High Hurdles (67 page)

“Will you take care of Josh tonight, DJ?” he asked. “I need to get to work right away.”

“Sure.” She turned to Mrs. Yamamoto. “How’s Amy?”

“It turns out she has bronchitis on top of a flu bug, so it’ll be a few days before she can come back to school. I took her to the doctor this morning. The antibiotics he prescribed will help soon.”

“Is she coughing her head off?”

“Sure is. And not having power yesterday didn’t help. She was so cold we brought her down to sleep by the fireplace.”

“I’ll ride my bike to the Academy,” DJ said when she got out of the car and waved. “Tell Amy I’ll call her later.”

As John backed out the driveway, she had a brainstorm—maybe John would help her with algebra. He was a numbers genius. Computer genius, too.

She went into the house, still thinking about algebra. Probably there was a computer program that could help her understand this stuff. She stacked the few dishes in the dishwasher, threw a load of her things in the wash, and headed for the Academy. Her mother had been home to change clothes but hadn’t even left a message. Now what was going on?

No classes today
, read the sign posted on the duties board. And here she’d just been able to ride Major again. Did that mean she couldn’t work Patches, either? DJ checked in Bridget’s office, but no one was there. The arena stood empty.

The place felt about as deserted as her own home. Where was everyone?

DJ went into the barn knowing she had to take care of at least three horses. Dirty stalls called to her. She got some carrots out of the refrigerator and, breaking them into small pieces, filled her pockets. Retrieving the wheelbarrow and manure fork, she waved to Hilary Jones, who was grooming her horse in the other aisle, and made her way to Major’s stall.

Major leaned against the stall bars, stretching to greet her. His nose quivered in a soundless nicker, his ears nearly touching at the tips.

“Hi, fella, you had a lonely day without a visit from GJ?” She fed him a carrot and tickled the whisker brush on his upper lip. Ranger stuck his head out over the bars of his stall and tossed his head, demanding a treat, too.

“Hey, stuff it, kid. I’ll get to you in a minute.”

Ranger nickered again, even more demanding this time, including a stamp of one front foot.

“What a spoiled brat you are.” She gave Major another treat and rubbed up behind his ears. “You should give him lessons in manners, you know.” Major rubbed his forehead against the front of her jacket and nosed her pockets for more carrot. “Be back in a minute.”

She gave him a pat and walked the few steps to Ranger’s gate. “Now, see here.”

Ranger tossed his head, his forelock and mane flopping with the action.

DJ gave him a carrot chunk and scratched his cheek while he chewed. “Does Joe give you whatever you want? You seem like a hopeless case.” Ranger snuffled her hands, then her pockets. “Oh, so you know where we keep the stuff, do you?” She gave him another treat and stepped back, her hands on her hips. “That rain sure soaked your bedding. I better bring in tons of shavings or you’ll be standing in the mud.”

She tied Major in the aisle and began forking the wet and dirty shaving and straw mixture into the wheelbarrow. Only minutes passed before she removed her Windbreaker and hung it over a bar. She’d become spoiled herself with Joe cleaning the stalls weekday mornings. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and trundled the barrow to dump, refill, and dump again. When she was down to bare, wet ground, she headed for the shavings pile and dumped several loads on the bare floor of the stall. She made it plenty deep before spreading a layer of straw on top of that.

If it ever rained like that again, she could hang plastic on the outside wall to keep the rain from soaking the dirt in the stall. She decided to mention it to Bridget when they had time.

She brought Major back into his stall and began on Ranger’s. On a trek to the ramp where they dumped the dirty bedding, she heard Bridget’s voice coming from the stalls on the opposite side of the area. “At least someone is here,” she told Ranger when he nickered for another treat.

When both horses had clean stalls, she refilled the water buckets and hung hay in each net before doing the same for Amy’s horse. After putting the wheelbarrow and things away, she picked up the grooming bucket and, starting with Josh, groomed all three horses.

She found Bridget up on the roof with a hammer and nails. One of the stable workers was with her on the roof, and another was handing up sheets of corrugated fiberglass roofing to be nailed in place.

“If you want extra work, you can help.” Bridget finished nailing off a section, then stood and kneaded the middle of her back with her fists.

DJ wanted to ask why
she
was up there but kept her mouth closed. “I’m not much of a help with a hammer, but if you have other stuff to do, I can maybe handle that.”

“I would rather you not ride in the arena today since some of the roofing is loose and could come down.” Bridget helped slide the next roofing panel in place. “So if your stalls are clean and the horses cared for, that is all for the day.” She smiled down at DJ. “Thank you for the offer to help, but I think we have it under control.”

