Andi’s Exhilarating Ride

“Justin! You’re FINALLY here!” Andi ran and hugged her brother, “come into the parlor while I grab my stuff.  Oh, and do we REALLY have to stay at Aunt Rebecca’s? Are you sure you can’t find any other place?”

“Yea, nice to see you too; and no, I can’t find any other place. I mean, I could but Aunt Rebecca would feel offended if we did not stay there and we wouldn’t want to do that so…” Andi had already run off to get her bag leaving Justin in mid-sentence. She was soon back carrying her bag “Ready to go?” Justin queried

“Ready when you are.” came the reply.

Once on their way Andi told him what all she had done while she was at the school. “…And sometime I want to go for a ride on the beach. A boy that works at the stable said he could take me sometime. Do you think we could? I REALLY want to, don’t you? I think it would be a glorious feeling, galloping down the beach. If we do go I want to take Jenny, I know she would love it. I…”

Here Justin boke in. “Here we are! Let’s go, grab your stuff. And hurry.” Aunt Rebecca was standing on the porch when they came up. “Hello dearies come right on in. You can go get ready for tea now; it’s ready and waiting. ”

 Two hours later they were seated at the tea table. Aunt Rebecca had been gabbing the whole hour and a half they were sitting there while Justin added a comment here and there. Andi was desperately trying to get Justin’s attention. She was incredibly tired of sitting there, and listening to Aunt Rebecca was dreadfully boring.

She succeeded in getting her Aunts attention. “My goodness Andrea, what is wrong with you? You are as restless as a…a…a cat! Sit still for once! I thought maybe you would learn something at that school. Didn’t they teach you how to sit like a lady? Or did you just not learn?”

“Oh yes, don’t worry, they taught me that. But can I go by now? I’m done with my tea.”

 “Of all the… fine then we can go to the parlor.” Aunt Rebecca looked disgusted. Andrea trailed her way behind her brother and Aunt towards the parlor wondering how she could get Justin to come riding on the beach with her.

In the parlor Andi sat in a huge, flowered, overstuffed chair. She was still trying to come up with a plan to go riding on the beach when she became aware of Justin and Aunt Rebecca looking at her. “Do you want to?” Aunt Rebecca was saying.

“Yes, I mean, no, I mean what did you say?” She quickly sat up. “Sorry what did you say? My mind was somewhere else.” She stammered.

“Well, that’s obvious. You were looking very meditative. What I was saying is that I have a meeting with some of my friends Saturday afternoon and was wondering if you would want to go along with me? I am sure they would all want like to meet you.” Aunt Rebecca smiled to sweetly and waited for an answer.

“Oh… uuum, no thanks. I will find something to do with Justin but thank you anyways.” Andi worriedly looked at Justin

 “She and I will stay here while you go to be with your friends Auntie. Don’t worry we will be fine.” So the matter was settled. Andi breathed a sigh of relief. No going to meet Aunts friends after all. The conversation continued to flow around her and suddenly it came to her, on Saturday, when Aunt Rebecca went to meet her friends she and Justin could go riding on the beach! She smiled to herself and slipped back into deep thought.

 Finally the day came. Aunt Rebecca had gone off to a meeting, and Justin and Andi were at her house alone. “Can we go riding now? Down at the beach? Aunt Rebecca’s not here and she won’t be back for a while. We have plenty of time.” Seeing a reluctant look come across Justin’s face she begged harder. “PLEASE! This will probably be the only chance we have while you are here, and I can’t do it when I am at school. PLEASE Justin. PLEASE!”

 “Weeell,” Justin lazily looked at his watch. “I guess it won’t hurt. Where is this boy you told me about?”

 “His name is Juan Carlos. He works down at the livery. We could probably find him there. If not we could just go by ourselves.”

Andi wasn’t going to give up now. “Come on, let’s go! I’ll go get ready; do you need to change or anything? If so HURRY!”

Justin grinned as Andi eagerly dashed toward the stairs.

