Chapter One:
Emily Sands thought she had seen nothing more beautiful than the view from the hill. It was a view she had visited almost every day for the past year. A sight she dreamed about practically every night.
To get to her favorite spot on the hill, she’d park her car at the bottom of the rise and hike. In the rain and snow she often slid down as much as she moved up, but the view was always worth the effort.
It was the middle of February in Pennsylvania, so Emily had dressed for the cold. It had snowed the day before, leaving about a foot of snow on the ground. But with chains on her boots, the trek up the hill hadn’t been as hard as the first time she had tried to climb it in bad weather.
Emily was not a fan of cold, and given the choice of hot or cold, she would choose hot anytime. However, she had learned that good things come from the cold and the winter season. It was a time of retreat, of planning, of preparation. And she was doing all three.
Emily thought that February was both the worst month of the year and the best. It was still winter, but as the season wound down, instead of snow sometimes there would be brown mud and chilly winds. Those were the days Emily liked the least. On the other hand, spring was right around the corner, and that vision was on everyone’s mind. No matter where you went, someone would be talking about the weather and the coming season of green and growing things.
During her weekly grocery shopping trip, Emily had struck up a conversation with a friend about picking out dahlia bulbs for planting in the spring. Within minutes, four other women had joined them talking about the wonders of dahlias. If it wasn’t dahlias, it was tulips or roses. Browsing through bulb and seed catalogs was a favorite February pastime in the village of Doveland.
For Emily, winter had been full of a different kind of browsing. She had been blueprint browsing. She had taught herself to use Google Sketch-up and drawn a version of what she was going to have built in the spring. This year, instead of a garden, she was going to plant some buildings. At least that was the dream, one that had been with her as long as she could remember. If all went well, this was the year it would come true.
As she gazed out over the snow-covered hill that she had just climbed, she thought about another reason to put up with the cold and snow. She loved to look out her window in the morning and see which animals had crossed through her yard during the night. It was incredibly exciting to see the visible tracks left behind by creatures who at any other time of the year were mostly invisible. In winter, she could see where they had been and where they were going.
Still standing, and looking down the hill that she had just come up, she could not only see her zigzagging footprints but also the tracks of the six deer she often encountered and the fox who sometimes allowed Emily to see her. Yes, winter did bring many blessings, she thought.
It was hard to tell that it was midday. The clouds hid the trek of the sun across the sky. Emily could never understand why some people thought that only sunny days were beautiful. She loved cloudy days and the feeling of being embraced by the sky itself.
Emily swung her backpack off her back as she sat down on the flat rock that jutted out from the hill, brushing the snow off before sitting. Six more weeks and spring would be here, and the snow would be mostly gone. Better than that, another few months and she would be building on this piece of heaven.
Nothing about her dream had been easy. Well, nothing about life had been easy. However, as a young girl, she had been given a gift that had saved her life. Now, she was only months away from giving other children that same gift.
Opening her backpack, she took out a sandwich and a jug of hot water. There hadn’t been time to eat before coming out to the hill. Working part-time while teaching classes in the space she had rented in town kept her busy. But her schedule enabled her to carve out the time to visit this place and watch it change with the seasons.
Today, the bare tree limbs stood out in stark contrast to the snow and gray clouds. It was like looking at lace growing into the air. Every squirrel’s nest was visible, sitting high in the branches. The bones of the tree were beautiful. In the summer, it was hard to see the structure of the tree beneath the leaves.
It reminded Emily of watching her dancers in their practice clothes that showed every movement and line of their bodies. She preferred that view, although audiences loved the costumes as much as people love leaves on trees.
At that moment, the sun made a surprise visit streaking through an opening in the clouds and sliding across the white landscape. Its warmth probed beneath the surface where all the green and glory of summer were still a few more months away.
Below, in the village of Doveland, the bells in the chapel rang out the hour. They were a recent addition, gifted to the church from the Anders family. Hank’s family.
Emily knew she would be seeing a lot of Hank Blaze in the coming months. He was going to build her dream for her. As soon as the ground was soft enough, he and his crew would be out on the hill digging foundations. She had visited him a few times out at Melvin’s place in Concourse to talk over her plans, and they had become good friends in the process.
All of it was a new beginning for her, and she hoped for the children of Doveland. Sitting on her rock imagining her dream, a deep thrill ran through Emily, bringing with it a heady rush of joy.
What Emily didn’t know was that beneath the ground lay not only the seeds of plants and grasses that were waiting to sprout in the warmth but a secret that had been buried for over forty years. A secret that would tear the town apart. A secret that threatened to destroy her dream. It was only a matter of time. Spring was coming.
