Rain Forest Rose (8 page)

A
s she watched her horse, Darby's senses were turned up higher than they'd ever been before.

That was probably why she heard footsteps, even though the person approaching was working at stealth.

Close, quick, and light, the feet came on.

Darby jumped off the top rail and onto the ground outside the corral.

“Megan!” Darby clapped her hands together.

She'd missed her chance to ride Hoku, but there'd be another. She was sure of it.

She was excited by the sight of her friend. Until she got a good look at her.

Megan looked tired, which was strange. Megan
was usually pep personified, and a total athlete. Usually, Darby thought her friend's thick russet hair and agile-cat strides would make her a TV star if she did commercials for protein bars or an expensive gym. But not today.

Now Megan walked a little off-balance, carrying something by its handle, and her face was flushed.

Megan hadn't returned her greeting or taken off her dark glasses. And her hair…Megan never had a bad hair day. Or if she did, she hid it under a boyish cap that somehow made her look even more feminine.

“What's wrong?” Darby asked. “Did something happen?”

Megan ignored Darby's questions. She swung the drink jug she carried.

“I brought some lemonade. I wish we hadn't eaten all of m-my paniolo pizza.” Megan's voice caught as if she'd been crying, but she plowed ahead as if it hadn't. “What did you think of it?”

“I loved it, but you can't—I mean, you didn't come out here to ask me that.”

Tutu had told Darby that Megan hadn't come to the rain forest camp since the accident, but suddenly here she was.

Silently, Darby vowed not to start meddling again, but she had to wonder.

“No,” Megan said, “I didn't.” She set the jug on the ground, took off her dark glasses to show eyes swollen from crying, and crossed her arms.

“I had a fight with Cade, and then my mom g-got into it.” Megan stopped and cleared her throat. “It was bad, but at least my mom said I could skip school today.”

“She did?” Darby asked, aghast. Even in the short time she'd been at ‘Iolani Ranch, she'd learned Auntie Cathy put school before almost everything.

“Yeah, it was a miracle. She said the fresh air would do me good.”

Darby tried to sound casual when she asked, “So what happened?”

“I was getting ready for school when Cade yelled from outside. He was standing at the bottom of our stairs, with all the dogs bouncing around him. He looked so excited.

“And he's yelling, ‘We're going to catch your horse!' Just like that. It's been almost two years. He said he'd found Tango in the forest not far from where—” Megan broke off, shaking her head. “No, he really said
you'd
found Tango.”

It was just a reflex, Darby thought as Megan flashed her an accusatory look. Megan blamed Darby for uncovering the tender part of her that still mourned her father, but the look was quickly replaced by a wry smile.

“After all this time, you just go out there and Tango comes to you. I guess you really are—”

“Don't say it,” Darby interrupted. “Tango was looking for
you
.”

A look of hope crossed Megan's face before she asked, “What makes you think so?”

“The bubbles. She didn't come into the clearing and stay until I started blowing bubbles for Hoku.”

“Good,” Megan said. She stared into the forest until she looked almost peaceful. Then she shook her head and said, “But I've still messed things up at home. Big time. When Cade said he'd have Biscuit saddled when I got home from school and we could get Kit to help us track down Tango, he looked all hopeful, like when he was a kid. That poor little kid….”

In that minute, it was so quiet, Darby heard the claws of a lizard climbing the tree next to her. But she barely glanced at it.

“I asked him,” Megan said with self-loathing, “if he hadn't already done enough.”

Darby couldn't help wincing and Megan nodded. She knew how cruel that had been.

“And that's when my mother got into it,” Megan went on. “So then I yelled at her, saying she hadn't been there, so what did she know, and I must have been pretty loud, because that's what sent the dogs slinking away and then Kimo drove up, got out of his truck, took in the whole stupid situation, and said, ‘What's shakin', Mekana? You skip school, you gonna end up like me.'”

After the perfect imitation of Kimo, Megan let out a gigantic sigh and fell silent.

Finally, Darby tried to distract her friend. She looked at the jug Megan had set down between them.

“So, this is lemonade,” Darby said.

Megan made a gulping noise that was half sob and half laugh.

“Yeah, Mom made me bring it, so that I”—her voice caught, but she kept going—“stay hydrated.” She used both hands to wipe her cheeks. “Really, I didn't know I had this many tears left in me.”

