Freefall: Book Three in the Defining Gravity Series, page 15
“Nori’s sad,” Callie added solemnly, “she cries all the time now.”
“Anyway,” Annie said briskly, putting a hand on Callie’s shoulder, “we’ve taken up too much of your time. I’ll leave you my card just in case a space does open. It was nice to meet you both.”
She led a subdued Callie out into the sunshine and a few minutes later they drove down the driveway.
“Wow. What was that?” I said as soon as I was sure they were gone. “That family is crazy.”
“Annie’s nice,” Rob said, “and Nori used to be okay, intense and competitive, but not like she was today.”
“What happened to her horse, though?”
“It was a pretty bad accident. He fell and broke his leg at an event. It was awful. They had to put him down right there and Nori pretty much went crazy; they had to get a doctor to sedate her to let the vet near him.”
“That’s horrible,” I said, turning to look at Red who was still hanging his head over his stall door, lower lip drooping as he drifted into his afternoon nap. I couldn’t imagine if something like that happened to him.
It almost happened to Folly, though, I thought, it could have easily been her put down at that show.
“Was it her fault?” I asked timidly, still thinking about my own accident.
“Who, Nori? No, it was just a fluke, I think. He slipped and fell and caught his front cannon bone with his hind hoof; it’s something that could have happened to him galloping in the pasture. I mean, some people said they’d been pushing him too hard; he wasn’t very old and they’d been moving him up pretty fast. But, it’s easy to judge from the outside, right?”
He frowned and ran his hands down each of Possum’s legs checking for heat, cuts, or any weird bumps. It was something he did to all his horses after every ride, even light trail rides, and it was pretty impressive. I made sure Red was brushed clean or bathed after every ride, but I would have no idea what to look for on his legs save for obvious gashes and lumps. Rob seemed to almost listen to his horses with his hands.
After the horses were put away, the barn tidied, and everyone was eating lunch, we sat down side by side on the cool concrete floor and leaned our backs against Red’s stall. I pulled out my phone and opened the first video.
“These are my favourite ones,” I said, finding the series I liked with the brothers in the desert. “I love that the horses are having a good time, too. And, see, some of them aren’t even using saddles, either. That takes a whole different type of balance to shoot a bow off a galloping horse without having stirrups.”
“Wow,” Rob said, “these guys are pretty impressive. And you’re right, those horses are having a great time.”
“Yeah, I want Red to love it; I want to do it right.”
“You will,” Rob said, leaning his shoulder comfortably against mine as we pulled up more videos.
And we sat that way for the rest of the afternoon.
Chapter Nine
I spent that night with the Ahlbergs, and the next morning, Hilary and I wandered down to the barn to meet Rob after an excellent breakfast of crepes stuffed with glazed pears and covered in chocolate drizzle, courtesy of Mr. Ahlberg.
The sun was out, but the wind had picked up and we shivered in our t-shirts from the salty breeze rolling up from the ocean.
“I can’t wait until I can afford a golf-cart so I don’t have to do this walk twenty times a day,” Hilary grumbled, rubbing her arms briskly to stay warm.
“Or what about an old truck like I had back at the ranch? I loved that truck.”
“Yeah, I’m not sure if my parents would go for that,” Hilary laughed. “But that reminds me; have you taken your learners test yet to get your driver’s license? I’m thinking that I should get it as soon as I can. I’m kicking myself for putting it off so long. It’s like a three-year process before I can actually even drive a horse trailer myself.”
“No, not yet. It won’t help me much when I’m not allowed to practice on anything here. I can’t imagine driving anywhere with my dad or Marion; I would die from the stress.”
“Ack, no, definitely not. But maybe my parents would help us. They want me to take one of those safety driving courses.”
“We should take it together, then. That is, if I’m still around this summer.”
“Don’t say that, Astrid. It will work out.”
Rob was already at the barn tacking up Ferdi when we arrived. He looked up and sent me that warm, heart-stopping smile that always made me feel like I’d won the lottery.
