Diary Entry

Dear Diary,

From my first bite of green-bean casserole, I knew what was wrong with Catalina. It wasn’t that she also couldn’t come up with something newspaper-worthy for the exhibition.

Lydia had said that Catalina seemed sad. I understood that and recognized the symptoms. That same sadness had been inside me, too, but I had friends to get me through the days and make things fun and exciting. Catalina didn’t have friends to help her. She was homesick and all alone.

I ran all the way to her circus tent. Not knowing where she’d be, I called her name from the center of the caravan.

No answer.

Then I heard a bang and crash from the practice tent, and I was certain that I knew who made that noise. I hurried there.

Peeking inside, I saw Catalina standing by herself in the center of the ring. Milton was at the far edge, eating oats from a bucket.

Catalina caught my eye as I entered and stopped humming. She told me she was quitting.

I didn’t understand why she’d do that.

She told me it was because Milton was being stubborn and she was out of ideas. Then she added that way back, when we’d first met and she told me she’d seen my show, that it wasn’t as bad as she made it out to be.

Inside, I knew that meant she thought I was good, but I didn’t let it go to my head.

I sounded like Lucky when I told her it wasn’t a competition, but neither of us believed that. We were so similar, Catalina and me.

We both grabbed on to a “you gotta be the best” idea and neither of us had let go.

I asked her to come with me. She said no.

I asked again. She protested.

I begged.

It went back and forth like that for a long time. We were pretty evenly matched in our stubbornness. But then, Lucky and Abigail and Solana and Spirit and Chica Linda and Boomerang all showed up.

It had taken Lucky and Abigail a few minutes to understand why I’d run off. But they got it, just like I thought they would. And when they realized what was up, they followed me. Just like I hoped they would.

Catalina didn’t want to come along with us, and at first Milton refused, too.

Being the leader of a herd back home, Spirit knew what to do. He herded her horse. It was amazing to watch the way Spirit circled Milton a few times at a gallop, leading him gradually toward the others. Milton seemed uninterested at first, but Spirit didn’t give up. With his head down, he continued to move around Milton.

Chica Linda and Boomerang raced along with Spirit and began to whinny in welcome. Eventually Milton decided to join the fun. They all made a few circles together around the ring before settling down to head out.

My friends and the horses then helped me rustle up Catalina. It was a lot easier now that Milton was on our team.

We got on horseback and invited her to come along. When she refused, Milton helped us by nudging Catalina with his nose. When she still refused, all the horses joined the nudging. Catalina was surrounded by horse noses! Finally, she started to laugh. And then we all laughed, too.

After all that, she decided to come along to our camp and the “Miradero” party there.

At the Miradero party, we gave our reluctant friend some green-bean casserole, made another horse stall like the one she had for Milton back home, and then I gave a presentation.

I wasn’t nervous since I was with my PALs. I stood up on that picnic table. Everyone gathered around, and I sang that song that Lydia had said Catalina liked. The one from Copper Springs. The one they always sang together.

A few bars into it, Catalina jumped onto the table and started singing, too.

Then Lydia, who’d been passing by, joined in.

I guess when I said I’d never sing with Lydia, I was wrong. We sang the whole song twice, ending with a loud and prolonged rendition of “And the herd calls through the trees!”

It was an amazing morning. Catalina smiled bigger and warmer than I’d ever seen.