Silver Dream (17 page)

And then there was Cally, and his
thinking she was Kathy. Sure, they had the same curly, strawberry
blonde hair, the same green eyes. But Kathy had grown up long ago.
How could he have forgotten that?

“
Dad, please, tell us what happened.”
Kathy’s voice was soft with concern. “You can’t keep quiet about
this. Cally already showed us the horses, and you’ve had enough
time to rest.”

And now they were asking him these
questions. But how could he bear to tell them what he’d been doing
these last days? Impossible even to form the words, because even if
he forced himself to speak, he couldn’t stand for his daughter and
son-in-law to see him for what he really was – a weak-minded fool.
He’d already been enough of a disappointment to Kathy.

But they had to know if he was going to
make it right.

“
Dad?” Her hand was warm on his
shoulder.

“
I’m fine, Kathy. I’m just thinking,
that’s all.”

His daughter deserved better than him.
Always had.

Beware of your pride…

Now where had that come from? Almost
like a voice. Oh yes, the dream. The voice that had brought him
back to his senses, the being who’d given him a few priceless
minutes with his old friends. Any presence with that power must
know what it was talking about. But how was he being proud? All he
wanted to do was avoid humiliation. That wasn’t pride, was it?

But really, if he were honest, there
was a deeper reason he didn’t want to tell them. He didn’t want to
admit he needed help.

And he did need help. The being had
given him a certain clarity of mind, but it wasn’t much more than
what had existed just a couple months ago, a few weeks before Cally
came to stay with him. If he didn’t tell them now, would he have
the courage to tell them later when the clarity faded? Or would he
do the same as he had the first time and keep silent? Would he
allow himself to start stealing horses again? Put other people in
danger again? At least throwing Graham into the old cellar had been
a dream. He didn’t think he could stand himself if it hadn’t.

But what if next time he did grab some
innocent fellow and try to exact his revenge? How would he forgive
himself then?

And the horses! He’d galloped them over
asphalt and kept them crowded in a shed large enough for only one
horse. Something could easily have happened to one of them, a
broken leg, an aborted foal, anything…

Most of all, he couldn’t bear to think
of how his actions might have harmed Cally. He’d trapped an
energetic, frightened Thoroughbred stallion in a small space with
two strange horses and then sent his inexperienced granddaughter
into the shed to groom them!

He groaned.

“
Dad, please, you have to talk to me.
Tell me what happened.”

The voice was right. He’d been too
proud to admit he needed help back then – but he’d been given a
second chance. He had no choice but to disappoint Kathy yet again,
burden her once more with his failure.

Kathy pulled her chair so she was
sitting immediately in front of him, then took his hands in hers.
“Dad.” Her green eyes were so much like his own, so much like
Cally’s. “Dad, I love you. I will always love you, no matter what.
You can tell me anything.”

He opened his mouth, but no words came
out.

“
You will always be my dad, and I
will always feel blessed to be your daughter.”

What? She felt blessed? But she
couldn’t. He must have misheard. He’d done nothing but fail his
entire life.

She must have seen the disbelief in his
eyes.

“
You were always a great dad to me. I
remember all the beautiful, magical stories you told me about Mom,
because I was too young to remember her when she died. You told me
those stories, though it must have hurt you terribly to talk of
her. And I remember how you comforted me when Thunder was taken
from us. And you always had time for me. You always encouraged me
and supported my decisions, as long as you were convinced I’d
thought things through. You are a great dad and a wonderful
grandfather. I trust you completely. So trust me this time to be
your confidant, okay? Trust me to love you, no matter
what.”

Tears pooled in his eyes and he let
them tumble down his cheeks unrestrained. She didn’t blame him for
Thunder. She didn’t even seem to remember that they never had much
money when she was a child. Or that as a single parent, he’d made
mistakes. And she loved him, no matter what.

“
I…” He could feel them bunching in
his throat: the words. Pushing, crowding forward.

“
Kathy, I…”

“
Yes, Dad?”

“
Kathy, I need your help…”

After they groomed Breeze and Bonnie
until they seemed alight in the late morning sun, Joanna and Cally
sat in the shade next to the house. Joanna wiped the sweat from her
brow.

“What a hot day.”

“I love it,” Cally said. “It’s
way colder at home. I wish we could live here.”

“Me too,” said Joanna. “That
would be awesome.”

Cally wrapped her arms around
her knees. “I hate that we’re leaving today. I didn’t even have
time to visit your farm. Your ponies last night were so awesome,
and Raven is totally perfect.”

“Hey, I forgot to tell you. I
know the solution for Raven.” Quickly Joanna explained, then added,
“And my brother told me something last night that makes me just
tingle all over. But if I tell you, you can’t tell anyone else. No
one knows that I know.”

“I won’t tell. I promise.”

“My parents are planning to give
me one of the fillies you saw last night. The rose grey with the
blaze, the one closest to Breeze in color.”

“Oh Joanna, that’s awesome!
You’re so lucky.” She touched her necklace. “Maybe if I ask
Angelica, she’ll give me a horse too.”

“That reminds me,
another
weird thing happened last night too.” Joanna told of Robbie’s
hostility and how he’d caught her last night – and how when her
fingers brushed the necklace she’d suddenly understood his point of
view. “And now we’re like big buddies,” she finished, and then
laughed. “Well, maybe not buddies, but at least there’s a
truce.”

