Hide & Seek - Alyssa Brugman [20]
Shelby looked her mother in the eye. 'Do you really think that's how it works though, Mum? Do you think the bad people get in trouble and the good people get rewarded? It's just that I don't think that actually happens in real life. You see all those people on the news who die, or have horrible injuries, and they're not bad. And . . .' She paused. 'Maybe I am simplifying it, but I think we're pretty good in this family, but there are kids at school who are mean and they have things much easier than we do.'
Shelby's mother thought about it for a moment. 'Probably those kids will be slimy slugs in the next life.'
'Do you think that's how it works? Really? Because I'm beginning to wonder.'
Her mother laughed and shook her head. 'I don't know, honey. You really are becoming a teenager, aren't you?'
'What's my age got to do with anything?'
'That's what being a teen is all about – questioning the assumptions and simplicity that governed your youth, discovering complexity and contradictions, and then being depressed by it.'
Shelby curled her lip, wondering if talking to her mother had been the right choice after all. 'I just want to know what's the right thing to do.'
Her mother laughed again. 'Go and ring Brenda Edel and I'll make us a snack. She'll be very pleased to hear from you, no doubt.'
Shelby sighed, remembering when her mother used to know the answers to all her questions. She punched the familiar number into the cordless phone with her thumb and bit her lip while she waited.
'Mrs Edel? It's Shelby. I found Diablo. He's in the Gully on the other side. Do you know where that big water tower is? Just near there.'
Lindsey's mother took so long to say anything that Shelby thought she might have hung up accidentally. 'Hello?'
'Is . . . is he dead?' she whispered.
'No, he's fine!' Shelby assured her. 'At least, I could only see his face. He's upright, though. He's with horse people – in a stable. I don't think they stole him. I'm sure that they were going to ring, but their phone was cut off in the storm. They may not even have the phone connected yet.' Shelby chewed her fingernail. 'Maybe that's what happened, anyway. I left so I could ring you straightaway.'
'Thank you, Shelby.'
Mrs Edel sounded as though she was crying and Shelby was embarrassed so she got off the phone as soon as she could.
Shelby sat down again and her mother placed a plate of crackers with Vegemite on the table for them to share. Shelby squeezed the crackers together to make worms.
'I did the right thing.'
Her mother smiled. 'Yes, you did.'
13 The Barney
After her snack Shelby headed back into the Gully and across the causeway to take Blue home. At the riding school tack shed she stopped to unbuckle Blue's saddle and then she led him around to the wash-bay.
In the distance she could see that the Edels' float was out of the shed with the tailgate down. Several of the agisters were gathered at Diablo's yard. Over their heads Shelby could just make out the tall stallion in his stable. Shelby was keen to find out the latest news, but she had to get Blue settled first.
Erin spotted her and waved. Shelby was pleased to see her jogging towards the wash-bay, obviously bursting with news.
'There was a barney! I can't believe you missed the whole thing!' Erin puffed.
'What happened?' Shelby adjusted the temperature, spraying the water against her palm, and then hosed Blue's muddy legs.
'Well!' Erin's eyes were wide. 'After you rang, we hooked up the float and drove over there. And I was the one who called that police officer on the way – the boy one, not the girl one, because she's mean. I didn't get to ring triple O though. That would have been cool. Instead I rang his private line, which was on his business card. Anyway, we get there and there are all these foreign people.'
'Foreign people?' Shelby repeated, moving the spray to Blue's sweaty neck. She couldn't remember