Megan's lower lip trembled, but Darby would bet Megan wasn't just feeling sorry for herself, but for Cade, too. And she must be missing her father all over again.

But Darby didn't say that. She'd given up meddling. Still, she felt like she should do something.

Casting around for a way to make Megan feel better, Darby suddenly knew what to say.

“I have chocolate.”

“It's too sweet to have with the lemonade, and I can't play soccer today, so I won't be able to work it off, and besides…” Megan rolled her eyes. “Darby.”

“What?”

“I know my eyes are all swollen up like…a stomped-on toad, so you don't have to try so hard not to look at them.”

“A stomped-on toad?” Darby repeated.

“You're from that other West,” Megan said, gesturing vaguely toward the mainland. “I thought all you guys talked that way.”

“Not me,” Darby said. “Besides, no one's out here but us, and your eyes aren't that noticeable—”

“You are such a bad liar,” Megan said flatly. “And just for that, I
am
going to eat your chocolate.”

Megan stalked toward the hut, and Darby shouted, “Not all of it!”

“Try to stop me!” Megan growled in mock menace.

She lifted Darby's backpack and gave it a shake.

“First you have to find it!” Darby dared, but, as it turned out, she ended up helping Megan do just that. And they ate all the chocolate together.

L
ate-afternoon rain showered the rain forest. Full of chocolate and lemonade, the girls retreated to Darby's house of ferns, sat on her spread-out sleeping bag, and watched the raindrops turn a spiderweb just outside into a jeweled net.

“I saw a happy-face spider,” Darby said.

“They're kind of cool, huh?”

Megan sounded sleepy, so Darby just nodded, then sat silently as raindrops drummed the leaves and branches.

Darby loved the warm tropical rainstorms that bathed the island.

Back on the ranch, the cowboys would work right through the showers, because they happened at least
once a day. Darby wondered if they were wearing slickers now, or just moving under cover to drink coffee while they repaired and polished tack.

Thunder grumbled beyond the treetops and Darby soaked up the moody atmosphere of waiting out the rain while she listened to Hoku splashing in the puddle forming in her corral.

“I haven't been back here for a long time,” Megan spoke up. “Not since my dad died.”

“I'm sorry,” Darby said, wishing she could think of something better to say.

“Mom always says he died doing what he loved.” Megan sighed, “But, you know? That doesn't make me feel much better.”

Wind squalled through the clearing, spraying water on the girls' faces, and they both scooted farther back into the shelter.

“I don't see me walking home in this,” Megan said sourly.

“You walked?”

“Most of the way. We're not supposed to bring horses in here without a reason.”

Darby nodded, remembering Cade had said the same thing.

“So, if you don't mind me hanging around for a while…”

“Mind? I think it would be cool if you could spend the night!” Darby said.

“I don't know about that….” Megan glanced
around the shelter, raising her eyebrow as if these were awfully tight quarters for two.

“It'll be dark soon, and you shouldn't go out there. There've been wild pigs around, I think, and Cade said they could have rabies,” Darby said, even though she knew she was exaggerating Cade's words.

“Cade…” For the first time Megan sounded understanding. “He's paranoid about wild pigs. Of course, so am I.”

Darby remembered when they'd ridden into Crimson Vale together and Megan thought she'd spotted a black boar. She'd turned pale and shaky, and nearly lost control of Conch, the grulla horse she was riding.

“Do you know,” Megan said, as if she couldn't believe her own words, “I used to be really afraid of Cade?”

Darby's breath hitched in her throat. She coughed, wishing she'd stop, because she wanted to hear more.

“Afraid?” Darby repeated breathlessly.

“In that hysterical, slumber-party kind of way.” Megan tried to make light of her confession. “I'm older than him, so it didn't make any sense.”

“Not that much older,” Darby said, making an excuse for her friend. “But what scared you about him?”

“My parents—” Megan stopped and sighed. “To be fair, I totally misunderstood what they were trying
to tell me. My mom said, because Cade came from an abusive home, we had to help him learn there were other ways to solve problems besides violence.”

“That makes sense,” Darby said.

“Yeah, but she said violence had been ‘pounded into him.' That scared me, made me stupid and paranoid.

“And then my dad said—” Megan broke off again, wearing a bittersweet smile. “He was a real paniolo, you know, like Jonah. And Cade, too, I guess. Did you know Cade's the one who told my dad and Jonah about Tango? He'd seen her running up in Crimson Vale with Black Lava and thought she'd make a perfect horse for me.

