Brenna waved to me from the steps at the front of the office trailer. “Hi, Robin. Come on over.”
Shifting my backpack, I went to join her. “Hey, Brenna. What’s up with my car?”
She smiled, then ran a hand through her shoulder-length red hair. The blue mechanic’s coveralls she wore matched her eyes. “It’s not yours until the papers are signed. And like I’ve told you all summer, your dad needs to do that, since you’re not eighteen yet.”
“He’ll do it,” I said. “Tomorrow’s my birthday and he knows this car is all I want. I’ve been telling him that for ages.”
Brenna nodded and her smile faded. She actually looked her age, almost thirty. “One of the guys I served with in Afghanistan took it out for a test drive today, Robin. I’ve been straight up with you. I won’t hold a car for someone who can’t buy it. This place eats almost as much as Harry does.”
I knew she was trying to make a joke, but I could also tell that she was being honest with me. If somebody came in with enough bucks, my car would be gone. “Okay, I’ll get my dad in here right away.”
She nodded, then headed for the garage to do maintenance on a car she’d just taken in, and I jogged toward the sidewalk. The Mustang Corral wasn’t that big as far as lots went. It was sandwiched between a vacuum repair place and a small strip mall. The only business left in the mall was a doughnut shop that was open from before school to midnight. I skipped my usual routine of popping in for a coffee and a maple bar. I had to talk to Dad and he had to get serious about the blue Mustang. Or else!
When I walked into the accounting office twenty minutes later, the secretary told me that my father was finishing up with a client. I had to wait almost an hour for him. Then, he rushed me out the door. He wanted to get to the feed store before it closed because his horse needed some kind of special supplement. Finally, we were on the way home and he was a captive audience. He couldn’t get away from me.
“Dad, we have to talk about my birthday.”
He glanced sideways at me while he waited for the red light to change at the intersection. “Robbie, we already have it planned. Felicia is coming home from school, and she’ll be here tomorrow night to celebrate with us. She’s taking Friday off from classes and driving back on Sunday morning.”
“Wonderful,” I said, hoping he didn’t catch the sarcasm. “I can’t wait to see her. I’m talking about my big present. I want—”
“I know what you want,” Dad said, stepping on the gas. “But it doesn’t mean you’re going to get it. Presents are supposed to be surprises. You’ll have to wait until tomorrow night at dinner to see what you get.”
I nearly told him I didn’t think waiting was a good idea, not when Brenna had a buyer for my car. However, my cell phone vibrated. When I looked at the screen, it was my best friend and I had to talk to her. Not about the car—she just didn’t get why I was so hooked on Mustangs—but about her life, which pretty much sucked all of the time now.
* * * *
Thursday, September 12th, 4:00 p.m.
Leaving the department store sacks unopened and uninvestigated, I closed the door to the closet in my parents’ bedroom. Snooping there had been a long shot, but I didn’t know where else to look for the papers and keys to my Mustang. I just couldn’t find anything to do with the car. Mom and Dad hid the information too well, although the ’68 classic hadn’t been on the lot when I walked by there today.
So, my car had to be here on the farm. I just hadn’t found it yet. And I didn’t have a lot of time left to look. Mom had to make a quick grocery store run to get Felicia’s favorite junk food and Dad went with her. Hello, it was my birthday. Wasn’t I supposed to be the special one today?
I’d searched most of the buildings; anywhere a person could drive a car. The only place left to look was the big barn where my family kept their horses. I figured my older brother Jack would totally freak if the car was in the indoor riding arena, not because the horses might trash it, but because they could spook and get hurt.
Horses were weird at the best of times and Jack fussed over the ones in the barn non-stop. He kept their stalls cleaner than Mom did the house. She often said she wished his obsessive neat and tidy fanaticism would carry over to his bedroom. It hadn’t in nearly eighteen years, so I figured she should get over it. I started to leave my parents’ room, then remembered that Salt escorted me upstairs.
I glanced around the master bedroom. The eight-week-old, black and white Persian kitten was nowhere in sight. I hurried back to the closet and opened the sliding door. Salt sauntered out and wound through my legs, purring. I scooped him up and closed the closet again, heading downstairs.
