As they watched trio after trio, the adults from Stony Point spent as much time watching Emily as they did the dancers. Her happiness was contagious. Once the winner of the Sword Dance competition was announced, the group rose to leave. They didn’t want to miss the finals of the sheepdog trials.
Emily walked between her parents, still gushing about Kyla Bell.
Watching ahead of them to make sure they weren’t steered off course by the crowds, Ian noticed Emily’s new idol just ahead of them. “Em, Kyla’s right up there.” He pointed her out. “Why don’t you go talk to her?”
Emily followed the mayor’s signal and hope sprang into her eyes. Once again Peggy dug the Highland Games brochure out of her bag. “Here, Em. Maybe she’ll autograph it for you.” She handed it to her with a pen. The little family quickened their pace to catch up with the lithe dancer.
When they got close, Wally called for the girl’s attention. “Excuse me, Miss Bell.”
Kyla was still wearing her sky-blue kilt, but had changed into a pair of canvas shoes. Her black dance shoes hung around her neck, the shoelaces tied together. Her light brown hair was still pinned up in the style she had worn for the competition. Kyla’s head turned as she looked for who had addressed her. Wally nudged his daughter’s arm and whispered, “Go ahead, Em!”
The floodgates opened. “I loved your dancing! I’ve never seen anyone dance like that. How did you learn all those steps and leaps? How many years have you been dancing?” Emily took a deep breath as if to fuel many more words but suddenly stopped, as if overwhelmed.
The object of the gushing broke into a wide smile. “Oh, thank you! What’s your name?”
“Emily.”
Kyla held out her hand. Instead of shaking it, Emily placed the brochure and pen in it. “Would you give me your autograph?”
“Oh, I’d love to,” Kyla replied, opening the pen. “I’ve been dancing since I was five, and I learned the Seann Truibhas by practicing it over and over and over until I was dancing it in my sleep. I still need lots more years of work to perfect it, but I worked hard enough to make Premier level before I turned ten.”
“I started when I was five too!” Emily exclaimed.
Kyla wrote on the brochure: “To Emily, my sister in dance. Kyla Bell.” She handed the pen and brochure back to her. “I hope I’ll get to watch you dance here soon, Emily. I have to run now; my uncle and his dogs are in the sheepdog finals. I don’t want to miss their run.”
“We’re going there too!” Emily told her.
Kyla smiled at the group gathered around. “I’d love to sit with Emily during the finals. May I join you?”
Emily and Kyla looked toward Peggy and Wally, waiting for their response.
“We’d be glad to have you with us, Kyla,” said Peggy. With a wink toward Annie she added, “Maybe you can help us find a good, safe place to watch from.”
“Oh! I know a couple of places where the view is just right,” said Kyla.
As the group from Stony Point followed Kyla through the press of people, Emily’s face was brighter than the summer day.
11
As the group approached the large field, which was cordoned off with portable orange fencing for the sheepdog trials, Kyla steered them to a knoll located behind the mid-field point. “This is where I like to watch. From here, you can see all the obstacles.” She pointed to an opening in the barrier to their left, a pen of sheep filling its gap. “They’ll start over there where they release the sheep, and then the dogs have to drive the sheep through each of the gates and posts. They get a point for each sheep that goes through each obstacle.”
Kyla moved her hand over toward the right. “When all the sheep are herded into the pen over there, and the gate is closed by the dog’s master, the time will be marked. If it’s more than twelve minutes, the team is disqualified. That’s called ‘timing out.’”
“Do many teams time out?” asked Ian. The competition field was on the other side of the fairgrounds from the falconers’ trailer, but his eyes still moved from field to sky sporadically.
“It happens more often in the single-dog category,” answered Kyla. “Sheepherding is a lot more tricky with just one dog. It doesn’t take much to scatter sheep, but that’s what makes it fun to watch. You never know what they might do!”
Peggy straightened her quilt out on the grass. “What category is your uncle in?”
Kyla smiled. “He’s in the single-dog group. He used to do both single- and two-dog, but he says he likes the challenge of single-dog best. His dog is the smartest border collie ever.” She looked over at her new friend. “Wait until you see him, Emily.”