Sea Horse by Bonnie Bryant

straight floor-length skirt slit halfway up her thigh. Of course, it was hard to get the full effect while she was wearing loafers and ankle socks, but she’d seen enough to know that her mother would let her wear a dress like that the day she turned, oh, say, twenty-five. If ever.
    The final possibility was something Stevie could actually afford with a six-month advance on her allowance. It was a fancy dress and it was blue. The trouble was, it didn’t fit properly and she wasn’t sure she liked it. It had a babyish frilly neckline and puffed sleeves. It was madeof layers of lacy fabric, all in different shades of blue and baby blue. The lace went around the puffed sleeves, too. Stevie was afraid it was all a bit too much, and she wasn’t sure the style flattered her.
    The bus pulled up to the stop and Stevie climbed on. Somehow, she wasn’t surprised to find that she didn’t have the right change and that nobody on the crowded bus could make change for her. She stepped back down again, knowing that she’d have to buy something to get the change, that she’d have to wait for the next bus, and that it would be even more crowded than this one. Stevie shook her head. It seemed like an appropriately rotten end to a rotten day.
    “H OW ’ S IT GOING with Starlight?” Judy Barker asked Carole. The two of them were in Judy’s truck, driving to a stable where, the owner had said, a horse was having a problem with his hoof. Judy was a veterinarian, and spending time with her meant learning that a lot of horses had hoof problems.
    “It’s okay,” Carole said. “But it’s such hard work. I mean, when it comes to learning something, Starlight is just like a little kid. It seems like we go over the same thing again and again and for a while, he’ll get it, and then it’s gone again.”
    “That’s the way it is with horses, but it pays off in the long run. Once they’ve got something down, they’ve got it for good. Oh, occasionally they need reminders, but the earlier they learn, the better.”
    “And the younger I am, the better too. My legs are sosore today from mounting and dismounting about five hundred times, I feel like I’m ninety years old.”
    “And that’s a lot younger than you’d feel if he took off on his own while you were in the middle of mounting him sometime!” Judy joked.
    Carole didn’t laugh. She knew it was true. In the long run, all the work she was doing with Starlight was going to pay off. It was just that it was hard work and a little tedious, and at times seemed to be useless. What made it the hardest, though, was that it was lonely work. Lisa was off on her tropical island and Stevie was in her New Year’s Eve dream world. It seemed that only Carole was left in the real world of horses, and she wasn’t having much fun being there alone.
    “Here we are.” Judy swung her pickup into the drive-way of the stable and was alighting from the cab before the engine had stopped turning. Carole tried hopping out the same way, but her thighs hurt too much. She muffled a groan and followed Judy into the stable.
    The owner was nowhere in sight. Judy asked Carole to look for him. His name was Mulroney. Carole approached the house, on the other side of the stable’s paddock, and found that Mr. Mulroney wasn’t home. He’d left a note on his door for Judy, informing her that he’d had to go to town and would be back at four o’clock. If he missed her, she should check the right front hoof of the bay.
    Armed with this information, Carole returned to the Stable and told Judy. Judy put her hands on her hips and looked at the four horses in the stable. Three of the four were bays! Judy started laughing. Carole could only mustera wan smile. It seemed to her that what Mr. Mulroney was doing was selfish and thoughtless. She just couldn’t bring herself to laugh about it.
    “Okay, let’s check them one by one,” Judy said. “Try the stallion first. He’s had hoof problems before and is