Free Saddle Sore by Bonnie Bryant

needed to learn. Someday—someday soon, she hoped—she was going to talk her parents into buying her one. “I guess I would have learned a lot, if we’d gone.”
    “You’d have learned a lot about pigs and sheep and cattle, too,” Kate said. “Also dust and farm equipment. I wish those auctions were more horsey. Dad, we had the best day ever! Two beautiful rides!”
    “A REN ’ T THE H OPKINSES coming?” Kate asked, as they sat down to dinner. Lisa could hear the sadness in her friend’s voice.
    “I’m afraid not, dear,” her mother answered, setting a plate of food on the table. “Mrs. Hopkins asked for carryout again.”
    Lisa touched Kate’s elbow. “We’ll ask her to ride with us tomorrow,” she reminded her.
    “Are you riding tomorrow?” Mrs. Devine asked. She sat down next to Colonel Devine, and they began to eat. “Kate, did you ask them about going to the Wild West Show?”
    Kate rolled her eyes. “I forgot! I tell you, all this riding and worrying about Monica has made me forgetful. Right, the Wild West Show is tomorrow, but I wasn’t sure you guys would want to go, since you’ve already seen it twice.”
    “Seen it?” Stevie said indignantly. “We performed! Stewball and I were the stars of the show!”
    “And if I remember correctly,” Lisa cut in, “you were so spectacular that you were asked not to perform again.”
    Amid everyone’s laughter, Carole and Kate told Emily about the Wild West Show. “It’s a touristy thing,” Kate said. “Cowboys, shoot-’em-ups. The Old West like they show it in movies. They do it in town, right in the middle of the day, so that at first tourists don’t realize it’s a show. The organizers always need local volunteers.”
    “Once we were playing pioneer women and one of the fake bank robbers threatened Stevie,”Carole said. “Stewball was tied nearby, and he broke lose and went after the man. It looked like he was defending Stevie, but really he was just trying to get the rock candy the man had in his pocket.”
    “Stewball,” Stevie explained, “loves rock candy.”
    “His reaction was a little extreme,” Kate said. “If we go tomorrow, we’ll leave the horses at home. As long as we do that, I’m sure they’ll let us be actors again.”
    Emily thought a Wild West Show sounded fantastic. “I’d love to see it,” she said. “It’d be like a movie come to life. And I’d especially like to see you guys perform. I don’t think I could, though—I bet they aren’t equipped to deal with disabled people on zero notice. Are there steps? Would I have to move fast?”
    “Yes, and probably,” Kate admitted.
    “We won’t go,” Carole said. “We were planning on riding every day, remember?”
    “I’d love to come and watch,” Emily persisted. “Maybe Monica would want to come, too. Really, I’d rather—” She cut her words short. It occurred to her suddenly that The Saddle Clubhad already done the show twice. Probably they didn’t want to do it again. “Riding’s great, too,” she concluded.
    “I don’t know,” Stevie said. “I guess without Stewball it wouldn’t be the same, anyway. Lisa?”
    Lisa bit her lip. She loved acting; she really loved the Wild West Show. But she tried to put herself in Emily’s shoes. How much fun would it be to sit on the sidelines watching your friends run around in bonnets and long dresses? “Let’s ride,” she said.
    Colonel Devine shook his head. “I’ve heard of horse-crazy, but you all take the cake. Don’t you ever get sick of riding? Isn’t there anything you’d rather do?”
    Carole grinned. “If there is, we haven’t found it yet.”
    “What about Monica?” Emily said. “Should we ask her about the Wild West Show?”
    “Oh, come on.” Kate sounded bitter. “If she won’t even get on a horse, if she won’t even come out of her cabin, what are the odds of her going to the Wild West Show?”
    Even though she thought that Kate sounded a little harsh, Lisa had to