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Another Move Page 6
 Clothes went in
first. Piece after piece was pulled from the pile, folded, and laid neatly in
the box. When all the clothes from her closet, dresser, bed, floor, and shelves
were packed, there were five boxes full of clothes. 'Good grief, I had no idea I
had that much stuff,' Katy mused, staring in amazement. Next to be packed were
her several hundred horse books, with horse stuffed animals packed in tightly
around them where the books didn't fit correctly together.
She packed four
boxes full of horse magazines of all different sorts. She had western, English,
dressage, jumping, racing, cross-country, training, and all sorts of others.
Into another two boxes went her photo albums, all her notebooks, pencils, pads,
schoolbooks, and miscellaneous papers. Katy kept out her journal and a
mechanical pencil. She also kept out her favorite horse book to study, and her
camera for unexpected candidates. She packed her decoration horse pillows,
pictures, posters, and extra bed sheets. Her horse models took eight boxes. Katy
threw the hoards of little mixed items into the remaining two boxes, shut them,
and stood up.
She looked around.
It was eight o' clock, and twenty-six boxes were stacked in the corner of her
room, ready to be carried down and loaded into the moving truck. The rest of the
room was bare except for her bed, onto which she put her journal, a book, a
pencil, her camera, and the extra clothes she kept out. Her Black Lab puppy,
Precious, occupied the top half of the bunk bed. How she got up there Katy could
never figure out, because the dog always seemed to sense when she was watching.
Katy fetched the
vacuum, dust cloth, and furniture spray and polished her room from top to
bottom, even going to the trouble of moving furniture. Then she sighed and
plopped down on her bed to read.
♣♣
One week later,
Katy sat in the moving truck cab, watching her now empty house recede into the
distance. When it was out of sight, she leaned back and closed her eyes. It was
very early, and Katy had slept fitfully in anticipation of the coming day.
Katy pulled her
journal out of her duffle bag and settled back to write.
April
15, 2000
Dear
Journal,
Well, here
we are on the road. We started about five minutes ago, but already I'm bored out
of my mind. I'll write in this for a while, and then try to sleep. Normally that
seems to pass the time pretty quickly. I hope I find a good riding stable in -
what was it? Spruce Ridge. I had to ask Gran.
I wish I
had a sister or even a brother to play with and ride horses together. I wonder,
if I had a sister, would she love horses the way I do? Maybe I can convince Gran
and Grampa to adopt another teenager, a girl my age. Right. I have about as much
chance of having a sister, even an adopted one, as I do getting a horse.
I wonder
what happened to my parents. Gran says they lost touch. I wonder why. Grampa
told me to forget about it, so I did, at least for the time being. Still, I
think I have a right to know my own parents. After all, I've never known them.
How come I didn't grow up with them? Why have I never heard from them? Perhaps
I'd have a better life if I lived with them. Maybe I'd even have a horse. Uh-oh.
I just had a terrifying thought. What if I'm adopted, or maybe my parents are
deceased and Gran and Grampa had to take me in? Would the Lord really let that
be a possibility? What awful thoughts! I'd better go on to something else before
I scare myself silly.
There are
a lot of horses along the road grazing. So far we've passed a Thoroughbred farm,
a Morgan farm, and a Welsh Cob farm. If only I could live really close to a
horse farm. Then I could have all the lessons I want, and maybe even work there,
like I kind of did at Wanda's place.
-Katy
Katy set down her
pencil, locked her diary, and tucked it into her handbag. For several moments
she searched for something else to do, but she hadn't packed much, and as a
result the bag was mostly empty. Katy sighed and sat back, really wishing she
could have been at the barn, maybe working Countess over some small jumps.
Instead, here she was on the road in a moving truck, moving away from the only
place she had ever really enjoyed staying.
'This is boring.
When are we going to get there?' Katy asked, uncharacteristically annoyed at the
constant droning of the diesel engine.
Her grandfather
laughed, adding to her misery. 'It's going to be another couple of days before
we're even in Idaho. We certainly won't be getting there today.'
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