She popped her head around the corner at the bottom of the steps. “HURRY!” she yelled. Suddenly her head appeared again. “Can we take Jenny with us? She would love to go to.”

“Not this time. I don’t want to drive the whole way to the school and you had better be glad that we are going riding anyway.”

“Oh I am. Don’t worry.” Andi disappeared for the third time.

As Andi and Justin entered the livery stable a boy came out of a room. “Hello, how may I help you?” he asked.

“We are looking for Juan Carlos. Is he here?” Andi inquired.

“Ah, yes, let me get him. One moment please.” The boy ran toward the other end of the stable and disappeared.

“Well he must be here or that boy would not have run off.” Andi grinned in anticipation of the ride. She could see herself galloping down the seashore racing with Justin, she would win of course.

“Zanos said you were you looking for me. How may I help you?” she heard a voice saying. Andi jumped in surprise.

 “Oh hello Juan, do you remember me? I’m Andi. Remember you said you would take me riding on the shore sometime? Would it suit you tonight? Do you have other plans?”

Juan smiled “Si, I remember you. I remember what I said. It would suit me today, when do you want to go? Right now or later?”

“We would appreciate if we could go right now. We have some time before we have to be back home so if it is all right with you…”

“Yes, that’s fine. Shall I choose your horses or do you want to?” Juan asked.

“You may choose them. I don’t care.” offered Justin.

As Juan began to disappear into a stall Andi called after him “I want a fast one, if you don’t mind. And I don’t want a sidesaddle” Then she glared at Justin. “I wanted to pick out my own horse. Why did you say that?”

Justin shrugged. “You could have said that. I didn’t know. It’s too late now so don’t complain.”

Just as Andi was sinking down on a bag of grain Juan appeared leading two fully tacked horses. One was a dapple gray mare; the other was a short stocky bay gelding “Which one is the fastest?” Andi asked.

 “That’s Andi for you, always trying to get the fastest one.” Justin chortled.

“I picked the bay for you because he is so fast.” Andi looked doubtful. “I know he just looks corpulent.” Juan went on, “But he is as fast as the wind.”

“What’s his name?” Andi wondered.

“The name? Hahaha, the name? Well, it goes something like this… let’s see if I can pronounce it correctly, it is Miki Cheveyo. Miki means ‘little’ and Cheveyo means ‘Spirit Warrior’ so I guess he is our ‘Little Spirit Warrior’. We just call him Miki.”

“That sounds like an interesting name, and what is the dapples name?” asked Justin

“Oh, her name is just Sweetie. You won’t have any trouble with her. True to her name she is as sweet and gentle as they come. Now that Miki is one little… well let’s just say he’s spirited. I hope you don’t mind.”

 He turned to Andi. “Of course not. The more spirited the better. He is perfect.” “Good. Now if you will just wait a minute I will get my horse and then we can be on our way.” He turned and hurried off while Justin and Andi mounted their horses.

As the horses trotted out of town and toward the beach a slight breeze sprang up. Salty wind blew in Andi’s face and the ribbon in her braid began to untie. “What is your horses name?” She questioned Juan.

“The name is Spradly. Don’t worry I didn’t name him.” He added seeing Andi’s skeptical look.  

When they were out of town they turned their horses toward the beach. “Can we ride up the sand dunes?” inquired Andi.

“Well we can but it takes longer than it looks like it would because the sand is difficult to ride up, but we can do if you like.”

“Let’s, can we Justin?”

“Well, why not? I don’t mind, just so it will not be too hard on the horses.” He looked at Juan

“No these horse have done it many times. And nothing would tier Miki, he could run up and down the dunes all day and not get tired. That is how strong he is.”

The horse pounded up the sandy slope. At the top Andi exclaimed “My goodness that took a long time to get up here. The sand just slides out from under the horses as they climb.”

“Yes, that is how it is. But it is easier going down than up. Shall we go down now?”

 “Let’s run!” Without waiting for an answer Andi kicked her heels into Miki’s side and they took off.

