Secondhand Horses (10 page)

Vee rolled her eyes and began to laugh, leaning against the counter. “Aneta, you are so funny. Sorry, Esther.”

Esther’s face lightened into a full-faced grin.

Aneta sighed deeply. “So, we are the Squad again? I hope so.”

Sunny walked to the middle of the girls and held out her right arm where the Squad bracelet encircled her wrist. The girls joined with theirs.

“The Squad!” they said, only very quietly so as not to wake Uncle Dave. “Together!”

“Let’s go to bed,” Sunny added.

T
he next morning, the S.A.V.E. Squad converged on their “official” meeting spot, the children’s section of the Oakton Community Library.

“Sunny!” Nadine’s cheerful face, framed by long black hair and bangs, greeted her. “Your mom and brothers have been in. I’ve missed your smiling face and your great ideas.” Nadine stopped stacking books on her big desk and reached out to hug Sunny and then the others. Nadine and her husband, Frank, were good friends of the Squad, even if Frank tried to act like the girls were too much drama. “How come you’re in town, ranch hand?”

“Dad came out to visit Uncle Dave, so Mom came too and brought me to Esther’s house. Then we walked over.” Sunny surveyed the colorful banners overhead waving in the air currents. “It’s been like forever since we’ve all been here together.” She shot a rueful look at Nadine. “Except I don’t have Great Ideas anymore. Now I try to finish things.”

“Why can’t you do both?” A tall, skinny man with a ponytail walked through the children’s section wearing a tool belt and carrying a bulging bag. Frank. Nadine’s husband … and maintenance guy … and van driver for the community center. He glanced over at the girls, and his gaze settled on Sunny. “Been kind of quiet here without you girls.”

Esther giggled. “I know you want to say ‘without the drama,’ Frank. Go ahead.”

“Without the drama.” He kept walking, not cracking a smile.

“You girls do know he adores you, right?” Nadine finished collecting her armful of short chapter books. “I don’t want you to think he doesn’t. Hey—you girls came at a good time. Adventure Readers reading club starts in a few minutes. Okay if you come talk to the kids about loving to read? You
are
the famous S.A.V.E. Squad. The kids are third, fourth, and fifth graders.”

“Don’t kids who come to the library already like to read?” Esther sounded surprised.

Sunny was surprised as well. Both her brothers devoured books. Her dad said the public library saved him from running out of room in the house
and
money to pay for books.

They were nearing the conference room where the reading group met. Nadine lowered her voice. “These are reluctant readers. For various reasons, they haven’t yet seen how great reading is. Some don’t read well; others don’t have books at home or people who read aloud to them.” She threw a glance at Sunny. “Got any great ideas on how to connect reading to kids?”

Aneta’s soft voice was incredulous. “Not like to read? Oh, we will tell them how fun it is to read. I learned good English by reading girl detective stories when I was adopted by my mom.”

Nadine introduced the girls and told the quiet group of three girls and five boys about how the girls met and about their first two adventures. Since some of the kids had been at the park during those times, they volunteered their memories with excitement. Once those stories were told, the children sent admiring looks toward the Squad. Then the Squad told about their favorite stories and how they loved to read.

Sunny noticed, however, that when Nadine began reading bits from her chosen books, the kids got restless.
Kind of like me in my online science class
.

At the end, Nadine asked the group to share why they liked or didn’t like reading. Immediately hands shot up.

“It’s okay, I guess.”

“It’s boring.”

“I like movies better.”

“The words move around.”

“I don’t see anything when I read.”

As Sunny listened, she wondered about what sort of Great Idea Nadine wanted. What did Sunny know about making reading fun? She had always
liked
to read. While she sort of listened to Nadine, she slid into that place in her head that would get her a nudge from her friends and so missed the end of the club hour. She’d been thinking.… That day that she and Esther had done their schoolwork out loud in front of the animals.
Hmm
. It had been more fun than reading it to themselves.

The reading club filed out afterward, shyly waving. The girls waggled their fingers back. Sunny opened her mouth to tell Nadine the Great Idea. Then she snapped it closed. Nope. Not this time. Wasn’t she done with Great Ideas? Hadn’t they gotten her in trouble?

Outside the library, Vee, Esther, and Aneta gathered near Sunny.

“Okay, spill!” Vee said.

“What were you thinking about?” Esther asked, cocking her head with a wary look.

“Did you get a Great Idea?” Aneta asked eagerly.

“Can’t tell yet. Gotta talk to Uncle Dave.”

No matter how the girls begged and offered her more ice cream once they had all licked through ice cream cones at The Sweet Stuff, Sunny refused.

This time, if it was truly a Great Idea, she would do it right.

Back at the ranch, she cleared her idea with Uncle Dave, who said she was amazing. Dad looked skeptical. Now, more than ever, she must make this happen.
And finish
. Then everyone would see that her Great Ideas could work out.

Uncle Dave and Sunny shook hands. Deal.

On Tuesday after school, Sunny’s mom drove out to the ranch with the S.A.V.E. Squad and their bikes crammed into the minivan. She visited with Uncle Dave—who protested he didn’t need 24-7 care—while the girls clipped on helmets and rode to the library. There, they helped Nadine select a very special pile of books for a very special field trip on Wednesday. Vee, Esther, and Aneta figured out Sunny’s Great Idea as soon as Nadine laid out the parameters for titles. Nothing like hearing your best friends say you’re brilliant. It was a good day.

