Chapter Twenty-Four

“I told you we should’ve brought the horses,” Sophie said, looking at all the groceries her father had selected.

“Watch your tone of voice,” Robert said. “You can be right without being rude.” They were in the back room, and indeed there was no way they could carry all those groceries, along with their recent purchases from Tate’s. He returned to the front counter. “Norma, do we still keep a donkey for deliveries?”

“Well, sort of. Your brother worked out a deal with the Hernandez family. After school, their son Mateo comes over with his burro and handles any deliveries we have. He also runs errands for me. In exchange, we give his family a grocery credit and allow Mateo to keep any tips he receives.” She stole a peek through the open door to the back room. “Should I have him take your things to the lodge when he gets here? If you put everything in the loading bay, I’ll make sure he sees to it.”

Robert and Sophie chose the most essential items they wanted to take with them and left everything else for Mateo to bring later in the afternoon. As they started toward home, each with a cloth bag slung over their shoulder, Robert asked Sophie if she would like to see the chestnut trees that the town had been named for. Since she seemed agreeable, they diverted down a side street that led to a pleasant park with a gazebo and a stand of rustling trees. Tall and green with great spreading limbs like outstretched arms, they shaded nearly the entire park. Sophie clapped her hands in delight, dropped her bag, and ran delighted circles around them.

Robert sat down on a park bench and watched her play. It was the first time she had visibly enjoyed herself since they left El Cid. His thoughts flashed back to the times she and her friends would run screeching around Northwind, intent on some silly game, or when they would gallop their horses down the road, whooping and cheering each other on. There had been a lot of chores to do at Northwind, but the children had played as hard as they worked, and Robert hoped his daughter would make a few friends in Castaño who could match her natural exuberance.

When Sophie finally trotted over to the park bench, winded and triumphant at conquering whatever imaginary challenge she had set for herself among the chestnuts, Robert asked if she’d like to hear the story of how the trees came to be there. At her breathless nod, he pulled her up on the bench beside him.

“These were planted by some of the first settlers,” Robert explained. “They were looking for a place that felt like their home back east, and although everything else about this piece of land was perfect, they missed their chestnut trees. So they sent word back home that they wanted some saplings, and after many months, a man brought them here in a wagon. The townspeople planted them, but soon the rabbits came and peeled off the bark with their teeth and the trees died.”

“Why did the rabbits do that?”

“To eat. Rabbits have to eat things like grass, bark and sticks in order to file down their teeth. Otherwise their teeth get too long and they can’t eat at all and they die.”

Sophie gave her father a look, as if she suspected a trick.

“Honest.” Robert held up his hand. “I think we have an encyclopedia either in the apartment or in the lodge. We’ll look it up when we get home.”

“Okay. So I guess the settlers got more trees after the first ones died.”

“They sure did. And this time they put up fences around them so the rabbits wouldn’t eat them. But these trees were infected with some kind of disease from back east and pretty soon, those trees died, too. But the townspeople didn’t give up. They got some new ones and tried again. By now they were getting pretty good at growing chestnut trees, and this time their efforts paid off.” He gestured toward the large shady trees she had been running around just a few minutes before. “These are special trees. They’re survivors.” Robert paused and considered. “Or at least that’s the story I was told. Some people have questioned it over the years and said that these trees just grew here naturally, but I like the story better.”

Sophie thought for a bit. “I do, too. But the trees are just as good, either way.”

As she hopped off the bench and went to run among the trees again, Robert leaned back and sighed. Yes, the idea of persisting against all setbacks and winning against difficult odds always made for a better story. Diana’s life had been a lot like that, but generous woman that she was, she had always insisted that Robert’s story was just as good.

What was he making of his life without her? Just a small-town shopkeeper with a crumbling hotel and a daughter who refused to go to school. If the fates truly loved such traits as courage and perseverance, he would have been the one to die, since Diana would have found a way to go on making her life an adventure.

He shook his head, as if he could dispel his gloomy thoughts. At the edge of the chestnut grove, Sophie was picking up things from the ground, then squinting up into the leaves of the trees. What on earth was she doing? He grabbed both of their bags and walked toward her.

Sophie noticed him and smiled. “Look what I found.” Cupped in her palms were round green prickly things. “There aren’t very many in the grass, but it looks like there’s a lot in the trees. Are they some kind of fruit?”

Robert took one and examined it. How many times had he and his friends collected these so that they could throw them at each other in their boyish war games? “They’re chestnuts. The nuts are inside, growing. The outside part is, yes, kind of like a fruit, providing the nuts with nourishment and protection. When the pod is ripe, it will dry up and crack open. The nuts will fall out and, if they land in good soil and don’t get eaten by squirrels, they’ll grow into saplings in the spring.”

Sophie nodded. “We learned about seeds in school.”

“And that’s why you need to go to school here. So you can keep on learning.” Seeing that Sophie’s face was clouding over, Robert added, “But we won’t spoil a fun afternoon, will we? We’ll talk about it later. Let’s head back to the lodge, so we’ll be there when the delivery boy arrives.”

“Okay.” Sophie put her chestnut pods into her bag and slung it over her shoulder. Then she took her father’s offered hand and they headed for home.