The house was hopeless. I’d searched my dad’s office, my folks’ room, and Mom’s sewing room where she made quilts and other handmade crafts to sell. No sign of anything to do with my car. Where could the papers be?
Okay, I’d stop looking for those and go back to hunting for the car. I left Salt on the couch in the living room. He promptly jumped to the back and stalked to the cream drapes that covered the huge picture window. An extra black paw stole around the edge of one drape and batted at Salt. Pepper, the other kitten, was in his favorite hiding place on the windowsill. Leaving the kittens to shadowbox, I hurried out into the golden afternoon.
I was on a mission and I’d find my car, no matter what!
In the barn, I looked down the long row of stalls that bordered the indoor riding arena. The stalls opened onto a wide aisle. Off to my right, a wall separated the stalls from the ring, which was about two hundred feet long and seventy-five feet wide. Sometimes Jack and his buddies practiced football plays inside. There were eight stalls, although we only had three horses right now.
Felicia took her Appaloosa gelding with her to Washington State University in Pullman. She’d fussed more about finding the perfect stable to board him than she did about her stuff for the dorm room. I’d done most of the shopping so the place would be livable, or she’d have a sleeping bag on her bed and her clothes in suitcases since she wouldn’t have any hangers for the closet. Of course, as long as her horse was happy, she wouldn’t have cared. The whole family loved the indoor arena, except me. I’d voted for a swimming pool—not that anyone listened.
The first box stall held Jack’s huge, white Thoroughbred, Nitroglycerin. I shuddered and gave him a wide berth when he pinned his ears and gave me that wicked once-over from pale blue eyes. Jack told me that people used to think blue or glass-eyed horses were blind. I wasn’t that dumb. I just knew Nitro was evil. I’d been sure of it even before he ran away with me the last time Mom insisted I come riding with her and Felicia.
Next to Nitro was my mother’s purebred Arabian mare. She was tiny in comparison to Nitro, fifteen hands to his eighteen. Ibn Scheherazade was a dainty chestnut with a long flaxen mane and tail. She answered to Singer at home because she pranced and danced across the finish line at hard endurance contests, just like Mom’s sewing machine stitched material.
Singer’s head came up, and she listened intently to the soft thuds overhead in the hayloft. I recognized the thumping of little cat feet. Obviously, the two half-grown kittens, Ginger and Cinnamon, were playing tag again. When I found Salt and Pepper abandoned near the train tracks in Marysville, Mom told me that two kittens in the house were enough and my older cats had to go to the barn because the newest ones needed to be bottle-fed every couple hours. Luckily, it was August so I could get up all night long to do it and not have to worry about school the next day.
Singer snorted and jumped to the back of her stall as the noise continued in the loft. She looked like a horse statue come to life, but she wasn’t as smart as Mom claimed. Dad’s Quarter horse, Buster, took up the third stall. He searched his manger for any crumbs left from lunch. I always found it hard to believe that this was the same horse that exploded into the arena when it was time to rope a calf since he was such a hog-body at home.
Jack came out of the tack room, all cowboyed up in
his jeans, western shirt, and boots. “Thought I heard someone. What’s going on, Robin?”
“Not much,” I said, eyeing him. Would he tell me where to find my car?
He grinned at me, a tall, dark-haired, younger version of Dad. “So, are you here to help me with chores, Princess?”
I shrugged. “Sure. Why not? I’ll do the cats, the chickens, and the rest. You do the horses.”
“All right!” He pumped an arm in the air. “It won’t do you any good. I’m still not telling you about your big present.”
I’d been charming secrets out of him for years, and he always lost this kind of battle. I just smiled up at him. “Want to bet?”
Chapter Two
Thursday, September 12th, 6:20 p.m.
When we finished chores and climbed the stairs to the inside back porch that my mom called the “mud room,” I kicked off my shoes while Jack pulled off his boots. It wasn’t worth our teenage lives to track barn muck into the house. I looked through the glass window of the door and saw Felicia setting the kitchen table for dinner. Mom stirred something at the stove.
