Pony Pals, Book 1 - I WANT A PONY

Chapter 1 Lulu Meets Her Neigh-bor

Lulu had been sat her grandmother's for three hours and twenty-two minutes. She watched the slow-moving hands of the kitchen clock as she waited for her father to phone and say that he'd made a mistake. He'd tell her instead of living in boring Wiggins she could go with him to the Amazon jungle in Brazil. "Lucinda, dear. Come here, won't you?" Her grandmother was calling from the front parlor. Lulu ran through the dinning room into

the parlor. The large sunny room, facing Main Street, wasn't a regular parlor. It was a beauty parlor: Sanders Beauty Salon. Grandmother Sanders was squirting a pile of silver-grey curls with hair spray. Looking at Lulu's reflection in the chromeframed mirror she said, "Lucinda, dear, we do not run in the house. It's not ladylike." Lulu sneezed from the irritating hair spray fumes.  "Well, now," the pile of silver curls said, "so this is your granddaughter?" "Yes, indeed," Grandmother said. "Mrs. Cassarra, this is Lucinda Sanders. Lucinda this is Mrs. Cassarra." To Lulu, Mrs. Cassarra said, "How do you do?" To Grandmother, she said, "I can't imagine suddenly having a child to raise.  At our age." "I'm only here until my dad finishes his job in Brazil," Lulu informed her. "He's raising me." "That's rights," Grandmother told Mrs.  Cassarra. "And I love having my grand-

daughter with me. As for my age, well, I have more energy at seventy then I did when I was younger." She looked at Lulu. "Now wouldn't a cut and a permanent do wonders for Lucinda's hair?" Even though three mirrors showed that Lulu's brown shoulder-length hair was just fine. She hated the idea of spending even five minutes in the stuffy, smelly beauty parlor. Now if Grandmother had pony stables, she thought, I wouldn't mind those strong odors one bit. The phone rang. "Would you get that, Lucinda, dear?" Lulu answered the phone by saying, "Sanders Beauty Salon." "Lulu!" the voice on the other end exclaimed. "How's my girl?" "Dad! I was waiting for you to call. I'm going to the kitchen phone to talk." As Lulu ran back through the dining room, she reviewed how she would plead

with her father to let her go with him to the Amazon. Maybe he already realized he'd made a mistake in not taking her. Maybe he was calling to tell her that. But Lulu's father hadn't changed his mind. "Now about your allowance," he said. "I've wired the entire amount to the bank. But, remember it's twenty-five dollars for each week." "Dad, there's only one diner in this town and no toy stores or anything like that. There isn't even a movie theater. What am I going to spend money on?" "Lulu," he responded, "think of living in Wiggins as an adventure. Go exploring and study nature. We always do that when we hit a new place." "Grandma's too strict. She won't let me do anything. I know it," Lulu said. "I survived her," he laughed. "Yeah but you're a boy. She's going to expect me to do all these girl things." Her father's final words on the subject were, "Lulu, you're a strong, independent

girl. You'll be okay. Listen, they've started boarding my plane to Brazil, so let's say good-bye. I know you'll have a great time in Wiggins. I love you." "Bye, Dad. I love you, too," Lulu said, and hung up the phone. As Lulu got into to bed that night she thought about her father. She missed him very much. And she felt lonely for her mother who had died when Lulu was four. Trying not be sad, Lulu thought about her past two years in England with her father. Two afternoons a week, rain or shine, she attended a riding school where she took lessons on a Welsh pony named Ginger. On Ginger, Lulu had learned to walk, trot, canter, gallop and jump. She became such a good rider that she had and her friend Emily were allowed to take the school's ponies on long trails through the English countryside. Lulu fell asleep picturing Ginger's sprightly trot, her laughing eyes, and the proud sound of her neigh.

A few hours later Lulu woke from a deep sleep with a start. Why was she hearing the sound of pony hooves on stone, and a pony's whinny? I must have been dreaming about Ginger, she thought. But as Lulu sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes to wake herself more, she heard her Grandmother shouting, "Catch that horse! Get it before it destroys everything in my garden." "He jumped the fence, Mrs. Sanders," a man's voice shouted. "But we'll catch him. Don't you worry." Lulu ran to the window. Grandmother's yard was brightly lit by the outdoor lights. Lulu looked down at a scene of wild confusion. A man in red pajamas, a woman in a yellow bathrobe, and a curly blond-haired girl in a pink nightgown were all scurrying around the yard trying to catch a shaggy brown pony. To avoid his pursuers the pony was running across grandmother's stone patio. The girl shouted, "Stop, Acorn. Please stop?"

A big clay pot of geraniums crashed to pieces on the patio. As the pony stopped to sample the geraniums, Lulu rushed out of her room and down the back stairs. By the time Lulu reached the backyard the geranium-munching pony had been caught by the girl. Lulu thought the girl looked about ten years old, just like her. The girl was talking softly to the pony as she slipped a halter on him. The girl led the pony to Grandmother and stopped in front of her. "I'm really sorry," she said. "I'll make it up to you." "How can you, Miss Harley?" Grandmother asked angrily. "These are the last blooms of the season. Now they're ruined. There must be a law about keeping a horse in the backyard." "Acorn's not a horse, ma'am," the girl said proudly. "He's a pony." She led Acorn onto the driveway. Lulu wanted so much to talk to the girl and ask her about her pony. But with Grandmother so angry, Lulu knew it

wasn't the right moment to meet the neighbors. Later, for the second time that night, Lulu fell asleep thinking about a pony. This time she thought of the bold and confident little Shetland pony who lived next door. Acorn, she told herself, I'm glad to have you as a neighbor. Tomorrow I'll pay you a visit.