“Thanks,” Max said. He headed out of the library, his mind on the meeting he would be having with Cami, Joe, and Lucy that afternoon and how this latest clue might help them.
Hey, Lucy,” Anya called as Lucy closed up her locker. “Want to come over this afternoon?”
Lucy did want to — it had been a while since she’d been to Anya’s. But she’d agreed to meet Cami, Joe, and Max in the library and she didn’t want to break her promise. “I can’t today but what about tomorrow?”
“Sure,” Anya said. “See you later.”
Lucy’s spirits were low as she trudged into the library for the meeting. They had planned to talk at lunch but instead ended up reliving Cami’s story about her violin. Lucy loved hearing her friend’s voice bubble over with joy, but a piece of her had shriveled as Cami spoke. For weeks Cami had dropped hints that she was unhappy, that there was something worrying her, but Lucy had never taken the time to follow up. She had been a bad friend to Cami and that hung heavy on her, just like their failure to find GB was a weight pressing down on her chest. And it wasn’t like she’d really sabotaged anything but she couldn’t help wondering if things had moved faster, which they would have if Lucy hadn’t been slowing them, they would have ruled out everyone on their list faster and had more time to track down the real GB. Now, with three days till Christmas, they had precious little time to track down GB and plan a really amazing celebration.
As she and Valentine walked into the large library, Lucy heard the librarian say, “Here,” and then slide something across a table.
“Oh, she’s darling,” Ms. Ortega, the art teacher, cooed.
“Isn’t she adorable?” Ms. Marwich said. “She’s my brother’s first grandchild. Everyone in the family is simply — oh, hello, Lucy and Valentine.”
“Hi,” Lucy said as they came up to the desk, Valentine leading Lucy carefully around Ms. Ortega.
“Your friends await,” Ms. Marwich said.
“Thanks,” Lucy said, heading back.
“So what’s her name?” Ms. Ortega asked after Lucy had passed.
“Elizabeth Berle,” Ms. Marwich said.
Something about that made Lucy pause but before she could figure out exactly what, Cami was ushering her in. Lucy sat down and Valentine settled at her feet with a sigh.
“Lucy’s here, so let’s get started,” Cami said. She was serious but Lucy could still hear the happiness in her voice. “We have only three days until Christmas and we still need to find GB and then plan something really spectacular. So that means we need to get cracking.”
“I have some new intel,” Max said, and he recounted his discovery in the library.
“Can anyone take out books here or just people at the school?” Joe asked.
“I’m not sure,” Cami said. “Though I don’t know why anyone else would want to use the school library when there’s a perfectly good public library right on Main Street.”
“Right, that’s what I was thinking,” Max said. “It has to mean that there’s a tie between GB and the school.”
“I bet GB’s a teacher!” Cami exclaimed.
“Or it could be someone with a kid who goes here,” Joe added.
“Let’s start our new list of suspects,” Max said. Lucy could hear him rubbing his palms together eagerly.
“How many times have I told you, there are no suspects?” Cami asked playfully.
“Okay, possible Great Benefactors,” Max said in an exaggerated English accent.
They were still no closer to finding GB, but everyone seemed happy anyway. Everyone except Lucy.
“What about Kira Cutler?” Max asked. “She’s the one designing the plans for my new house, so we know she’s generous. And her son is in eighth grade, so she has a connection to the school.”
Lucy poked a finger through a small hole in her sweater sleeve as her friends went on. She didn’t have anything to offer and she didn’t feel like getting involved in the discussion.
“Lucy, what do you think?” Cami asked, picking up on Lucy’s distance from the conversation.
Lucy shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said.
“Does anyone know if Kira’s a big reader?” Joe asked, freeing Lucy to go back to her thoughts. Which seemed to be just brooding.
“I bet we can find out,” Cami said. “Oh, but her last name doesn’t start with B.”
