Dark Sunshine (10 page)

Mikki turned on her heel, away from Pepper. She pretended she hadn't been watching Sam and Jake at all, and started toward the round pen.

“Just a second,” Jake called. “Before we go in, I want to tell ya what we're doing. It's different.” Jake ignored the girl's loud sigh and tapping foot. “You're going to make a deal with Popcorn.”

“A deal?”

“Yeah, if he doesn't run from you, you won't chase him. It's that simple. Sam, show her.” Jake motioned her closer. “You be the horse.”

“Oh, good.” Sam tossed her hair, pretending it was a mane, then walked away. Jake followed. “If I were a mustang,” Sam called back to Mikki, “this would make me nervous, especially when he speeds up like that.”

Sam and Jake speed-walked in a circle. When Jake stopped, Sam slowed down to watch him. As soon as she faced him, Jake retreated a step.

“But you're letting the horse back you down,” Mikki said.

“It looks like it, at first, but pretty soon you'll have him coming to you—to eat, to get haltered—”

“To ride,” Mikki interrupted. “Okay, I understand, but that'll take hours.”

“If you're lucky,” Jake agreed.

“Why not just rope him, pull him over, then hold him and pet him until he knows I'm not going to hurt him?” Mikki said.

“That wouldn't work for me,” Sam said. “If some creature tied me up and dragged me somewhere, then wanted to touch my head, I'd fight to get away, wouldn't you?”

“There she goes again, thinking like a horse,” Jake said.

A blush heated Sam's cheeks from this best of all compliments, but the real warmth came from inside. Jake's praise meant a lot.

“That's not fair. It comes natural to her. She's been on a horse every day of her life. I just got here.”

“Sam can think like a horse because she pays attention. And she cares about horses,” Jake corrected. “If you're nice, Sam might tell you where she's really been these last two years.” Mikki didn't take the bait, only asked, “Okay, what are Sam Forster's rules to thinking like a horse?”

Why should I tell you?
Sam squashed the thought. She'd act like an adult while Mikki played the bratty little kid.

“There are really only a few rules you'll need to be
a horse today,” Sam said. “One: The herd is where you're safe. Two; Run from anything that might hurt you.”

“Don't I get to play?” Pepper joked as he moved closer, reminding them he was still there.

“That's it?” Mikki ignored him and moved toward the gate.

“That's it.” Jake walked after her. “Now, you'd better get to work, because we're moving Popcorn to another corral today, and you”—he pointed at Mikki—“are going to lead him there.”

J
AKE'S PLAN WORKED
perfectly. For a half hour, Mikki walked and talked with Popcorn as if she were one of his kind. During the second half hour, she did the same, except she held the end of a long rope attached to his halter. At last, Popcorn followed Mikki wherever she went.

“Just keep walking as long as you hear his hooves behind you,” Jake told Mikki. “And don't look back.”

“How far away is he?” Mikki asked as she walked past Jake.

“He's staying a good seven or eight feet back. That's his flight distance. He knows you can't grab him from there.”

Peering into the corral, Sam noticed Mikki's smile. Right now, the girl wasn't trying to prove she was tough. She wasn't acting like she didn't care. She'd spoken Popcorn's language and told him he could trust her. She was proud of something that mattered.

“I wish my mom could see this,” Mikki said as she passed Jake again.

“Maybe she can in a few weeks,” he said casually. “I'm sure she'd be welcome.”

Finally, it was time to take Popcorn outside the round pen and move Dark Sunshine into it.

Jake bolted the front gate, just in case something went wrong. Pepper walked out to the gate with Jake. Though he talked loudly enough for the girls to hear, Sam had the feeling something else was going on.

“I think Mikki can handle Popcorn, but I don't know what to expect from the mare,” Jake said.

Mikki left the round pen with Popcorn. The albino's head swung toward the ten-acre pasture, toward the barn, and though he picked his feet up high, showing he was nervous, he followed Mikki to an open spot near the house.

“Good,” Jake said to Mikki. Then, Jake nodded to Pepper as he settled on the front porch with Gram.

Everyone was watching.

“I'll put two loops on the buckskin,” Jake told Sam. “You hold one and I'll take the other. We'll keep her kind of cross-tied between Ace and Sweetheart. They're her herd now, so maybe she won't put up a fuss till we get to the round pen.”

“She won't like that.” Sam considered the pen as if she were Dark Sunshine. Would the mare remember the buzzing motorcycles, whooping men, and
mustangs running into a trap?

“When we get her as far as the open gate, you'll ride Ace in and I'll release my rope. I think she'll follow.”

Sam sized up the entrance to the pen. Blindfolded, the mare had followed Ace all the way to the River Bend. This might work.

“I talked it over with Wyatt,” Jake said. “This is the best we could come up with.”

“Let's go,” Sam said.

Jake made a bow to Mikki, Pepper, and Gram. “This rodeo won't last too long,” he promised.

Jake lassoed Dark Sunshine with such gentleness, she looked confused. Only when Sweetheart and Ace tugged her away from the dark barn did she snort in alarm.

