Leaves

by Michael Baron

  “Wait up, guys,” he said, foisting the tripod. “I want to take a couple of shots.”

  Doug sighed deeply, but they all halted and Olivia shouted, “Hey, everyone, Uncle Tyler wants to take a picture.”

  Slowly, the family coalesced from various spots in the room. Mike Mills said goodnight and exited. Sage tried to stay on the sidelines, but Deborah pulled him into the group. Tyler liked Sage and he especially liked Deborah with Sage; he hoped it worked out for the two of them.

  “Where’s Gardner?” Maxwell said.

  Corrina’s reply was terse. “Buried under a deposition in all likelihood.”

  Tyler arranged everyone and then looked through the viewfinder. In spite of how tired everyone must be, they seemed to pull themselves together for this one last thing. They all look so beautiful right in this moment, Tyler thought. Like leaves in the fall.

  Though they’d been taking timer pictures since before Tyler was a photographer – Dad used to love to bring out the old Nikon – he explained how things were going to work. Then he hit the timer button and ran to his place.

  The timer counted down and the flash went off. Rather than a quick explosion of light, though, it rose slowly from the bulb, cascading outward. At the same time, Mom’s voice resonated in Tyler’s ears as though she were calling everyone into the dining room.

  You may think you don’t need each other anymore, but this love will prove important again. More than you could possibly know.

  With that, the flash reached its apex. Tyler stood stock still, momentarily bewildered. Then he ran behind the camera to check the shot. In it, others reflected the confused expression on his own face. What had that been about? There had been other weird stuff like this in the past month. Maybe they were all going crazy together. They tended to do things very well as a unit; they’d be world-class lunatics.

  He thought about taking another shot, but then realized that he couldn’t possibly get a better one.

  “We’re all set,” he said.

  **^^^**

  Tyler took one last walk around the inn as the cleanup crew set about prepping the place for the new owners. They’d be at it all night. It was a wreck in here.

  He stopped nearly every ten feet to recall something that happened in a particular spot. There had been lots of goodbyes lately. He was looking forward to some hellos.

  Finally, he went out to his car. He’d just placed his camera and tripod in his trunk when Corrina walked over to him. His first thought was that she was going to let him have it for whatever he’d done wrong with the decorations, but he could tell from her relaxed gait and posture that she wasn’t on the attack.

  “The party was great, Cor,” he said as she got closer. “People are going to remember this one.”

  She stopped a few feet from him. “I think so. The decorations were fantastic, by the way.”

  “Thanks. Hey, sorry about the screw up with the bats. What was the problem?”

  “A stupid detail about our insurance. Nothing major, really. It was just my thing to freak out about at that moment. I guess I’ll need a new outlet for my anxiety now, huh?”

  She smiled and he smiled back at her. It had been so long since they’d had a conversation that wasn’t contentious, that Tyler wasn’t sure how to proceed.

  After the silence stretched a bit, he said, “You heard that thing from Mom, didn’t you?”

  Corrina’s eyes widened. “You heard it too?”

  “Based on the picture I got, I think everyone heard it.”

  Corrina laughed. “Now we’re having joint hallucinations.”

  “Well, we always were a close family.”

  His sister smiled warmly. It was an image he’d nearly forgotten. “She’s right, you know. There are always going to be times.”

  “I know. I think we all do. We’ll get that part right.”

  Corrina nodded, and they stood together quietly for a moment.

  “I guess this is a good time to tell you I’m going away. I’ve decided to move to Columbia, South Carolina. Things are happening for me down there and I want to be in the middle of it, at least for a while.”

  Corrina’s expression toggled through four emotions in a blink. “Wow. Other than college, I think the furthest any of us have ever gone to live is Manhattan.”

  “It’s not that far. I’ll be back for Christmas. Maybe I can crash at your place.”

  She stepped toward him and hugged him. “You’re welcome any time.”

  Tyler held Corrina tightly and then took a step toward his car. He looked up at the inn one more time.

  “This was a good sendoff,” he said, opening the door. He had a long drive ahead of him.

  Twenty

  Monday, November 1

  Deborah’s internal clock woke her somewhere around six thirty. She was still in Sage’s arms and immediately snuggled closer. She hoped she never took for granted how good this felt.

  There was work to do, though. Upon leaving the inn last night, she officially became an entrepreneur. If she was going to succeed in the food product business, actually coming up with a food product was a fairly important part of the process.

  She started to slide her left arm out from under Sage. As she did, he stirred and she stopped for a moment to let him settle down. It took a bit of effort in her attempts not to wake him, but she eventually rolled over to her other side and pulled the sheets back.

  “Where are you going?” Sage said.

  She turned to him; his eyes were still closed.

  “Sorry, I was trying not to disturb you. I need to get started. I’m going to give that hot rod kitchen of yours a whirl.”

  “Tomorrow.”

  Deborah knew that one of the traps of self-employment was thinking you could always put things off because you didn’t have a boss standing over you. She wasn’t going to let that happen to her.

