Kai, p.2
Kai, page 2
“It’s actually from all of us,” said Storm, looking at her feet shyly.
“And now,” said Danni, “I want you to meet our incredible volunteers.” I hadn’t even noticed the group of people standing there under the trees.
The big bay and the little dapple grey horse standing in the middle of the sandbar were bugging each other, I noticed, as Danni introduced us. One of them would reach around to lightly nip the other’s legs with its teeth, until the other one tossed its head to move it away again. It reminded me a little of the way Jingy and I bugged each other sometimes, play fighting and annoying one another. The dapple grey nickered again, and this time actually nipped at the leg of the big bay. Then suddenly the big bay reared on his back legs and came crashing down, lashing out with his hindlegs.
“Oh my god!” cried Frankie.
“Oh those two, it’s nothing,” laughed Danni, as the dapple grey whipped around to give the big bay another nip on the legs. “They’re always carrying on. Like puppies.”
At that moment the big bay reared up again, and this time instead of crashing down on his front legs to pig root, he reared up even higher.
They weren’t fighting at all, I realised. They were having a ball.
After all those hours waiting around for Frankie and the others to finish their lessons, I must have picked up a thing or two about horses, I realised, because I needed to get closer to these two, and I knew exactly what to do.
I looked around to check if anyone was watching, but they were all distracted, talking and laughing with the volunteers, and so I kicked off my shoes and stepped into the river. Their voices faded away as I waded out towards the pair who were grazing on the long soft grass in the middle of the sandbar.
The water was cold, and the pebbles on the bottom were sharp. I tried to make myself relax and to keep my gaze soft as I looked at them. Horses don’t like it if you stare or glare at them.
I walked until the dapple grey raised his head, ears flicking. You had to wait for permission to enter a horse’s bubble, I remembered. When he put his head back down I began advancing again. That was the sign I’d been waiting for.
“Here boy,” I said, but isn’t that what you’d say to a dog? I had no idea what you were meant to say to an unfamiliar horse. “Hey fella.” I glanced behind me, suddenly self-conscious, but no one seemed to have noticed my terrible attempts at being a horse whisperer. “Horse!” I said, and the big bay looked up, startled, his ears twitching. It wasn’t that the dapple grey was little, I realised, so much as the bay was huge. “Hey, brumby,” I said, making sure my voice was soft and friendly, because, I’d just remembered, it’s much more important how you say something than what you say. “Hello there, horses,” I said, clearing my throat. “Hello.”
The dapple grey snorted, startling the big bay. The big bay lifted his head up to stare at me, ears twitching, before putting his head back down to graze.
At that moment something exploded next to me in the water.
“Arlo!” I heard Violet cry.
The big bay reared and the dapple grey gave a piercing shriek and jumped, all four hooves in the air. I’d never seen a horse jump like that before. I fell back into the water, just as he slammed down right where I had been standing, setting off a mini tsunami. The big bay reared again, throwing his head back and whinnying before landing with a thump so strong I felt the sand underneath me shudder. As I clambered to my feet the dapple grey took two more steps, and came to stand right next to me, pressing his trembling body against my shirt.
“Aahhh,” I said, awkwardly putting my arm over his withers, not quite sure what to do.
“Kai!” shouted Shannon. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” I called back. I took some deep breaths, trying to help the dapple grey slow his breathing. “Hey fella, you’re fine, too, aren’t you?” I laughed, trying to keep my balance as he began trying to scratch his nose against the rivets on my jeans.
“Oh my god!” cried Frankie, at the same time as Violet shouted “Arlo!”
“You can’t throw rocks at them,” said Danni sharply.
“He’s not! Arlo would never do that, he’s just playing,” Violet retorted, just as sharply.
At that moment the big bay reared up again. My dapple grey swung his head around and shrieked, again. Before he could try to jump into my lap again, though, I quickly began wading back to where the others were standing. I knew that sound, I realised. That was the sound I’d heard last night.
