Sonrise Stable Read online

  “School will be out soon, then I can come over every day,” Carrie offered. “Mrs. Judy hasn’t been feeling well. I have to be quiet when she’s resting.”

  “Oh?” Grandma frowned. “I’m sorry to hear she’s not well.

  I’ll stop over to see if there’s anything I can do for her.”

  Rosie made a face at her friend. “You used to be jealous of me because I’m homeschooled. Now I’m jealous of you because you live next door to Grandma and can come over whenever you want. I only get to come a few times a week.”

  Grandma smiled. “I think you’ll like this idea, Rosie.” “What idea?”

  “Your mom, your aunts, and I were talking, and we’ve decided to have something we’re calling Cousins Camp.”

  “Cousins Camp?” Rosie looked at her grandmother. “What’s that?”

  “Exactly what it sounds like. All your cousins, aunts, and uncles are coming to spend a week here at my house for our own summer camp. And, of course, Carrie is included too.”

  “Wow, Cousins Camp sounds like fun!” Rosie said. “You’ll love my cousins, Carrie. I haven’t seen Lauren for about a year. She lives in Texas with my Aunt Lisa and Uncle Robert.”

  “Julie’s bringing four of her horses so no one will have to share,” Grandma said. “That way you’ll all get plenty of riding time.”

  “Is Cousins Camp next week?” Carrie asked.

  “No,” Grandma laughed. “Not for several months. That will give us time to get Scamper ready.”

  “I can’t wait!” Rosie exclaimed. “I have an important question for Aunt Lisa when she gets here.”

  “Oh, what’s that?” Grandma asked.

  Rosie had already started to run ahead on the path. She stopped and turned around. “I’m going to ask her if she ever found her swimming suit.”

  1 2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV

  Chapter 11

  Camp Preparations

  Rosie coughed and waved her hand in front of her face to keep from breathing the dust Kezzie and Scamper were kicking up in the arena. The girls and Grandma had worked with Scamper nearly every day over the past few months, and he had proven to be a fast learner. Rosie spotted her grandmother walking their direction, and she urged Scamper toward the gate.

  “Oh! This helmet is driving me crazy! It’s so hot and itchy.” Rosie bent her head down, stretched the sleeve of her T-shirt, and used it to wipe the sweat that dripped steadily down her face. She stuck two fingers inside the helmet as far as they would go, but she couldn’t reach the itchy spot. “Grandma, can I take this thing off for a minute?”

  “No! You know the rules. If you’re on a horse, that helmet stays on your head.” Grandma held out two glasses of icy lemonade. “It’s dry as a bone out here. I can’t remember when it rained last.”

  The girls drained the drinks.

  “Ahhh—that hit the spot! Thank you.” Carrie wiped her mouth on her arm and handed the glass back.

  “Walk the horses awhile, and then hose them off. Rosie, I’m impressed with the progress you’ve made. You sure know how to communicate with that pony. Maybe you’ll be a horse trainer like your Aunt Julie when you grow up.”

  Rosie smiled and patted Scamper’s neck. She would love to be a horse trainer. Did Grandma really mean it? Or was she just being nice?

  Grandma opened the gate, and the girls rode the horses out of the arena.

  “I can’t believe everyone will be here tomorrow for Cousins Camp. I hope your cousins will like me.” Carrie patted Kezzie’s sweaty neck. “Oh, yuck. You need a bath, girl.”

  “I’m sure you’ll have a great time with everyone,” Rosie said.

  Carrie didn’t look so sure. “I’ve met all of them when they visited Grandma—except Lauren, but I don’t really know them.”

  “It will be fine. You’ll see.” Rosie couldn’t understand why Carrie was so worried about her cousins.

  Grandma had taught the girls to always cool the horses down before putting them up after a ride. That had been a challenge lately with the August temperatures hovering in the nineties.

  “Let’s take them to the woods,” Rosie suggested. “It will be a little cooler there.” They rode to the woods and walked around the trail a few times. When the horses were as cool as possible, the girls returned to the barn.

  They tied Scamper and Kezzie to the wash rack and unsaddled them. Rosie turned on the water and aimed the hose at Scamper. The dirt on his coat dissolved into mud and combined with his foamy sweat to form chocolatey rivers that ran down his side and dripped onto the concrete. Scamper seemed to enjoy the cool shower. When Rosie brought the hose around to wash his head, he grabbed it between his teeth and yanked it from her hands.