  “I can’t, Sage. I don’t want to get off on the wrong foot.”

  He opened his eyes now and propped his head up on his arm. “You can get off on the right foot tomorrow. My store is closed today, remember? I was hoping we could take a ride up the river.”

  With everything that was going on in her head, she’d forgotten that the store was closed on Mondays. “I don’t want to fall into a –”

  “– Deborah, do you really think you’re suddenly going to become a slacker? You’ve had an intense month. A drive up the river will be restorative. I promise to show you a very good time.”

  He was right, of course. There was no way Deborah was going to take this enterprise anything less than seriously. However, a one-day break before launching into her new career wasn’t going to hurt her.

  She slid back under the sheets. “Did you say a very good time?”

  **^^^**

  Maxwell awoke to his son doing a belly flop on his chest. No matter how many times it happened, he never got used to that. Joey started playing with Maxwell’s face, contorting it and laughing.

  He slipped out of bed and grabbed the boy up in his arms. If Maxwell got Joey some milk, the kid would calm down a bit. Then they could take a shower together and give Annie a few more minutes of sleep.

  Except that Annie wasn’t there.

  Worry prickled at Maxwell instantly. He thought they’d made a breakthrough last night. What was going on?

  Joey was now banging the side of Maxwell’s head. He really needed to get the kid some milk. Maxwell carried his son into the kitchen and set him down. The note was waiting for him.

  I’ll be back, but I need a few days.

  Maxwell took in a deep breath and let it out very slowly. He guessed he was going to have to get used to complicated.

  Then he went to the refrigerator.

  **^^^**

  There were times when Maria wished the Old Saybrook Amtrak station weren’t so close. She hated sending Olivia back to school. Fortunately, Thanksgiving was only a few weeks away and Olivia would
be home for winter break not long after that.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to stop for breakfast?” Maria said as they got on the highway.

  “If we stop for breakfast, I’m going to miss my train.”

  “What’s your point?”

  Olivia gave her a soft push on the shoulder. “So what’s on the agenda today?”

  “You mean after sobbing for an hour on the steering wheel when the train pulls away?”

  “You know that this doesn’t make me feel guilty, don’t you?”

  Maria grinned at her daughter. “I have a meeting with Martha at eleven. We’re going to talk about her setting me up with some more gigs.”

  “You’re really gonna go for this, huh?”

  Maria gave herself a moment to feel herself back on stage at Mumford’s last Thursday night. “I really love this, Liv. All of it: the writing, the practicing, the performing. I think I might even look into doing some recording. That whole process is so much easier than it used to be.”

  Olivia squeezed her arm. “I think this is great, Mom. It might take Dad a little while to come around on this, though he seemed pretty proud of you Thursday night.”

  Maria took the Old Saybrook exit. The Amtrak station really was too close. “He did, didn’t he? Eventually he’ll get used to having a pop star in the house.”

  **^^^**

  It wasn’t even eight and Corrina was already on her second cup of coffee. She thought maybe she’d be able to relax a little now that the party was behind her, but her mind was still racing. She’d spent the entire night fidgeting in bed, amazed that she hadn’t awakened Gardner. Surprisingly, he’d actually been asleep when she got home last night. Maybe he really hadn’t been feeling well.

  Ryan had blown in and out of the kitchen ten minutes ago before going to school. At some point soon, she was going to have to tackle him on his way out the door and force him to reenter the family orbit. It was obvious that Gardner wasn’t going to do it, and it was unhealthy for them to continue the way they’d been for most of the past year.

  Gardner was usually out of the house by now as well. He never even used an alarm clock, since he naturally woke up around five thirty. Obviously, he needed to recharge a little. Corrina thought about letting him sleep in, but she knew he’d be furious if she did. Even if he were under the weather, he’d insist on spending all day and all night on court prep. Maybe when this case was over, she’d convince him to go away with her for a week in Cancun. They certainly could use it.

  Taking one more sip of coffee, she rose from the kitchen table and headed toward the bedroom to wake her husband. Even though he could still make it to his office by nine, he would complain about losing so much time.

  She jostled him and he didn’t move. She jostled him again. That’s when she noticed his body didn’t give the way it normally did.

  Corrina’s blood chilled and tears sprang to her eyes. She sat on the side of the bed and put her head in her hands.

  **^^^**

  Tyler woke up in a motel near Baltimore and glanced at the clock on the nightstand. Eight twenty-four. He needed to get going. He’d driven more than five hours last night after the party and then crashed here for a little sleep. Now it was time for a quick shower and an even quicker stop at the coffee shop down the block that he’d noticed on the way in.

  Then it was back on the road. He’d be in Columbia by the evening.

  **^^^**

  A brisk breeze blew through the streets of Oldham. It was like this every year. The moment the calendar turned to November, the air grew sharper and the wind more insistent.

  All along Hickory Avenue, shopkeepers prepared for a quiet few weeks as they dressed their windows for the holiday season. The tourists were gone now, but things would pick up again after Thanksgiving.

