Elsa Crane's Arc

Chapter 65 of 66

Two days after the monument went up, Nancy came fast across the square with her cardigan half-buttoned. She found Bodhi at the strawberry cottage, chalk in hand, drawing vine loops on the doorframe. Elsa sat inside on the bench by the window, wrapped in wool. Nancy caught her breath at the step. "A new family. Came in on the north track this morning. Mother, father, a girl about six. They've taken the empty cabin past the well." She looked at Bodhi. "They don't know a thing about you. Not the crown, not Elsa, not any of it." Bodhi's face lit. He set the chalk on the sill. "Then we meet them right. Call everyone to the cottage. Jasper, Fern, Clara, Dahlia, Wren, Charlie. And the reindeer." Nancy squeezed his shoulder and went. Elsa watched from the window. If the newcomers met him cold — a boy in a crown they'd never voted for — they could refuse him in front of the village and crack what she had spent a season welding. She stayed on the bench. This one had to be his. Bodhi worked at the table. He laid a woven basket with the reindeer-shaped handle on the boards. He tucked in two loaves from Clara, berries from Fern's bowl, and last a small white bear from the shelf. He arranged them the way he had watched Elsa arrange things for forty years. The guardians came in one by one. Jasper propped the door. Dahlia stood by the hearth. Charlie held Lynn's hand. Outside, the reindeer waited on the path, frost still caked to its antlers. They walked together to the cabin past the well. Bodhi went first with the basket. He knocked. The father opened, wary, a plane in his other hand. The mother stood behind him with the girl on her hip. Bodhi held up the basket. He smiled — crooked, gap-toothed, his own. "Welcome to Alpenglow. I'm Bodhi. This is for you." The girl reached for the bear before her mother could stop her. The mother's shoulders eased. Bodhi named each guardian at the step. Jasper the woodcarver. Fern the teacher. Clara the midwife. Dahlia who taught letters. Wren who kept the graves. Nancy the librarian. Charlie and Lynn. He pointed to the reindeer on the path. "He came with me. He'll come to your girl if she offers a hand flat." The father set the plane down. He asked no questions about crowns. He asked where to find the well and the mill. Bodhi walked them through the square himself. He named the cobbler at his bench, the Peters mother at her door, Larissa at the mill wheel. Each one nodded to Bodhi first, then to the newcomers. By dusk the family had bread on their table and three neighbors on their step. Elsa watched from the hut window. The village had accepted him again, this time in front of strangers who had no reason to. She counted four days left.