She opened her eyes wide and spoke. “Oh, what a beautiful horse! Can I have him, Mom? Please! Please!” she begged. It was the tenth time she’d tried this since yesterday when Deborah had agreed to let Lisa pose as her daughter. Now Lisa thought she had the whine exactly right. She smiled at her reflection. Deborah didn’t have a thing to worry about. Lisa would be perfect in her role of a horse-crazy girl. She was confident that Carole would do well in the part of the horse-crazy girl’s best friend. After all, that was what she was. She was only sorry that Stevie wouldn’t be there to see it. It was such a Stevian scheme. That made Lisa remember that Stevie had thought she’d be home from the hospital this morning. Lisa decided to call and find out. Chad answered the phone. “No, she’s not home yet,” he said. “The doctor thinks she’s okay, but he said she hit her head really hard. Of course, he doesn’t know what a hard head she has.” Lisa wondered briefly if there was ever a moment when Stevie and her brothers were not at odds with one another.
