Spirit Riding Free: Lucky's Diary Read online

  After lunch they played Prancing Ponies and had a horseshoe toss. Through it all, Oliver stuck to Snips. In the Ponies game, when Lilly ran between the boys, trying to break their arm link apart, Oliver held tightly, until Lilly gave up and crawled under.

  “Cheater,” Snips said.

  “Nu-uh,” Lilly told him. “This is how we play in the city.”

  “The city is wrong, then,” Snips challenged. “Miradero is the best.” He turned to Oliver. “What are the Prancing Pony rules where you’re from?”

  Oliver didn’t reply, so Snips told Lilly, “Oliver agrees. You have to break through our grips or you’re out.” He let go of Oliver’s hand and dramatically shouted. “Out!”

  Just then, one of the twins barreled through the gap in the boys’ hands and cheered when she reached the other side safely. “Gotcha!”

  “I’ve been Bianca’ed,” Snips moaned. “She’s a tricky one.”

  Lucky thought she saw Oliver laugh at the silliness, but wasn’t positive.

  When Julian arrived to walk Oliver back to Cora’s, he asked, “How was camp, big guy?”

  Oliver leaned in and whispered something to Julian, who said loudly, “Are you sure?”

  Oliver nodded. Julian whispered something back, then Oliver whispered something else to Julian.

  Lucky was almost sure he said, “Fun,” but then in a voice Lucky, Pru, and Abigail could all hear, Oliver told Julian, “It was boring.”

  It was the first and only thing Oliver said that Lucky had heard.

  Right after that announcement, Oliver walked away with Julian. Julian replied loudly, clearly intending for his voice to carry. “There wasn’t any adventure at adventure camp? How disappointing that must have been for you, Oliver. I’m sorry old RF let you down.”

  Lucky wondered whether other kids agreed. As parents came to get them, Lucky could hear funny stories about extra pie and cheating at games, but Oliver might’ve been right: the easy scavenger hunt, the pie prize for everyone, the games… It’d all been part of the plan, but maybe there really wasn’t enough adventure in adventure camp. If she wanted to break through to Oliver, without having to pay him herself, something had to change.

  At sunset, the PALs went for a ride to talk about the camp schedule for the next day. They galloped to a large, open field where they could see for miles in every direction, and they stopped to rest. The sunset cast a golden hue over the summer sky.

  “I think Julian is right,” Lucky said, surprised that she agreed with him. “We need more excitement at camp.”

  “Tomorrow’s scavenger hunt list has a pinecone on it,” Pru said. “That shouldn’t be easy to find in the summertime, and after lunch we can make the pinecones into bird feeders.”

  “Fun,” Abigail agreed. “I made a bird feeder last summer. A cute little bluebird came. Then Snips scared it away.” She sighed. “No birds ever came after that. None were brave enough to face off with Snips.”

  “Sounds… not very adventurous,” Lucky said. But then she had an idea. It came to her after seeing the way that Oliver looked at Spirit. “Instead of horse games, can we change to having a real horse adventure camp tomorrow?” she asked Pru and Abigail. She added, “Actually, not just for tomorrow. Can we change the whole camp?”

  Pru considered the idea. “Scavenger hunts around the barn?”

  “That wasn’t what I was thinking,” Lucky said. “Instead of a scavenger hunt, maybe we can have a treasure hunt on horseback. We could learn rope tricks and animal tracking.” Pru loved tracking and was really good at it.

  “I’m in,” Pru said. “Horses! Adventure!”

  “You don’t have to convince me,” Abigail agreed.

  “The PALs Summer Adventure Horse Camp starts tomorrow!” Lucky announced, and the girls cheered before mounting up and racing back home.

  Diary Entry

  There’s no better place for me to think than sitting on Spirit’s back.

  We went for a walk—slowly, so I could talk and write in my diary as we went along. Spirit doesn’t talk much, but he sure is a good listener.

  Here’s the problem:

  Oliver is a pain! He won’t do anything. It is so aggravating. I mean, seriously, he just sits and stares out toward the horizon all day. I’m not saying he ruined the day, but… he sort of did.

