Little Joe by Sandra Neil Wallace Read Free Book Online

the reason Eli got torn up. He dragged Eli all the way down the hill to the apple orchard and Eli never let go.”
    Tess put the balls of pink yarn on the kitchen counter. “I got my foot caught in a stirrup once. Yanked it pretty bad at my biggest show. I didn’t do well, but I’m glad me and Chili Pepper ended up okay.”
    That’s how Eli felt. Eli was glad Little Joe turned out to be okay. He didn’t care about the stitches.
    “Good thing you brought real milk,” Hannah said, brushing her unicorn’s mane. “Pa spits out store-bought milk every time. It makes Ma so mad. First, he makes a funny face right before he does it, then he marches over to the sink and just spits it out.”
    “We can hear you, Hannah,” Ma reminded her, scooping out flour from the pantry. “Tess, has your mother’s perm relaxed by now?” Ma asked.
    “It’s perfect, Mrs. Stegner.” Tess smiled. “More like the ripples from a French braid than a poodle’s fur.”
    Hannah looked up at Tess. “Can you show me how to mane-braid?” she asked. “I already know how to braid regular. Ma taught me.”
    Tess leaned over, took Hannah’s fingers and reached for the unicorn’s purple mane. “Let’s do rosebud braids,” she said. “First you divide a handful of hair into three strands, like this.”
    Eli pretended not to listen. He pulled up a chair next to Pa, taking a section of
Lancaster Farming
.
    “After you’re finished braiding, you take the yarn—” Tess glanced over at the kitchen counter, where she’d left the bright pink balls of yarn.
    Eli had them in his hands before Tess could move.
    “Thanks.” Tess smiled. “You take a piece of yarn and thread it into the needle. That’s good, Hannah. And sew it through the braid, up to the crest. Who did the stitches?”
    Was Tess talking to him?
    “The Krakowski girl,” Ma said, mixing the dough. “She’s working in the emergency room now.”
    “I thought so. Hannah, look at this technique.” Tess pointed to Eli’s hand. “It’s hunter style. She shows jumpers. She did a really nice job of it.”
    “If Little Joe goes lame, you could win a blue ribbonwith your stitches, Eli.” Hannah tilted her chair back and laughed.
    “He ain’t lame.” Eli put his sore hand in his pocket. “He’ll take the blue ribbon.”
    Pa sat up straighter, folded his section of the newspaper and half smiled at Eli. “Let’s go outside and finish mending that fence your bull calf tore through,” he said.
    “Chet, shouldn’t he wait until the stitches heal?”
    “I’m fine, Ma.”
    Ma came over and spread a bandage across Eli’s palm, careful not to make it too tight.
    “Come on, Tater,” Eli called. He was out the door before he remembered he didn’t say goodbye to Tess.
    “Cookies will be ready in half an hour!” Ma hollered from the porch. “Make sure you put on gloves, Eli. It’s still winter. Even if it is the tail end of March.” Ma threw on the porch lights and lingered at the door. “Careful not to brush against my lilac shoots.”
    But Eli could tell that the deer had already nibbled the first buds clean off the branches.
    It had been dark for a while and cloudy. Tater jumped through the murky air into the truck bed and waited for Eli to catch up. Eli slid against the back of the cab and tapped at the window to let Pa know they were ready. He hung on to Tater as the Silverado zigzagged down thepasture and watched Ma’s silhouette in the doorway’s amber glow get smaller.
    Eli and Pa worked together in silence, fixing the fence he’d rammed into with Little Joe. Burrowing his boots into the muddy trail the pickup’s tires had made, Eli uncoiled the spool of barbed wire. Pa wrapped it around the fence post, drawing it snug before cutting it with pliers.
    The only noise Eli could hear was the motor of the Silverado running. And sometimes Tater. He barked whenever a white-tailed deer darted across the pasture.
    The last of the barbed wire found a weak spot in