Sea Horse by Bonnie Bryant

Author:Bonnie Bryant [Bryant, Bonnie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-82495-0
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2012-12-19T05:00:00+00:00

IF ONLY THEY knew, Lisa thought. She hadn’t been able to get her mind off Stevie and Carole, knowing they were back home where things were right, and fun. Stevie was probably having a great time trying on every dress in the mall and would have no trouble finding the right one. And Carole was probably riding Starlight every day without worrying about who else would ride him and what might happen while somebody else was on him. He was hers, forever. How wonderful that was! And then Lisa thought about herself. Here she was, on this beautiful island having such an awful time, and wishing more than anything that she were home again or that her friends were with her. They’d make it fun for her. They always did.

Lisa lay in bed with her hands clasped behind her head, unable to sleep. The light of the full moon streaked into her room, but that wasn’t what was keeping her awake. She was awake because she was confused. Then her mother’s words began running through her head. There will be no more riding for you while we’re here.

For a reason Lisa didn’t understand, she found the words comforting. They solved the problem for her. She would stop riding for the rest of the vacation. With that thought, Lisa closed her eyes again, and slept.

THE PHONE BY Lisa’s bed jangled loudly. She sat up with a start and stared at it, bleary-eyed, for a few seconds before answering it.

“Yes?” she said.

“Wake-up call,” a voice said cheerfully. “It’s eight-thirty.” The cheerful voice hung up.

Lisa looked at her clock. The voice had been correct. It was eight-thirty. But why was it calling?

Then she remembered that she’d asked for the wake-up call during her whole stay so she could be up, dressed, and fed in time for the intermediate ride. But, of course, that didn’t matter today because she wasn’t going to go riding. She snuggled back down into her comfortable bed.

But she couldn’t fall back asleep. Her mind filled with thoughts of horses.

She thought about Velvet and the mistake she’d made with the mare. It wasn’t Velvet’s fault, or anybody else’s, that Lisa hadn’t been looking where the trail went and had lost her balance. It was Lisa’s fault. Failing to look ahead was a babyish kind of mistake, one that she shouldn’t have made.

Then she asked herself what had gone wrong with Jasper. She thought about the incident and recalled how the change of speed had come as a surprise to her. It shouldn’t have. She was looking ahead. She saw the water coming up. She knew the horse would have to slow down. How could she have missed that? It was as if she’d corrected the mechanics of the mistake she’d made on Velvet, without correcting the reason for the mistake. Basically, the same thing had happened to her twice, and until that minute, she hadn’t learned a thing from it!

That was it. Her falls weren’t her horses’ fault; they weren’t Frederica’s fault, or Jill’s, or anybody’s but her own.

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