  All our campers were so excited about going to the barn, except Oliver.

  And Stella. She announced that horses were dirty and smelly, but then seeing that everyone else was having fun, she quietly asked if she could ride a small spotted mare named Sadie. After Pru showed her how to mount the horse and walk slowly in a circle, we couldn’t get Stella out of the saddle so Mary Pat could ride! I’ll bet that Stella’s at Maricela’s house right now, writing a letter to her parents asking for a horse of her very own.

  Oliver, however, is a problem. I have no idea what I should do with him! For a kid who loves adventure, he sure doesn’t want to have one. He’s still not talking, except to Julian, and even then the only word I ever overhear is boring.

  Pru suggested we ignore “Mr. Boring Pants” and let him sit by a tree, which is where he’d planted himself. She said we had other campers who wanted to have fun, so why should we bother with the one who refused to even try? She pointed out that even Stella was having fun.

  When I asked Abigail what to do, she thought we should get Julian to come help us. It was obvious that he hadn’t found a job, or wasn’t trying very hard to get one, because we could see him in the distance, climbing rocks. All that stuff about how he didn’t like adventure seemed like a wild tale, since every once in a while we’d hear him shout “Wahoo!” as if he were having the best time ever.

  Oliver watched his brother with eagle eyes. That was one of the issues. He couldn’t ride a horse because he couldn’t stop watching Julian doing whatever Julian was doing. As it was, we had to keep the other campers from getting distracted and watching Julian, too.

  There was no way I’d have my cousin come to camp now, not even if it was the only way to get Oliver involved. No chance. I told Abigail that, and she was disappointed. She doesn’t have the same issues with trusting Julian that I do.

  I also told Pru that ignoring Oliver wasn’t going to work, either. He is my cousin and my responsibility. My goal is still to get him to stop looking at Julian, and start focusing here. He is going to have fun!

  I am not losing this challenge! No way.

  But what should I do? It was Spirit who had the answer. I was so wrapped up in my thoughts, I hadn’t noticed where we were headed. When I realized which trail we were on, the biggest idea came to me!

  I turned Spirit away from the trailhead. We weren’t going to go down that way right then—but we sure could later!

  Julian says that Oliver likes only adventure? Okay, we’ll give him an adventure! Extra Awesome Horse Adventure!

  Adventure doesn’t mean danger,” Pru said. The PALs were getting the campers acquainted with their horses at a riding ring near Miradero’s main square, and Lucky had suggested a ride out to Dusty Dan’s grave site. To get there, they’d have to ride the same way that Spirit had taken her the day before, then continue through Thin Man’s Canyon and cross Wild Wanda’s Creek. They’d all been on that ride before. It was one of the most fun rides in Miradero, but there were spots that just weren’t safe for beginning riders.

  “If the rumors are true, and Dan is buried near all the gold coins that he stole from the stagecoaches he robbed, we could make a treasure hunt out of the trip,” Lucky suggested. She had it all worked out. They’d break into three groups, each one with a PAL and her horse. “Spirit and I will lead the more advanced riders,” she explained, adding, “We can even take our lunch bags and picnic by the creek.”

  “No can do,” Pru countered. “It’s too far, Lucky. We have kids who are just learning to ride.” She pointed over at Stella, who’d brought an apple for Sadie, but was too scared to hand it to her. Every time Sadie ducked her head to take it f
rom Stella’s hand, the girl squealed and jumped back, snatching away the apple. If that “game” didn’t end soon, Stella would find out what happens when you tease a hungry horse.

  “I’ll be right back,” Pru said with a sigh. She went over to help Stella by showing her how to hold her hand out flat. Lucky could see that Stella closed her eyes and didn’t breathe until Sadie took the apple. Of course, afterward she cheered and said, “I want to do it again!” Turned out Stella had brought a whole bag of apples. Spirit and the other horses started to gather around for her to feed them, too.

  Pru glanced at Lucky and Abigail. Her expression said two things:

  This could take a while.

  Don’t you dare decide to go to Dusty Dan’s grave.

  “Pru’s being an adventure killer,” Lucky complained to Abigail, half joking. “If we don’t do something wild, how am I going to win over my little cousin?” Oliver was back under the same tree where he’d spent the entire week so far.

