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And this summer’s new hardcover, Caroline’s Journal, also to be published in August, is set in my own hometown, Seattle

I hope you enjoy The Apple Orchard and, if the spirit moves you, the other books Please drop by my Web site--katherinestoneco address is Katherine Stone, PO Box 758, Mukilteo, WA 98275

Thanks for spending time with Clara, Elizabeth and Nick

With all best wishes,

To those who serve, and those who love theon

Deceo

Histo be really mad So would Marianne, hislate out on her, too

How many times, Dennis would shout, had he made it clear that if Nick wasn’t home frolar alarm set, and Nick would have to wait outside until his mom and Dennis returned from work at 1:00 am?

It wasn’t an idle threat Since September, when Marianne and Nick had moved to Sarah’s Orchard to live with Dennis, Nick had spent five nights outside Dennis didn’t care that Nick had an excuse for his tardiness In each instance, the entire second-grade class--Nick’s class--at Orchard Elementary had been dismissed late It wasn’t because of bad behavior, Nick had tried to explain All five ti to celebrate

Today’s celebration, a Christmas party, orth whatever punishment Dennis chose to inflict It didn’t matter how cold Nick would be by the time Dennis and Marianne returned Nick’s teacher had played the piano, and all the second-graders had gathered round to sing carols The students took turns singing verses No one laughed ords were forgotten or the tune was off key

Nick wasn’t sure his classmates even detected the discordant notes He did He couldn’t help it According to his teacher, he had perfect pitch He hadn’t known it before enrolling at Orchard Elementary In fact, seven-year-old Nicholas Lawton hadn’t even realized he could sing

But he could, and he loved it

He’d sing carols tonight, he decided as he ran toward the house--twoalready He’d sing as he froze on the porch His carols would be sung quietly and in the shadows The neighbors , Dennis had warned, whether he was guarding Dennis’s house from the outside or within

That was Nick’s job, to make certain no one tried to break in while Dennis and Marianne were at the tavern where cocktail waitress Marianne served the drinks that bartender Dennis poured Dennis s in the basement of the dilapidated house on Center Street Nick had never seen the lab The door was always locked

If not for his illegal enterprise, Dennis wouldn’t have cared when Nick got home from school It wasn’t Nick’s comfort--food, shelter, warmth--that made him furious when Nick was so late Dennis had to leave before he arrived Dennis wanted Nick inside, awake and watchful, ready to call the tavern should anyone approach

Nick had made a number of such calls Dennis had never thanked hiht away He’d yelled at the uninvited visitors, and on two occasions, he’d waved his gun around until they left Even when he’d stopped yelling long enough to sell drugs to the intruders, he’d warned them that any future transactions would take place only at the bar

Dennis could’ve given Nick the code for the burglar alarm That way, Nick could let himself in on the afternoons he was late, reset the alarm once inside and be close to the phone if he needed it Nick wasn’t tall enough to reach the alarm panel But if Dennis put a chair beneath it…

Nick ive hi at Nick for being so stupid as to iin with, much less trust that once he had the code, he wouldn’t si elsewhere instead of "earning his keep"

Nick was doing his best toas fast as he could He didn’t even slow his pace as he neared the apple orchard for which the town had been named

Nick knew the town’s history All Orchard Eleraders did Their teacher believed it was important for them to know, and told the story in a fairy-tale way Nick loved this story; he’d o, the tale began, Dr Ja city, Portland, to as then the fars had an apple tree in Portland Sarah treasured the tree and its apples The tree was too large to be transplanted, but the cuttings Sarah took flourished on the small piece of Riverville farmland the town’s new doctor had purchased

Apples hadn’t been grown in Riverville until Sarah planted her orchard But they became the crop of Riverville, which was renamed Sarah’s Orchard in honor of the doctor’s wife Sarah’s husband left a legacy, too The Keeling Clinic Renowned for its exceptional staff and unsurpassed expertise in any number of medical specialties, the clinic was a referral center for patients from coast to coast

Sarah’s acre of apples had been a fa one, and that was how it stayed

All the town’s orchards were beautiful when the apples were ripening and the leaves were green But Nick thought the orchard that had been Sarah’s remained beautiful even after the fruit was plucked and the branches were bare

He didn’t knohat made the trees beckon to him on these wintry afternoons He knew only that they did Tiainst the orchard’s three-railed fence And on the afternoons when he dashed out of the classroom the moment the dismissal bell sounded, there was ti or two

Nick wished he could sing carols, even one carol, to the apple trees on this Dece made sure that Dennis and his o back to the orchard and spend the evening here It wouldn’t feel as cold--here Somehow the barren trees would warhts Nick was forced to keep vigil froet tavern customers, drunken ones, to drop by They were supposed to confirm that Nick was there--and that, as they approached, he demand to knoho they were and what they wanted

Nick ran past the orchard, stu--as he took his eyes from the path ahead to the trees he wanted to see In the distance he saw the fars lived there, it had been painted white and teal--which, his teacher explained, was a blend of green and blue The neners kept the original color scheme until the end of World War Two With the help of the entire town, the young bride painted it daffodil-yelloith butter-creauide her soldier husband home

The soldier must have liked the beacon The far to Nick even on cloudy afternoons