32. Ember
EMBER
Closing my eyes, I try to open my senses so I can remember everything about this moment. The low murmur of the people. The crisp air. The smells coming from the different vendors in the square. There’s also the skittering of leaves being blown over the roads.
It’s peace. It’s comfort. Harvest Falls has become more like home than “home” ever was.
“Miss O’Malley?”
The mayor’s voice breaks my moment. My eyes fly open to see her standing in front of me. I look for Bea, but she’s nowhere to be found. Abandoned, I smile at the mayor, but it hurts.
“Is that what we’re reduced to?” I ask her. “I thought I was Ember.”
The mayor smiles. “Ember.” Her face is flush, like she’s excited, but her voice is as calm and as sweet as can be. “Take a walk with me.”
I stand from the picnic table in the middle of the square, and she puts her arm through mine.
We move toward the outskirts at a slow pace.
“You know, as soon as you walked into that first meeting, I knew you were going to make a difference in our town. The stain on your shirt, breathless, hair a mess.”
My cheeks burn. It certainly wasn’t the first impression I had been banking on, but it was very true to life.
“I just didn’t know in which way. Whether you were an outsider trying to change things, or whether you would become one of us. By the end of the meeting, I knew. Even if Devon was too mad to see it, I knew you’d fit right in.”
She squeezes my upper arm, and it feels comfortable walking with her here.
Everyone greets her with great deference.
It’s obvious how much they love her and how she’s touched so many people’s lives.
Devon is lucky. I think he could tell her he wanted to become an astronaut, and she’d probably grab a book from the library and figure out how she could help. That’s just the type of person she is.
“If you’re trying to get me to stay…”
“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be? Not only did you come here and change things for the better, but you changed my son for the better, too. If I had the power, I’d give you house arrest just so you couldn’t go anywhere.”
I laugh, but when I peer over at her, she’s not, which only makes me laugh harder. She’s serious. Serious as a heart attack, she’d probably say.
“I’m sure Devon’s told you some of our history.
About how his father left us when he was little.
” She stops us, and we stand underneath a huge maple with the most brilliant yellow leaves and turns me toward her.
“I broke for a little while. It wasn’t my finest moment.
It kills me to see Devon like this because it’s eerily similar.
I would just sit there glassy-eyed, staring at nothing.
I’d be in my living room, but it was like I couldn’t see anything that was around us.
I couldn’t even see Devon. Everything was just blank inside as if I’d never feel again.
It was the scariest moment of my entire life. ”
I swallow hard. “That sounds…terrible.”
“Oh, Honey, it was. The worst part is that I think it impacted Devon more than I’d care to admit. Like I set some sort of example of what you should do when you get terrible news, or when you’re hurting really badly. If I knew then what I know now, I would’ve done differently.
“Earlier, I tried to tell him that what I did was the greatest mistake of my life. I thought that bad news was the end of me, but look at me now.” She twirls in her off-pink pencil skirt and suit jacket. “Mayor of Harvest Falls, at your service.”
I give her a genuine smile. “I know he didn’t mean those things,” I tell her. “I know he’s hurting, but I’ve had a lot of people think they know what’s good for me, and they don’t. Here, I liked that I was independent, that I could make my own decisions, but Devon stole that from me.”
She frowns. I can tell she wasn’t expecting me to make a valid point back. “I feel badly that he made you feel that way. He didn’t mean to, mind you. It’s something you all should have a sit and talk about.”
I shrug. Not that I don’t want to talk to Devon, but the feeling of being abandoned is overwhelming. Of having my voice taken away. Of having decisions made for me that I didn’t agree to in the first place. It’s like he hit every button that boils my blood.
At the same time, I get it. He’s hurting, and hurt people hurt people. Even if they don’t want to.
It’s just hard to reconcile the man who would wrap me up in his arms to the one who said those things.
“I had an ulterior motive to get you out here though.”
“You did?”
She nods, her lips trying to tease upward into a smile. She’s bursting with that excitement again. “I wanted you to see just how much Harvest Falls really loves you. How much the people here have taken to you.”
I stare at her blankly. I have no idea what she’s even talking about.
She turns me toward the mayor’s office, and it takes a moment for me to comprehend what I’m seeing. There are people lined up, walking in a circle. I spot my neighbor to the right, and Rose. Even the gentleman who was at my door earlier.
“What?”
Then I spy the posters in their hands and some on long sticks. Bold lettering scrawled across like warning signs.
LET HER HAVE THE HAUNTED HOUSE.
SAVE SLEEPY HOLLOW MANOR.
NICHOLS, HELP HF, DON’T RUIN HF!
“That’s Harvest Falls people for you, Ember. Mr. Cordoroy arranged it this morning. He said he had a nice chat with you, and he wanted to do something to help. He used to be mayor, you know? He retired.”
“I didn’t know that,” I answer, but that’s not really the thought bouncing around in my brain. I can’t believe these people did this for me. Taking time out of their day. They’re protesting.
While I watch, a family that came in yesterday joins the line and starts walking, and I’m too shocked to cry, even though the emotion is welling up inside me like a boiling pot threatening to spill.
