Horse Wise Read Free Page A

says we should be there, with our parents.”
    “Well, I’m not—” He was interrupted by the ringing of the phone. He swept it off the hook and spoke into it smartly. “Colonel Hanson!”
    That was another one of his weird habits. He never could seem to remember that when he wasn’t in his office on the base, he didn’t have to answer the phone that way.
    At first, Carole thought the call might be for her, but it was clear that the caller wanted to talk to her father. She turned her attention back to fixing dinner. They were having tacos, and Carole was in charge of making the beef filling. Her father was in charge of preparing the toppings. Carole checked the beef, which was done and staying warm in the electric frying pan. It was time to set the table.
    Without thinking about it, Carole took three place mats out of a drawer and put them on the table. When she saw what she’d done, she moved the third mat into the center of the table to use as a hot pad. It was a mistake she made often. The sight of the third mat at the table somehow made her feel as if her mother were still with them.
    “Oh, I know that one!” she heard her father say into the phone. “It’s an elephant with wrinkled panty hose!”
    “Is it Stevie?” Carole asked. The colonel nodded. Carole shook her head. Stevie was
her
best friend, butyou’d never know it by the way Stevie and her father chatted on the phone. Both of them loved old corny jokes, and once they got started, there was no stopping them. Carole lowered the heat on the beef filling and began chopping lettuce.
    “All right. So what’s green and goes slam! slam! slam! slam!” There was a brief silence. “Give up? It’s a four-door pickle!” Colonel Hanson chortled.
    That was as much as Carole could take. Besides, she nearly sliced her finger as well as the lettuce. “My turn,” she announced, wresting the phone from her father. He relinquished it gracefully and took over the chopping. “What’s up?” Carole asked. She wrapped a paper towel around a small cut.
    “I can’t believe it, but both my parents are coming! I could just about kill my brothers—in fact I may still do it—but at least my parents will be at the meeting. They can sit with your dad.”
    “I don’t know about that,” Carole said. “I still haven’t convinced him to come.”
    “Listen,” Stevie said, “if I could talk my parents into it, you can
definitely
talk your dad into it.”
    “I just wish I knew what ‘it’ was,” Carole said.
    “Whatever ‘it’ is, it’s important,” Stevie said. “So go for it!”
    “You have the most amazing way of seeing everything as a contest,” Carole observed. “Like everything can be solved by winning one for the Gipper.”
    “Not everything,” Stevie conceded.
    “Such as?”
    “Well, not science projects,” she reminded Carole.
    “True. Listen, I have to finish getting dinner together,” Carole said. “Talk to you tomorrow.”
    Stevie wished her good luck and they hung up.
    “What was that about?” Colonel Hanson asked.
    Carole decided to let Stevie be an inspiration to her. “Oh, she was mostly calling to tell me how excited her parents are about going to the Pine Hollow meeting next Tuesday, and how glad they are to take time out of their busy lives to do something with their daughter, since it’s something that matters a lot to her. Sure, it’s a sacrifice. I mean, her father has to skip the annual Lawyer of the Year dinner, and he was supposed to receive the award, and her mother was scheduled to present a case to the Supreme Court the same day, but she told the justices they’ll have to reschedule. It’s a good thing they’ve got such flexible schedules, and nothing as critical as Navy-Bean Soup Night at the O-Club. Dinner’s ready.”
    Carole filled the taco shells, served the rice and beans, and handed her father a dish.
    “Pretty important, huh?” Colonel Hanson asked Carole while he sprinkled his tacos with cheese and