Hilary cleared her throat loudly beside me and disappeared into the tack room.
Red pricked his ears and nickered excitedly when he saw me headed his way, and my heart melted like it did every time he looked at me with those soulful eyes. Okay, it might have had something to do with the fact that he’d finished his breakfast hay and was ready for a snack but still, I was a hundred percent sure that he was glad I was his person.
We groomed and tacked up, and then took the horses out front to start our ride. But, as soon as I swung up into the saddle, Red swivelled around and pricked his ears at a vehicle racing up the driveway toward us way too fast, tires scattering gravel in all directions.
I squinted and then groaned under my breath.
“Hey, Astrid, isn’t that Marion’s car?” Hilary said.
“Yes,” I said nervously, “I think so. I hope nothing’s wrong.”
But it wasn’t Marion who got out of the car; it was my dad and he had company. Walking beside him was Darius.
“It worked,” Hilary squeaked, turning bright red, and then pale and back again in quick succession. She clutched her saddle with both hands, looking dizzy. “He’s here.”
“What worked?” Rob asked, glancing at her in confusion. He looked over at me when she didn’t answer, but I just shrugged and shook my head. I wasn’t about to tell him that Hilary had probably being praying non-stop to meet Darius again.
“Astrid,” my dad called out, raising a hand in the air.
“Hey,” I said weakly, wondering anxiously what this was all about. Had Marion managed to convince him that a family road trip was the worst idea in the world?
“Turns out Darius here is an old hand with horses,” my dad said, clapping Darius on the back hard enough to make him wince. “I decided to drop in and see for myself what’s keeping you so busy. Got to keep tabs on you sometimes, make sure you’re not getting into trouble.”
He squinted at us as he got closer, obviously trying to recognize who Rob and Hilary were in their helmets.
“Robert,” he said formally, frowning and skirting around Ferdi’s outstretched lips as they reached playfully for his jacket. Darius didn’t hesitate, though; he stepped right up beside the big horse and laid a hand on Ferdi’s neck, stroking it lovingly.
Beside me, Hilary made a squeaking sound. “Astrid, he likes horses,” she hissed in a voice that hopefully only I could hear.
“Do you ride?” Rob asked politely, since Darius was practically whispering in Ferdi’s ear and the big horse was lapping it up.
“I used to,” Darius said, his expression darkening. “My uncle bred Arabian horses, back home. I spent every summer on their ranch with my cousins.”
Arabians. I looked up with interest, and the thing that had been bothering me about him clicked into place. I knew now why he’d seemed familiar. He looked exactly like that family from my archery videos.
“Darius,” I said in astonishment, “are your relatives into horse archery by any chance? Do they live in the desert somewhere?”
His face turned to stone, dark and foreboding and ready to fracture into pieces at any second. He looked much older than his nineteen years and something like rage glittered in his eyes. Ferdi snorted and nudged him with his nose, and just like, that the clouds passed. Darius took a few deep breaths before speaking.
“Yes,” he said carefully, “my cousins could do anything with horses, but mounted combat and archery were something they loved especially.”
“Oh,” I said, full to the brim with so many questions but afraid to open my mouth again.
Way to go, Astrid, I told myself fiercely, Marion told you that he’d lost most of his family. Maybe they’re all in refugee camps now. Maybe they even had to sell all their horses. And you had to go and bring it up.
“I watch their videos,” I said finally to fill in the silence. “I’m trying to teach myself.”
Darius looked up, his eyes bright with emotion. “It is a tradition that goes back thousands of years in my country. Our horses’ pedigrees trace back to the time of pharaohs. It is hardly something that just anyone can learn on a whim by watching a…a video.”
“I…I know,” I stammered, blushing, “but I have to start somewhere. Don’t I?”
“Do you?” he said quietly and then he rolled his shoulders as if shrugging off the weight of painful memories. He opened his mouth to say more, but my dad had already tired of the conversation and had moved on over to stand beside me.
