Harvesting Acorns (12 page)

Grace
began to teach music again and Joel free-lanced as a research scientist. He was
able to conduct most of his research locally and if he needed to travel he only
agreed if Grace was able to go with him. His writings on his research of the
marine world were sought after globally and he was considered a leader in his
field of expertise.

That
first Spring full moon after he arrived back from his time at sea, they
honoured their ritual and picnicked under the oak. They were both now twenty
eight years old. As they sat under the tree, Joel opened a bottle of champagne
and poured a glass for each of them. He began to toast their love and journey
and paused briefly, rising to his feet and taking Grace’s hand gently lifting
her to hers. He led her just beneath the tree and turned her towards the moon,
then he got down on one knee and asked her to spend the rest of their lives
together, with her as his wife. They both cried and celebrated by dancing under
the full moon.

They
got married in a small ceremony in the park beneath the tree, attended only by
both sets of parents. This tree had become such an important part of their
lives. It represented their dream, grown on the solid foundation of their love
and commitment and so it had felt the most natural thing to include the tree in
their ceremony. As it grew, the sense of magic, hope and possibility that
surrounded it grew as well. Two years later, their daughter, Jessica had been
born. They held her christening ceremony beneath the tree as well. As she grew
they spent many days and many spring full moons picnicking with her, telling
her the story of their relationship and how they had planted the tree. She
loved to hear it over and over. She spent hours climbing in the tree, or having
tea parties with her dolls beneath it. For their family, this tree represented
all that was stable and true. The tree was maturing well. It would be a few
more years still before it would start producing acorns.

When
Jessica was ten years old the magical moment arrived. They were celebrating her
tenth birthday in the park with all of her school friends when the first acorn
fell. Jessica was over the moon. She felt her birthday had been blessed by the
tree and she treasured that acorn. She vowed to keep it forever - it was her
lucky charm. She kept it on her desk when she wrote her exams and it had a soft
velvet pouch that she kept it in. Jessica was a unique child. She held a good
balance of all the good qualities of both her parents. She had Grace’s gentle
and artistic nature, but shared Joel’s wanderlust and spirit of adventure. She
was both logical and creative and excelled at anything she attempted. She was
beautiful and, like her mother, very popular with the boys, but also just as
uninterested. When she left school she studied teaching and met her husband in
her final year of study. She had struggled to fall pregnant. She spent many
full moon nights beneath the oak tree affirming her dream of having a baby.

Eventually,
just before she turned thirty, James had been conceived – her miracle baby.
Just as her parents had with her, she spent many days picnicking with James
beneath the tree, telling him about her childhood. The heartache and pressure
of trying to fall pregnant had put a great strain on Jessica’s marriage and she
and James’ father had gotten divorced when James was three years old. He had
moved away to find other work, and found another wife, and instant family,
instead. He still visited James once a month, but their relationship lacked the
close bond he had with his mother and grandparents.

Grace
and Joel would join them frequently and James loved to sit on Granddad Joel’s
lap and listen to their story. Grandparent’s stories were always much more
interesting than your own parents stories. He particularly liked the sense of
magic and mystery surrounding the tree and believed with all his heart that the
tree made dreams come true. After all, both his grandparents’ dreams had come
true.

Now,
at eight years old, it was his turn to find the tree’s magic. They were all
intrigued with his idea of giving acorns to as many people as he could.
Throughout their family history, none of them had thought to share the tree’s
magic with anyone other than themselves. Not for selfish reasons, it had just
never occurred to them. It had always just been an intimate family ritual that
they had not thought would have significance to anyone else. They still were
not sure how James’ initiative would be taken by everyone else, but they
supported him in his venture even though they did not fully understand where
his idea was coming from. He was so pensive most of the time and didn’t tell
them too much. In fact, they were all surprised he had shared as much as he had
with Chloe.

“Thank
you so much for sharing your amazing story with me,” Chloe wiped her eyes.
Rarely had she been exposed to such beauty in the story-telling of others. Theirs
really was a remarkable story and she felt privileged that they had shared it
with her.

Grace
came over and handed her the newspaper clipping of them planting the tree and
gave Chloe a hug.

“We
trust James’
judgement
,
whatever his reasons for doing what he is, he allowed you in and so we are
honoured to do the same. It felt good to tell our story. Thank you for
listening.”

Chloe
felt herself absorbed into the picture in the article, as if she had been there
herself. These two children in the picture now seemed so familiar to her after
hearing their story and the love that spanned more than six decades. Chloe sat
a while longer with them, Grace brought more tea and biscuits and they spoke
about her move to her new home and about the job she was about to begin and her
feelings on that.

At
the end of the afternoon, Grace told Chloe she would love her to visit again
and they looked forward getting to know her better and following her new
career. Chloe thanked them both and told James she would see him the next
morning again. She stopped at Tea for Two for a cup of coffee with Phoebe and
then went home to reflect on all she had just heard.

C
hapter Eight

She
met with James the next morning and they gathered acorns as usual. She noticed
again that he still had not filled the pink packet. She told him that she would
collect with him for the rest of the week but would be beginning her new job
the next Monday and so would not be able to meet with him during the week after
that.

“That
is OK, we are getting very close to two hundred acorns now. I am sure we will
have them by the end of the week. I am also going back to school next week. The
holidays are almost over.” He smiled at her, this time without the usual
shyness, but a smile of familiarity and camaraderie.

