Diary Entry

There’s no better place for me to think than sitting on Spirit’s back.

We went for a walk—slowly, so I could talk and write in my diary as we went along. Spirit doesn’t talk much, but he sure is a good listener.

Here’s the problem:

Oliver is a pain! He won’t do anything. It is so aggravating. I mean, seriously, he just sits and stares out toward the horizon all day. I’m not saying he ruined the day, but… he sort of did.

All our campers were so excited about going to the barn, except Oliver.

And Stella. She announced that horses were dirty and smelly, but then seeing that everyone else was having fun, she quietly asked if she could ride a small spotted mare named Sadie. After Pru showed her how to mount the horse and walk slowly in a circle, we couldn’t get Stella out of the saddle so Mary Pat could ride! I’ll bet that Stella’s at Maricela’s house right now, writing a letter to her parents asking for a horse of her very own.

Oliver, however, is a problem. I have no idea what I should do with him! For a kid who loves adventure, he sure doesn’t want to have one. He’s still not talking, except to Julian, and even then the only word I ever overhear is boring.

Pru suggested we ignore “Mr. Boring Pants” and let him sit by a tree, which is where he’d planted himself. She said we had other campers who wanted to have fun, so why should we bother with the one who refused to even try? She pointed out that even Stella was having fun.

When I asked Abigail what to do, she thought we should get Julian to come help us. It was obvious that he hadn’t found a job, or wasn’t trying very hard to get one, because we could see him in the distance, climbing rocks. All that stuff about how he didn’t like adventure seemed like a wild tale, since every once in a while we’d hear him shout “Wahoo!” as if he were having the best time ever.

Oliver watched his brother with eagle eyes. That was one of the issues. He couldn’t ride a horse because he couldn’t stop watching Julian doing whatever Julian was doing. As it was, we had to keep the other campers from getting distracted and watching Julian, too.

There was no way I’d have my cousin come to camp now, not even if it was the only way to get Oliver involved. No chance. I told Abigail that, and she was disappointed. She doesn’t have the same issues with trusting Julian that I do.

I also told Pru that ignoring Oliver wasn’t going to work, either. He is my cousin and my responsibility. My goal is still to get him to stop looking at Julian, and start focusing here. He is going to have fun!

I am not losing this challenge! No way.

But what should I do? It was Spirit who had the answer. I was so wrapped up in my thoughts, I hadn’t noticed where we were headed. When I realized which trail we were on, the biggest idea came to me!

I turned Spirit away from the trailhead. We weren’t going to go down that way right then—but we sure could later!

Julian says that Oliver likes only adventure? Okay, we’ll give him an adventure! Extra Awesome Horse Adventure!