  Sanitation crews were out in force today, gathering the last of the leaves that had been piled at roadsides all over town.

  And a moving truck pulled up to the inn at the corner of Oak and Sugar Maple.

  A note from the author

  I hope you enjoyed Leaves. It’s the first of a series of novels I’m going to be writing about the Gold family. There’s plenty to explore here, as all the Gold siblings are at the start of something new. Maria needs to find out where her music will take her. Maxwell has a campaign to run and a marriage to save. Deborah has her new business and the first serious romance of her life. Corrina must confront widowhood with a boy who has made it clear that she isn’t his mother. And Tyler needs to find his way in a place that is very different from home.

  There’s more, of course, as the lives of these siblings diverge and intertwine. Bethany’s pronouncement at the end of the party will prove prophetic on numerous occasions, though.

  This is by far the largest cast of characters I’ve ever had in a novel, and I feel as though I’m just starting to get to know all of them. Because of this, I’m sure their exploits will surprise me as I develop them. Toward that end, I’d be very interested in what you’d like to see me explore with the siblings as well as Doug, Annie, Sage, Olivia, Ryan, and even Joey. If you’d like to share your questions or ideas, please drop me a note at michael@michaelbaronbooks.com.

  Thanks.

  Warmest regards,

  Michael

  The World of Michael Baron

  We hope you enjoyed Michael Baron’s Leaves. Michael has six other works of fiction, and we thought you might be interested in having a little sample of each, accompanied by a comment by the author.

  When You Went Away

  When You Went Away was my first novel after several works of nonfiction and it was both a joy and a bit of a nightmare to write like this for the first time. I knew I wanted to write about being a father and I knew I wanted to write a love story, and the novel grew organically out of that. I’d heard novelists talk about falling in love with their characters, but I didn’t truly understand what they meant until I wrote When You Went Away. These characters still pop up in my head regularly, especially Gerry and little Reese, who manages to upstage all the other characters in every scene in which he appears.

  I dreamt of us in springtime. Maureen and I walked hand in hand through Washington Square Park, an acoustic guitarist playing an Indigo Girls song on one side, a guy throwing a Frisbee to his dog on the other. As we walked, Maureen’s sleeveless arm rested against mine, giving me one more reason to be thankful for the dawning of this new season. A teenaged girl and boy ran past laughing carelessly, transforming as we watched them into Tanya at age five, and Eric, her best friend at the time. The park became our backyard. I chuckled as they rumbled by and Maureen leaned into me. She kissed me on the cheek and tittered into my ear, causing the fine hairs on my neck to rise.

  Then she pushed me on the shoulder, calling out, “You’re it!” and running away laughing like the little girl I always wished I could have known. I chased them both (Eric had disappeared), sweeping Tanya up and carrying her, squealing delightedly and wriggling, under my arm while I sought Maureen, who somehow ducked out of sight. While I looked in one direction, she jumped on my back from the other, causing the three of us to tumble to the ground, Tanya leaping free to pounce on both of us. We wrestled together for a few moments, kissing, tickling, until we lay in the grass, a tangle of arms and legs, gazing up at the impossibly blue sky. I could stay here like this, I thought. I could very easily stay right here and never want for anything.

  A musical tinkling came from somewhere in the near distance, and Tanya gathered her feet under her faster than any little kid should be able to. “Ice cream truck,” she said with a joy that was singularly hers, sprinting to the front of the house, knowing that the man in the truck had already slowed in anticipation of her approach and that Maureen and I would soon be behind her with the money necessary for an ice pop or a Dove Bar or whatever else she might want.

  Maureen kissed me again at that point, softly this time, warmly, enveloping m
e with her spring smell. “Do you think the ice cream man will put this one on her tab?” she said, understanding how completely I wanted to remain here and kiss her like this indefinitely.

  And then Tanya sat next to us again, her feet tucked under her nine-year-old bottom. “Do the two of you always have to kiss?” she said, pretending to be repulsed but at the same time bearing just enough of a glint in her eye to let us know that this was at least moderately okay with her.

  “Yes, always,” I said and I kissed Maureen again to underscore the point.

  She frowned at me, but her mother reached out to grab her and she tumbled toward us, kissing Maureen’s hair and settling into her embrace. I rested my head against the two of them, not knowing where one ended and the other began and not caring in the least. And in the languor of this late March day, with the afternoon sun making the air feel warmer than it actually was, I fell asleep on a bed infinitely more important to me than my own life.

  The first thing I noticed when I came awake was early morning birds chirping, the sound slipping through the slim opening I left in the window the night before. Then the smell of the daffodils that Maureen planted in ridiculous quantities all around the perimeter of the house. It really was spring. I hadn’t dreamed that. And for just a second – that instant between dreaming and being awake when almost anything still seems possible – I believed that everything else about my dream was true as well. My wife was next to me. My daughter, five or nine or seventeen, was two doors down the hall, about to protest that it was too early to go to school.