I—I—” Stevie couldn’t talk. She also couldn’t believe what a nice, thoughtful, kind, loving thing her friends had done for her just because they missed her. She’d been so busy worrying about Alex and being a perfect person that she’d almost forgotten how much fun it was to be with them. But right now she was overwhelmed by her happiness at seeing her friends, even at this ridiculous hour of the day and accompanied by the
revolting sundae. “I … I,” she began again. Then she finished with, “I don’t think I can eat this sundae right now.”

That made Lisa and Carole laugh, and their laughter made Stevie all the happier to see them.

“No problem. I’ll just stick this into the freezer, and you can have it whenever you want it. It will be waiting for you,” Lisa said brightly, whisking it away before it began to melt onto something important, like the grapefruit.

“Thanks,” said Stevie, settling into the pancakes, which did taste good even if they were a little limp.

“So, tell me
everything
,” Stevie said when Lisa returned from the freezer.

The girls began. First, they knew Stevie would want to know about the dance, but they were also sensitive to the fact that if it sounded
too
wonderful, she might feel all the more miserable about missing it.

“The band was pretty good, and it was fun to do square dances,” Lisa began.

“Except that they make you very tired and you run out of breath,” Carole added.

“How was Phil?”

They knew they could be as enthusiastic as they wanted about Phil. “You’re so lucky, Stevie,” said Lisa.

“He was great. He’s lots of fun to be with, and he’s a wonderful dancer.”

“But he never stopped talking about you,” Carole said.

“Right. It was his idea to call you last night. He paid for it, too.”

“I’m glad you guys called, though I don’t think I was in a very good mood. I wasn’t much fun to talk to.”

“You haven’t been having much fun,” Carole said. “No wonder you’re not feeling very fun.”

“But we’re having fun now, aren’t we?” Lisa asked. “And you would have had fun last night if you’d been there to see Carole and Cam dance together in the contest, not that Cam danced much. Carole did it all by herself.”

“I wish I’d been there,” Stevie said. “Your dad taught me how to do that dance, too. I would have given you a run for your money.”

“And I would have liked that. Now, if only
Dad
could have been there.”

“What was the contest anyway?” Stevie asked.

Lisa answered immediately. “Just a contest,” she said. “Carole got some of the decorations from the dance. Balloons and stuff, you know.”

“Oh,” Stevie said. “I was hoping it would be a trip for three to someplace exotic.”

“Right,” said Carole.

“No, that’s the way it should be. Like, if you win a waltz contest, you should get a trip to Vienna; a cha-cha gets you to Havana; the mambo to—I don’t know, where was that invented?”

“And a twist contest gets you a trip in a time machine back to the sixties?”

“Perfect!” said Stevie.

It made Lisa and Carole happy to hear Stevie chattering like that. That was
Stevie
. She was reverting to her lovable old self again. The breakfast in bed was working.

Before long they were all talking completely normally. Carole and Lisa didn’t have to remind themselves not to talk about Alex, because normally they didn’t talk about Alex. They talked about horses and Pine Hollow.

They brought Stevie up-to-date on all the horses and people at the stable. One of the ponies had a slightly sore leg, and the Pony Club Horse Wise was using that as a model to practice bandaging legs.

“Poor old Nickel has that leg rebandaged five or eight times a day.”

“It’s a good thing it’s not very sore,” said Carole. “Otherwise it wouldn’t be good for him to remove the bandage all the time.”

“Right. Judy said it didn’t even really need a bandage. Max is just using it as an excuse for the little kids to study bandaging techniques,” Lisa explained.

“But you should have been there when he asked Veronica to bandage the leg,” said Carole.

“Oh, let me guess! She didn’t want to do it because Nickel isn’t a Thoroughbred!” Stevie said.

“How’d you figure that out?” Lisa asked, genuinely impressed that Stevie had gotten it right. “In fact, she asked Max to check with Judy to find out if the pony’s leg was the same as that of the purebreds she was accustomed to riding and caring for.”

“I bet Max was furious!” Stevie said, her eyes brightening with glee at the image.

“His face turned bright red,” said Lisa.

“We didn’t know whether he was angrier that Veronica would have such a stupid snobby attitude toward horses—”

“Or because Veronica had suggested that
he
wouldn’t know the answer to the question!” Lisa finished.

“Oh, I wish I could have been there!”

“Us, too,” Carole said. “We’ve missed you. Really.”

“A lot,” said Lisa.

“I know. I’ve missed you, too. But I’m not sure I knew how much I missed you until right now.” Stevie was on the verge of getting sentimental again, and she knew it.
She reached for her grapefruit and ate a couple of the sections. Then she slid her spoon under what she presumed was a cherry in the middle of it and put it in her mouth.