“If Angelica could communicate
with you just by you touching the necklace, I wonder if…. No, it’s
silly.”

“What?”

“Well, what if we can
communicate too, not just with her, but with the horses?”

“Oh, cool idea. Let’s try. I’ll
call Bonnie. You watch her while I concentrate.” Joanna touched the
necklace, shut her eyes, and thought,
Bonnie, come here.

Beside her, Cally gasped.

“What happened?” The horses
looked just the same, grazing peacefully on the lawn.

“She looked up at us, but then
kept on eating. It must’ve just been chance.”

“Maybe she didn’t see any reason
to come. Remember how she was with David last night? Stubborn. You
try, with Breeze.”

Cally put her fingers on her
necklace and closed her eyes. Breeze raised his head and looked
right at them, then nickered and ambled toward them. With a
resigned sigh, Bonnie followed.

“Cally, it works!”

“We’re horse whisperers now.
Cool!”

The two girls leapt to their
feet and greeted the horses with hugs and soft words, then Joanna
said, “Let’s take him for a ride. We can tell him where to go
through the necklace.”

“This is so awesome. Give me a
boost, then you can use the steps to get up.”

Just as Cally settled on
Breeze’s back, the front door opened. Cally’s mom and dad walked
onto the porch.

“Cally, that’s not safe,” said
her dad. “You don’t even have a rope on him.”

“Don’t worry, Dad. He’s okay.”
She slid to the ground and Breeze wandered away to graze. “This is
my new friend, Joanna. She lives next door.”

“Hi,” said Joanna.

“It’s nice to meet you,” said
Cally’s mom.

“We’re glad Cally has a friend
here,” said her dad, sounding oddly relieved.

“Where’s Grandpa? Is everything
okay?”

“He’s fine, and he’ll be out in
a minute,” said Cally’s dad. “We told him we wanted to talk to you
first.”

“Can Joanna stay too? She knows
that the horses are stolen, so she should know what’s
happening.”

Cally’s mom sighed. “Okay. Come
sit down, girls.” She sat on the steps and waited for Cally and
Joanna to join her.

“We phoned the owners of the two
horses. Neither owner is going to press charges, so that’s good
news.”

“But what about Grandpa? We
can’t leave him here alone and we can’t bring him to the city. He’d
hate that so much.”

“We know, honey,” said Cally’s
dad. “And we think we have a plan.” He cleared his throat. “What do
you think of moving here?”

“What?”

“Now, sweetheart, I know it’ll
be tough to move away from all your friends, but you can invite
them out to visit. Every other weekend, if you want. However, your
grandpa needs us now, so we all have to make sacrifices.”

“But Mom, Dad, it’s
not
a
sacrifice. It’s awesome! It’s wonderful! I love it here. I’ve
always
loved it here. And if I can invite my friends, that’s
even better. They’re going to love it here too. And they’ll love
Joanna too. And her ponies. Her ponies are fantastic! Just wait
until you see them. And her mom is really nice, Mom. I bet you’ll
be best friends, just like me and Joanna.”

Cally’s dad laughed out loud.
“And here I was worried about telling you. It seems we’re all
excited about moving to the country.” He walked down the porch
steps and looked around. “Your grandpa always insisted he didn’t
want help, even with the buildings falling down around him. We
never wanted to force him, and now that he’s changed his mind, I’m
glad we didn’t. We can turn this place back into something special,
together, as a family.”

“There’s one thing that would
make it all even better,” said Cally. “A horse. Can I have a horse
if we move?”

Joanna noticed Cally’s hand
stray to her necklace, and she looked at Breeze in time to see the
chestnut gelding raise his head from the lawn grass.

“That’s so odd,” said Cally’s
mom. “When we talked to one of the owners on the phone she felt
terrible they hadn’t even noticed the horse was missing. She said
that it was time to talk to her daughter about selling him so he
could go on to live a useful life somewhere else.”

Breeze strolled toward them.

“I think she was the owner of
this horse,” said Cally’s dad, amazed. His hand ran along Breeze’s
red coat as the horse stepped past him.

The gelding stopped in front of
the steps and reached out with his nose to snuffle Cally’s
hair.

“I get the distinct impression
that he’s trying to tell us something,” said Cally’s mom, and
laughed.

“I’m sure he is,” said Joanna.
“He’s chosen Cally for his new girl.”

The door opened and Mr. Thomas
came out onto the porch. Cally jumped up and grabbed her
grandfather’s hand, pulling him toward Breeze. “Grandpa, would you
like to have a new horse with me? We could own him together.”

“Why, Cally,” the old man said,
his voice subdued. Joanna could see tear tracks on his face. “I… I
don’t know.”

Breeze pushed his nose into the
air and curled his upper lip in response.

“Look, Grandpa, he’s grinning
because he’s so happy to be here,” said Cally. “He wants to live
with you too, just like me.” She threw her arms around her
grandfather’s waist.

For the first time since their
adventure started, Joanna saw a smile on Mr. Thomas’s lined face.
It grew slowly, tentatively, bigger and wider, until the happiness
touched his eyes, lighting them up with joy. He straightened to
stand a little taller and reached to stroke Cally’s curls.

“Well, Grandpa?”

“I couldn’t imagine anything
nicer,” he said.