Trickster

Chapter Twelve

Dr. Mac drives wordlessly, pushing the van above the speed limit as they leave town. The closer they get, the more David wishes he stayed behind. What if Mr. Quinn kicks him out of the barn? He says maybe he’ll just stay in the car. Dr. Mac just responds that’s just fine. Dr. Mac hits the brakes and grabs two boxes of equipment out of the back.

David wishes he had the guts to follow Dr. Mac. He wants to see how Trickster is doing. But instead, David sits on the bumper of the van. He thinks about his dad. One of Dad’s mottos was to “get back on the horse when you fall off.” Everything was easier when Dad was around.

Mr. Quinn comes out of the barn. He’s trying to lead Starfire to the courtyard, and Dr. Mac is behind him, watching closely. Starfire’s head and tail are down, and he’s walking slowly. He keeps jerking his rope and swinging his head back toward his belly. Starfire is Mr. Quinn’s favorite horse. His most expensive, too. If anything happens to him…

Mr. Quinn says he’s not having any trouble going to the bathroom, but he has had diarrhea for the last hour. Could it be colitis X, the disease that kills racehorses? Dr. Mac assures him that’s a very rare disease. She tells Mr. Quinn she’s going to use an I.V. to replace lost fluids, and that he should be isolated from the other horses.

While Mr. Quinn is distracted leading Starfire to the foaling barn, David slips into the barn to check on Trickster. The barn is clean and empty. The girls must’ve worked hard to get all the chores done. A familiar whinny comes from a nearby stall. It’s Trickster. When David approaches the horse, he bobs his head up and down. His sore leg is wrapped to keep the swelling down, but he’s still not putting weight on it.

David sees that his water bucket is empty, hay is spread all over the stall, and there’s lots of manure and urine on it. Yuck. David leads Trickster into the aisle and ties his lead rope firmly to a metal ring on the stall door. He grabs a shovel and wheelbarrow and cleans the stall floor. Then he refills the hay net and fills the water bucket.

When Trickster is led back into the stall, he takes a long drink of water by plunging his entire nose in the bucket. He lifts his head, shakes his forelock, and then plunges his nose back into the bucket to drink more. David’s never seen a horse drink like that before. David reaches for Trickster’s halter to distract him. But then he looks at Trickster’s face. There’s a bunch of strange bumps on his lips. They look like small, clear, tender blisters.

David hears footsteps. Good. He wants Dr. Mac or Mr. Quinn to see this. But it’s just the girls leading their hoses in with Jared. He asks them why they went riding before cleaning Trickster’s stall. Jared looks puzzled. He says they cleaned Trickster’s stall. In fact, Jared cleaned Trickster’s stall himself. Weird. When David points out the blisters on his mouth, Jared says he’s probably just chewing his own tail. But he’ll get the doc to look at him.

Meanwhile, can David help the girls groom their horses? They were antsy on the trail. David thinks something strange is happening in the air today.