Lisa and Carole waited, wondering.

She spat it out. “That’s not a cherry.”

“Red pepper,” Carole told her. “We didn’t have a cherry. We did the best we could.”

“On the sundae, too?” Stevie asked.

“Yup,” Lisa told her.

Stevie’s eyes narrowed. “You guys haven’t missed me at all,” she said. “You’ve done exactly all the things
I
would have done, and I’m proud of you because it means I’ve taught you well.”

Carole and Lisa couldn’t help themselves then. They each gave Stevie a big hug, and she hugged them back. It was a way to keep from saying what was on all of their minds, and that was all right, because none of that needed to be said anyway.

In a minute they were back to talking about horses and were deeply involved in a discussion of techniques to control a stubborn horse. Stevie thought it was most important to get him calmed down before giving him any instructions. Carole suggested that it might make more sense to give him lots of instructions—so many that it would keep his mind off what it was he’d wanted
to do in the first place. Lisa thought both techniques were worth trying.

There was a knock at Stevie’s door. It was Stevie’s mother, and she was more than a little surprised to see Lisa and Carole sitting on Stevie’s bed and a tray across Stevie’s lap.

“We brought her breakfast in bed,” Carole explained. She felt a little bad about having sneaked into the house and was going to apologize for it, but the smile on Mrs. Lake’s face told her no apology was necessary.

“Good,” she said. “If I’d thought of it, I would have done the same thing. She deserves it. However, I suspect that whatever you made for her tasted better than anything I might have thought of.”

“We hope you don’t mind,” Lisa said.

“Not at all,” Stevie’s mother said. Then she turned to Stevie. “We’ll be leaving in about an hour to bring Alex home. Will you be ready by then?”

Stevie found herself almost a little surprised. Of course, she knew Alex was coming home today, but she’d forgotten about it temporarily. She’d been having such a nice time with Lisa and Carole that all her sadness and confusion had been swept under the table. But here it was again. Alex. Alex was coming home.

“I don’t think so, Mom,” she said. “I think I’ll just wait here. Do you mind?”

“Uh, no,” said Mrs. Lake, clearly more surprised than upset. “I just thought, well, there’s going to be a lot to carry, flowers and everything, you know.”

“Chad and Michael can help, and don’t we have fourteen zillion cousins here now?”

“Three today,” said Mrs. Lake. “Just three.”

“I’d rather wait here,” Stevie said.

“Okay, sure,” said her mother. “I understand. You have something special planned for him, don’t you?”

“I’ll be here,” Stevie said again, avoiding her mother’s question.

The door closed, and the three friends were alone again. Stevie spoke first.

“You know, Carole, I think you’re right. The last time Topside was being fussy, I actually started giving him orders, and he followed them until I figured he’d forgotten what it was he was being fussy about. I guess I’ll stick with that technique.”

They were back to their favorite subject: horses.

C
AROLE
AND
L
ISA
stayed for another hour, and then they had to return to Lisa’s house because they needed to change into their riding clothes. They were going to do some chores at Pine Hollow because Max had said if they got enough done, they could go for a trail ride later. They asked Stevie if she’d like to come along, but she said she thought she probably shouldn’t. They understood. Stevie told them to have fun and thanked them again for her wonderful surprise breakfast.

Then everything was quiet in her room and in her house. Everybody else had gone to the hospital to get Alex. He’d be back here in a little while, and Stevie found that unsettling. She’d almost gotten used to her
routine of going straight to the hospital after school, finishing her homework, and then coming home. That’s what seemed like normal now. Did that mean she’d have to get used to a new normal?

She decided to worry about that later and found that decision comforting in itself. It was very much like Stevie—the real Stevie—to put off a decision.

In the quiet of the house, Stevie’s mind wandered back over the events since Alex had gotten sick. She recalled her trip to the hospital with Mrs. Reg and the rambling tale Mrs. Reg had told about the two horses who’d been separated. The trick to Mrs. Reg’s stories was to figure out what they were really about. In this case Stevie thought she knew. Mrs. Reg was telling her that it was important for her to be with Alex—that she was a better person when she was with Alex. At least, that’s what she
thought
Mrs. Reg’s story was about. Sometimes, of course, they weren’t about anything. They were just stories.

A car pulled up in front of the garage, then another one. Car doors started opening and slamming shut. Alex was home. So were the rest of the Lakes and the visiting cousins. Quiet time was over.

A part of Stevie thought she ought to be running down to greet her brother, to carry his suitcase, his flowers, his get-well cards. She should turn down his bed,
bring him a pitcher of water, put his favorite comic books by his bed.