Chapter 6

Place a small piece of Jade in the pocket of the person you want to improve a relationship with.

We get to the head office just as the bus with the second-grade class arrives for their tour. This is one of my favourite parts of my jobs. Children love seeing and learning about the orchards.

Children are impressionable and if you tell speak positively about the environment they tend to take a liking to it.

“Who’s excited to see some trees” I cheer once the kids are off the bus.

The kids shout in excitement “me!”

“We will leave in 5 minutes” I tell them. “Everyone get ready to go.”

The reporter pulls in. When she steps out of the car into the grass, I fell the grass jolt under her feet, as if it wants her off.

What did the grass have against a reporter? Despite my feelings of weariness, I head over to greet her.

“Welcome” I say. The pin in her hair catches my eye. It’s small silver crystal I have never seen before. I will have to look through my dad's journal and see if I can find anything about this.

“I can’t wait to see the beautiful trees and try some fruit” she said. “I don’t believe we have met before, but my name is Rita.”

“Paige” I say holding out my hand “we are happy to have you.”

“You have a very impressive place here. Care to share any of your secrets?” She asked pulling out a notebook.

“Hopefully you’ll learn some on the tour” I smiled. .

We all walk as a big group through the apple's trees and all the way to our cherry tree section. We are in the middle of our property where the large oak tree was planted.

I notice the reporter walking around the old oak tree. She is observing it intently, almost as if she is looking for something.

“This is the oldest tree on the property” I say walking up beside her putting my hand on the tree.

“I have read about this tree” she answers. “It’s remarkable.”

“Come on we are going to finish up the tour” I say wondering what her fascination with this particular tree was.

When the tour is almost over, we are sitting under the pear trees in the grass in a big circle. I am telling the kids that you need at-least two pear trees for them to flower and grow fruit.

A little girl a pink dress and pigtails asks, “what makes to fruit grow?”

“The trees are pollinated by bugs and the wind” I answer.

“Eww bugs” someone chants.

Usually, we let the kids pick some fruit off the trees to bring home, but at this time of the year the fruit hasn’t started to grow yet. We have a small bakery and shop on the property that my cousin Evee runs. She cans our extra fruit; she also makes jams and spreads. She is also an extraordinarily talented baker.

Since I am an only child, she is the closest thing I have ever had to sister.

“Now enough talk about trees Who wants some desserts” I say

A cute boy with freckles and a black baseball cap shouts “I do.”

We head down to the bakery. Our bakery is an exceedingly popular place. We have a small café inside where a few people are silently enjoying coffee.

“I think I am going to head out” Rita tells me. “I have everything I need.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to come in and try a pastry. They are to die for.” I say.

“No thank you” she smiles.

“It was nice having you today” I say as she heads towards her car.

I open the door and head inside to see Evee has already started talking to the kids from behind her desk.

Evee looks a lot like I do. She has brown hair and brown eyes. She’s slightly taller than me, has freckles and wears glasses. Even though we look alike, personality wise we are complete opposites.

She is smiling at the sight of all the children. She grabs a basket of fresh baked goods and walks over to the kids. She begins handing out pastries to all the children and they happily accept.

“How did everyone enjoy the tour?” Evee asked.

“It was awesome” the kids cheered.

“Did you learn anything fun about the trees?” She asked.

“That bees are pollinators” a little boy with shaggy hair answered.

“You’re right” Evee sings.

After the kids eat their dessert, we say goodbye and they kids head back onto the bus.

“Thank you so much for a wonderful day, the kids absolutely love this place” the teacher said before getting on the bus.

“Of course, bring them anytime” I say.

Evee and I watch the bus pull out waving to the children as they drive away.

“Any chance you’ll stay and help me clean?” Evee asks.

“Sure” I say. Evee helps me anytime I need her.

The café is usually a disaster by the end of the day; all the chairs are out of place, there are crumbs and dirt all over the floor from people eating and a mountain of dishes.

Evee has a simple power; she can turn water to ice and manipulate it into any form. She can turn rain into snow, which she has done on occasion to get out of school.

She has always been a bit envious of my power. I am not sure why; her power does come in handy sometimes and we have had a lot of fun experimenting with it.

She can freeze entire lakes in an instant. We used to have a lot of fun with her power when we were kids. Once when made us a path of ice on Lake Huron and we walked for hours on the frozen path out into the lake. It was an eerie feeling looking around and not being able to see land anywhere around us.

I finish sweeping the floor and look around. We did a surprisingly decent job.

“Wow, thanks this would have taken me forever” Evee said.

“You owe me big” I joke.

“You should come over and have a couple glasses of wine” she said.

“That sounds like a wonderful way to repay me” I laugh. I wanted to tell her about Charles.

The manor is only a couple minute walk from the bakery, so we head there by foot with a basket of baked goodies and a couple bottles of wine.

“I met the most handsome man on the path by my place today” I tell her.

“What was he even doing up there, it’s basically the middle of nowhere” she asks.

“I’m not sure, but he said he just moved back here and lives on the property next to ours” I say.

“Well, that’s good, you really need to get laid.” she laughs.

She’s right it’s been years.

Evee grabs the first bottle, chills it with her finger and pours us a glass of strawberry wine. The wine is fermented from the strawberries we grew last season. It might be biased of me to say but this is the best wine I have ever tasted. It’s the perfect amount of sweet and bitter.

“I do need to get laid” I agree.

“Well, that’s not going to happen if you never leave this place” she answers.

I didn’t leave often; I don’t enjoy it. I feel like a part of me is missing when I get too far away from the trees here.

“Let’s do something fun” Evee said, “come on I have an idea.”