  Abigail and Lucky looked over at him. He was wearing clean blue overalls and gazing out toward a shadowed figure in the distance.

  “Is that Julian?” Abigail asked, raising her hand to shield her eyes and squinting into the sunlight.

  The figure waved at them, and they could see he was carrying fishing poles and a tackle box. It was Julian for certain.

  “Looks as if he’s headed to Wild Wanda’s Creek today,” Abigail noted. “I once caught a fish there that was as big as my own head.” She put her hands on her ears, then steadily moved them forward. Studying the distance between her palms, she nodded. “Yep, that’s how big it was.”

  “Sure,” Lucky said. She’d seen the fish, and it hadn’t been very big at all. “We could go fishing, too.”

  “Exactly,” Abigail said. “Let’s team up with Julian. He seems to be having a lot of fun.”

  “I know,” Lucky said, pinching together her lips thoughtfully. “But he told me he was getting a job, not rock climbing, hiking, flying a kite, and now fishing.” Those were all things they’d seen him doing. Lucky stared out at her cousin. “Something is fishy, that’s for sure.”

  “You made a fin-tastic joke!” Abigail cheered.

  They both laughed.

  Spirit came over to Abigail. He was chewing on one of Stella’s apples. “Come on, Spirit,” Lucky said. “Let’s see if we can get Oliver to ride today.”

  Abigail went to help the others saddle up for turns around the ring, while Pru was still with Stella, who squealed—this time with joy—every time a horse ate an apple. Boomerang and Chica Linda had their mouths full, chomping happily.

  Oliver seemed to brighten when he saw Spirit. “Hey, cuz,” Lucky greeted. “Want to feed Spirit an apple?”

  Oliver seemed to consider it for a long moment, but then shook his head.

  “What? Not adventurous enough for you?” She got a glint in her eye and called over to Pru, “Can I have a couple of those apples?”

  “Sure,” Pru replied, and Turo carried over a few.

  “What are you up to, Lucky?” Turo asked her.

  “Adding a little adventure,” she said with a smile.

  Lucky urged Oliver to stand up. “Can you throw?”

  She showed him what she meant. Lucky lobbed an apple through the air, as hard and as far as she could. The instant the apple left her fingers, Spirit took off running. He galloped over the open field to snag the apple midair!

  The campers, who’d all stopped to watch, clapped and hooted.

  “Now your turn,” Lucky said, handing Oliver an apple.

  Oliver didn’t look like a strong shot, so Lucky called Spirit to come in closer, and she positioned him partway between Oliver and the town square. As it turned out, Oliver had a good arm but a really bad aim. He tossed the apple hard, and it flew way over Spirit’s head, toward Main Street, where people were milling about.

  “Oh no! Oliver!” Lucky shouted as the apple flew toward a street vendor with a cart of pots and pans. She called to him, “Duck!”

  “Huh?” The old man didn’t move very fast. The apple was coming in hard, straight toward his surprised face.

  In a flash, Spirit leaped over two young women eating at an outside café, snagged the apple, and skidded to a stop, catching himself just in time before crashing into the bakery.

  “Good boy, Spirit!” Lucky shouted, chasing after her horse.

  He was in the street, where a small group came to see what had happened.

  “That horse is a menace,” a young man told his wife loudly enough that others could hear.

  “Vote for me for mayor, and we will keep wild horses out of the main square,” a man in a hat called out. He was running against Maricela’s father for the job.

  “That horse tried to kill me,” one of the women from the café added to the throng.

  “Come on, Spirit,” Lucky said, leading her horse away. “I know you were just trying to protect the street vendor.”

  As they passed the man with the pots and pans cart, he thanked them, then turned to the angry mob, trying to explain, but no one would listen.

  Lucky climbed on Spirit’s back. She was going to try to explain to the group. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “We—”

  “Don’t let it happen again!” the man running for mayor interrupted, then began handing out flyers for the upcoming election. Everyone turned away, interested in hearing the man’s plans to keep wild horses off the streets.