B. Berle. Ms. Marwich’s brother’s last name. Which would make it Ms. Marwich’s family name. And Lucy knew Ms. Marwich’s first name was Rona. An R. As in …?RB. Lucy’s heart began to race. “You guys …” she began.
She spoke softly but Cami must have seen something in her face because she immediately hushed the boys.
“I think …?I just figured out GB,” Lucy said. “It’s Ms. Marwich.” Max started to chime in but Lucy raised her hand to stop him. “Just hear me out. First of all there’s how she smells,” Lucy said, thinking it through as she spoke.
“What?” Max asked incredulously.
Cami laughed. “Lucy has an amazing sense of smell,” she said. “She always knows it’s me because of my bubble-gum lip gloss.”
“What do I smell like?” Max asked.
“No one wants to get into that,” Cami said impatiently. “Let Lucy speak.”
“Ms. Marwich has this lilac lotion but recently she’s smelled like other things too,” Lucy continued, things clicking into place as she spoke. “Like a while ago she smelled like the vet’s office. I thought she’d brought her cat in, but she’d said Tango was fine. So maybe she helped with Valentine’s surgery, setting it up and then going in to pay after we had our last appointment. And a few weeks ago she smelled like lavender — like the Hobby Horse, where she probably got Olivia’s sewing machine.”
“That’s pretty cool,” Joe said admiringly. “Like a super power or something.”
“Yeah,” Max agreed. “Though I’m not sure Smell Girl is going to work as a name.”
“What about —” Joe began, but Lucy cut him off, excited.
“Also, she’s a book lover and she’s obviously connected to the library.”
Max drew in a breath. “Wait a second,” he said. “When I asked Ms. Marwich about those books, the ones we think GB got out of the library, she was weird about it. I figured I was just imagining it but now I’m not so sure.”
“Weird how?” Cami asked.
“Just really serious, asking me why I wanted to know,” Max said. “And she also told me she’s in like twenty book clubs, so she’s a major reader.”
Lucy was about to reply when Joe spoke up.
“I don’t think Ms. Marwich is rich,” he said. “And that was one of the traits on the list.”
“Maybe we were wrong about that one,” Cami said thoughtfully. “Maybe you don’t need that much money to be GB, just a lot of good helpers.”
Lucy heard a shift in the way her friends were breathing as an intensity began to build in the room as the pieces came together, and her own pulse was racing.
“We know she’s really generous,” Max said. “So that part fits too. But are these things really enough to prove she’s GB?”
“There’s one more thing,” Lucy said. “And it’s the most important. Just now I heard her say that Berle was her family name. Rona Berle. Just like the RB on the bookmark. That’s all our clues and she fits every one.”
“Lucy,” Cami said, her voice tinged with awe. “You did it. You figured out GB.”
She had. As her friends began crowing at their victory, and suggesting plans for the celebration, Lucy sat quietly, letting it sink in. This whole time she had thought her blindness was making everything harder when in fact, she had been able to see what the rest of them had not. She had been the one to put together the delicate trail of clues and now they were going to be able to thank GB — Ms. Marwich — for the incredible gifts she had given to the town.
“And you thought you were holding us back,” Cami said, patting Lucy’s arm. “We’d never have figured it out w
ithout you.”
“You’re the best spy among us,” Max added.
“We’re not spies,” Cami said.
“Well, you’re not, obviously,” Max said. “I mean, you were convinced GB was the VonWolfs.”
Lucy couldn’t help laughing at that, then the sound of Cami smacking Max’s arm and Max’s howl of protest.
“We should get going,” Joe said. “We can’t plan a party for Ms. Marwich when she’s right out there.”
“Come over for dinner,” Cami said. “We can plan at my place. My grandma can help.”
Everyone agreed and then they headed out, all trying to sound casual as they came up to Ms. Marwich.
“Leaving already?” she asked.
“Yes,” Cami said, her voice high and totally un-Cami-like, which made Lucy, who was already amped up, burst into giggles.
“They’re just excited about our mission,” Max said, trying to help.
“What mission is that?” Ms. Marwich asked pleasantly.
