One Unhappy Horse Read Free Page B

resisted the heat of the day. She missed the smells from the kitchen when Dad was cooking dinner, something he was better at than Mom. Life had been good when they lived in that house.
    Before the two old ladies had taken more than a few steps, Mattie looked back over her shoulder at Jan and Dove. Her smile was bright as she said, "Come visit sometime, honey. I'll show you a picture of my Laddie-lee. That's what I named my horse when I was four. He was big, like your horse, but he had a white blaze between his eyes, and—Did I tell you he saved my life one time?"
    "Let the girl be," Amelia chided her. "She's got more to do than listen to your old stories."
    "Now, Amelia, you just feel that way because you've heard them all." Mattie turned toward Jan again. "Amelia and I share a room. We're the only two in our house that share. The others all have their own room.... But we don't mind it that much, do we, Amelia?"
    "It must be getting close to suppertime," Amelia said.
    She started forward again and Mattie followed, offering Amelia her arm. Over her shoulder, Mattie called out to Jan, "Come by anytime, honey. We
love
visitors, especially pretty young things like you. Bye, now." She waved and then concentrated on guiding Amelia.
    She'd never step inside that house again, Jan thought. She'd hate being a guest in her own home and trying to make conversation with those women. What could she possibly have to say to them? They had nothing in common. But that Mattie did have a sweet face. She might have been pretty once, though it was hard to imagine she had ever been young. Of course—Jan smiled to herself as
she thought it—she wouldn't have to worry much about having to talk if Mattie were there.
    Jan continued riding Dove slowly along the dirt road, but a few minutes after her encounter with Mattie and Amelia, Dove stumbled. Not that there was anything in the road for him to stumble on—his knee just seemed to buckle under him. And then he stumbled again. He wasn't better, Jan realized. It had been wishful thinking on her part to think the anti-inflammatory pills had worked so fast. She slid off his back and turned him around to walk him home.
    "I'm sorry, Dove. I shouldn't have tried to ride you. You hurt, don't you? I wish you could tell me what's wrong."
    She would get out her bankbook as soon as they got home and slap it down on the kitchen table and tell Mom she had to get a vet to look at Dove
now.

CHAPTER THREE
    When Jan returned to the casita, Mom was on the phone trying to convince a man that he still had to pay his horse's boarding bill even if he didn't want the horse anymore. She wasn't sounding very persuasive. Dad had always been the one to charm people into paying. Better wait until suppertime to confront her mother, Jan decided.
    She began as soon as Mom finished microwaving their frozen pizza. "Mom, Dove's worse, not better. You said—" "I said we need to give him time to heal himself. You only gave him the Bute this morning," Mom interrupted her.
    "But I just know he's got more wrong with him than a stone bruise. I want to pay the vet to look at him."
    Mom swallowed and surprised Jan by saying, "All right, if your money's burning a hole in your pocket—Dr. Foster's coming tomorrow to see a boarder's horse for a bad infection. I'll ask her to look at Dove while she's here."
    "Thanks," Jan said with relief. She wasn't about to question why Mom had suddenly given in. She was just glad her mother had.
    They finished their pizza slices in a silence that made Jan aware of every chewing and swallowing noise. Dad's cheery dinner-table conversation used to cover up such noises. Jan looked at her mother's tired face and tried, "So how was your day, Mom?"
    "Same as always." Mom's eyes met Jan's. She swallowed and offered up in return the question that Dad had always put. "How was school?"
    "Fine. I sat with some kids at lunch and met this new girl. She was friendly, but I didn't get her name."
    Mom