Frankie was staring at me with a strange look on her face as I joined her on the river bank.
“What’s got into you?” she whispered.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, why are you acting like you’re some kind of a horse whisperer all of a sudden?”
I didn’t know why, but suddenly I felt happy and calm and strange and excited, all at once. Like that feeling you have when you just know something great is about to happen.
“I’ve decided which brumby will fit best into the herd at Pocket of Dreams,” said Shannon, once Danni and the volunteers had left.
Arlo hadn’t been able to resist the water, and so, at Violet’s nod of approval, he’d stripped off his T-shirt and was now splashing happily in the water. The brumbies, including my two, had all moved further away, down the river. I would have liked to go for a swim too, but it’s not the same when you’re fourteen, instead of eight. Or maybe it is. Maybe Arlo is just less inhibited than me. I squatted down and put my hands in the water, scooping some up over my head to cool off, then standing up again to face the others.
“Which one have you chosen?” I asked. For some reason I felt horribly nervous.
“That handsome fellow,” said Shannon, pointing to the big bay, who was standing with my dapple grey on the opposite bank now. The two of them were both very interested in something very small, in the exact same spot, which meant their noses were pressed tightly against each other’s in the sand.
“That’s Jarrah,” I said, without thinking about it. “But we can’t leave Monty.”
“You know their names?” asked Frankie.
“Oh. I just . . .” I looked away, embarrassed. “I guess I must have just made them up.”
“Well, obviously!” said Frankie.
“Kai,” said Storm, smiling at me and shaking her head. “I do believe mister ‘I don’t care about horses’ here may have developed a little crush on a horse!”
“What? No, it’s nothing like that!” I could feel my cheeks getting hot. “I’m just saying they shouldn’t be separated!”
Storm and Frankie were giggling, obviously delighted, but Shannon was looking at me quizzically.
“The volunteers said these two have been together from the beginning,” I said, trying to keep the tension I was feeling out of my voice. “You can’t separate them now! At least not so soon after they’ve been rescued.”
“It’s a nice idea,” said Shannon. “But even one brumby is a lot for me to handle. Especially now, when feed and water are becoming so expensive, with the drought.”
“But Storm has enough money for two, right Storm? More than enough.” I’d seen the price of a brumby on the sanctuary’s website – they were shockingly cheap.
“We have the money,” said Storm. “It’s our money, that you guys raised, remember?”
“For you,” said Frankie.
“No, it was for me to buy Morning Mist,” argued Storm. “But seeing as Margery gave her to me instead, I want us all to decide how to spend it.”
“But . . .” said Frankie, opening her mouth to argue.
“Wait,” said Violet, holding up her hand and turning to me. “Monty is the one you heard screaming last night, right?”
I blinked in surprise. I’d thought Violet had been doing her best to ignore the whole thing. But she must have been paying attention after all.
“Right?” insisted Violet, looking at me in that clear, direct way that she had.
It’s hard to explain the way I feel around Violet sometimes. It’s kind of like a cross between nervousness and excitement.
“Right,” I agreed reluctantly, not sure if she would approve.
“And now after five minutes standing in the river with him, you know he has to come back to Pocket of Dreams with us, and you know his name?”
“Why not?” said Storm. “That’s how I felt about Morning Mist, right from the start.”
I smiled at Storm. Maybe she understood, more than I did, what was going on here.
“Okay then,” said Violet, flashing one of her special, surprising, gone-so-fast-you-can-hardly-believe-it-happened smiles at me.
“But I only want one horse, Kai,” said Shannon gently. “Training any horse is a lot of work, and up until two weeks ago, these horses had zero contact with human beings. They’re basically wild animals.”
“I’ll help.”
“Says the person who’s only going to be around for another ten days!” snapped Frankie.
“For ten days I’ll help, then,” I said. “And if Storm and the others agree to donate all the money raised, then that should be more than enough to cover their board for at least a little while, until I can work out how to raise some more.”
