Mary and Jody in the Movies
Read Mary and Jody in the Movies Online
Authors: JoAnn S. Dawson
Praise for the
Lucky Foot Stable Series
“Dawson’s experience as an educator and director of an Equine Institute serve her well in these novels.”
—Troy Michelle Reinhardt
ForeWord Magazine
“Anyone who enjoys a great tale of horses and youth will find this a fascinating read. This most entertaining story moves
swiftly in a non-preaching way while dealing with some very real issues…peer pressure, decision making, responsibility, self-esteem,
and learning to care about others.”
—Ellie Mencer
Lockhouse to Lighthouse Magazine
“The author’s love of horses shines through as she captures the quintessential passion held by many young girls for their
animal.”
—Paula F. Kelly
The News Journal
“Combines adventure with valuable lessons on life and friendship. Dawson has created believable characters with a love of
horses.”
—
The Equiery
“Creates an entertaining way to teach young riders the value of horses.”
—Stephanie Stephens
Stable Management Magazine
Mary and Jody
in the Movies
JoAnn S. Dawson
Illustrated by Michelle Keenan
©2008 by JoAnn S. Dawson
Cover and internal design 2008 by Sourcebooks, Inc.
Internal illustrations Michelle Keenan
Lucky Foot Stable illustration by Tim Jackson
Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including
information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without
permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons,
living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
Published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.
P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dawson, JoAnn.
Mary and Jody in the movies / Joann S. Dawson; illustrated by Michelle Keenan.
p. cm. — (Lucky Foot Stable; bk. 4)
Summary: Everyone is excited when the McMurray dairy farm is chosen to be the setting of a movie, especially best friends
Mary and Jody who see it as an opportunity to show off their ponies Lady and Gypsy.
[1. Motion pictures—Production and direction—Fiction. 2. Ponies—Fiction. 3.
Horsemanship—Fiction. 4. Farm life—Fiction.] I. Keenan, Michelle, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.D32735Mar 2008
[Fic]—dc22
2008008494
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
VP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Aunt Edie and Aunt Kathryn
Lucky Foot Stable
Contents
Chapter 1:
Invasion of the Movie People
Chapter 2:
Willie Explains It All
Chapter 4:
The Farm Transformed
Chapter 12:
Willie to the Rescue
1
Invasion of the
Movie People
JODY HAD JUST put the finishing touches on Star’s mane, combing it just as Willie had shown her, while Mary vigorously swept
the dirt floor of Lucky Foot Stable of wayward wisps of straw when they first heard the rumble. Star lifted his head, pricked
his ears, and strained against the cross-ties to get a better look out the back doors of the little white stable. Finnegan,
the cow-herding dog, suddenly awoke from a deep slumber and growled low in his throat as the rumble grew louder.
“What in the…” Mary began, exchanging worried looks with Jody. Then, in unison, Mary threw down her broom and Jody stuck the
comb in the crest of Star’s mane where it dangled dangerously. Racing down the aisle, they reached the open doors of the stable
at the exact same instant and stared openmouthed at the spectacle before them.
Proceeding down the long gravel lane of the McMurray dairy farm were not one, not two, but four large, boxy white trucks,
veering this way and that to avoid the deep potholes randomly pitting the driveway. Finnegan ran circles around the two girls
and barked madly, all the while wagging his tail in anticipation of visitors as the trucks continued toward the McMurray’s
stone farmhouse, raising clouds of dust as they went.
“What in the…” Jody echoed. The girls linked arms and squinted to read the black words painted on the side of the first truck
in line as it turned slightly at the bend in the lane.
“Hanley’s…what does it say?” Mary asked impatiently. “I can’t see the rest of it. The dust is too thick.”
“It says…it says…Hanley’s Film…Hanley’s Film and Cinema Equipment. I think that’s what it says,” Jody said doubtfully.
“Film and cinema equipment!” Mary shrieked. “Of course that’s what is says! Jody, it’s the movie people! They’re here! They’re
going to start the movie! They need someone to greet them! Let’s go!”
With that, Mary took off at a gallop across the grass, and Jody started after her but suddenly stopped in her tracks.
“Mare, wait!” Jody yelled. “I left Star on crossties! I’ve got to put him back in his stall! Wait for me.”
It took all of Mary’s effort to stand still and watch as the trucks reached the farmhouse without her, but stand she did,
jiggling impatiently as she waited for Jody to emerge from the stable. She had just started to bite her fingernails when Jody
finally joined her, followed by the ecstatic Finnegan, who yipped excitedly in anticipation of a new adventure.
“Mary, maybe Mr. McMurray doesn’t want us to greet the movie people,” Jody reasoned, linking her arm in Mary’s to slow her
progress toward the trucks, now parked in a row in front of the farmhouse. “Maybe he wants us to stay away until he invites
us to meet them. And don’t forget what Willie said.”
“I know, I know, Willie said wait to speak until spoken to. But, Jody, what if Mr. McMurray isn’t home right now? And I know
Willie is down in the barn with the cows. It’s milking time, and he won’t be done for another hour at least, even with Mr.
Mooney helping him.”
Willie had rarely missed a milking in the thirty years he had worked on the McMurray dairy farm, even after Mr. McMurray hired
a younger man to help out around the barn. Mr. Roy Mooney had arrived the year before with his teenaged son, Jimmy, his daughter
Annie, and a toddler named Heath. After Mr. Mooney’s wife died, he had been forced to sell his own farm, and Mr. McMurray
had offered him the job helping Willie. Jimmy helped his father with the farm work while Annie watched Heath in the old house
trailer where the family lived.
