Free Mary and Jody in the Movies by JoAnn S. Dawson Page A

at once.
    The crowd laughed then, but still no one took a chance.
    “One hundred, one hundred apiece. You can’t lose at that price, folks,” the auctioneer pleaded.
    A lone hand went up at ringside. Mary and Jody craned their necks to see whose hand it was.
    It was Willie’s.
    Even Twister gasped this time. “What the…” he began.
    “Yep!” the Amish man yelped excitedly, pointing at Willie. But Willie shook his head and simply pointed at the bay herding
     horse.
    “He’s for sale, but not yet, we’re bidding on the wild herd,” the auctioneer said insistently. “What do I hear for the wild
     ones?”
    Still no one bid. Willie raised his hand once again and all in one motion lowered it, pointing his finger at the bay, who
     was still trotting easily around the wild horses as though they weren’t even there.
    “All right, then,” the auctioneer said in frustration. “We’ll let the bay horse go and then we’ll sell the others. Keep your
     eye on them, boys. Look, they’re calmin’ down already. Six hundred on the bay!”
    Willie didn’t raise his hand this time. The auctioneer glared at him and then banged his gavel. “All right, then, five hundred!”
    Willie simply nodded.
    “Yep!” went the Amish man.
    “Five fifty! Who’ll give five fifty?” A hand went up across the ring, and the bidding began. The auctioneer launched into
     the bidding at such a rate that it was hard to understand him. Several hands were in the air, all bidding on the bay horse,
     as the little Amish man hopped up and down with each bid.
    “What’s he saying, Twister?” Jody whispered. “He’s going so fast I can’t understand him.”
    “He’s up to eight hundred already,” Twister said. “I don’t know how far Will’s going to go on him.”
    There were just two people still bidding at nine hundred dollars, and one of them was Willie. The other was a man sitting
     directly behind the auctioneer wearing a black cowboy hat and a shiny black rodeo jacket.
    “Oh, I hope the rodeo man doesn’t get him,” Jody said anxiously, biting her fingernails.
    “Nine fifty!” The auctioneer shouted.Willie nodded.
    “One thousand! One thousand! Do I hear one thousand?”
    The Amishman spun in a circle, scanning the crowd for another bid. The rodeo man turned questioningly to the man sitting next
     to him, who shook his head no. The auctioneer asked once more for a bid of one thousand. Then the gavel came down with a bang.
    “Nine fifty! To number one twenty-three. Now, I need a bid on these wild ones!”
    Mary and Jody watched as Willie turned abruptly from ringside. He strode as quickly as he could toward the rear of the sale
     barn, following the bay horse and rider as they left the ring. In an instant, the girls were on their feet and making their
     way down the bleachers so as not to lose sight of Willie.
    “Hey, wait for me!” Twister grumbled, excusing himself for almost stepping on the woman in front of him as he descended the
     bleachers in pursuit of the anxious girls.
    By the time Mary and Jody pushed their way through the crowd and caught up with Willie in the back alley of the barn, the
     new horse was nowhere to be seen.
    “Willie!” Mary panted, “we watched you buy the horse! Where did he go?”
    “Oh, him?” Willie said nonchalantly. “I resold him already.”
    The girls’ mouths flew open in shock at this statement until they saw Twister and Willie exchange amused looks.
    “Willie! You did not! Can we go look at him? Please?”
    “Well, hold yer horses. We’re just ‘bout ready to load up and go home,” Willie replied, turning toward the sale office.
    “Go home?” Jody said, bewildered. “But Willie, you only bought one horse. I thought we needed at least three.”
    “Well, I bought three others straight from the owners before they even went in the ring. Sometimes you get ’em cheaper that
     way. And I was able to have a good long talk with the owners so’s I’d know what I was