Jake and Sam let the horses work the ropes as the buckskin tossed her head, trying to flip off the loops around her neck.

Sam found it hard to stay quiet, but her voice wouldn't soothe the mare. Maybe this time tomorrow, but not yet.

The mare rocked back, pawed in a half rear, then landed on four stiff legs. She trotted, black mane fanning on one side, then the other, as she looked from Ace to Sweetheart. Hopping and blinking against the sun, Dark Sunshine was nearly to the round pen when Mikki yelled.

“Popcorn, no! You're not going anywhere!”

After that, Sam only heard pounding hooves and Sunshine's screams. The mare reared so high, Sam feared she'd fall over backward. Ace and Sweetheart barely kept her earthbound.

Body thrashing, head slinging, the mare might have escaped, except that River Bend cow ponies were the best. Ace and Sweetheart had been schooled to sidestep charging steers and stay calm in the midst of stampedes. Tails swishing, they kept plodding toward the round pen.

“No! Oh, no, you don't!” Mikki's shrill voice rose loud enough for Sam to hear it, but she couldn't imagine what had gone wrong.

She didn't try. Her job was to get Dark Sunshine into the corral. Pepper and Gram would have to help Mikki.

Just ahead, the round pen gate stood open. Sam leaned low on her gelding's neck.

“C'mon, Ace, lead her in,” she whispered.

Ace leaped forward, passed the mare, and entered the round pen. Ropes dropped loose, swarming around his legs, but Ace ignored them. Even when the gate slammed, Ace listened to Sam's hands and loped around the pen, with the mare right behind.

After several laps around the pen, Jake opened the gate so Sam could ride Ace through. But Jake had never seen the mare's need to stay with her herd. She would not be left behind.

Head level, ears pinned so flat they were lost in
the torrents of black mane, Dark Sunshine pressed close to Ace, joining his charge for the gate.

Before they got there, Jake slammed the gate. He stood in his stirrups to shout over the fence.

“Ditch Ace and climb over,” Jake said. Then he vanished.

It wasn't that hard. If her hands hadn't been shaking, Sam could have stepped off Ace and grabbed the fence in one fluid movement.

But Sam was afraid to see what was happening outside the round pen. When she did, she wanted to give Mikki a shake.

Popcorn was trying to behave. He rushed toward Mikki as she stepped back, but the sight of five hundred pounds of horse coming at her made Mikki panic.

“No! No!” Mikki screamed at the gelding, jerking his head with the halter rope. She tried to make him stop, but he thought the pulls meant “Come closer.”

At last, Jake signaled Pepper to move in. The young cowboy stepped between the girl and horse, slipped the rope from her hands, and gave her a gentle shove back.

Oh, boy. Mikki didn't like that
, Sam thought. But Pepper's concern was for the frightened albino.

At the end of the lead rope, Popcorn flailed with his front hooves, trying to break loose and run. Pepper hunkered down on his boot heels. He kept his
weight low, so the horse couldn't jerk him off his feet and drag him.

Finally, sweat-darkened and breathless, the gelding stood still and waited.

Pepper straightened his knees. Gradually, crooning and talking, he walked to the horse. Lazily, he coiled the rope, until he was just feet away.

“Hey, Jake,” Pepper said, “what d'you say I walk this fella back to the barn corral?” With a calm stride, Pepper moved away and Popcorn followed.

The albino's willingness, after such a battle, made Sam so mad at Mikki she didn't know what to say to her.

Gram was always sensible and straightforward—she should go over and lecture Mikki. But Jake snatched the job.

Without looking at Sam, he handed her Sweetheart's reins and then his hat.

What in the world? Sam looked down at the dusty Stetson and wondered what it signified.

Jake jerked the rawhide tie from his hair, then reknotted it. Even though Jake's breathing had slowed by the time he walked up to Mikki, Sam wished Gram would step between them.

Mikki looked around frantically, as if she were being bullied, but Gram stayed on the porch.

“Look, it's not my fault!” Mikki shouted. “Popcorn started being a jerk. He ran right at me. He
tried to trample me. He just…well…I…”

Jake let her protests run down.

“Horses can be scared or pushy,” he said. “They cannot be jerks.”

“He was trying to act all tough—”

This time Jake interrupted. “He
is
tough. He's bigger and stronger than you are. Fighting won't work. It might've made other kids or your mom do what you wanted, but it won't work with a horse. A horse has to trust you, and Popcorn was well on his way. He got scared and turned to you. He needed his herd leader—
you
—to be strong.”

Jake waited for Mikki to meet his eyes. When she did, he wasn't easy on her.

“You let him down, girl. You panicked. What's he supposed to think if you've been saying ‘Trust me and I'll take care of you,' then you yell at him, yank him around, and prove you're weak?”

Mikki looked small. Her defiance was gone. Both hands covered her mouth, as if that would somehow smother Jake's words.

Sam watched the two. Jake didn't trust Mikki, but he'd had enough confidence in her that her actions had disappointed him. Mikki didn't like Jake, and yet she was shrinking with shame.