“But, you know, Jody,” Mary continued, hardly stopping to take a breath, “Willie is just going to have to get used to the
fact that he can’t milk cows every day, now that he’s the wrangler on the movie. He’s going to have to work with the horses
and the actors. Including us.”
“Us?” Jody giggled. “Mare, we’re not exactly actors.”
“Well, remember what Mr. Crowley said. They need us to be in the riding lesson scenes. And Willie will probably be there telling
us what to do, since he’s the head wrangler, and…”
Before Mary could finish her sentence, Jody grabbed her by the arm and stopped them both in their tracks. “Finnegan, stay,”
she commanded the excited dog, who sat obediently but couldn’t help whining and wagging his tail so that his whole body wagged
along. The girls had just about reached the farmhouse, where a crew of men was busy unloading the first of the four trucks.
Mary and Jody watched in awe as two of the men grabbed the bottom of the back door of the third truck and shoved upward. The
door buckled like an accordion and disappeared into the top section of the truck, revealing the equipment inside.
“Just like a garage door,” Jody whispered. “That is so cool!”
The double red doors of the stone farmhouse suddenly burst open, and Mr. McMurray appeared, strode down the steps, and beckoned
grandly to the crew of men.
“Come on in, then, we’ve cleared a space for you!” Mr. McMurray directed in his booming Irish brogue. “Right here, and over
there…now what can I help you with?”
“Well, Jode, I guess Mr. McMurray
is
here,” Mary said, disappointed that they weren’t needed as greeters after all.
“And boy, he sounds happy, too!” Jody said, smiling as she watched the kindly farmer bustling around the trucks of film equipment.
“Of course he’s happy!” Mary agreed. “This movie is going to save the farm, after all.”
It was only a few months before when Mr. McMurray had fallen ill and undergone an operation on his heart. The medical bills
that followed had forced him to consider selling the farm, until the miraculous day when Mr. Ted Crowley, movie location scout,
had arrived, looking for a dairy just like Mr. McMurray’s to use in a motion picture.
“And it’s going to save Star and Willie and us, too, in a way,” Jody murmured.
The girls watched in silence then as the men continued unloading blue and yellow metal boxes of all shapes and sizes, long
black poles, ladders, fat green and black extension cords, and all manner of things Mary and Jody had never seen before. Just
as the last box came off the truck and disappeared into the McMurray farmhouse, Finnegan suddenly spun around to face the
gravel lane and once again set up a howl. When Mary and Jody turned to see what the commotion was about, their mouths flew
open for the second time that day.
Roaring up the gravel lane, one after the other, came a whole caravan of trucks, the first in line pulling a long flatbed
trailer. And sitting atop the trailer was a huge yellow bulldozer. Following that, a flatbed truck with piles of wood posts
and boards secured to the truck with thick metal straps. Then a long, white, enclosed truck with the words
A&C Tent
Rentals
emblazoned on the side. Finally, a shorter black truck and trailer bearing a drawing of a smiling cat next to the words
ThomCats Catering, Movie
Division
.
Mary and Jody watched openmouthed in amazement as the caravan made its way to an open field between the farmhouse and the
big, white dairy barn. This was where Mr. McMurray usually parked his farm equipment, but Mr. Mooney had moved everything
the week before to make room for the movie crews.
“Shut yer mouths, yer catchin’ flies,” a familiar voice suddenly commanded frombehind the two girls.
“Willie!” Mary shouted, spinning to face the cowhand. “Oh my gosh! Did you see all those trucks? And all the men? Did you
see all the stuff they unloaded?”
“Do they need all that stuff just to make a movie?” Jody chimed in.
“All that stuff? Why, they ain’t even half finished yet. That’s just part of it. And there’ll be a lot more crew members here
before it’s all over.”
“But, Willie, what about the bulldozer? And the boards and the posts? Are they building a whole new pasture field?” Mary asked.
“No, not a pasture field,”Willie replied mysteriously.
“Well, what then? They must be getting ready to dig up the ground for some reason and build a fence,” Mary reasoned.
“Well, what else can you think of that needs a clear space, and a lot of dirt, and maybe some sand, and has to be closed in
with a fence?” Willie replied with a smile.
The girls looked at each other quizzically for a moment. Then the light of understanding dawned on Mary’s face, and she grabbed
Jody’s arm and began wordlessly jumping up and down.
“What, Mare? What is it?” Jody giggled as Finnegan yipped and jumped right along with Mary.
Jody giggled as Finnegan yipped
and jumped right along with Mary.
“Jode! What do you think? It’s a ring! A ring for us to ride in! Just like at the horse shows!”
Jody’s eyes flew open wide and she turned again to Willie. “Willie, is it true? Are they really building a real ring? Will
we be allowed to ride in it?”
“Well, I guess they are, and sure, you’ll be riding in it—that is, if you behave yourselves and don’t act simple. They want
people in the movie that they can count on to act right and listen to what they say,” Willie explained, looking pointedly
at Mary.
“Willie, you know I can be quiet and listen when I have to,” Mary pouted. “Like just now, I did what you said. I didn’t speak
to the movie people. I’m waiting for them to speak to me.”
Upon hearing this speech, Jody crossed her arms and shot Mary an agitated look, which Mary promptly ignored.
“Hmmm,” Willie smiled, comprehending the reason for Jody’s dismay. “Well, just remember what I said and don’t make nuisances
of yourselves.”
“We promise, Willie,” Jody said confidently. “I’ll make sure of it.”