I had agreed to help her every day this Month, since there was nothing else to do.
Except failing online.
‘’It’s fine. I like getting my hands dirty,’’ I smiled at her.
And okay, maybe that came out wrong.
But she was sixty something, so she probably didn’t notice.
‘’All we have to do now, is wait for my other helper,’’ she beamed at me.
I blinked at her and grabbed a shovel, beginning to shovel up the huge bricks.
‘’Who is it?’’ I grunted, wiggling it deeper in the soil.
Probably some other girl she had begged to get the job done. As long as they were nice.
And not nosy about my business.
I couldn’t stand people like this.
‘’Oh it’s just a kind new neighborhood boy,’’ Mrs. Larkspur strapped on knee pads.
You were old if you needed those.
‘’Okay,’’ My voice cracked as I shoveled some more dirt into the pile.
We worked in silence for about ten minutes until a small mini-van pulled onto the gravel driveway.
‘’I brought some crackers! Just in case we got hungry on the job. And they’re low fat just for you Mrs. Larkspur.’’
I knew the voice the minute they started talking.
‘’Ash?’’ I sputtered out taking in the long red apron he was wearing.
He grinned at me and slid on some matching cranberry gloves that were defintley his Mom’s.
Oh God.
‘’Ah so you two have met already. Perfect!’’ she put a hand on his shoulder.
‘’Yeah I spilled some steaming hot coffee on her shorts,’’ Ash smiled sheepishly.
I rolled my eyes and kept my back turned, still shoveling.
‘’And also her leather backpack,’’ he blabbed on.
Mrs. Larkspur was staring off in the distance watching the wind toss pine trees around.
‘’Is that okay by the way? I Googled it and the internet said that bleach helps to get stains out,’’ he gave me a thumbs up.
Could he please just shut up for once?
‘’It’s fine,’’ I snapped finally facing him.
Ash didn’t seem to notice, because he started shoveling right next to me.
‘’Are you sure you don’t want an easier job?’’ I smirked at him, gripping my shovel tighter.
He looked down at his gloves and grinned back at me.
‘’I know I’m short but do I look like a third grader?’’ his eyes sparkled.
I gritted my teeth and gripped one of the bricks in my shovel aiming it for his toe.
And shoot!
I winced as Ash yelped and grabbed his toe.
‘’Sorry,’’ I stiffled a laugh but somehow it got out.
‘’It’s fine. I didn’t need my foot anyway, my dog’s always chewing on it anyway. He almost got my toe last night,’’ he went back to shoveling.
Could dogs actually eat humans?
Ash stiffened as I got a dirty red brick and put it in my pile. At least he was scared of me now.
Rule Two.
‘’I wish I had a dog,’’ I sighed, brushing sweat off my wet face.
‘’You could have mine. He hates me. Last night I tried to feed him and he mauled me down,’’ Ash shuddered.
Mrs. Larkspur made a whining sound and stopped digging.
‘’What’s wrong?’’ I turned to her.
A few tears trickled down her grimy face. Probably thinking about her son.
‘’Did you know there’s three types of tears? Basal tears, reflex tears and emotional tears,’’ Ash bent down to throw a brick away.
I actually thought that was pretty interesting. It seemed like I cried the third kind the most.
Especially at night, where no one would ever see me.
No comments:
Post a Comment