  “Hey, give that back, you silly boy!” Rosie tugged on the hose, but instead of letting go, Scamper pulled harder, like a dog playing tug-of-war. He bobbed his head up and down a few times, splashing water all over her, then he lost interest and dropped the hose.

  Rosie picked it up and handed it to Carrie. “Here. You can use this now.” She watched as her friend sprayed Kezzie. “When Grandma was a girl, she took her pony, Dolly, to the fair and let her drink lemonade from a cup. She shared her fair fries with her too.”

  Carrie smiled. “I’ve never heard of a pony eating french fries. I hate fair fries—too greasy!”

  Rosie shrugged. “Dolly loved them. I love fair food too.” “That’s not surprising. You love all food!” Carrie moved to the other side of Kezzie. “Are you excited about taking Scamper to the fair?”

  “Yeah. I can’t wait!” Rosie twirled the lead rope around while she waited for Carrie to finish. Suddenly she stopped. “Hey, I have an idea. You should take Kezzie!”

  Carrie’s face lit up. “To the fair? Do you think Grandma would let me?”

  “Let’s ask her after we put the horses up.” Why hadn’t she thought of that before? It would be much more fun if Carrie could go to the fair with her. Rosie thought about the best way to convince her grandmother.

  When Carrie finished, the girls led the horses through the gate into the field and turned them loose. Kezzie made a beeline for the dustiest spot in the pasture, circled around twice, and dropped to the ground.

  “Ew! I was afraid she would do that,” Carrie moaned. “You crazy horse! Do you know how hard I worked to get you clean?”

  Kezzie rolled over once, made a funny groaning noise, and then rolled over again.

  Rosie climbed on the wooden fence for a better view. “Once more, Kezzie,” she called. “Grandma told me when she was young they used to say a horse was worth a hundred dollars for each time it rolled completely over. I say it’s one thousand now.”

  The girls both watched Kezzie, waiting to see whether she would increase her value. She was still for a few minutes, then rolled over one last time.

  “Yay!” Carrie cheered. “You’re worth three thousand dollars, Kezzie!”

  Scamper stood nearby watching Kezzie. Apparently he thought a nice roll sounded like a great idea. (1) Soon he was down on the ground too.

  “That fat old boy won’t make it over once,” Carrie laughed. “My horse is not fat—or old!” Why was she always making fun of Scamper? As Carrie stood at the fence, Rosie quietly climbed down, grabbed the hose, and blasted her in the middle of the back with a stream of water.

  “Aagh, that’s cold!” Carrie lunged at Rosie and tried to yank the hose away from her.

  When Rosie spun around to keep the hose from Carrie, she spotted her grandmother coming out of the barn. “Oops!”

  Grandma stopped, put both hands on her hips, and stared at them for a moment.

  Rosie dropped the hose and grinned sheepishly. “Um. Carrie had a dirty spot on her back, and I was helping her clean it off.”

  “Uh-huh.” Grandma walked over and turned the water off. “Why don’t you two put that energy into something productive—like helping me get ready for Cousins Camp?”

  “Sure, Grandma.” Rosie coiled the hose and dropped it beside th
e wash rack. “What do you want us to do?”

  “We’ll use your mom’s old room for the girls’ bunkhouse. You can arrange the makeshift beds for the five of you and put up some of the decorations I bought. Jared will have Julie’s room to himself.”

  “What are your cousins’ names again?” Carrie asked. “Everyone in Julie’s family starts with ‘J,’ that makes it easy to remember. Jared is eleven, same as you and me. The twins are Jessie and Jamie. They’re eight.”

  “How do you tell them apart?”

  “You can’t by looking at them. They’re identical. You’ll learn to tell who is who by the way they act. If one of them is stirring up trouble, you’ll know it’s Jessie. Jamie’s quieter.”

  “Okay.”

  “Aunt Lisa only has Lauren. She’s twelve, the oldest of all the cousins.”

  “Jared, Jessie, Jamie, Lauren. Jared, Jessie, Jamie, Lauren.” Carrie chanted in time with her steps as they all made their way to the house.