Lucy suddenly worried they were on the verge of giving everything away but luckily Joe kept his head. “Sorry, that’s top secret,” he said. “And we should get going. Bye, Ms. Marwich!”
The four of them hustled out of the library.
“I can’t believe it’s her,” Cami said as they walked down the hall. “But at the same time it makes perfect sense. She’s one of the most generous people I’ve ever met.”
“She was the first person who talked to me when I moved here,” Joe said.
“And she never made me feel like an idiot all those times I had detention with her,” Max said.
“She always says hi to Valentine,” Lucy said. “She really is awesome.”
“We are going to give her the best Christmas celebration ever,” Cami said. “To thank her for everything she’s done for us and everyone else in town.”
“I’m game,” Max said. Lucy heard the slippery sound of him sliding his arms into his coat as they neared the front door of the school.
“Same,” Joe said.
For a moment Lucy felt the tug of resistance, the fear that she would hinder more than she helped. But then she remembered — she had been the one to figure out GB. “I’m in too,” she said.
And the joy in her voice mirrored that of her friends. Because thanks to the Angel Tree, Lucy had her beloved dog, her new friends, and, most of all, the knowledge that she was capable of just about anything.
And that was a gift that would last forever.
The last note of Cami Patrick’s solo shimmered in the starry night and for a moment Ms. Marwich and the crowd gathered in the Pine River town square for the Christmas Gala stood in perfect silence, the beauty of the music washing over them. Then the applause broke out, thunderous and strong as Cami took a quick bow.
“Thank you for coming and a very Merry Christmas to all!” Mr. Carmichael called out, officially ending the Christmas Gala.
As always Ms. Marwich had enjoyed every moment, from the toddler sing-along to the gorgeous solo Cami Patrick had played. She searched for Cami when the musicians came down from the stage but, after looking for a good ten minutes, was unable to locate her. Perhaps she and her grandmother had rushed off to prepare for their Chistmas dinner. Ms. Marwich had nothing to rush home to, so she stayed, chatting with friends and neighbors and drinking the hot cider being served in front of the makeshift stage. Everyone was discussing how this year’s Gala had been the best ever. It was a comment Ms. Marwich had heard for the past thirty years and each year it was true.
As she walked to get a second cup of cider, she was pleasantly surprised to see the Barristers each holding paper cups of cider, looking shy but happy to be part of things. She stopped to greet them, then to say hi to Alma Sanchez. One by one families drifted off toward home to eat their Christmas dinner together. Ms. Marwich remained as the square slowly emptied, stirring her cooling cider with a cinnamon stick and talking with several town library board members. But she knew it was time to finally head home when they once again invited her to join the board in the coming year. It was an invitation she had turned down many times, each time feeling guilty but always knowing that it was a commitment she simply could not afford to make. Not when she needed every spare moment she had for the Angel Tree.
She had started the Angel Tree the year her husband had died in a car accident. They had no children and with the loss of her husband, Ms. Marwich’s life had been ripped apart, a gaping hole at its center. She had only lived in Pine River for five years but the townsfolk rallied around her, organizing neighbors to bring her dinner each night, mowing her lawn, then raking her leaves, and finally plowing her front path and driveway. As winter settled in and the looming prospect of her first Christmas alone approached, she had taken stock of things. She decided that rather than mourn what she didn’t have, she would do something for the town that had helped her heal. She could never get her husband back but she could help other people get what they needed, the wishes closest to their hearts. And so the Angel Tree began.
That first year had started small but she’d seen children get supplies they needed to pursue their passions, adults get the one thing they needed to survive a rough patch, and the kindness of neighbors as the people of Pine River gave most of the gifts that adorned the tree. When it was done and Christmas arrived, Ms. Marwich had felt a sense of joy she had not believed could be possible after her loss. And so every year she made the arrangements to put up the tree, helped organize the wishes that were complicated, and fulfilled those that were left. Every year it brought her rich contentment to see the people of Pine River, who had been there for her, come together and support each other.