“Hey, wait up!” Justin called but to no avail, nothing would stop them now. They careered down the slope sliding on the slippery sand but never falling. At the bottom Andi pulled Miki to a stop and sat up, breathless, looking around with wide eyes. “WOW!” she cried. The other riders were still coming down the hill at a sedate pace. “Come on Justin, Gallop! It is exceedingly exciting!”

“I had enough excitement watching you!” he returned, but he did pick up his pace a bit.

Down by the beach the three riders sat in their saddles watching the waves crashing against distant cliffs and the gulls screaming with their rough voices. Andi broke the revenue “Can we ride on down the shore? To that cliff? What about a race?” she grinned, A race down the beach sounded fantastic!

 “I’m in for a race, what about you?” Juan spoke up and looked at Justin with a questioning look.

Justin looked at Andi “I guess so. It’s not every day I get to race along the shoreline. Where will we race to?”

Andi beamed in delight. It wasn’t every day Justin raced with her. “Let’s start at this dune and race to the cliff. Hurry! Line up!”

“Ready, Set…GO!” Justin shouted loudly. At ‘GO’ the three riders spurred their horses into action.

“Come on boy. We can do this!” Andi shrieked as Miki pulled ahead of Sweetie and Spradly. Miki bolted toward the cliff at an amazing rate of speed. He might even be faster than Taffy but I don’t know about that, Taffy can run at a neck-breaking speed. Andi thought to herself then she looked back at the others. They were doing their best to catch up but Andi noted that Justin was behind. She began to laugh for pure joy.

She looked back once more as she neared the finish line and gasped as Sweetie stumbled and fell throwing Justin to the ground. Justin gave out a yell as he landed on the ground and Andi quickly pulled Miki to a stop; spun around, and flew back towards the accident.

Sweetie was rising to her feet and stood there shaking as Andi rode up. Juan was already there, and as she dismounted he helped Justin to his feet. “Are you okay? What happened? Why did you fall?” Andi blurted out

 “Ouch, my arm. I think I broke it.” Justin moaned. Then his attention turned toward the horse. “How about the horse? Is she okay?”

Juan grasped Sweetie’s bridle and encouraged her to walk.

 “Stop! She’s limping!” Andi called out.

 “I see that.” Juan bent down and grasping her leg he lifted it and looked at the hoof. “Oh, she stepped on a piece of shell and it went into her frog. Poor girl.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a hoof pick. Then he picked out the shell and released the hoof. “She’ll feel better now. It probably hurt when she put her hoof down so she fell. Are you okay?”

Juan turned toward Justin. “Oooooh, I probably can ride back but you’ll have to pony her home.”

“Are you sure?” Andi was full of concern for her older brother. She had broken her arm once when she was young and she knew from experience that it was no fun.

“We’ll take him to the doctor as soon as we get back.” Juan promised. They helped Justin mount and slowly began the voyage back to town.

 “…It is just a bad sprain so it should heal before too long. You’re a lucky fellow; you easily could have broken that arm.” The doctor had just finished putting a splint on Justin’s arm. “You can take it off in a couple of weeks and you should be good to go.”

Andi breathed a sigh of relief; Justin did not have a broken arm after all. Just a bad sprain. I sure hope Aunt Rebecca didn’t get home yet. What a bit of explaining. Andi groaned under her breath at the thought of having to explicate the day’s events to Aunt Rebecca.

“Ready to go?” Justin looked down at Andi and she nodded.

***

 As the surrey came to a stop in front of Aunt Rebecca’s house Andi noticed that the old lady was pacing up and down on her front porch. “Uh oh, looks like trouble.” Andi voiced her worries to Justin and he nodded in consent.

It didn’t take long for Andi’s predicament to come true. As soon as they stepped on the walk it began. “MY GOODNESS what have you been doing? WHAT HAPPENED TO JUSTIN? WHERE WEEEERE YOU? I’ve been SOOOO worried!”

“It is fine,” Justin soothed. “Let’s go into the parlor and I’ll explain.”