  “Carrie and I have a question for you.” Rosie figured it would be harder for her grandmother to say “No” to Carrie, but she knew Carrie wouldn’t ask for herself.

  Grandma fanned her damp face with her hand. “Let’s get inside first—in the air conditioning.”

  Rosie sprinted ahead and opened the back door. They hurried inside, and she darted toward the couch.

  “Oh no you don’t!” Grandma stopped her almost in midair. “You’re not sitting on my furniture with those wet, dirty clothes.”

  Rosie stood up straight and felt a sudden chill as the air conditioning hit her wet shirt. “Grandma, we were wondering if Carrie could take Kezzie to the fair.”

  “Hmm.” Grandma looked from Rosie to Carrie. “That sounds like a good idea. Kezzie would be lonely here by herself with Scamper gone. I’ll need to discuss it with Judy and Ross first though.”

  Rosie grinned at Carrie. The fair would be so much fun with her friend and both their horses there.

  “We’ll think about that when Cousins Camp is over.” Grandma pointed toward the stairs. “Put some dry clothes on, then you can get the bedrooms ready for our guests.”

  That was as good as a yes to the girls. They ran for the stairs, chattering excitedly about their plans for the fair.

  ***

  Rosie put her hand to her forehead to shield her eyes from the early morning sun as she glanced out the hayloft door. She could see as far as the Robinsons’ house to the right. Beyond that, the narrow country road curved and disappeared from view. She didn’t see any sign of an approaching vehicle—only a few cows in the field across the road. She moo’ed to them, but they didn’t even look up from their grazing.

  “When will they get here?” Carrie asked for the tenth time.

  The girls had stationed themselves as lookouts in the hayloft nearly an hour before. They wanted to be the first to see the cousins arrive. Jemimah and Katy, the barn cats, were watching also; waiting patiently for an unsuspecting mouse to emerge from one of the tunnels between the bales of hay.

  Carrie leaned back against the barn wall. “You know, for the longest time I thought Grandma’s sign said ‘Sunrise Stable.’ It was only recently that I noticed it had an ‘o’ instead of a ‘u.’ She spelled it ‘Son’ on purpose, right? It’s about God’s Son rising from the dead?”

  “Yeah. You know Grandma. When people tell her she spelled the name wrong, that gives her a chance to tell them about Jesus.”

  Rosie peeked out the door again. “Aunt Julie’s here!” She ran for the ladder, nearly tripping over Carrie.

  They both scrambled down from the loft and stood in front of the barn, watching Julie’s truck and trailer roll slowly down the lane.

  1 allelomimetic behavior - If you want to impress your parents or friends, casually throw this word into the conversation. It’s a combination of the word mimic and the genetic term allele and indicates behavior that is copied by another animal.

  Chapter 12

  Cousins

  When Julie’s truck stopped, Jared was the first one out, followed by his twin sisters, Jessie and Jamie. Rosie wished her cousins could visit more often, but they lived an hour away, and Julie was busy with homeschooling and her horse-training business.

  Rosie’s mother and Julie looked enough alike to be twins. In fact, Rosie thought her mom, and her aunts: Julie and Lisa could easily pass for triplets. She loved it when the whole family got together and the three of them talked about the things they used to do when they were kids. She wished she had a brother or sister, but at least she had a best friend now, and she was going to spend an entire week with her cousins and Carrie.

  Julie stretched and walked over to the girls. “Hey, Rosie, how are you? And this must be Carrie. I think we’ve met before, but it’s been a while. You girls ready for a fun week?”

  Carrie smiled and nodded, but she suddenly seemed to have lost the ability to speak.

  “I could hardly sleep last night.” Rosie stared at Carrie. Why was she acting so shy all of a sudden?

  “Carrie, this is Jessie.” Julie put her hand on one of the girls’ shoulders. “And this is Jamie.” The twins’ shoulder-length brown hair was cut in the same style and pulled back in short pony tails. They were dressed identically, in blue jeans, pink T-shirts, and brown cowboy boots.

  “And,” Julie motioned toward her son, “you probably figured out this is Jared.”

  “Hi, Carrie.” Jared nodded. Although the same age as Rosie and Carrie, he was four inches taller and looked older. When they were younger, Jared had always teased Rosie that, “taller means older,” when in reality Rosie was a few weeks older than her only boy cousin.