The way Shannon looked at me felt like the way Monty had looked at me earlier. Right into my soul. “Okay, Kai.” Her diamond earrings sparkled, and her blue eyes seemed to be especially bright. “If the others are happy to use the money that way, and if you’re willing to help in the especially intense early stages, then all right.”
“But what will happen when the ten days are up, and Kai has to go home?” said Frankie. “And what about the extra feed, and any supplements or medications they might need? Let alone if they need some special kind of stabling?”
“Then we’ll think of something, Frankie,” said Storm, nudging her gently with her elbow. “We’re the Dream Riders, remember? We always come up with an answer.”
“Like what?” said Frankie. I turned away and looked down the river to where all the other horses had scattered. If my best friend didn’t even want to support me in this, what was the point? Besides, I don’t even care about horses, I told myself as I bent over to trail my hands in the water. And soon I’d be in Sydney, back in my old life where horses were not on my – or anyone else’s – agenda!
“We don’t know the answer yet, but we’ll find one,” said Storm serenely, and suddenly I felt filled with confidence. If Storm thought we could manage it, then we would.
“Let’s take a vote,” said Shannon, behind me. “Whoever is in favour of us taking both Monty and Jarrah back to Pocket of Dreams, say aye.”
“Aye,” I said quickly.
“Aye,” said Violet, barely a second later.
“Aye,” said Shannon, shaking her head in exasperation, but smiling, too.
“Aye,” said Storm, glaring meaningfully at Frankie.
“Aye,” said Frankie quietly, without even looking up, drawing a pattern in the sand with a stick.
“Aye!” said Arlo, so loudly and suddenly that I couldn’t help laughing. He laughed back at me, his face breaking into a smile so big and joyful that suddenly I felt joyful, too.
“Monty’s coming home!” I yelled, pumping the air with my fist.
“Except it’s not your home,” muttered Frankie.
“What’s got into you?” I said to Frankie.
“I was just about to ask you the same question!” She snapped. “Ever since we got here you’ve been acting like a different person!”
We were walking back up the hill to the main buildings, and Frankie and I were trailing the rest of the group, who had gone tearing up the hill in double-quick time as soon as Danni mentioned lunch.
“You walked right up to two wild animals, and risked your life. And now you’ve signed up to Shannon’s boot camp to help with Monty, and let me tell you, it’s a lot of work.”
“I know,” I said. “I’ve been watching you all this time, remember?”
“You have no idea what it’s actually like to be out in the paddock, in the heat and the glare, all day. And I don’t know where you’re going to find the time to be with Jingy and your family, who are coming all this way to see you; not to mention do your job at the supermarket.”
“My family will be happy for me to do what I want to do, especially Jingy. And I’ve already decided to quit my job at the supermarket,” I said coolly, even though, actually, I hadn’t.
“And I don’t know what you think you’re going to do with Monty when you leave in ten days’ time.”
“Frankie,” I said, linking arms with her and giving her a light punch on the shoulder. “You and I both know Shannon wouldn’t have agreed to take Monty if she didn’t have a fallback plan. And you and I both know that it’s ninety-nine percent likely that Monty can stay on at Pocket of Dreams with her.”
“But she told you she already has a lot on her plate!” Frankie was almost shouting at me now and I was glad the others had already disappeared into the main house so they wouldn’t overhear. “You can’t just lump other people with your responsibilities, Kai, it’s not fair.”
I took a deep breath, trying to control my temper, but I surely do hate being shouted at, and so I didn’t do a very good job. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Frankie, but don’t worry, okay? If I do need help, I certainly won’t be asking you.”
“That’s not what I meant,” she snapped, throwing her hands up into the air and stomping up the last rise of the hill.
I caught up with her just as she was about to go into the house.
“Frankie, seriously, help me out here. What’s wrong?”