When the gray county van honked at the gate, Sam ran to open it. As it drove in, Pepper walked from the barn corral toward Mikki. At first, his head was cocked to one side, as if he were explaining something.
Sam couldn't hear what Mikki said to him, but Pepper recoiled and his voice carried across the yard.

“I'll tell you one thing,” Pepper snapped. “On this ranch, ladies don't talk that way.” His index finger stabbed in her direction. “No, nor guys, neither!”

“Then maybe I just won't come back to this stupid ranch!” Mikki shouted. She ran toward the van, bumped into the side of it, and pounded on the door until it opened.

Pepper looked stunned. “I'm sorry, Jake,” he said as the van rolled away. “It's not my job to scold her.” He rubbed his palms on the front of his jeans. “Shoot, Sam, if I've wrecked this program for you all, after everyone's been so good to me, I just don't know what I'll do.”

Jake clapped a hand on Pepper's shoulder.

“She deserved it, and she's tough enough to take it,” Jake said. “She'll be back. That kid has some major problems, but she's no quitter.”

 

Sam nearly fell asleep in the bathtub. Her head started off propped against the tile. Bit by bit, she slipped down until the water was lapping at her lips.

Warm water soothed muscles knotted by her fall in that creepy bus and from the buckskin throwing her weight against the rope.

The aromas of chicken soup and fresh-baked bread wafted up the stairs. Dinner would be ready when she went down.

Spending all night in the corral didn't seem like such a good idea anymore. Sam's eyelids drooped. She might have dozed if her gaze hadn't stopped on the jeans she'd tossed on the floor. One pocket held Dark Sunshine's bill of sale. Sam's eyes sprang wide open.

She pulled the plug from the bathtub, wrapped a towel around herself, ran shivering to her room, and hid the bill of sale inside a sock in her bottom drawer.

She knew she had to inform Brynna about the bill of sale. But she wouldn't do it tonight.

 

When she left the warm kitchen for the round pen, Sam hardly noticed the temperature difference. For her slumber party with Dark Sunshine, she wore thermal underwear, jeans, a long-sleeved shirt covered by a jacket, gloves, and a knit cap.

She also brought snacks. A can of sweet grain for the mare, a candy bar for herself.

The sun had set when she opened the gate, but dusk still lingered. Jake had managed to slip Ace out of the round pen. Now, disturbed by another human invasion, Dark Sunshine trotted away. She circled the pen until she neared Sam, then wheeled and ran in the opposite direction, shaking her head fiercely because, once again, Sam didn't retreat.

“I'm not scared of you, pretty girl.”

To make herself smaller and less threatening, Sam sat in the dirt with her back against the fence.

The buckskin didn't know what to make of that. She kept shaking her mane, though her hooves moved in a regular beat. It didn't take Sam long to hear eight separate hoof falls, followed by hesitation, and then eight more steps.

Suddenly, Dark Sunshine changed her path. She galloped along the fence, until Sam's nearness made her veer through the middle of the pen. Instead of circles, she made ovals. Over and over again.

Dusk had turned to darkness when the mare stopped.

“That didn't take long,” Sam said. Though she could see only the mare's outline, Sam heard her tail swish. “Ready to come over and have a little grain?”

Since it was too soon to ask the mare to take it from her hand, Sam used a scoop. She jiggled it to waft the scent toward the buckskin.

With a snort, Dark Sunshine began trotting ovals again.

“As if you'd fall for such a trick.” Sam laughed. “Is that what you're telling me?”

Next, Sam tried the technique Mikki had used on Popcorn.

“Keep walking away and I'll follow you,” Sam explained to the mare. “Stop and I'll stop. Take one step toward me and I'll back up.”

The mare uttered an insulted grunt, then resumed trotting around the corral with Sam right behind her.

After an hour, Sam yawned.

“Do what you want. I'm taking a break.” Sam stopped and the buckskin stopped, too, blowing a sigh through her lips.

Energy. I need energy
.

Sam looked at her watch. It was 12:07. She felt hot and queasy, and it was hours until dawn. She took the candy bar from her pocket. The mare's ears twitched at the crinkling wrapper.

“I'll share,” Sam coaxed. “C'mon, Sunny.” She smooched at the mare. “No girl can refuse chocolate.”

The mare looked the other way, lifting her chin as if something far more interesting were happening outside the corral.

“We're making progress, even if you won't admit it,” Sam told the mare.

Quietly, Sam mimicked a nicker. Clearly, the horse didn't recognize it. Instead of pricking her ears forward, she let them fall to the sides.

“It wasn't so bad that you have to give me the mule look.” Sam yawned again. “You know you're exhausted, so how 'bout just one step this way?”

As if she understood, the contrary mare backed a few steps.

“Show-off,” Sam said. “I'm coming after you.”

Sam's steps were sluggish. She glanced at her watch as she chased the mare: 12:12. Five minutes had passed like an hour. She had to do something to wake up.

She could stick her head in a horse trough. That
would wake her, but it was a little gross, even for a girl who loved horses. If she went inside for a cold shower, she'd wake Dad and Gram. That left the river.