Chapter 16
Maple
When someone like Cade Sonnenberg tells you he plans to win you back no matter how long it takes, you better be prepared to get swept off your feet.
After he declared that he had planned to win my heart again, he showed me more of his intention throughout the fall festival.
I walked back to the green room after our conversation outside the festival grounds to find the kids completely ready in their outfits, waiting in line for their turn at getting their faces painted.
Cade was sitting in the front of the line, very carefully applying face paint to Blessing’s cheek.
He himself was in full costume, looking like an oddly giant fairy in his orange tutu, golden wings, and the slightly tilted acorn hat.
He looked up when I came in, and smiled.
I smiled back at him and waved to the kids.
They all got excited and came out of line to show me their outfits.
Then they promptly went back to the line and continued to patiently wait for their turn.
After Cade finished painting all their faces and the kids scattered away commenting on each other’s face makeup, Cade came up to me.
“Do I make a believable fall fairy?” he asked. “Very believable,” I said. “I had pictured the fairy to be exactly like you.” He bowed a full, proper ballerina bow, holding the sides of the tutu out with both hands.
I was about to tell him that I appreciate him getting the kids ready, when Marcus pulled Cade aside.
The oak tree installation was right next to him.
“This won’t open.” Marcus said, a look of worry etched on his face.
The tree installation was closed and it looked like someone had been trying to pull it open.
“Don’t worry Marcus, we’ll open this.” Cade bent down on his knees, inspecting the tree.
“Buddy, you forgot to unclip the bottom Velcro strap, that’s all.
” He pulled the strap open, and the entire tree sprang open in all its glory.
All at once, branch by branch unfolded, leaves shimmering in the green room light.
The branches were every shade of gold and copper.
The wishes written on the leaves glimmered under the lights.
I forgot just how beautiful it was. Macus and Cade pushed it out onto the stage and placed it in the centre, where the spotlight would be. They both stood back and looked at it.
“We made the perfect tree,” Marcus said.
“We did, buddy,” Cade said. “We really did.”
As for the play itself, it went off with a few hitches, but the tree stayed upright, and it looked so beautiful that I heard a few people from the audience gasp when the curtains were pulled.
And Cade? Cade was the most perfect fairy in every way.
He did wobble a bit coming down from the tree when Marcus was pushing down the pulley.
But he made up for it with his song, in the shrillest, most fairy like voice I had ever heard from him.
“I am the light of the autumn tree, I bring the gold leaves, wild and free, Chestnut Ridge, your fairy is me!”
The audience cheered. Cade, dangling from the pulley, took a small bow in the air.
He did not skimp on the dance either. He frolicked, he did the curtsy. He took turns twirling and dancing with each of the enchanted creatures of the forest, and he did it with zero embarrassment, and the kids fed off his energy and rose to meet it.
Then came the moment when the enchanted beings asked the fairy for their wish. For peace, for love, for harmony among all creatures.
Cade stepped forward.
“Your wish is my promise, I’ll see it kept,
Through every storm weathered and every tear wept,
The ones that I love I will always protect.”
On the last line, he kept his eyes on mine, and smiled.
I was standing in the wings. Those three lines were just part of the play I had written for a bunch of kids, but when I saw Cade speaking them as he looked straight into my eyes, the lines found a new meaning.
When I wrote those lines, I had no idea that I was writing a future testimonial to Cade’s commitment towards me.
And now here they were, being spoken by a man in an orange tutu, and they were the most sincere thing anyone had ever said to me.
After he spoke those lines, the first people to clap were the chief guests of the afternoon — Cade’s parents, who were sitting in the front row. I saw his dad clapping so hard I could hear it over the music. And if I was not mistaken, I saw his mom wipe a tear from her eyes.
The curtains came down.
The kids were a beautiful chaos of hugging and jumping and telling each other how well they’d done. Marcus stood next to his tree with his arms crossed and a look of deep professional satisfaction.
Cade came and stood right next to me.
“You were pretty convincing up there,” I said.