  Carrie smiled and nodded back.

  Jessie and Jamie ran toward their grandmother, who was coming out of the barn.

  Jared grabbed a lead rope and walked toward the trailer. “Where do you want the horses, Mom?”

  “Put them out in the arena for now, Jared,” Grandma directed. “Kezzie and Scamper are in the barn. They’ll all have a chance to get acquainted later.”

  Rosie introduced each of the horses to Carrie as Jared and Julie unloaded them from the trailer. First were two Paints that belonged to Jessie and Jamie. The girls’ horses were also sisters. Jessie’s was a six-year-old, brown-and-white Paint named Patches. Jamie’s horse, Pearl, was two years older and black- and-white. The twins had begun competing in youth barrel racing that summer. Sometimes Jessie came out ahead; other times it was Jamie.

  Next off the trailer was Jared’s tall, rangy buckskin, Scout. Jared used the gelding for barrels, pole bending, and reining. Rosie was a little envious. Julie’s kids had all begun riding practically as soon as they could walk. All three were already competing in events that Rosie hadn’t even tried.

  “Wait until you see the next horse.” Rosie pointed as Julie backed her 16.3 hand bay Thoroughbred mare, Elektra, out of the trailer. “Isn’t she the biggest horse you’ve ever seen?”

  Carrie’s eyes widened. “She’s huge! I remember when I thought Kezzie was tall.”

  “Julie jumps Elektra,” Rosie explained. “But she’s so gentle, nearly anyone can ride her. You can ride her western or english.”

  As Rosie ran to open the gate to the arena, she spotted a compact car turning in to the drive. “There’s Aunt Lisa!”

  Lisa stopped her car and spoke through the rolled-down window. “Sorry, our plane was late. Then I dropped Robert off at Kristy’s house, but we finally made it!”

  Lauren ran to join her cousins. Although taller than Rosie, she was not as tall as Jared. She had long blond hair and her father’s deep blue eyes.

  After everyone had a chance to greet Lisa and Lauren, Grandma whistled loudly to get their attention. “You’ve probably been wondering what you’ll be doing this week.”

  Rosie felt as if she might burst with excitement. She didn’t know what activities had been planned, but as long as it involved horses, it would be fun.

  “It might not be quite what you expected,�
�� Grandma paused until everyone focused on her. “We have three hundred bales of hay to stack, a barn to paint, and fences to repair.”

  Rosie raised her eyebrows and looked at Carrie, who shrugged her shoulders. Grandma was right. This was not what she had expected for Cousins Camp. Was this one of her grandmother’s jokes? “You’re kidding—aren’t you?”

  “Kind of,” Grandma laughed. “Don’t look so gloomy. Your dads will do most of the hard work. We’ll help them each day, but there will still be plenty of time for riding. And—on Thursday, we’re leaving for a two-day campout and trail ride at a state park—aunts, uncles, cousins, everyone!”

  A big smile spread across Rosie’s face. Cousins Camp was beginning to sound like fun again.

  Grandma pointed to the backpacks and suitcases scattered over the ground in front of the barn. “Let’s get this stuff put away; then you can ride.”

  Rosie led the way into the house and up to the girls’ room. She and Carrie had done their best to make the room look like a ranch bunkhouse. One of the bunk bed posts held a coiled lariat. A straw cowboy hat had been placed on the other. A wrinkled pair of worn leather boots stood guard by the door, an old saddle rested on a rack in the corner, and a steer skull, complete with long, curved horns sat on top of the dresser.

  “Jessie and Jamie, because you’re the youngest, Carrie and I decided to let you have first choice on the beds.”

  Jessie ran past the bunks to the back of the room and jumped on an air mattress. “Why do you always have to say we’re the youngest?”

  “Sorry.” Rosie made a face at her cousin. “But you two are the youngest.” She turned to Lauren. “You and Carrie can have the bunk beds. I’ll take the cot next to the twins.”

  “I wanted to be next to you, Carrie,” Jamie said.

  Rosie could tell from Carrie’s expression that she didn’t know which twin was talking to her. No one except family could tell Jessie and Jamie apart. If they weren’t speaking or doing something, even Rosie had a hard time telling who was who.