“I said don’t worry about it,” she snapped again, and then we were in the house, where everyone was milling around, eating corn chips and guacamole, and cobs of corn that had been roasted on the barbecue.
After lunch when Danni asked if we would help out around the sanctuary, and offered us a choice of horses or quad bikes, I opted for the quad bikes. I longed to see Jarrah and Monty again, but I knew Frankie would pick the horses, and I couldn’t stand the tension between us.
The trouble is, I don’t actually know much about quad bikes. Which is to say, I know even less about quad bikes than I do about horses.
“You know your way around a quad, don’t you, Violet?” said Shannon, as Danni began handing out tasks. “Why don’t you show Kai the ropes, and then the two of you can get started on the wood clearing. We’ve got a lot of work to do with the horses if we’re taking them back to Mullumbimby tomorrow afternoon.”
“But isn’t that dangerous?” said Frankie. “I mean, Violet doesn’t even have a driver’s licence.”
“You need to be seventeen to get a licence Frankie!” said Violet. “But if you don’t go onto the roads, you don’t need a driver’s licence to ride a quad bike anyway.”
I could see from the way Frankie walked off down the hill to take feed and water to the brumbies though, that she still wasn’t happy.
Violet and I walked over to the shed. Two quad bikes were parked there, side by side, one red and one yellow, looking like the babies of the giant green tractor that sat behind them.
Violet swung her hair behind her shoulders and walked over to the red one, throwing a leg over it as comfortably as if it was a horse and placing her hands lightly on the handlebars. “Come on. Hop on up behind me.” She handed me a helmet and put hers on.
“I’m supposed to learn while you’re actually driving?” I stuttered.
“Yep,” she said, twisting the key in the ignition. The peace of the barn was obliterated as it roared into life, the dull, steady throb of the engine wiping out all the sounds of the bush around us. “You’re not scared, are you?”
“Not at all.” Although, now that it came down to it, I kind of was. “I’m just not sure how much I trust a thirteen-year-old on a quad bike.”
“I’m actually fourteen, but in any case, I’ve been driving them since I was five years old.”
“Five! Isn’t that a little young? Frankie’s right, you know, they’re dangerous!”
“I know quad bikes the way I know horses.” She shrugged.
I thought about the way she’d been thrown off Paris last term, and their generally difficult relationship. The same thing must have occurred to her, because her cheeks flushed. “Except for Paris,” she said, switching off the engine.
“Anyway, we didn’t have a choice,” she continued, her voice sounding loud in the sudden quiet. “With my dad away so much of the time, and Mum so busy with Arlo, someone had to be able to get across a creek or up to the postbox in a hurry sometimes, and so I had to learn.”
“But your family is rich, aren’t they?” Her dad was a chef. He had published cookbooks and ran a famous restaurant, and starred in his own TV show. “Couldn’t you have hired someone to do that stuff?”
Violet flushed, and I worried that sounded rude. Seeing as I liked Violet’s honesty so much, I decided I should be honest with her, too. I pressed on. “I mean, couldn’t your dad have hired people to help out on your property and whatnot, when he wasn’t there?”
“During the day, sure,” she said hotly, “but not at night.” Her cheeks were flushed too, I noticed, like Frankie’s had been. Everyone I talked to today seemed to get upset. “And not on the weekends, either. I mean, I suppose we could have had someone live with us to help, but the whole reason we live out there is for the privacy. Dad needs somewhere he can forget about being on TV. But he goes away a lot to work, and sometimes, when it floods, I’ve had to clear wood and move things so that Mum can drive through if she has to get to the hospital with Arlo.”
“To the hospital?” So that’s why she was sounding upset. “I didn’t know Arlo had to go to hospital. Is he okay?”
“It’s only sometimes, if he has a seizure or something,” she said. She held her chin high, but her voice trembled a little, I noticed. “And it hardly ever happens any more. I mean, it’s been ages now since we’ve needed to . . . to . . .”
