The Road Home by Catherine Hapka

Author:Catherine Hapka
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

That night, Uncle Oscar and Aunt Lou were hosting Friday night’s family dinner. They lived in a rambling old camelback Victorian in Bywater, and there was plenty of room for everyone around their big oak dining table. Aunt Toni and Uncle Elijah were away visiting friends in Alabama, and Cousin DeeDee’s boyfriend was off on a fishing trip with his buddies, but everyone else was there, even Nina’s ninety-six-year-old great-aunt Shirley, for a total of twenty adults and ten kids. As usual, Nina was the only one between the ages of seven and thirty, but that was normal for her. She loved being able to go back and forth from playing tag with the younger kids or tickling Cousin Charlotte’s pudgy, cheerful one-year-old daughter, Ella, to discussing interesting topics with the grown-ups.

Tonight, though, Nina was a little distracted. She barely heard the discussion of local politics as she played with her food.

Finally Uncle Oscar leaned over and poked her on the shoulder. “Wake up, Nina Beanie!” he boomed, using his favorite pet name for her. “Are we putting you to sleep?”

Nina blinked, then smiled. “Sorry, guys,” she said. “I guess I’m just a little distracted.”

“Ah.” Oscar leaned back and winked broadly at the others. “Boy trouble, eh?”

“No!” Nina said quickly, which made all the adults laugh. Rolling her eyes, she added, “Pony trouble, actually.”

“What’s wrong, child?” Aunt Vi helped herself to more Brussels sprouts. “Did you and that little pony of yours forget how to win blue ribbons at your horse shows?”

“No, it’s not that. . . .” Nina launched into the whole story, telling her relatives about Breezy’s mystery rider. Her parents had already heard all about it, of course, but the others listened with interest.

“Wow,” Cousin Jeremy’s wife, Becks, said when Nina had finished. “That’s wild. A secret midnight rider, huh?”

“Sounds like the Wild West, not civilized New Orleans,” Gramma Rose commented, adding a quiet “tut tut” after she said it.

“I know, it’s crazy,” Nina said, idly pushing a piece of chicken around on her plate. “But the manager says she can’t afford to hire a security guard, so—”

“So what’s the problem?” her cousin Charlotte said jokingly. “You can just do a stakeout yourself! Isn’t that your dream come true, moving right into that barn with your pony?”

Several of the others chuckled. But Cousin DeeDee, an outspoken thirty-one-year-old with a sharp chin and a short Afro, looked thoughtful. “You know, that could actually work,” she said. “I mean, whoever’s sneaking rides on Breezy obviously knows there’s nobody there at night, so it should be easy to catch him or her.”

Aunt Vi looked alarmed. “Our Nina, sleeping over in a dark barn in the middle of Audubon Park?” she exclaimed. “Sounds downright dangerous to me!”

“I agree,” Gramma Rose said.

But Nina was already excited. This could be the answer! Why hadn’t she thought of it herself? “No, DeeDee’s right,” she cried. “It’s the easiest way to find out for sure who’s doing it!”

“I’ll go with her,” DeeDee added before anyone else could protest further.

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