“So, this is the new man you’ve been hanging out with,” he said in that too-loud jovial voice and it took me a panicked second to realize that he meant Red and not Rob. He stepped up and gave Red a hearty pat right between his eyes that would have sent a more sensitive horse bolting for cover. But Red just snorted and popped his ears forward in surprise and then reached down to itch his forehead roughly on my dad’s shoulder, nearly knocking him over.
I’d never seen Red be anything but gentle with both horses and people, and at first, I was too surprised to rein him in, and then I realized that my dad was actually smiling, and then he was laughing and using both hands to scratch Red on the forehead and behind his ears. I had not seen that coming.
“Well, Astrid, I can see you kids have work to do so we’ll be running along now; we’re just on our way to the club. Your stepmother has some crazy idea that you can’t leave your responsibilities here to go on the road with me this summer, is that right?”
I gulped, my hands slick on the reins. Red shifted underneath me uneasily and I let out the breath I’d trapped in my lungs. “Yes, sir,” I said quietly, “I need to take care of Red and I promised I’d help Hilary out here this summer.”
“I couldn’t do it without Astrid,” Hilary said, finding her voice, “especially with the play coming up. She’s so good with the horses, too.”
“Well, if you and Marion don’t want to come on a victory tour with your old man then I guess I’ll have to go by myself; live the bachelor life for a while, hey Darius?”
Darius laughed obediently, but I didn’t think he was even listening. He probably hadn’t gotten over me reminding him about being a refugee. He’d somehow migrated over to Hilary and was petting Jerry softly on the neck without looking up. Hilary sat there silently, her face flushed beet red and her eyes fixed on Jerry’s dark silver mane.
I cleared my throat and took another deep breath. “Dad, um, Hilary’s family said I could stay here for the summer if I wanted to. So that, um, Marion could go with you. I’m sure she wants to—”
“Your stepmother has made it quite clear that going on tour with her husband would be an inconvenience,” he said, his smile dropping away.
Even though I knew he was wrong, I wisely said nothing. They must have been fighting over this—over me—but couldn’t risk him changing his mind about letting me stay behind.
“All right, son, if you’re done fooling around with the horses, we should head out to the club. Time’s a wasting.”
“Yes, I am ready,” Darius said softly, but it looked like he could have stood there forever.
“Wait, Darius,” I said quickly, still embarrassed but not wanting to let this opportunity escape. “I’m so sorry I brought up your family. But do you think you could give me some tips sometime on teaching Red to be a good archery horse? I want to do it properly.”
Darius hesitated, his face clouding over again. Then he looked over at Ferdi and the longing in his face was obvious. He must miss horses very much.
“Oh, of course he’ll help,” my dad said impatiently, when the silence stretched out too long, “we have a few weeks before we hit the road anyway, don’t we, son?”
Darius nodded, but he didn’t look exactly thrilled about it.
We sat there silently until the car had made an abrupt U-turn and sped back down the driveway with a spray of gravel, and then Ferdi started to paw the ground impatiently.
“Come on, let’s ride,” Rob said, letting the big horse lead the way up toward the trails.
It was a very quiet ride; both Hilary and I stayed lost in our own thoughts while Rob helpfully pointed out to her all the repairs and modifications needed.
“See, if you ran the electric here then you could keep the track to ride on and the inside would be for grazing. You could have this ready in a few days.”
Hilary nodded vaguely, but her thoughts were miles away; now and then her cheeks flushed, and secretive smile played across her lips in response to some inner thought…I was pretty sure she wasn’t thinking about pasture.
I was depressed over my conversation with Darius, too. I should have handled it better, been more sensitive. I had no idea what awful things he’d been through during the war, but it hadn’t been right for me to bring it up so casually. I hoped that his cousins and the fabulous horses they rode were okay.
As soon as we got back to the barn and I had Red untacked and put away, I sat down in the aisle and pulled those archery videos up on my phone and scrolled through the dates carefully.