“You had better!” Aunt Rebecca exclaimed in a shrill voice.

In the parlor Justin began to retell the day’s results. “After you left we decided to go on a ride at the beach. We were racing down the shore when my horse stumbled and I fell and…”   “…The doctor said it is only a sprain so it will heal in a few weeks.” Justin stopped talking and Aunt Rebecca started.

“I should have known not to let you here alone! I never could trust you two! Especially you, Andrea! You always were a tom boy, Imagine galloping down the beach! I thought that maybe that school would calm you down a little bit !Now I see I was wrong. You’re as rambunctious as a wild colt! Justin, I thought you would have more sense than to encourage her wildness!! Just look at you! Your arm is broken!!”

“No, it’s not broken it’s just sprained. And it’s not Andrea’s fault. I didn’t have to race if I didn’t want to. I…” Justin tried to calm down his distraught Aunt; it didn’t work.

“Sprained then, Whatever! Your POOR mother, she must be worn down to a frazzle with all you crazy children !” Aunt Rebecca was nearly yelling by the time she finished her scolding. 

Finally Aunt Rebecca went for a rest. Justin and Andi looked at each other and grinned. Andi was worried though,

“Will she really write to mother and send me home? It would be a horrible disgrace if she did. She would tell everyone what we did and…” She stopped in despair.

 “No I don’t think she will send you home although she still will probably tell everyone. And she might write to mother but so can I so fear not. I can take care of it if she worries mother.” Justin consoled Andi.

“Wow but she was mad or something!” Andi breathed. She was relieved her Aunt had gone leaving just them two.

“Well she was probably more worried than mad actually. When she wakes up again she will be calmer, if my guess is right.”

Justin was right. When Aunt Rebecca came down stairs she was much calmer, but she still hadn’t gotten over Justin’s sprained arm. “Are you sure it’s not broken? Are you sure you are going to be okay?” she kept on asking.

Now that she got over her fright she was worried about his arm. “Yes, Yes, it’s fine.” He had to keep reassuring her.

“Well, just making sure.” She would retort every time. Then she said “Well… I...I…I shouldn’t have said all those things before I went to bed. Please forgive.”

“Oh, don’t you worry we hold nothing against you.” Justin soothed.

“Humph, well then, um, I guess it’s time for tea. Yes, it’s time for tea.”  The old lady muttered, and they headed towards the tea table for ANOTHER looong and boring tea.

 Later that evening there was a knock on the door. A maid went to answer it and soon popped into the room wear Justin, Andi, and Aunt Rebecca were sitting. “It’s someone for you sir.” She said a disappeared around the corner with Justin following.

Andi got up and swiftly started to pursue him but Aunt Rebecca called her back. “Did the maid say it was for you too?” she questioned.

“Nooo” Andi reluctantly admitted.

“Well then come back here and sit down. You look as if you’re being hunted! What is wrong with you?”

“I… I am tired; it’s been a long day.” Andi made an excuse but she actually did not want to sit here with her boring old aunt.

A current of gossip was likely to come her way soon and it did. “Did you hear about the fire at Geoffrey’s General Store? They say it was happened by accident but I think someone tried to start it. It’s not every day a store starts on fire…”

When Justin came back in the room Andi asked him who had come to see him. “It was Juan. He was wondering how my arm was doing. Wasn’t that nice?”

“I guess so” Andi yawned. It had been a long day.   

*****

 “GOOOD BYYY !!” Andi called after the receding surrey. She was back at school. Justin was going home and everything was returning to normal again.

She wondered how mother would act when she saw Justin’s arm. I wish I could see her face. I wish I was going home. I do NOT want to be here. Maybe it would have been nice if Aunt would have sent me home. But then I wouldn’t want to leave Jenny here all by herself. I guess it’s not too bad here. I will just have to accept wear I am at right now.

It had been perfectly splendid while Justin was there. Only two facts dimmed her joy; Justin had hurt himself and they had to stay at Aunt Rebecca’s. With that she turned and entered the big school building for another school term.