I could already hear Felicia chattering about some class she was taking and what she’d told her teacher and he’d told her. Like anybody cared, I thought. Of course, I wouldn’t say so. My older sister honestly believed we couldn’t live without the psycho-babble she loved so much.
As soon as I opened the door, she darted across the room to hug me. Oh, come on!
The two of us had a huge fight about her hogging the bathroom and using up my tube of mascara the day she left and now we were supposed to be best buds. Give me a break!
“I’ve missed you guys so much.” Felicia whirled away from me and flung herself on Jack. He scooped her up in a big hug.
“How’s Vinnie?” Jack demanded. “Does he like the barn? His paddock? Did you find somewhere to buy him organic carrots?”
“I knew it,” Felicia crowed. “You miss him more than you do me. You’re weird, all right.”
“Great diagnosis,” I said. “Is that what you’re going to tell all your patients when you’re a shrink?”
“Only the strange ones,” Felicia said, with a toss of her strawberry blonde hair.
“Good to know.” I headed for the bathroom to wash up.
Dinner was on the table at six thirty exactly, one of my dad’s rules. He freaked when one of my track or cross-country meets ran overtime or started late so we had to eat at a different time. Mom claimed his hang-up about appointments was just a personality flaw and nothing to get in a dither about. Of course, she was the one who said no animals, no TV, no iPods, or cell phones at the table. We had to talk to each other like civilized people, or she’d make us wish we had. I lived with two total control freaks for parents and Felicia and Jack were pretty much the same way.
Mom made all my favorites for supper, spaghetti with meat sauce, Caesar salad, and garlic bread. I didn’t have to ask about dessert. She’d have ordered in a cake from the local bakery, chocolate with custard filling, and there’d be chocolate ice cream in the freezer. A pile of brightly wrapped presents covered the top of the breakfast bar.
When I’d looked out in the drive before dinner, I didn’t see my car anywhere, but it had to be somewhere. Either that or Mom and Dad arranged for me to go with them to pick it up later. It was all I could do to sit still while Felicia talked about her freshman year at college and Jack shared what happened at football practice that afternoon. Mom told us about a sale at the local crafts store and how she’d loaded up on material for a new quilt. Dad had two new clients, so he was all that, too! Could these people eat any slower?
Finally, they finished and I jumped up to clear away the dishes. Mom put away the leftovers. Jack and Dad arranged my gifts on the table, and Felicia hurried off to her room to bring back a couple more. I had a great family, really I did. And I should be more appreciative of them. My best friend’s dad had walked out on her birthday last June—some gift. Mine would never do that, not in a million years.
“Leave the dishes for me, Robbie,” Dad said. “Come open your presents.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” I hustled to the kitchen table, pausing to hug him on the way. “There’s nearly as much stuff here as I get for Christmas. You guys rock!”
Laughing, Mom and Felicia leaned against each other at the far end of the table, looking more like sisters than mother and daughter. They both had bright blue eyes, strawberry-blonde hair and wore the same kind of cowgirl clothes, jeans, western shirts, and Ropers. Little wonder that my sister went off to cow college in Pullman. She’d probably bring home some farmer guy for a new boyfriend.
She’d dumped her last one when he suggested she sell Vinnie to pay tuition. Nobody came between her and that purebred, seventeen-hand, buckskin Appaloosa. She’d gotten him for her sixteenth birthday. Well, actually Mom couldn’t find ‘the perfect horse’ for her. So, Mom cut a picture out of a horse magazine, stuck it on a toothpick, and put it in the middle of Felicia’s cake.
The two of them shopped for the next month, visiting horse sales, breeders, and shows, rodeos until they found Vinnie and brought him home. My parents did the same thing when Jack turned sixteen, a picture on a toothpick in the middle of his cake. He and Dad bonded on the quest to find Nitro. Personally, I could think of better places to spend money, like the outlet mall over on the reservation by Marysville.
