Saddle Sore by Bonnie Bryant

and not being able to do it anymore,” Stevie said.
    Kate came in the door with a Scrabble set and a box of brownies under her arm. “Who are you talking about? Monica?”
    Lisa nodded. “We were trying to think about how she might feel.”
    “Which do you think would be worse?” Stevie asked. “To be disabled from the minute you were born, or to become disabled suddenly when you were our age?”
    Emily opened the bathroom door.
    “I don’t know,” Kate said. “I think it’s worse for Monica this way, but I don’t know.”
    Emily shook her head. “I would give anything if I could run,” she said. “Just once. Once, to see how it would feel.”

S TEVIE WOKE WHEN a beam of sunlight hit her square in the face. She opened her eyes, blinked hard, and sat up. The door of the bunkhouse was open. She could hear Lisa snoring in the bunk below. Across the room, she could see Carole sleeping in the top bunk and Kate with her face buried in her pillow on the cot. Emily’s bunk was empty.
    Stevie pushed the covers to one side and dropped quietly to the floor. She walked to the door of the cabin. Emily was standing on the porch, leaning against the railing, looking up atthe mountains and the bright, early morning sky. Her face was radiant.
    “Hi,” Stevie said softly.
    Emily looked over her shoulder. “Stevie! Good morning. Did you ever see such a beautiful day?”
    Stevie grinned and sniffed the air. It smelled like damp earth, dewy meadow grass, and bacon from the ranch house. If she sniffed hard she could even smell a hint of the horses. She couldn’t smell her socks at all. The night air must have cured them.
    “If you think this is beautiful, wait until you see the sun rise over the hills,” she said.
    Emily nodded. “Our sunrise ride. I’m looking forward to it.” On the last day of every visit to the Bar None, The Saddle Club always took a bareback sunrise ride.
    “Have you been awake long?” Stevie asked.
    “No.” Emily grinned. “I slept well! I hope I didn’t keep you guys awake with my snoring.”
    “You lost the Scrabble game,” Stevie informed her. “We made you forfeit your turns after you fell asleep.”
    “I couldn’t help it,” Emily protested. “Carole was taking half an hour for her turns.”
    “That’s because she’s not happy making regular words. She has to make horse words,” Stevie said. “Her triumph last night was
fetlocks
. She got the bonus for using all seven letters, plus we gave her a Saddle Club bonus for the horse word. But it didn’t matter. Lisa always wins.”
    Emily laughed. “The moment she turned my word
play
into
displaying
, I knew I was in trouble,” she said in agreement. “I figured I might as well go to sleep. But I’m glad I woke up now. Let’s get those sleepyheads up. We don’t want to waste the whole morning.”
    Stevie agreed. “It’s time to ride!”
    A S THEY DRESSED , Kate told them that she was going to go ask Monica to come with them. “I always used to knock on her cabin door for early morning rides,” she explained. “She might even be expecting me.”
    The other girls slipped into the ranch house kitchen and packed their backpacks with biscuits and apples. Carole boiled some water for hot chocolate and filled three thermoses. Before she was finished, Kate walked in, shaking her head sadly. “No one even answered,” shesaid. “No one. I’m sure Monica would have heard me. Maybe she’s already down by the barn.”
    But the barn was empty—even John hadn’t started working yet—and Monica was nowhere to be seen. Kate looked a little disappointed, but Lisa thought that there was almost no way Monica would come there early by herself. She hoped Kate would still be able to enjoy the ride.
    In fact, it was a perfect morning. As they crested a ridge toward the east end of the ranch, looking up into the sun-touched mountains, they saw another rider coming toward them.
    “Christine!” Stevie yelled, and loped Stewball down the