He looked at me. His hand came to my waist, easy and unhurried, and he pulled me gently closer.
“I’m glad you thought that. I meant every word of those lines, Maple” he said.
“And this time, those were not just words.” He looked at me steadily.
“I want to build a life with you and River, intentionally, slowly and steadily. I will get those words conveyed in every action, every day, for as long as it takes. I want to always be present.”
I thought of him volunteering to train the kids, happily offering to be the fall fairy, him breaking the ice between me and River that day after the principal’s office, and of all the evenings he spent with River helping him with the wall.
“You already are,” I said. “You’ve been showing me all along. With the time and patience we both needed.”
He smiled. “There’s plenty more time and patience,” he said. “But if we don’t go to the wall right now, we’re going to miss River’s unveiling.”
He took my hand.
“Don’t you want to change first?” I asked, looking at the tutu.
“I would rather look ridiculous,” he said, “than miss the moment.”
When we reached the wall, the crowd was already there.
Cade’s parents were positioned in the front row facing the wall.
River and Brody stood next to it. River was tapping his foot nervously, looking at the ground.
Cade and I managed to get past the crowd from the corner and we stood diagonally from the two boys.
Matthew, the community project coordinator, stood next to River and Brody at the front.
“It’s a small town,” Matthew said. “And in a small town, words spread. I’m sure many of you heard about what happened.
Teenage boys, skipping school, drinking, defacing public property.
” He paused. “I’m sure some of you had already made up your minds about how their stories would go.
” He looked at River and Brody. “What none of you saw was their process of transformation, of showing up each day for their community project, for staying up late and doing more than the checklist required. You all did not witness the slow progression, the metamorphoses that I was lucky to witness.”
I had my eyes on River’s face the entire time.
He was listening. His foot had stopped tapping.
He was standing very straight, hearing someone in authority say something good about him for the first time in a long time, and I could see what it was doing for him.
I had not seen that particular look on his face enough in his life.
I was so freaking proud of him. For putting in the hard work and passionately doing this, and for asking for Cade’s help when he needed.
Cade was next to me. He was holding my hand but we couldn’t stand too close because of the wingspan of the fairy wings. I knew that Cade had been silently there for River, building up his self confidence with each day, and in that moment, I felt an intense surge of gratitude for him.
“We present to you,” Matthew said, “The Hope of Chestnut Ridge.”
The sheet came down.
The whole crowd went quiet for one second.
Then they erupted.
The mural covered the entire wall. The Chestnut Ridge library.
The bookstore on Birch Street. The falls near Sweetheart Hills.
Ordinary people walking in fall coats and scarves, going about their ordinary Chestnut Ridge lives.
And behind all of it, the fall foliage — layer upon layer of gold and red and orange, the thing this town was famous for, rendered in River’s careful, patient hand.
It was extraordinary.
Matthew announced that the town council had decided the mural would become a permanent installation in the community park, present at every future Fall Festival.
River turned around. He found me immediately in the crowd.
He ran over and threw his arms around me.
“I love you,” he said, right into my shoulder.
“I love you too,” I said. “And I am so proud of you. Do you hear me? So proud.” When he let go, he looked at Cade.
Something passed between them — a look that I didn’t have a word for but recognized immediately as something that mattered.
I looked at Cade too.
He was looking right back at me.
“Thank you, Cade, for everything. I don’t think I thanked you enough in the last few months.” I said.
He leaned in, and kissed me. Gently. The first time since everything had fallen apart. I felt like a teenage girl getting kissed for the first time by her crush. He pulled back. “Thank you,” he said, “for giving me another chance. I’ll make it worth it. I promise.”
And he did. He started by taking me on dates.
Not dinners that would end in us having sex.
But real dates, in which we would have long conversations, without any expectations after that except for a goodnight kiss.
Sometimes he’d appear at the studio between meetings and take me out for lunch, just an hour.
We went on long walks after work and talked about what we wanted in our lives, and about our dreams and aspirations, something we had not done enough of before.