“I tried to be grateful, but I was still scared of him. So I avoided Cade and said snotty things, and finally my dad took me aside and told me Cade was like a tree with aerial roots, just splaying out in the air, looking for a place to sink down into the earth. And he said Manny, Cade's stepfather, kept coming along and hacking off those roots with a knife, every time they started to find a safe place. Something like that. And he said I could help Cade's roots reach the ground or keep hacking them off. It was my choice.”

Darby sighed. “Wow, I wish I'd met your dad.”

“Well, you might have understood him,” Megan said. “I was just too shallow.”

“No,” Darby said.

“All I knew was, Cade was this weird kid with a
lump on his jaw, who was always carrying around a knife or a gun—” Megan broke off and tried to make a joke. “Is it any wonder he didn't go to Lehua High? They would have arrested him!” Megan shook her head then, probably at how dense she'd been, Darby thought. “I just didn't get it.”

“What kid would?” Darby asked. “I can sit here and think, oh, he was protecting himself, not threatening you, but if he'd come into my house? I would've been scared to death.”

Megan shrugged.

“Wait, you know what?” Darby had just remembered something. “When I first got here and I saw Cade, a guy slightly older than me, with this gun on his saddle, it totally creeped me out.”

Gray dusk pressed in between the trees. Half laying on the sleeping bag, propped up on her elbow, Megan stared into the twilight, then looked straight at Darby. “You know what happened, don't you?”

Because Tutu's account had been so brief, and Cade's so sad, and because, to be totally honest, she wanted to see how the three stories fit together, Darby said, “I know some of it.”

“It was supposed to be this wonderful day,” Megan said. “My dad and Cade were working Tango around cattle to see how she'd do, and if she did all right, I was going to try her that afternoon with some of Jonah's calves. He said Tango was ‘cowy' and would make a good cutting horse.

“That night, we were all going into town, to have dinner out, and—what was that?”

Darby had heard the sound, too.

“Sort of like little tiny bells?” she whispered.

The rain had stopped while they were talking, but it still dripped off thousands of branches.

Then she heard a creak.

“Hoku?” Darby called. Her filly might have made that sound by leaning against the fence. She could have, except that Darby heard Hoku's hooves trotting restlessly around her corral.

Something hard struck wood. Startled once more, Megan's shoulder collided with Darby's. The girls flinched apart, but only by a few inches.

The far-off musical sound came again.

“Something's out there,” Darby said.

“Whatever it is just tripped,” Megan said sarcastically.

“No, it's probably just birds.” Darby clasped her hands together to keep them from shaking.

“In the night?”

“There are lots of birds out here,” Darby insisted.

“In the
dark
?” Megan replied, even more insistent.

“Haven't you noticed all the birds?” Darby wished Megan would just agree with her.

“None that trip over downed branches.”

“Night's not quite here,” Darby protested, but then a muddy squelch came to them both and the girls faced each other. “Okay, it's not a bird.”

“It's also not trying to be quiet,” Megan observed.

Hoku gave an uneasy whinny.

“Your horse hears it, too,” Megan said. For the first time, she sounded worried.

“It could be Cade,” Darby said. “He's come out to bring me messages from Jonah. And you know how he's supposed to have really good night vision.”

But after that, it was quiet for so long, they both relaxed.

When Megan spoke again, she sounded younger. “He could have saved my dad, you know, by handling the cattle better, or riding between the boar and Tango—”

“Megan, he was just a kid.” Darby didn't mean to defend Cade, but Megan wasn't being fair. “What do you expect of a thirteen-year-old?”

“You were twelve when you saved Hoku.”

“It's not the same thing. No vicious animal was after us. Nothing was chasing Hoku except a helicopter, and it had already flown away, over the mountains. I didn't do anything but wait with her until help came.”

“He could have done that, instead of riding after Tango.” Megan sounded both heartbroken and bitter. “My dad was his friend, his mentor. Cade could have done what you did for that horse—just stayed with him.”

Darby tried to calm her friend by saying, “You don't know that.”

“Yeah, she does.”

Darby gasped at the sudden male voice.

“She was there.” Cade walked into camp. His dark green poncho flowed around him. His spurs made a faint chiming.

Darby took a deep breath to steady herself, but if Megan felt startled, she didn't show it.

“I was just leaving,” Megan said, but Cade shot her a look that said he'd have to be pretty stupid to believe that, since the girls were clearly settled down for the night.