No Sweet Stuff today; afternoons were short and the light faded early, so bike riding had to be speedy. Back at the ranch, Aneta’s mom had arrived and was inside talking to Uncle Dave. In their riding lesson, the girls took turns learning their “seat” (which made them smirk) on Shirley, Mondo, and Mystery, and then everyone departed, leaving Uncle Dave and Sunny.

“It would be handy to have one more secondhand horse so the Squad could all ride at once,” she remarked while they ate dinner watching an old Western movie. “We just need one more.”

Her uncle rolled his eyes at her. He had been spending a bunch of time on the phone. It wasn’t going well, at least from the phone conversations she had overheard. Perhaps if she mentioned it nicely enough times, her uncle would see that a secondhand horse ranch—with its own petting zoo—was a more rocko-socko idea.

He pointed to the TV. “Here’s the part where the hunted becomes the hunter. Love this part.” It was a deliberate distraction, and Sunny knew it.
Okay, Uncle Dave, but don’t think I’m forgetting this
. Uncle Dave loved Westerns. Although Sunny worried about the horses in the movies, she did like the good guys winning over the bad guys wanting to take over the town. “The good guy stops running from the bad guy”—Uncle Dave leaned forward on his couch—“and turns to chase him and fight.”

Too bad nothing exciting like that happened anymore. The Squad would be great if a bad guy tried, say—her mind wandered—
to take over the ranch
. She could just imagine.…

“You all set for tomorrow?” he asked, rousing himself to head for bed at the end when justice had been restored and the bad guys caught.

“Yup. The kids will be here at four.”

The Squad arrived one after another immediately after school, each still in school clothes.

“I could not take the time to go home and change,” Aneta said in her uniform of plaid skirt, white button-front blouse, and navy school blazer. “I am too excited.”

“Same here.” Esther pulled the school T-shirt over her navy capris.

Vee agreed. “Except I wear the same thing whether I’m in school or not.”

Half an hour later, the community center van rolled into the driveway. Sunny thought Bob the goat had done a fine job on the oval. Frank stepped from the driver’s seat, and eight children climbed out.

“A ranch!” one said.

“Nuh-uh! A farm!” another corrected.

“I smell animal poo,” said a third.

“Yep,” Frank said with a sigh, helping out the last two. “My day to drive one zoo to see another.”

His wife, already hugging the Squad, looked at him over her shoulder and laughed. Nadine almost always laughed when Frank pretended he didn’t like his job. The girls and Nadine knew he loved it. Although the Squad
had
made him have doubts a time or two, Sunny thought. She hustled to get herself and the mini in position for their part of the Great Idea.

Once Nadine had the kids seated on blankets on the oval, Nadine rummaged in the giant cloth bag made out of an old coffee-bean sack. Setting aside something next to her, she pulled out a book. “
Petey the Pig Runs a Pizzeria
,” she announced. A few chortles and much squirming.

A few pages in, Nadine read a line from the book a little more loudly than the others.

“Showtime!” Sunny whispered. With the mini standing patiently beside her in a place Sunny had never thought she’d see a horse, she looked toward the barn. Right on cue, Vee’s hand came through the barn doorway and tossed out some grain. Piggles emerged to begin snuffling his way toward Nadine.

“Look!” One of the girls, who had never said a word at the library club meeting, pointed at Piggles. “It’s Petey from the book!”

Suddenly, everyone’s attention was on Piggles as he reached the blanket. He had found the “something” Nadine had removed from her bag. He began to snuffle and eat happily.

“It’s a real pig!”

“Can I touch it?”

“Hmm. Shall I read more about Petey the pig?” Nadine asked, as though a pig showing up when she was reading a pig story was completely natural.

“Yes!” The answer was loud.

Just. Like. She. Imagined
.

“We can pretend that this piggy is Petey.” The small, dark-haired girl with the glasses pushed them up on her nose. “It’s like it’s real.”

“Petey’s the biggest pig ever,” squealed a boy.

Who cares if the kid thinks Piggles is Petey
, Sunny thought, stroking the soft nose of the mini. This Great Idea was going, well,
great
.

When Nadine stopped again—strategically, the girls knew—there was an outcry for more of Petey. Piggles had finished his grain and had settled into the soft, inviting dust nearby.

On the second book, the kids looked expectantly at the barn, but Esther and Which Way appeared from
behind
them, from the left side of the house. Esther acted surprised that a story was being read about a goose when she—why, imagine that—just happened to be carrying
her
goose. They petted the goose. The rowdiest boy from the library took hold of the goose’s foot, felt how warm it was, and said, “It’s like it’s on fire!”

The third book, about a little goat who ran away from home, had them begging Nadine to read faster; they were sure they were getting an animal “for reals” with each story. Aneta rolled the big ball out of the paddock, the pygmy goat behind it, until just before the blanket. Then she let Bob take over. The goat chased after it, butting it with his head, and then walked on over to the blanket for ear scratches. Nadine didn’t get too far in that book, but two of the kids said they were going to check it out at the library the next day. “Now I know how cool a goat is!”

Finally, it was time for the miniature horse story. That had been tougher, and Nadine had to go to a nearby larger library system to borrow a miniature horse story. Sunny had been listening to everything. At Nadine’s now-familiar slightly louder voice on one line, Sunny pushed open the screen door and walked out on the porch with the mini’s mini hooves clopping on the wood floor.