“See you.” DJ turned to go and saw Mrs. Ellsindorf coming their way. The woman’s face was permanently carved into a frowning glare. She passed without an acknowledgment of any kind, as though DJ wasn’t even on the same planet with her, let alone the same aisle.

Well, hello to you, too—and I hope you have a nice day.
DJ saw Hilary coming toward her, shaking her head.

“We sure get some interesting people around here.” Hilary set the wheelbarrow down and took the fork to load shavings.

“Interesting—is that what you call her?”

“Well, not quite, but you’ve got to at least try to be polite, you know.”

“That’s what Gran says, too.” DJ shook her head. “But why is she so mad all the time?”

“I imagine not being able to ride in the arena ticked her off today. I wish she’d ride in the morning so we didn’t have to make way for her. Guess no one told her the afternoons are left to us kids.” Hilary forked the shavings as she talked.

“Maybe she has a job or something.” DJ looked out to where Bridget had come off the roof to talk with the woman.

“Maybe.” Hilary’s tone said she didn’t believe it for a second.

“Well, see ya.” DJ headed back to Major’s stall to check his leg before she left. Even if he didn’t need the ice packs anymore, a rubbing with liniment wouldn’t hurt.

After she’d parked her bike in the garage, she shucked her boots at the bootjack by the back door and entered the kitchen. The blinking light on the answering machine caught her attention, and she pushed the Play button.

“DJ, Robert and the boys are coming out around five so we can go over to the house and inspect the damage. Could you take care of Bobby and Billy for a while? Robert said he’d bring dinner.” DJ nodded as she waited for the next message.

“DJ, Joe called to ask if you would take care of Ranger for him. He said he’d be home later tonight and he’ll do tomorrow as usual. I had hoped to catch you before you left. Call me if there’s a problem.”

“Already done, Gran,” DJ said as she poked the rewind switch. She went upstairs to change into clean clothes, then checked to make sure things were picked up. Since all seemed to be in order, she took the cordless phone and a can of soda to Gran’s old chair, where she sat with both legs over one arm while she dialed Amy.

“She’s taking a bath,” Mrs. Yamamoto said after answering. “Can she call you back?”

“Sure.” DJ hung up and dialed Gran’s number. After reassuring her grandmother that the horses were cared for, DJ asked, “You want me to come over tomorrow and help clean up the mess around there?”

“No thanks, darlin’. Joe says we have to let the insurance adjuster see the damage first so we can turn in our claim. We’ll probably make up a work party this weekend. Do you want to go shopping tonight for your jacket and things?”

“Can’t. I’ve got the Double Bs while Mom and Robert inspect the damage to the house and figure out what to do. How about tomorrow night?”

“We’ll see. Y’all want to come here for dinner?”

“Thanks, but Robert is bringing it.” DJ went on to tell her the news of the day, making a joke out of the sour look on Mrs. Ellsindorf’s face. “I think she practices looking mad and bad.”

“She must be a terribly unhappy person.”

“Now, don’t you go getting any ideas.” DJ swung her feet and let them thud against the chair. “She’s not my problem, and I don’t have to like her.”

“Seems to me like she needs a lot of prayer.”

DJ sighed. “Why did I ever bring her up? Gran, you pray for her if you want to, but I’d rather you prayed for me to do better in algebra. Why do I need to learn the stuff?”

After hanging up, DJ headed back upstairs to start her homework. She had a book report due the next week and hadn’t begun to read the book yet. She flopped down on her bed on her stomach, Jennie McGrady Mystery in hand. She began reading as she munched on an apple, her feet scissoring the air. Soon, she was so caught up in the book she didn’t even know her mother had come home until Lindy stuck her head in the door.

“Hi, DJ, doing your homework?”

“Yup. Gotta get ahead.” DJ rolled over enough to see her mother. “You look beat.”

“Thanks. Even though they put us up at the hotel last night, I didn’t get much sleep with that storm raging outside. Then I had an appointment at eight, so I just changed clothes here and left again. I sure wish I had time to crash for a bit. . . .” She checked her watch. “If they arrive before I get out of the shower, you entertain them, okay?”

DJ nodded and went back to her book.

The fried chicken and fixings Robert brought disappeared in record time. He and Lindy left DJ and the boys to clean up. “You guys mind DJ now.”

“We will.” They wore their cherub look. “Bye, Daddy.”

DJ played Go Fish with them for a while, then said, “Look, guys, I’d love to keep playing, but I have a ton of homework to do for Monday, and it won’t get done unless I start on it now. How about I set you up with crayons and some paper for coloring while I study?”

“ ’Kay. Then will you play horsie?”

DJ groaned. “I guess so. But first you have to be quiet.” She led the way up the stairs to her room and set them on the floor with their crayons and papers. Back on her bed, she returned to the world of Jennie McGrady.