Free Maddie’s Dream by Catherine Hapka Page B

needs her toys.”
    â€œHmm. Well, the dining room walls look fine to me,” her father said. “But if you’re really willing to work for cash, I have another job for you. . . .”

    An hour later, Maddie looked up as the door leading from the house to the garage banged open. Her brother Ryan peered out at her. He was holding a book with his finger stuck in it to save his page. His dark hair was tousled, and his glasses were slightly askew as usual.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” he asked.
    â€œWhat does it look like?” Maddie sat back on her heels, giving her wrist a break. She’d been scrubbing at a grease spot on the garage’s cement floor for at least ten minutes, and it still looked as disgusting as ever.
    Ryan shrugged. “Dad said he’ll be back out to help in a little while. Oh, he also said to tell you not to forget to sort the nails and stuff on his workbench.”
    Maddie glanced at the tools, hardware, and random scraps of wood piled all over the large wooden counter built against the back wall. Ugh. It was going to take at least another hour in the hot garage to sort out that mess. Maddie swiped at the sweat beading on her forehead. Unfortunately, she forgot she was still holding the greasy rag.
    â€œOh, gross!” she exclaimed as she felt the sticky, gritty grease coat her skin.
    Ryan let out a bark of laughter. “Whoa,” he said. “You look like Batman!”
    â€œThanks a lot,” Maddie muttered.
    â€œHey, Ty!” Ryan turned and shouted back into the house. “Check this out—Maddie’s Batman!”
    Maddie tossed the rag in his direction, though it only went a few inches before fluttering to the ground. “Get out of here, will you?” she said. “Either that, or get out here and help me.”
    â€œNo thanks.” Ryan grinned at her. “I have better things to do. Like stare at the wall.”
    He disappeared, slamming the door behind him. Maddie used the hem of her T-shirt to wipe the grease off her face. Why not? The shirt was already filthy.
    She had better things to do too. Like just about anything that would get her out of this hot, dirty, smelly garage. They’d lived in this house for less than three years. How had the garage ended up crammed full of so much junk? For a second she was tempted to go into the air-conditioned house and tell her father that she’d quit.
    But then she remembered why she was doing this in the first place. It was all for Cloudy. She pictured the mare the way she’d seen her earlier that day, happily eating hay in her paddock. At Solano Stables, where she belonged. Suddenly cleaning out the garage didn’t seemso terrible after all. At least not compared to the possibility of losing Cloudy.
    Keeping that thought firmly in mind, Maddie grabbed the rag from where she’d tossed it and set to work on the grease spot with renewed energy.

CHAPTER
8
    â€œWILL YOU TURN OFF THE light, already?” Maddie grumbled, glaring at her sister.
    â€œChill. I’ll be done in a sec.” Tillie was standing in front of her mirror, running a brush over her chin-length wavy hair. Several bottles and tubes were arrayed in front of her, and as Maddie watched, Tillie set down the brush and picked up one of the bottles. She carefully squeezed a tiny dab of goo onto her finger and started rubbing it on her face in small circles.
    Maddie was tempted to get up and switch off the overhead light herself. Let Tillie finish her stupid beauty routine in the dark!
    But she was too exhausted to bother. Every part of her body ached. She hadn’t been this tired in a long time—maybe ever.
    After she’d finished cleaning the garage, Maddie had gone around to all the neighbors’ houses looking for more work. And she’d found it. First Mrs. Bracken had hired her to clean all the windows in her entire house. It was only after the insides of the windows were all