Fool's Gold by Zilpha Keatley Snyder Page B

and the riding lesson.
    Of course, Murph knew all about the inheritance. That was the kind of information that any “student of humanity” worth his salt would be right on top of. He’d also heard, it so happened, a bit about the lesson at Lawford’s.
    â€œI stopped by the Hanrahans on Sunday morning and heard all about it,” he said. “It seems the riding-stables lesson was a qualified success.”
    â€œRight,” Rudy said. “It was pretty much of a wipeout, I guess. So I fixed it up for her to get some lessons from Barney. On Applesauce. You know, Angela’s barrel racing horse.”
    â€œAh, yes,” Murph said. “The pretty dapple-gray mare. I’ve seen Angela riding the gray in the barrel race event at the Penn Valley Rodeo. Beautiful animal. And how did the lesson go?”
    So Rudy told him all about it, including Ty’s part. How Ty had his first riding lesson on Monday, and decided that he was the world’s greatest natural-born horseman. And how yesterday, he’d insisted on riding Badger and had wound up sitting in the hedge.
    He really enjoyed telling Murph about that, and about the ride afterward and what a good time he and Barney and Heather had, and how they’d made up all the stuff about the new gymnastic event called hedge vaulting. By the time he’d finished, Murph was laughing and so was Rudy—and feeling a lot better.
    Then Murph stopped laughing and said, “So. What do you suppose Barney sees in this Ty character?”
    Rudy looked up quickly. As usual, Murph had picked up on the really heavy stuff without its even being mentioned. At least not in so many words.
    Rudy shrugged. “Who knows? I guess they have some things in common. I guess they both like to… well, kind of live dangerously. You know, do stuff like…” But he couldn’t get into that. “Hey,” he said instead. “I’m sorry I interrupted your writing. What are you working on these days, anyway? You’ve really been going at it lately. I heard your typewriter this morning and then again tonight.”
    Murph grinned. “Yes, you’re right. I have been a bit more fired up than usual. The other day I got out an old novel I started years ago and when I read it over it sounded—well, better than I remembered. So…”
    â€œOh, yeah? What’s it about?”
    â€œAbout a young woman. A gifted, spirited young woman who had a particular problem that pretty much ruined her life. Actually the central character is loosely based on my mother. Perhaps you’ve heard something about my mother?”
    Rudy nodded, trying not to look embarrassed. What he’d heard was that Murph’s mother had been crazy. Of course, she’d been dead for years and years, but in a town like Pyramid Hill where a lot of families had been around for generations, rumors like that hung around for a long time.
    Murph was waiting for an answer. “Well, yes. I guess what I heard was…”
    â€œThat she was insane? Well, that isn’t true, you know. My mother was quite normal except in one limited but very significant way. It was just that she suffered from a particular phobia. Do you know about phobias, Rudy?”
    Rudy thought he did. “Isn’t it when you’re really afraid of something? Like, they used to call rabies ‘hydrophobia’ because they thought anyone who had it was afraid of water.”
    â€œRight,” Murph said. “But the word implies something more than just being afraid. What it implies is a terrible unreasoned panic in someone who is, otherwise, quite normal. In my mother’s case it was obviously agoraphobia, although it was never formally diagnosed.”
    â€œAgoraphobia?” Rudy asked.
    â€œYes. Literally, fear of the marketplace. But what it means to a victim is a growing fear of any sort of open space. Until they are finally confined to their own home, or