Free Horseshoe by Bonnie Bryant Page B

you,” May replied.
    “That works too,” Lisa said.
    “Does Joey Dutton really have to leave?” Jasmine asked. “Because he says he isn’t going unless he has to,and we don’t want him to go, and we want to know if he really does have to.”
    Lisa knew that Joey Dutton, one of Horse Wise’s youngest members, lived near Jasmine and May. She also knew that Joey’s dad was moving his dental practice to the town where Stevie’s boyfriend, Phil Marsten, lived. “Are you guys good friends with Joey?” she asked them.
    “He’s our best friend!” said May. “We play at his house all the time, and he comes over and plays with us, and he’s got a tree fort and everything. And now he’s riding, and he’s going to get a pony and he was going to keep it in his backyard like we do. Everything was going to be perfect, but now he’s moving away!”
    Lisa knew that nothing she said would keep Joey from moving. “He has to go with his family,” she told Jasmine and May, “but I can promise you that you’ll still get to see him often.”
    “We will?” Jasmine asked excitedly.
    “Of course we will,” May answered. “He’ll be in the Cross County Pony Club instead, and we’ll see him every time Horse Wise and Cross County have a competition. We didn’t need a fortune-teller to tell us that.”
    Lisa could tell she was going to have to do better. “Mmm,” she murmured, waving her hands over thedeck of playing cards. She pulled a card from the pile. “See here, this is the two of spades,” she said, “and spades is trump.” Lisa didn’t know what “trump” meant in cards, but she had heard her mother saying it when she played bridge. “This is a very lucky sign,” Lisa said solemnly. “It means that even without Joey you two are going to have a wonderful summer.”
    “Wow,” said Jasmine. Even May seemed impressed. They paid up and left satisfied. Lisa could hear Jasmine repeat “Spades is trump” under her breath as she went out the door. Lisa hoped there weren’t any bridge players standing in line.
    She had three more customers, all younger kids who seemed pleased with the fortunes she told them. Of course, Lisa reflected, who wouldn’t be pleased to hear “Your grades will improve,” “Your allowance will increase soon,” and “You will meet a dark, handsome stranger”?
    Then in came Michael Grant!
    With her finest gestures Lisa bade him to be seated. She inhaled deeply and mysteriously and stared at him for several seconds. “Do you know your sign?” she asked him in a deep and mysterious voice.
    “Sign?” Michael looked puzzled.
    “Sign,” Lisa repeated. “Like, the sign you were born under.”
    Michael thought hard. “I don’t think there was a sign,” he said.
    Lisa sighed. “Like, Gemini, that’s one of the signs,” she said. She didn’t know all of the zodiac signs herself, but she knew that “What’s your sign?” was considered a very good question for fortune-tellers to ask. Except, of course, when the person you asked didn’t know what you were talking about.
    “I rode a roller coaster called Gemini once,” Michael offered. “But that was three years ago.”
    “That counts,” Lisa said. “Let me consult my charts.” She made a big show of checking the astrological charts Stevie had photocopied from an encyclopedia. “Very favorable,” she said. “I can see that Mercury, is rising in—umm—your thermometer, and the moon is pretty far from a solar eclipse. Very favorable signs, indeed.”
    She turned and gave Michael another long and very effective look. He shifted slightly in his seat. “I think I can answer a question for you, Michael. You may ask the crystal ball. What is it you would like to know?”
    Michael pointed at the paperweight. “Is this the crystal ball?”
    “Of course. Ask, and you shall be answered.”
    Michael bent low toward the crystal ball. Lisa bentlow, too, so that she could hear his question. Glancing cautiously at Lisa,