Chapter 13

Monday morning couldn’t come soon enough. After I fed Tutu and ate my breakfast, I hopped on my bike and rode toward the bridge as fast as I could. I was excited to see what was waiting for me at the farm stand, but I really wanted to know why Fin might have lied to me—even though I had lied to him about a lot more things.

The Fly Back Farm sign was back on top of the stand, which was a relief, and the crates were overflowing with vegetables. Just as before, a paper bag with the letter C was sitting on the table, this time next to the strawberries. The bag felt heavy, so I was anxious to see what it could be. I opened it and peered in.

“Yuck.”

A bunch of crooked, muddy carrots with dirty green leaves was stuffed inside. I couldn’t figure out how this could be better than honey . . . until I saw a note, again written in tiny letters, buried at the bottom.

Meet me at the farm by the barn, and bring Beryl’s favorite snack.

Across the street, the door to the general store flew open. Birdie stepped out into the sun holding her hand over her eyes. “Morning, Chloe! How’s your sister doing?”

I clutched the paper bag against my side as she strolled toward me. “She’s much better today. Thank you for dinner on Friday.”

Birdie smiled. “We’ll have to do it again when your parents get back.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing and looked down at the bag.

“Picking up some of those divine strawberries?” she asked.

I nodded, which felt less like a lie than it would answering out loud.

“You’re awfully quiet—everything all right?”

“I’m fine, just thinking about a few things I have to get done.”

She reached into a pocket hidden along the seam of her dress and placed a delicate silver chain on the counter by the lettuce.

“Well, I won’t keep you then. I heard this is your bracelet. I keep forgetting to give it to you.”

I stared at it—tiny glass beads woven through a thin chain. “It’s pretty, but it’s not mine.”

“How peculiar,” said Birdie. “That boy living with Harriet Hooper brought it to the store a week or so ago, thinking it was yours. He didn’t know your name, so he asked if I could give it to you.”

It hadn’t occurred to me that Birdie, not Stella, had told Fin my name. So both of them had been telling the truth. But why would Fin think the bracelet was mine before we’d even met?

“You know, Harriet should put a Lost and Found basket on this farm stand,” she said. “Heaven knows, a lot of people around here could use one of those.”

It sounded like she was talking about more than a misplaced bracelet.

Across the street a customer entered the store.

Birdie sighed. “I’d better get going.”

“Thanks again for dinner,” I said as she turned to leave. “It was nice to meet Wyatt’s father.”

She stopped and looked back. “When did you meet Wyatt’s father?”

Now I was confused. “At your house. Your grandson, Dave? Wyatt’s dad?”

“Oh, Dave,” she said softly. “That’s right, you met Dave. My mind gets so jumbled lately.”

Birdie held onto the edges of her dress with both hands as she continued back across the street.

“No one’s at the cash register,” she called over her shoulder as she waved. “Toodaloo!”

I pedaled slowly down the dirt road, pinching the bag of dirty carrots between my fingers. I realized I had no idea why Stella lived with her grandmother. In fact, she hadn’t mentioned her parents once. I wondered if something tragic had happened to them, and that was why she’d assumed the same of Fin. It would explain why Birdie felt Stella needed a new friend.

After turning left at the fork, in the direction of the farm, I kept a close eye on the dense trees along the road. Fin was so unpredictable, I half expected him to jump out of the woods at any moment. But he didn’t.

Two stone posts marked the entrance to the farm. A rusty chain hung close to the ground between the posts. I leaned my bike against a knotted tree and stepped over the chain.

The thick bushes suddenly opened into a clearing. In the distance, up a steep slope, stood a small white farmhouse, and to the left of that was a gray barn, where I was supposed to meet Fin. But how would he know that I was here?

Flowers grew everywhere, rows and rows of them. I had never seen so many in one place. I watched as butterflies sifted through the blossoms.

“May I help you?”

A pretty woman with curly, sand-colored hair stood up between two of the garden rows. I wondered if I was in the wrong place.

“Does Fin live here?”