Darby was glad Megan stayed put, but for a minute she felt invisible.

Megan's and Cade's eyes were locked in a silent war, until Cade said, “He told me to ride after Tango.”

Megan didn't answer, didn't move.

“You heard him,” Cade reminded her.

“He didn't know what he was saying!” Megan snapped.

“He knew,” Cade told her. “Tango was your—”

“Besides that, you didn't get Tango!”

Cade drew in a deep breath, then let it out. “I would have. I was following the blood drops on the leaves and dirt—” He paused as Megan's arms jerked up and clamped around herself. “But I heard you—”

“Oh yeah, this is my fault,” Megan said. “Go ahead and say it. If I hadn't screamed when I saw the pig go between Tango's front legs, Dad wouldn't have looked at me and lost his concentration. And if I
hadn't been crying over my dad, asking him not to die, you would have kept riding after Tango.”

“Megan,” Cade said, his voice filled with sympathy.

Megan made him stop, not by yelling this time, but she held out a hand, a sign for Cade to halt.

“You didn't even cry,” Megan accused him, and Darby, looking between the two, thought this must be a new weapon in Megan's arsenal, because Cade's eyes seemed to darken in pain before he turned away.

But he didn't leave.

Darby wanted to say something to keep her friends talking. But what? Jonah had been speaking of horses when he ordered her to trust her mana.

She pictured Tango standing right where Cade was now. Darby had been in the lean-to, and for the first time she'd seen the extent of scars so deep, the mare's pink hair hadn't covered them.

“Neither of you could have kept Tango from going over backward,” Darby said quietly.

Cade wheeled to stare at her. Megan's voice rose in an outrage, as she yelped, “What,” and both of them glared at her.

“When that boar went between Tango's front legs, he slashed her with his tusks,” Darby said.

“Darby, I know you're trying to be nice, but just—”

“No, go ahead,” Cade told her.

“Yesterday I was close enough to Tango to see her
underbelly, and she still has scars. Long ones.

“I'm not a super rider. I know that. But Tango had to be in pain, and terrified. I keep thinking about it, sort of from her point of view, and no matter what your dad did, I don't think he could have stopped Tango from going over backward.

“The boar was ripping through her skin. If she tried to run right or left, he would've stayed with her. Bolting forward would have rammed his tusks in deeper. How else was she supposed to get away from him?”

Megan flashed a questioning look at Cade.

“It coulda been that way,” he said. “I remember thinking there was a lot of blood, when I was following her.”

“But we would have seen it happen,” Megan said. “Wouldn't we?”

“The scars are on her belly,” Darby said, miming where they'd be on her own body.

“And we were both watching Ben, not Tango,” Cade said.

“So, there really wasn't…”

Anything that anyone could do,
Darby silently finished the thought. She was pretty sure that was the rest of Megan's sentence, but Megan wasn't ready to let go of what she thought she remembered yet.

Still, Darby felt that some of the tension in the clearing had lifted. She almost held her breath until Cade asked, “Megan, do you want a ride home? You
know Joker will carry double.”

“I left Biscuit at Tutu's,” Megan said, and it didn't sound like an excuse.

“How about a ride as far as Tutu's cottage, then?”

Now Cade's generosity sounded forced, and Darby wished she could make him stop while things were relatively tranquil.

“If this downpour gets going, it'll be a nasty ride back to Sun House,” he added.

“I'm staying with Darby tonight, Cade. My mom knows.”

“Okay, then,” Cade said, nodding. And then he turned, but not the way he'd wheeled around before. As he walked away, the chiming of his spurs lingered.

 

The shelter was crowded, but Megan dozed off before Darby had even turned the lantern down.

Darby lay awake for only a few minutes. She felt satisfied. Megan and Cade were on their way to being friends again. But her mind kept returning to Megan's shrill accusation.

You didn't even cry!
Megan had said. Cade had looked ashamed, but maybe if you were a boy whose stepfather broke your jaw and your mother didn't rescue you, your only chance to win against a monster like Manny was to refuse to give him the satisfaction of seeing you cry.

Wasn't it possible Cade had learned to control his
feelings? And Megan had been too shocked and distraught to see what he'd felt for her father—his friend and mentor?

Drifting off to sleep, Darby heard thunder moving away. It reminded her of Jonah, talking of his mana's silent thunder, and then it reminded her of hoofbeats.