Fortune's Magic Farm by Suzanne Selfors (rainbow fish read aloud .txt) 📕

break your promise. But in the end you proved yourself honest. I almost gave up. I fired all the farmhands and stopped working because I thought it was over. But then Sage found you.” He spread his arms out like branches. “The future of the world can’t lie in just anyone’s hands, now can it? Certainly not. But a Fortune with a curious mind and a hero’s heart and a head of brilliantly green hair, now that’s the kind of person the world can rely upon.”

Isabelle’s confusion began to clear. “You mean, you like me after all?”

“Like you? We adore you,” Walnut sang, twirling so hard that he bumped into Sage.

“We love you,” Nesbitt said softly.

“You… love me?” Only one other person had ever said those words to Isabelle. She took a step back, shaking her head in disbelief, the marmot perched on her shoulder. “You don’t think I’m just like my mother?”

Nesbitt’s knee creaked as he stood. “You’re like your mother in all the ways that your mother was good, and kind, and special. But because you were raised as an outsider, I had to put you through a test,” he explained. “Before Sage became the farm’s protector, he also had to pass a test. But he proved himself trustworthy, just as you have.”

Sage hadn’t said anything. He kept his distance, avoiding Isabelle’s gaze. Nesbitt leaned over and whispered in Isabelle’s ear. “The lies were entirely my doing. Sage does not deserve your anger. He is the truest protector this farm has ever employed.”

“Does this mean that you want me to live on the farm?”

“We want that more than anything in the entire world!” Walnut cried.

“And Rocky?”

“Rocky can stay too,” Nesbitt said.

“But you seemed so mad,” Isabelle said to her grandfather, not quite ready to believe. “You yelled so loudly.”

“That, my dear, was acting.” Nesbitt bowed as Walnut enthusiastically applauded. “Had I not been born a tender, I’m certain I would have joined the theatre. When I was a schoolboy, I had the lead role in Madame Pungent’s production of Prince Arthur and the Land of Half-witted Trolls.”

“I played the part of the Land,” Walnut called out. “I grew my own costume.”

“You’re not going to let the farm die?”

“Never,” Nesbitt said. “Though I’ve felt sad for a very long time, I could never let the farm die. A true tender could never do such a thing.”

The farm wouldn’t die. She and Rocky could stay. But confusion still clouded the moment. “So what is true? Is my grandmother alive or not?”

Nesbitt patted the marmot’s head. “She’s very much alive and very well. One of our ravens just returned from checking on her.”

A smile burst onto Isabelle’s face. “She’s alive? She’s well? Sage was telling the truth about giving her a cherry?”

“Yes,” Nesbitt replied. “It looks like we have a happy ending.”

“Happy, happy, happy,” Walnut chanted, kicking up his short legs.

Isabelle laughed and all the bad feelings from last night washed away like gray water down the drain. She could barely contain her excitement. She started dancing around like Great-Uncle Walnut. The marmot scampered between their feet, nearly tripping them. Sage leaned against a tree, watching with amusement. A happy ending for a skinny factory worker from the most miserable place on Earth.

“Wait.” Isabelle stopped dancing. “It’s not a happy ending. What about Runny Cove? What about my grandmother and my friends and the rain and the factory?”

“What about your grandmother and your friends and the rain and the factory?” Nesbitt asked, raising his eyebrows.

“I still want to go back. I… need to go back.”

“Whatever for?” His eyes twinkled in a teasing way.

“I want to give Curative Cherries to everyone in Runny Cove and get rid of all the Cloud Clover so the sun can shine.” She waited for his reaction. Only he could give permission to take things from the farm. Would he get angry again? She folded her arms. “I’m going back. Even if you won’t let me take some cherries, I still have to try to get rid of the clover. I’ll do it by myself, if I must.”

Nesbitt, Walnut, and Sage exchanged knowing looks. “I think that giving everyone in Runny Cove a Curative Cherry and digging up all the Cloud Clover is a grand plan,” Nesbitt said. “What do you think, Sage? Can we risk another trip to Runny Cove?”

Sage stepped forward; his usually brooding face had softened. “I’ve covered the caravan in Camouflage Creepers so it can’t be seen by gyrocopter.” He lifted some vines to reveal the oxen. “And I loaded the cherries into the back just as you ordered.”

“You ordered?” Isabelle asked.

“Sage told me about your plan,” her grandfather said. “He also told me that he wanted to help you. So I gave him permission to collect some cherries.” Sage, Walnut, and Nesbitt threw off their capes. Each wore a bright green kelp suit.

Even though he tried to escape before she reached him, and even though he looked about as unhappy as a barnacle without a shell, Isabelle gave Sage a great big Vice Vine hug.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Walnut asked. “Let’s go.”

Farewell, Isabelle, the trees whispered. Safe journey to you.

“Goodbye,” she replied, waving to the swaying pines.

Nesbitt looked around. “Who are you waving at?”

“The trees,” she explained. “They have whispery voices, don’t you think? They sound kind of like the wind.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Nesbitt said, smiling and stroking his chin. “No one’s had the power to hear the trees since the first tender. Dear, dear Isabelle, what a surprise you’ve turned out to be.”

Nesbitt gave Eve the cat instructions to watch over the farm. She rubbed against his leg again, then she pranced through the tunnel, her tail held high and proud. The vines closed behind her.

As Nesbitt and Walnut climbed into the camouflaged caravan, Isabelle smiled at Sage. He actually smiled back.

“It’s going to be a happy ending,” she whispered.

Long before they reached the beach, Isabelle knew that Neptune had arrived because it smelled as if she