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Julie’s, we couldn’t get cell phone signals. When he picked
up, I sighed with relief and explained the problem.
    “Dad, Addie fell off Dotty. Yes, she’s
sitting up, but she’s dizzy and her ankle hurts too much to stand
up. Okay, I’ll tell her. Thanks, see you.” I hung up and turned to
Addie.
    “Adds, he’s on his way over here. He just got
done with a call and is only a couple of miles away. He says you
should sit still till he gets here.”
    “My ankle hurts and I have weeds in my
hair.”
    “I know, but sit still anyway. You are a
pitiful mess and we’ll get you cleaned up after Dad checks your
ankle. Look, I’m going to go unsaddle Dotty, so hang tight.”
    I went to Dotty, who ducked away from me and
trotted to the other side of the corral. She was spooked by all the
strange happenings, and wouldn’t let me catch her. A typical horse
trick. I followed her around for five minutes before I finally got
hold of her dragging reins. Leading her into the barn, I removed
her saddle and bridle and let her back out into her grassy little
paddock.
    As I walked back over to Addie, Dad drove up
in a cloud of dust. He jumped out of his truck and walked over to
where she sat. Crouching beside her, he looked in her eyes, checked
her ankle and sat back on his feet.
    “Well, aside from some scratches and a banged
up ankle, I don’t think you are seriously injured. But let’s call
your mom and see if she wants to take you to your own doctor, to be
sure.”
    “My ankle’s not broken?” said Addie, sitting
up straighter.
    “Don’t believe so. I think it’s just a
sprain. You should probably get it checked out, though.”
    Dad got on his phone to call Sandy Davis. He
explained the whole thing to her and said, “No, it wasn’t the
horse’s fault. Or Addie’s. It wasn’t anybody’s fault, Sandy, those
things happen when you ride horses. Everybody I know that rides has
a scar or a story to tell. Okay, I’ll take her home and you can
meet us and drive her to the doctor. ‘Bye.”
    He looked at us. “You heard? Sandy wants to
get her checked out at her own doctor and I think that’s the right
thing to do. Piper, you open the door on the truck and Addie, you
hold on to me. I’ll carry you over.”
    So with some heaving and groaning, Addie got
situated in the cab of the truck. She scootched over so I could sit
beside her, and we took off for town. I felt badly about how it had
all happened and needed to say something.
    “Hey, Addie, I’m sorry. I think I bullied you
into riding Dotty when you didn’t want to.”
    “It’s okay, Pipe. I had fun for about...five
minutes? Dotty wasn’t trying to buck me off. I just thought I
should jump off before we got to the bushes.”
    “Let me know what your doc says, okay?”
    “Yeah, I will,” said Addie.
    Addie’s mom met us at her house and with
another bout of heaving and groaning, Addie got deposited into
Sandy’s little red Honda and they drove off to the clinic.
    Dad looked at me. “Piper, I’m proud of you
for apologizing to Addie. You do sometimes push her around, but it
doesn’t seem like she is mad at you.”
    “I don’t mean to do that,” I said, not
wanting his criticism. “We work things out.”
    Dad let it go and drove me home. I told him
about Angel’s phone call to me.
    “It worries me that she has your number, and
that she’s bugging you now. She’s trouble,” Dad said. “I don’t want
you to have anything more to do with those people.”
    “But, Dad, what about Nickel? We want
Nickel.”
    “There are lots of horses in the world. He’s
not the only horse that anyone ever wanted to give away.”
    “No! Dad! We love that horse! This is our
perfect chance to get a nice, calm horse for Addie to ride. She is
so comfortable on him and...and she’ll need that even more now that
she fell off Dotty! Nickel is perfect for her. And Chickie is all
right. He wants Nickel to go to a good home. He’s not a bad guy.
”
    “Look, Piper, we need