For mid-April, the day was a little cool, but he breathed in deeply and smiled at the scents wafting from the diner. Apple Pie. His favorite. Of course, with a name like Apple Grove, the town went a little gaga over apples. Streets bore names like Gala, Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, and Delicious. Even his new home was on McIntosh Lane. He’d chuckled at that. His mom had collected apple items—her whole kitchenhad been done in apples when he and Mandy were kids. When he’d moved to Apple Grove, he’d wondered what had happened to all that. Nobody to really ask, though. Once she’d passed and their dad moved them, all traces of her had been erased from their lives as if she’d never existed.
His dad had recovered from the loss with a lot more ease than Chad and his sister. In only several months, he’d remarried and even had the audacity to order them to call his new wife “Mom,” but Chad had put his foot down. There were some lines he wasn’t willing to cross. It didn’t matter that his stepmother was a nice enough woman—she wasn’t his mother.
Now, judging from the line of people snaking out the drugstore and down the sidewalk, Chad assumed they’d already started selling their legendary apple cobbler smoothie. This was a line he would have to cross, as he needed to get inside.
Chad found the owner, Russell Graham, behind the old-fashioned ice cream counter that ran along one side of the store. The polished metal counter curved at one end with an opening to allow staff to work behind it. Large black-and-white vintage photographs of the town, framed in red, decorated the walls. Round black leather stools on metal poles stood at attention along the front of the counter, but nobody was sitting in them. Everyone wanted to get their smoothie and head outside to find a good spot to watch the parade.
Since the parade was one of the biggest events in town every year, even schools were closed, which apparently brought out the mischievousness in the teens, at least according to his captain and sergeant. Local organizations—women’s leagues, kids’ troops, lodge groups, as well as schools, businesses, and the town council—had worked for months to put together elaborate floats with a storybook theme.
When he’d asked why the storybook theme, someone had told him the tale of Ralph Garner, the founder of Apple Grove. Back in the spring of 1946, Garner had been trying to court a woman named Aurora, but she wouldn’t give him the time of day. World War II had ended that winter and many families had lost loves ones. Businesses were floundering and people were struggling. Garner had decided the town needed a distraction, something to pull the community together. As the legend goes, he’d felt that love couldn’t grow in Apple Grove until people found something to unite them. Because Garner was an EnglishProfessor partial to fairy tales—and the woman he loved was named after Sleeping Beauty—he figured, why not celebrate Happily Ever After?
Garner had worked tirelessly for months to convince the town counsel to hold a parade, and they’d finally given in, even though most of them had felt it a waste of money and resources. Apparently they’d gotten tired of him pushing for the event. So Garner and his best friend, a florist, had combined forces and worked together for weeks to create a beautiful float with roses and lilies and a variety of other flowers. It featured a huge spinning wheel and an oversized rose, with Garner dressed as a prince. When the float had rounded the street corner, Garner went down on one knee while the float stopped directly in front of Aurora. He proposed, and to his complete surprise, she’d said yes, joining him on the float for the rest of the parade. Of course, as legendary romances tend to go, the couple had lived happily ever after.
There had been only three floats that initial year, along with the high school marching band, but the parade had become a tradition—now the second biggest annual event held in Apple Grove. Each fall they also held the “Apple Grove Festival” that ran Friday through Sunday. For that event, the main square shut down and tables and tents went up with crafts, goodies, contests of all sorts, and, of course, carnival games.
Chad was excited about the parade and loved the romance of the story, although in his storybook romance, he would have proposed to the prince instead of Aurora.
Now, Russell handed him a smoothie and Chad accepted it gratefully. He had skipped breakfast, and the frosty treat looked and smelled delicious. He slid a five across the counter and told Russell to keep the change before he headed out the door, scanning the growing crowd. The parade wouldn’t start for about forty-five minutes, so he hoped they wouldn’t get too rowdy as they waited.