“Will it work?”
“Nichols, just like the rest of us, is voted in. I’d say he’ll work something out with you if he values his position. In fact, I think I’ll march in there right now to demand an emergency board meeting. That sounds like fun.”
She starts to walk away. As always, she’s a woman on a mission, and her mission is always about bettering this beautiful town. The residents here are more than lucky to have a woman like her in their corner, and I’m counting myself lucky, too.
“Oh.” She stops in her tracks and turns toward me again.
“I love my son, but I’m going to say this one thing.
Don’t let a man chase you out of town. I know you’re hurt, and you have every reason to be.
I want you to end up with Devon, I truly do.
You two are soul mates. I can tell. But if you can’t find it in your heart to forgive him, don’t let him take all of this away from you. I didn’t let mine.”
With a nod, she leaves again, and I have to lean against the tree to steady myself.
I was not expecting that. In fact, those were the last words I was expecting out of her mouth, but they might have rung truer to me than anything else.
I love Devon. That’s true. Regardless, what she said matters as well.
Harvest Falls is my town, too.
I place one foot in front of the other. Mayor Lachey is walking through the crowd now, applauding them, but she soon emerges on the other side where I can’t see her anymore. I walk quickly across the street until a voice calls out for me. “Ember.”
Turning, I spy Bea running toward me. She has a huge grin on her face, pointing at the crowd circling across the sidewalk. “You see?”
“I see,” I tell her as she loops her arm through mine, and we walk up to the crowd. Instead of me applauding them, they give me a round of applause as I approach. Bea starts a chant, “Em-ber, Em-ber, Em-ber.”
Everyone else joins in, and I’m so flustered I don’t know what to do with myself.
Mr. Cordoroy saunters toward me. “Every once in a while, I get the itch again to make a difference. It just didn’t sit right with me what that Nichols boy was doing.
It wasn’t hard to find people who were willing to come down here and do this, which means I was right.
You are as special as I thought you were. ”
I hug him. I hug his frail shoulders, squeezing him. I’m at a loss for words but I can do this.
He laughs in my ear. “You’re welcome.”
The chant dies down, which is fine by me. It gives me a chance to go up to everyone and thank them. The two children who had arrived with their parents last night beam up at me. “We had such a good time last night, and we really want other people to experience it too.”
“Well, I’m so glad,” I tell them. “You two are my superheroes.” Their eyes get big, almost cartoon-like. “Thank you for helping me.”
Their father smiles down at them. It’s not hard to tell they’re the apple of his eye. “We hope this helps. We’re glad you thought of the children.”
“Thank you.”
One-by-one, I go through the people walking there for me and thank them.
Hope starts to bud in my chest again like a blossoming flower.
I hate this rollercoaster though. I hate the highs and the lows.
I find myself saying to the last person, “I just want to be able to do what I think is best for the manor without all the bureaucracy. I love the place. I would never denigrate it.”
A loud, female clearing of their throat ensues, and we all peer up to find Mrs. Lachey walking with Nichols down the sidewalk.
My stomach churns. His lips are a thin line, and he takes slow, measured steps like he really doesn’t want to be doing this, but since Devon’s mom looks truly pleased, I’m pretty sure this will go in my favor.
Instead of taking over the conversation, Mrs. Lachey jabs him with her elbow, and he sighs. After a few moments, he speaks up, “I have heard your concerns. Due to this, I will be holding—.”
“The mayor will be holding,” Mrs. Lachey clarifies.
His face sours. “The mayor will be holding an emergency board meeting in which all of your thoughts and concerns can be heard regarding my decision to shut down the Children’s Haunted House in Sleepy Hollow Manor.
But you will also have to hear my reasoning.
This will be a polite and respectful conversation. ”
The crowd cheers again, and leaving Nichols behind, Mayor Lachey joins us as we hug and high-five.
The kids whoop it up, giving little dances, and I am in absolute awe.
Where else could we have made such a difference in such a short amount of time?
“Thank you all,” I say. “I’m genuinely honored to have such amazing people by my side. ”
Mr. Cordoroy steps up. “We’re going to need all of you to show up at the meeting tonight. What time Mayor Lachey?”
“Six p.m.”
“Six p.m. sharp,” he enforces. “We can’t let one person dictate what happens in Harvest Falls, and that means, we have to show up en masse to ensure our voices are heard.”
I check my watch. It’s four o’clock now. Butterflies enter my stomach, buzzing their wings everywhere. Bea pulls me in for a side hug. “If he overturns this, you could open up tonight.”
“Would that even be enough notice?”
Bea laughs. “Are you kidding me? Everyone is going to be hearing about this.” She inclines her head toward the square. A group of people have gathered at the edges, watching to see what’s going on. “I give it fifteen minutes,” she says.
Across the street, standing under the same maple I was standing only a few minutes ago, are Trav and Devon. Devon stands there on crutches, his leg in a brace.
I wonder if he should be up on his feet so quickly, but when our gazes meet, I turn away. The slightest bit of hope has curled into my chest, but I can’t focus on that right now. I have to focus on what’s going to happen tonight.