  When she and Spirit got back to the others, Oliver had all the campers gathered around him. All of a sudden, he was chatting up a storm.

  “Did you see my toss?” he was bragging to Snips. “I’d have hit one of those hanging pots if it weren’t for that wild horse.”

  He glanced up, sensing Spirit was behind him, and moved a few steps away.

  “That wild horse saved the old man from a bump on the head,” Lucky countered. “What were you thinking?” Wait! Oliver was talking. Bragging, actually, but at least he had words coming from his mouth. It seemed that all it took to get Oliver talking was a little bad behavior. Maybe he was finally loving camp!

  “Why are you talking?” Lucky asked him. She wondered if things were easier when he wasn’t speaking at all.

  “Because I’ve decided that camp is so boring,” Oliver told her in a droll, Julian-like voice. “I told Julian that he won the challenge. Next week, I’m not coming to camp anymore.”

  That explained it. He didn’t have a reason to keep silent. In Oliver’s eyes, Julian had won. Problem was, if Oliver didn’t come back, Lucky and her friends would be out two dollars. They needed that money.

  What to do?

  Once he started speaking, it was hard to get him to stop. And Lucky would’ve loved for him to stop. “We could be having so much more fun if there was a little more danger,” said Oliver.

  Abigail leaned to Lucky and said, “He sounds a lot like Julian, doesn’t he?”

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to prevent,” Lucky said, moaning.

  She went back to the idea that Oliver liked adventure. Wasn’t that why he threw the apple? To mix things up and see what would happen?

  Oliver was still talking, and now he had the ears of all the campers. And it looked as if they agreed with him!

  “My brother would make this camp much more fun,” he told them all.

  “We remember the roller coaster,” Turo said. “That was amazing.”

  “But he stole all your money,” Lucky reminded everyone. “Julian is not the answer.”

  “Ten minutes ago everything was fine. No one was complaining about camp before you started talking,” Pru told Oliver. She pointed at his tree. “You can go sit down now.”

  “No!” Snips argued. “We want to hear what Ollie wants to do.”

  Abigail, who had been supportive of Julian coming to camp, said, “Maybe we could just ask Julian for a few fun ideas.”

  “No,” Lucky protested. “Never.” This was a nightmare, and Oliver, rapidly becoming Julian Juni
or, was turning the campers against the PALs. He wouldn’t stop talking—and none of it was in support of the PALs Adventure Camp.

  “We want more fun,” Mary Pat and Bianca cried.

  “Want to throw more apples at town?” Stella asked with a glint in her eye. “I think Maricela would be okay if we used the guy running against her dad for mayor as target practice.”

  This was all getting out of hand. The campers were rebelling. Now they were chanting “Bor-ring!” over and over.

  The day was almost done. Lucky had to do something, or no one would come back to camp after the weekend. And worse, they might request their money back. How would Lucky explain to Aunt Cora when she couldn’t replace the crystal bottle and the bubble bath?

  “I know!” Lucky said, and turned to her friends. “Let’s have an O-Mok-See.”

  “O-Mok-Fun!” Abigail said. An O-Mok-See was like a rodeo, but with more fun games and less competition.

  “That sounds great!” Pru agreed. “Safe adventure and a lot of fun.”

  They all put their hands in a pile and raised them together, shouting, “O-Mok-See!”

  The campers wanted to know what that meant, and Abigail said with a chuckle, “O-You’ll-See.”

  Everyone was intrigued, but soon Oliver declared, “You have no fun ideas. It’ll be boring just like everything else.” He mocked them, saying, “How about we have another scavenger hunt? Everyone can find dirt and rocks! Winner gets pie, because that’s the only prizes we have, and everyone wins because there’s no real competition.”

  “Oliver—” Lucky began. This wasn’t fair. He was ruining camp. Hadn’t she predicted this from the start?

  Just then the parents started to arrive and pick up the campers. Julian whistled from across the riding ring, and Oliver took off running.

  Lucky watched her cousins leave and sighed. Oliver might not show up next week, but he was going to regret it. The kids were going to have so much fun that he’d be begging Julian to let him come back. And not just that, he’d offer to pay three dollars for the privilege.