The
next week Chloe used to familiarise herself with the history of the village.
She spent a lot of time in the library reading old newspapers so that she would
have some reference going into her new job. It was important, as editor, to
have an understanding of any articles she would receive with regards to
relevance for the magazine. Her mornings with James had become very special and
relaxed and she was sad that they would soon be over. She was really settling
into her new home as well and still enjoying afternoon coffee with Phoebe. Their
friendship was strengthening and there was comfort in knowing she had someone
to talk to through all the exciting and daunting events of her new life.

The
first day of her new job arrived and Chloe arrived early. Edward held an early
morning meeting around the boardroom table to welcome her. They had a rather
informal meeting with everyone introducing themselves properly and all just
discussing how the work process would flow. They explained that most of the
articles where from free-lance journalists and the first thing Chloe needed to
do that morning was make contact with the regular contributors as a way of
introduction; Edward had already sent a mail out informing them that she would
begin that day. There seemed to be good working relationships between everyone
in the company and by the end of the meeting Chloe felt that she would fit
right in. They were all welcoming and supportive and offered any assistance she
would need while familiarising herself with the company and her role.

After
the meeting, Chloe was left to settle in her office and do her introductory
phone calls. Cami brought her a pile of the last few months’ editions of the
magazine so that she could get a feel for the content and layout. This was all
new for Chloe, she had always been on the other end – submitting articles for
editing and publication – she hoped that it would not take her too long to get
into the flow of things and into her role. The last edition had just been
released on the Friday, so she had two weeks to get the next one out. The only
actual writing she would need to do herself would be the Editor’s Letter at the
beginning of the magazine. Edward understood that she did not want to write
anymore, but had made it clear that he had left that door open for her and hinted
that he would love an article or two from her at some point.

Chloe
slipped into her role and routine very quickly. She found her colleagues
pleasant and helpful and the journalists eager and willing to work with her and
contribute their writings. She found their articles informative and interesting.
After her first two weeks and the first magazine in her care had gone to print
she was commended by Edward and the rest of the team in a morning meeting for
her quick learning and great efforts in producing a magazine of even higher
quality than it had been before. Chloe also asked for a moment to speak. She
thanked them all for their support and said that in all her years in the
industry she had finally found a company that aligned with her philosophy and
allowed her to feel she was contributing to something worthwhile.

She
had been meeting with James on the weekends; catching up with how he was
enjoying being back at school and if he was reaching his target number of
acorns.  It had slowed down a bit as he had homework to do and still had to fit
in swimming and horse riding. So they gathered as many as they could in their
time together on the weekend.

Once
a week Phoebe and Jean Pierre invited Chloe around for dinner to catch up and
this had become a new routine and something to look forward to mid-week. They
would congratulate her on the previous week’s edition and fill her in on the
events in their lives. Phoebe had just begun choreographing a new ballet for
her students. They would be doing a ballet version of The Ugly Duckling and her
little lead ballerina did not quite understand at this point why she had to be
the ugly one. Phoebe giggled as she retold how she had to spend time with her
every day before rehearsals explaining over and over again how important her
role was, about inner beauty, and reassuring her that she would be beautiful on
the outside too by the end of the play. Jean Pierre had a huge project in the
pipeline with a restorative venture on an old chapel in one of the nearby
cities. It meant a lot of time away from home and he hoped Chloe would make
sure that Phoebe had some company from time to time.

Chloe
felt for the first time in her life everything had been blessed and her life
was moving in a direction that brought balance and a sense of structure,
stability and higher purpose. She still felt that something bigger was just
about to breach the surface, although she had no idea in what area of her life
this was to be. There was just this sense of hope and purpose, of an
opportunity to
fulfil
her destiny, whatever that meant for her.

One
Saturday morning she met with James. He beamed as he told her:

 “I
have one hundred and ninety nine acorns.”

“Congratulations
and well done on your persistence James. You have diligently gone through your
daily process with determination and patience. Just one more to go and I am so
happy to be here to share it with you.”

Chloe
ruffled his hair and as she did so she noticed the pink packet was still empty.
Perhaps it was meant for the last acorn, for some reason James kept to himself.
They walked towards the tree and he examined all the acorns lying on the
ground. He went through his normal process. To Chloe most of them seemed like
healthy acorns. She didn’t see any holes, all the caps came off easily, they were
all a robust dark brown to black in colour and they all sank in the jar of
water. Yet James took his time, throwing out many, until at last there was one
he held in his hand for a moment longer than all the others.

Chloe
held her breath as he reached for a packet. It was the pink one. She gasped,
but hoped he didn’t hear, she dared not ask, she knew better. He looked up at
her and there were tears in his eyes.

“You
don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to James,” she said soothingly, “but
also know that I will listen to anything you feel you want to share with an
open heart.”

James nodded, and then sat beside
her, head bowed as he put the acorn gently into the packet.

“This
acorn is for my best friend, Hannah. Her birthday is next week and I want to give
it to her, to make a wish for her, with her.” The tears began to stream down
his cheeks.

“James,
that is beautiful. I am sure she will love her gift. But why are you crying?
Are you scared that she will not like it?” Chloe was touched by what she thought
to be his nervousness.