Page 28 of What Maple Heard

“In front of the audience the whole time?”

“From the moment the curtain opens.”

“Got it.” He nodded. “What else?”

“You hold the wand up during the descent. Like this.” I demonstrated.

He demonstrated back. Wand up, completely straight-faced, in the tutu.

“And there’s a song,” I said.

“Right.”

“Three lines. You sing them while you’re being lowered. In a squeaky voice.”

“Squeaky,” he repeated.

“Aurelia Maplewood, Keeper of the Autumn Leaves, has a squeaky voice.”

He accepted this information with a nod. “What are the lines?”

I handed him the card.

He read it. Something moved across his face very fast and then disappeared.

“Out loud,” I said. “Let’s hear it.”

He cleared his throat. He looked at the card. In a voice that can only be described as a man doing his sincere best at squeaky, he sang:

“I am the light of the autumn tree, I bring the gold leaves, wild and free, Chestnut Ridge, your fairy is me!”

Every single child in the room screamed with laughter. Devon was on the floor. Marcus had tears going down his face.

Cade waited for the noise to die down.

“Again?” he said to me.

“Again,” I said.

He did it again. Same commitment. Same squeaky voice. The kids lost their minds a second time and he waited it out with a patience that was irritating the hell out of me now.

I stood across the studio in my professional capacity and thought about the last time I had seen Cade Sonnenberg. Not here. Not in the tutu. At his fall party. In that world, surrounded by those people. The Cade who had cared more than his life about his parents’ opinions.

He knew his parents would be the guest of honor.

He knew they would be sitting in the front row next week watching their son being lowered from a mechanical oak tree in an orange tutu singing about autumn leaves in a squeaky voice in front of the entire town.

Why, I thought. Why is he doing this.

What did he want so badly that he was willing to stand here glittered from head to toe singing three ridiculous lines in a voice that would live in these children’s memories forever?

What was worth this?

Nancy was suddenly in the doorway, out of breath.

“Maple.” Her voice was different. “River’s school is on the landline. The principal wants to see you right away.”

Everything else left my head immediately. The first thought that came to my mind was something happened to River.