Trickster

Chapter Nine

David’s mother is waiting for him when Dr. Mac’s van drops him off at home. She doesn’t say a word to him until they’re in the garage. Then she lets fly. Her mouth is tight, her eyes look like they could spit fire. This is a bad time for a smart-mouth answer.

David opens the laundry room door, and passes past piles of laundry into the kitchen. Ashley, David’s five-year-old sister is eating a McDonald’s feast at the table. Brian, David’s older brother, is nowhere in sight. He must be at work. David asks his mom when she needed him.

Mom slaps her hand down on the kitchen counter. She put a note out where David would see it this morning. It reads that David should come home by two o’clock to watch Ashley while Mom went into the office. David was also supposed to take out the trash and start laundry.

David says he never saw the note. He woke up late due to his stupid alarm clock not going off. He grabbed a soda, a handful of pretzels, and ran out the door.

Mom tells him that she called him yesterday at the clinic and he ignored her messages. Mom had to take Ashley into the office with her. Mom sits down and says that she doesn’t ask David to babysit often, so when she does, she needs to be able to count on him. Brian has his own job.

Brian works at the movie theater. He runs the projector, so he basically gets paid to sit and watch movies. Hopefully when he goes to college… if he ever goes to college… then he’ll give David his job.

David studies an orange stain on the countertop. Probably juice or soda. It looks permanent. He apologizes for letting her down. He just can’t do anything right today.

Mom switches topics and asks David how the stables were. David explains that Mr. Quinn has this new horse, Trickster. He’s fast as the wind. Dad would love him. Mom just looks at her fingernails. She doesn’t like talking about Dad. David continues to say that Mr. Quinn promised David could ride him as long as he helped out with Trickster for a few weeks due to his sore leg.

Ashley asks if Trickster ran away. Omitting some details, David admits that Trickster hurt his leg again. Badly. So he won’t be able to ride Trickster for a long time, if ever. Mr. Quinn is pretty upset.

And Trickster is the only horse that David wants to ride. It’s like they’re connected or something. Mr. Quinn hates David and thinks he’s an idiot. He doesn’t even want David around Trickster. Mr. Quinn’s lecture is echoing around David’s head.

In fact, David is going to skip volunteering at the stables for a while. Mom crosses the kitchen to the calendar hanging next to the telephone. That’s good. Mom has to go into the office tomorrow morning. David can watch Ashley. And he owes Ashley something special for today.

Ashley jumps up on her seat. She wants a tea party!