She brushed off her hands and walked toward me. “I’m Harriet Hooper,” she said. “How do you know Fin?”

This woman was not how I’d pictured Harriet Hooper. For one thing, she didn’t look that much older than Viva.

“We met a couple weeks ago when I was walking my dog. She’s not my dog really, but I’m taking care of her for the summer. Tutu.”

“Tutu?”

“That’s the dog’s name.”

Then I bit my lip as I caught my mistake. I shouldn’t have said anything about Tutu if I wanted to keep Agnes far away on the other side.

Harriet laughed. “So what’s your name?”

I clutched the bag of carrots with both hands. “Chloe.”

“Such a beautiful name.”

I tried to smile, but now I felt a little nervous.

“What’ve you got there, Chloe?”

This Harriet person asked a lot of questions.

“Um. It’s something that—”

“Harriet!” Fin called from the front porch up the hill. “Phone for you.”

He leaned against the railing, his hands cupped around his mouth. The morning sun made his red hair glow, like it was on fire.

“Well, there he is! Excuse me, Chloe. It was nice meeting you.”

She hurried toward the house, passing Fin on his way down. They paused for a second and said something to each other that I couldn’t hear. He jogged the rest of the way and stopped a few feet in front of me.

“How was your trip?” I asked.

“Fine. I see you found the carrots.”

I thrust the bag toward him, forcing him to move closer and take it. “They’re dirty,” I said with a grin.

“Because they just came out of the ground.” He brushed my hand as he took the bag. “That’s the way horses like them, fresh.”

Up on the porch, the screen door slammed.

“Who was on the phone?” Harriet called down to Fin. “They hung up.”

The corners of his mouth curled. “Must have been a sales call.”

I wondered if the phone had rung at all.

“Hey Chloe,” Harriet said more loudly, “do you want to stay for lunch?”

“Sure, thanks,” I called back before Fin could say anything. He rolled his eyes.

“What’s the matter?” I asked. “You don’t want me to stay for lunch?”

He stared at me in that way of his, like he could read my mind, making it hard to look him in the eye. “You can stay if you want.”

I followed him down a path toward the barn. We passed four large wooden boxes with drawers covered in bees, and I jumped to the side.

“They won’t bother you. They’re busy making honey. You can practically touch the hives and they won’t do anything.”

As soon as Fin slid the barn door open, Beryl stepped out into the light and trotted toward a patch of tall grass to graze. In the distance, chickens were pecking at the ground near a couple of geese.

“Nothing is tied up around here? Every animal is loose.”

“This is their home,” said Fin. “It’s where they want to be. But if they decide to leave, they can use their wings and fly away.”

“Except for the horse.”

He glanced toward the field. “She used to fly. She won races all over the world. That’s how she got her name.”

“Beryl?”

“Named after Beryl Markham, the first woman to fly solo from Europe across the Atlantic. She also trained racehorses.”

“What happened to her?”

“Which one?”

“Both, I guess.”

“The original Beryl broke her leg in old age and died. This Beryl injured her leg too, during a race. But she was saved from a dire ending by Harriet, who helped her heal. Harriet claims Beryl has done the same for her.”

He opened the paper bag and whistled toward the horse. Her ears perked up as she ambled over.

Fin handed me a carrot. “Hold your hand flat like this.”

Her thick lips felt like dough. I didn’t feel her teeth at all as she took the whole carrot with one bite. Then she pressed her soft nose under my arm searching for more. I took another carrot from the bag and held out my hand again.

“Do you want to go for a ride?” Fin asked.

“Right now? But she doesn’t have a saddle.”

I had never been on a horse, but I couldn’t decide if I should admit that to Fin. Maybe Chloe would know exactly what to do.

“You can ride her bareback. Since she can’t run anymore, she’s totally mellow.”

He bent down a little, wove his fingers together, and cupped his hands. Agnes never would have stepped onto his palms, but Chloe did.

“Hold onto her mane.”

