Page 74 of The Wishing Tree Beside the Shor
Godfrey lets out a squeal and almost topples over in his haste to get up.
‘Here, let me help.’ Ryan looks between me and Godfrey, but the elderly man has already tottered halfway across the garden and looks like he could fall over at any moment. Ryan looks momentarily perplexed by what to do with the chain, and then unclips it and shoves it at me while Godfrey moves at an impressive and unsteady-looking speed. ‘One of the nurses brought him a tub of edible glitter, can you start glittering the edges of the petals and I’ll be right back?’
‘Of course.’ I wrap the chain around myself with a determined click and sit on the bench. I wiggle my fingers towards Baaabra Streisand, who’s tied to the gatepost in her usual place, safely out of reach of strawberry pickers, although whether it’s for her sake or theirs is anyone’s guess.
And I try not to think about that “Fliss”. Ryan has never, ever called me anything but Fee. It started the first time I met him at Sullivan’s Seeds when he went to call me Fiona, realised mid-name, and styled it out to Feeee-licity.
There are at least twenty stems of strawberries carved into roses in the crystal vase, and I undo the tub of edible gold glitter and use the little brush provided to start dabbing it onto the edges of the petals.
The strawberry patch isn’t open yet so it’s quiet for Henrietta, and eventually, after a bit of commotion in the car park and deciding the coastal path is too steep and negotiating the gateways from the driveway to the garden, a nurse from the nursing home pushes Henrietta’s wheelchair in.
The little old lady is tiny and so shrunken that she looks lost in the chair, a shadow of the woman I remember running the strawberry patch when I was young, but her toothy smile is so bright that nothing else matters.
Godfrey walks beside her, clasping her hand, and Ryan’s sort of hovering behind him, making sure the path is clear for them and that Baaabra doesn’t try to eat anyone on the way past.
The nurse stops the wheelchair and lets Henrietta take it all in for a while. Godfrey kneels beside her and points out the different areas for each type of strawberry and tells her a bit about how we’re planning to make it even better next year. She clasps his hand between both of hers, and eventually Ryan helps him to his feet and the nurse pushes her onwards. Everyone else is standing back, offering her a wave when her gaze falls on them, but not wanting to overwhelm her.
She halts the nurse when he goes to wheel her past “their” bench, and Ryan helps Godfrey sit there while her chair is stopped in front of it. I’ve just about finished glittering the strawberries when he sends me a questioning look, I nod in confirmation and he beckons me over. I pick up the bouquet and take them to put on the bench beside Godfrey so he can give them to her.
She smiles at me, but she’s only got eyes for him.
There are tears all round when he settles the bouquet on her lap and she remembers sitting on that same bench in their younger years and eating the rose-shaped strawberries he carved for her with a glass of wine as they watched the sun go down, and they both cry and embrace each other.
I can feel my lip wobbling as I look across them and meet Ryan’s eyes. He looks away. And then I have to dive out the way and pull the chain with me when she points to the sycamore tree and they set off towards it.
Ryan looks like he’s miles away, staring into space like he hasn’t even noticed them go.
I gather the chain and go to stand next to him. ‘Everything okay?’
He looks startled, like he hadn’t seen me move either. ‘Fine. Thanks for doing that. I appreciate it.’
It’s so clipped and curt, nothing like his usual warm and easy-going manner.
‘It’s fine. It’s an honour to help. They’re such a lovely couple. They deserve every moment of happiness they can snatch now.’
He looks at me for a long moment before he decides to speak again. ‘I’ve never seen anyone look as happy as she did when she realised where she was, apart from Godfrey when he realised sheknewwhere she was.’
Maybe it’s all okay and I’m just imagining things. Maybe this visit has taken a lot to organise and he’s just stressed out.
‘The tree granted a wish.’ I step a bit closer to him.
He takes a step away. ‘Wegranted a wish. It was your idea. Your drive. Your belief in magic.’
‘Yours too.’
‘Fee …’ he starts, and then stops and shakes his head.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘This isn’t the time. Not with Henrietta here. I don’t want to ruin their moment.’
Maybe it’s the tree. Maybe something’s happened with the campaign. Maybe Steffan’s signed that paperwork after all. And it’s kind of nice that Ryan doesn’t want to dampen a special moment by sharing bad news.
All of this feels extraordinary. Truly magical. Like something bigger than us. Something otherworldly and ethereal, like the tree itself. It should be a huge publicity moment, but it feels private and special. Tonya’s taken a couple of photos, but only from a distance so as not to disturb Henrietta, and I get the feeling they’re more for Godfrey himself than for any kind of publicity. This is a private moment between two people who are still desperately in love.
We watch as Godfrey points out the carving of the strawberry in the tree trunk that they did on the day they took over the patch and see Henrietta nod in recognition. The nurse wheels her chair right up to the metal barrier around the cliff edge, and she pushes herself up on shaking arms to get a better view.
In the distance, we hear her talk to Godfrey about something she remembers, and he tells her about the last time she visited and her wish to see the strawberry patch as it used to be, and she looks around again, smiling.