I reached for the large pink envelope on top of the boxes of presents. This one could be the papers for my car. It had to be. I peeled back the flap. It was the spine of a greeting card. Okay, the card could have the car title inside. But, it didn’t.
Hand-painted, the front showed a rainbow group of horses, a buckskin Appy, a solid bay, a snow-white one, and a chestnut dashing across a green field. I recognized all of them, Vinnie, Buster, Nitro, and Singer. Behind them, looking down from the clouds was a shadowy pony, a faded strawberry roan. Tears stung at the memory of my first horse, but I didn’t let them fall. “This is amazing, Jack.”
“I knew you’d love it.” He grinned at me. “I’ve been working on it for the past month.”
“It’s definitely a keeper.” I’d add it to the bulletin board in my room. Even if I didn’t much care for horses, I loved my brother’s artwork. Jack’s poem inside wished me a happy day and sixteenth year, but it wasn’t sappy. And the fifty dollar bill—oh yeah, I could go places with it.
I’m not a real touchy-feely person like Felicia, but I hugged Jack, anyway. “This is the best.”
Another grin. “And you’re just getting started.”
My car, my car, my car!
Where was it? When would I find out about it?
I opened one present after another. Dad gave me raingear. What was he thinking? Even when I ran in the rain, I didn’t wear heavy vinyl. I’d die of heat prostration. From Mom, I got a new blue jean jacket, two flannel shirts, and three pairs of jeans. Come on, give me a break. Okay, so I lived on a farm. It didn’t mean that it was my thing and I’d dress like Ellie Mae off the Beverly Hillbillies. Of course, nobody listened when I suggested moving into town, a real one, not Marysville.
Next box. This one was from my mom and my sister. I peeled back the paper and found a carton labeled Ropers. No way! They hadn’t bought me boots like theirs, had they? Yes, icky big brown lace-up ones. I hoped my disgust didn’t show. These looked like I’d be in the Army before I graduated. Well, they were expensive. I’d get the receipt from Mom and return them for something I would actually wear.
Two gifts remained. The first was a package of horse books, and I almost groaned. What would it take to get them off my back? I didn’t do horses, and I definitely didn’t read about them. However, the entire family was so hooked on them they just couldn’t let things go. Last summer, I barely got to hang out with my best friend until she agreed to go to horse camp with me. Vicky loved horses, so she had a blast while it was a real endurance contest for me. Well, I’d pass the books onto her. She’d savor every page
.
My parents had a thing about me being home alone when they went to work—talk about control freaks. I’d been fifteen, not a baby. And I’d have been okay by myself for a few hours while Felicia was at the counseling center learning what therapists do and Jack did his lifeguard thing at the pool. Instead, I wound up grooming, saddling and feeding horses, and taking little kids back and forth to the restroom. I told Rocky, the instructor and owner of Shamrock Stables, that she should change the name. It shouldn’t be called “Pony Camp,” but “Pee-Pee Camp.” She laughed her butt off and gave me a coffee card for being a good sport.
With the way I avoided Mom’s endurance rides, Dad’s calf roping, Jack’s gaming and Felicia’s three-day eventing, I’d thought they’d get the message that I wasn’t into horses. But, no. One of them was always hassling me. Come ride with me on the Centennial Trail. Buster needs to muscle up. I made an apple crisp for dessert tonight. Come visit the horses with me while I feed them these apple peels. Vinnie needs braids for this weekend. Come talk to me while I sew his mane.
Nag, nag, nag. I was so sick of it!
The last gift came from Jack and Dad. I opened it up and stared at the leather bridle and green striped saddle blanket. My stomach knotted. “What is this? A mistake?”
“It’s a family tradition,” Felicia crowed and ran around to hug me. “I thought you’d figured it out when I came home to go with you and Mom.”
“Figured out what?” A sinking dread swept over me. “You guys can’t be serious.”
“And when you came down to help in the barn tonight,” Jack gave me a brotherly shove, “I knew that you’d see the stall I fixed up or the remodeling in the tack room.”
I hadn’t even bothered to look around the barn this afternoon. Jack was always messing around. Who knew or cared what was going on down there? Well, other than the rest of my family that is!