At first I felt unsteady sitting on such a large animal. Her back was smooth and wide, but her bony spine felt delicate running between my legs. Beryl followed Fin as he wandered slowly around the property. The ride was bumpier than I thought it would be, and I wished I’d worn jeans because my legs were starting to itch. But after a few minutes I relaxed into her warm body. Then I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around her strong neck.

The screen door slammed again, startling me awake as if I’d been dreaming.

“Sandwiches are ready!” Harriet called from the porch.

I let Fin answer this time.

“Be right there,” he replied, then held out his hands to help me down.

***

Every corner of their house held something wonderful, like a clay vase full of daisies and a beautiful glass sculpture and a basket filled with peaches.

The smell of toast floated from the kitchen as Harriet appeared holding two plates.

“Hope you like basil, Chloe. I planted way too much of it this year.”

Fin whispered, “We eat basil at every meal.”

“I heard that,” said Harriet.

The large room was filled with windows overlooking the gardens and the barn. I could see that Beryl and the chickens had roamed part way up the hill as they nibbled at the ground.

Both Fin and Harriet took a bite of their sandwiches at the same time. Before I took a bite of mine, I had to ask, “So are you two cousins or something like that?”

Harriet chewed slowly as she glanced sideways at Fin.

He wiped his mouth with his napkin before answering. “Something like that.”

Harriet coughed and cleared her throat. “I forgot drinks. What would you like, Chloe? Milk? Juice?”

“Water would be great, thanks.”

As soon as she walked away, I said, “I guess I shouldn’t have asked that.”

“It’s fine,” said Fin. “It’s just complicated.”

I could tell I needed to drop the subject.

“So I heard you thought I lost a bracelet?”

He glanced at my empty wrist, then shifted in his chair. “I have a confession to make, Chloe. That day you were staring at me through the store window, I really wanted to meet you. So when I found the bracelet by the side of the road, I pretended it was yours.”

I didn’t know what to say. No one had ever wanted to get to know me, not like that.

“Sorry,” he added. “It wasn’t exactly an honest way of starting out.”

Fortunately, Harriet returned with two glasses before I had to respond. But her face was blotchy as if she had been crying. She dabbed her nose with a tissue and tried to smile.

“So tell me, do you live near here, Chloe?”

“No,” I said. “My family is visiting for the summer.”

“She’s from Kansas,” said Fin.

Hearing him repeat my fibs made me even more uncomfortable.

“Like Dorothy!” Harriet suddenly brightened. “Do you live on the other side of the rainbow?”

She laughed at her own joke and Fin groaned.

Something about their relationship seemed familiar but tense. Like my relationship with Viva. I studied their similar faces and wondered if Harriet could be Fin’s much older sister, or maybe a half-sister.

“So why does everything on your farm have wings?” I asked, hoping to steer the conversation away from me.

She took another bite of her sandwich before answering. “Mainly as a reminder,” said Harriet, “that we all have the power to fly.”

“We do?”

She nodded. “Different beings have different ways of flying, but it’s inside all of us.”

I thought about that for a second. “Fly where?”

“That depends on you,” said Harriet. “Sometimes, we need to fly away from where we came from, from what we’ve known, from where we’ve been stuck. And sometimes, we need to fly back home.”

Fin stood up, holding his empty dish. “Chloe didn’t stay for lunch in order to hear your philosophy on life.” The tone of his voice startled both of us. He looked down at me and asked, “Are you done eating?”

It seemed clear that I had stumbled into a family issue. I recognized all the signs from my own family. That way of saying things without saying them directly.

We handed our dishes to Fin. He shuffled down the hall toward the kitchen, carrying the three plates stacked on top of each other.

Harriet put her hand on mine and lowered her voice.

“I know he seems upset, but he’s working through a lot of emotions. I’m so glad he’s found someone like you to talk to, Chloe. Fin has been through so much over the past year. More than anyone his age should have to deal with. Anyway, I can tell you’re already a good friend to him.”

Exactly what Birdie had said about Stella.

What was going on around here? And why did everyone think I was such a good friend? I wasn’t even the person they thought I was.