But as she headed home in the frosty night air, sadness tinged the elation she felt for this year’s tree. Because now, with her bank account dwindling and her aging body aching from the toll of all the work, Ms. Marwich was not sure she could do it another year. She sighed, pushing the thought away. There would be time to consider what could be done next week. Right now all she wanted was to get home to her quiet little house and climb into bed.
Snow began to fall as she turned onto her block, gentle flakes that glowed in the lights and decorations carefully set up in each yard and on each house. Except, of course, for her own house at the end of the street. December was always such a whirlwind of activities for the Angel Tree that it left her no time to decorate her home or prepare any kind of Christmas feast. In fact, this year she had not even managed to go grocery shopping in the days leading up to the holiday. She would be eating leftovers if she could muster up the energy to heat them.
She was shivering a bit as she passed the Murrays’ home. The bushes in their yard were covered with twinkling colored lights that matched the lights strung along the roof of their home. A lit candle glowed in each window and a carefully woven wreath hung on their door. Ms. Marwich took a moment to admire it before walking on to her house, which she knew would be dark.
Except that it wasn’t. Ms. Marwich stopped on the sidewalk and blinked, wondering if her fatigue was causing some kind of vision problem. But as she looked again, the truth was undeniable. Her home was adorned with lights, the bushes in her yard decorated with delicate poinsettia blossoms, and on her door hung a wreath dotted with bright red holly berries. Her windows were lit up and each had a candle casting its soft light out into the black night. It was a thing of beauty and Ms. Marwich’s breath caught in her throat as she drank it in.
But then curiosity overtook her. Who had sneaked into her home and created such a delightful surprise? She hurried up the freshly shoveled stone path to her front door to find out.
The first thing she noticed when she pushed open the heavy door was the swirl of delicious smells that greeted her: If the fragrance was anything to go by, a true feast had been prepared while she was away.
Ms. Marwich hurried down the hall to the open living and dining room and then she gasped, a hand flying to her chest. Colored Christmas lights had been strung along the walls
, bathing the room in a festive glow. The big wooden table was laden with scrumptious food — crackling duck, fluffy biscuits, fresh baked apple pie. And crowded around it was what seemed like the entire town of Pine River. Dozens of people were crammed into the room, with more spilling into the kitchen and onto the back deck.
“Surprise!” everyone shouted.
She could not believe what she was seeing, yet a warmth was building in her, radiating out as she gazed on the smiling faces around her.
Max, Joe, Cami, and Lucy, arms linked, made their way out of the crowd and gestured to everyone to be quiet. Then they turned to Ms. Marwich. “You’ve given the Angel Tree to our town for twenty-five years,” Cami said, her eyes shining.
Max stepped forward. “And made so many of our wishes come true.”
Joe cleared his throat. “You helped all of us see what Christmas really is.”
“So now it’s our turn to bring Christmas to you!” Lucy exclaimed. And everyone cheered.
Ms. Marwich was struck speechless. For twenty-five years she had kept her secret hidden, yet somehow these four had discovered the truth. And she could not imagine how, not when she’d covered her tracks so carefully. Yet as she looked at their faces beaming with pride, she couldn’t help but feel grateful. After twenty-five years she was ready to be discovered.
Pat Jordan, the Pine River mayor, came forward. She smiled warmly at Ms. Marwich.
“We are so grateful for the generosity of spirit you have shown to our town,” the mayor said in her clear voice. “The Angel Tree has brought hope to the people of Pine River when they needed it the most. And joy to every one of us who has borne witness to the acts of kindness it generated. So now, as token of our gratitude, we have some things for you.”
The crowd parted, opening up a small path and it was only then that Ms. Marwich saw the towering Christmas tree in the corner of her living room, lit up with lights, blanketed in colorful decorations, and crowned with a shining gold star. Presents were piled beneath it and next to it stood a small display that was covered with an ivory cloth.
The Angel Tree Page 13