The last one was five years ago, I thought anxiously, why haven’t they posted any new ones?
I had a sinking feeling that I knew the reason why.
Chapter Ten
When Marion came to pick me up that night after dinner, I knew I’d been right about them fighting. Her face was pale but there were blotchy rings around her eyes like she’d recently been crying. Marion never cried.
I’m going to fix this if I can, I thought, feeling a surge of protectiveness.
Marion didn’t say much on the way home and she disappeared into her office as soon as we got inside.
I went and showered quickly and changed into my new form-flattering yoga pants that also doubled as cycling gear since I wasn’t about to strap myself into those spandex biking pants with the padded bum that Marion had first suggested.
I knew my dad was in the living room reading from a stack of sports magazines and I stood in the hall for a few minutes, gathering my courage. Finally, I took a deep breath and stepped into the living room.
“Dad,” I said, twisting my hands nervously together. “Do you think we could go cycling?”
He looked at me incredulously and I thought he’d say no. Then his face transformed into a smile and he jumped to his feet with frightening speed. I had to wonder what high-test fitness supplements he was on. It was like Folly when she was on her high-performance horse feed; so full of energy it was scary.
“Of course, Astrid, that would be great. Go find Marion and tell her we leave in ten minutes.”
“Actually,” I said nervously, “do you think we could go alone? I mean, just the two of us?”
“Oh,” he said, looking nonplussed, as if the prospect of spending time alone with me was alarming. “Okay, sure. Let’s do it.”
We didn’t say much on the ride down the elevator. We stood as far apart as possible, both fiddling with our bikes and adjusting our helmets until the doors opened and we wheeled right through the lobby.
“You switching that horse of yours for a bike, Astrid?” the doorman said, laughing, before he caught sight of my dad. He frowned and stood up straighter, adjusting his tie and looking like he’d rather be anywhere else but there.
“I’d never trade in Red,” I laughed, hurrying past him so my dad wouldn’t linger. “See you later.”
“Do you know that man?” he said, frowning, when we made it outside into the cool evening. He made it sound like an accusation.
“Uh, yes, Dad, and so do you. That’s Dom’s son Carlo, he’s been working here with his dad for years. His daughter takes riding lessons.”
“Oh,” he said, grudgingly, “I didn’t know that.”
We walked down the bike path that ran along the seawall and then swung up and peddled easily. I’d been nervous about riding a bike again; it was my first time in years but, once I was on, it was surprisingly easy to find my balance. The path was flat so I didn’t have to touch the confusing array of gears and the feeling of coasting along was exhilarating.
For once, my dad wasn’t racing to get anywhere, he cruised along beside me, looking over at the glass-still water from time to time, lost in his own thoughts. It was peaceful and gradually the nervous energy running through my veins quieted and a strange sensation of peace enveloped me.
We rode for about an hour, hardly saying a word, and then turned around and retraced our steps, marveling at the purple-splashed sky reflected on the water.
We stopped at a picnic table on a rocky outcropping overlooking the ocean and I pulled out the snacks I’d brought for us; rice cakes and a bit of cheese and fruit.
“Thanks.” My dad ate a few things and then reached into his pannier and pulled out some chocolate power bars and tossed them on the table. “Here, I brought dessert. Don’t tell your stepmother.”
He grinned down at me, and I couldn’t help but smile back. Now, I thought, now’s the time.
“Dad,” I said, taking a deep breath, “I think you should take Marion on the road with you.”
He stopped mid-chew and looked at me curiously; no trace of anger or irritation on his face–yet. “Well, I offered to take you both, Astrid. But you said you have the horses to take care of and couldn’t go.”
“I know, I’m sorry. But that doesn’t mean Marion can’t go. Hilary’s parents offered to let me stay there for the summer. They need a lot of help getting their new place ready, and it would mean free board for Red for the summer, too. I think Hilary’s overwhelmed.”
