"...Why must you be so recalcitrant?" A male voice stated loudly. It was the same kind of voice her mother used when she wanted to yell, and was attempting to hide it. Anna tiptoed closer as she became scared at the foreign voice inside her home.
"First of all keep your voice down, she's asleep. She's too young. She wouldn't understand. What if she starts calling you 'dad'? Are you ready for that kind of commitment?" Anna's mother whisper yelled. Anna felt relieved that her mother was here, not really paying attention to what they were saying. All she knew was that this man was making her mother mad, and no one hurts her momma. She bounded into the room and spotted the man.
Hitting and kicking every single part of him she could reach she screamed "Stop yelling at my mommy. Go away! Stop hurting her." She continued to scream and punch at him as her mom pulled the child from the man.
"I think it's best if you leave." She said cradling Anna assuring her that she was ok. Somewhere behind Anna's back the door to their tiny apartment slammed shut. Turning around in her mother's lap she saw the man was gone. She sighed. She didn't like him. Not one bit.
Hitting and kicking every single part of him she could reach she screamed "Stop yelling at my mommy. Go away! Stop hurting her." She continued to scream and punch at him as her mom pulled the child from the man.
"I think it's best if you leave." She said cradling Anna assuring her that she was ok. Somewhere behind Anna's back the door to their tiny apartment slammed shut. Turning around in her mother's lap she saw the man was gone. She sighed. She didn't like him. Not one bit.
"That's it," he spoke to the koi swimming by. "It's time to bring the garden to the people, or the people to the garden."
ReplyDeleteSo he gathered small seedling pots, and separated some larger plants, and transplanted them. He stood gazing over his projects.
For the rest of the evening, as the sun was going down, he labelled the pots for delivery to the residents. By 3 AM he had delivered to Anna, Arizona, and Brendan a "Flaming Katy"
to Caris, Cleo, and Joseph a "Panda Plant" to Letitia, Luca, and Pierre a "Crown of Thorns" he thought they all needed a little light and interest in their lives.
To Eliana and Violet a Burro's tail because, well, he couldn't really explain why.
He thought Tyson, Don Tom and Apollo along with Ollie needed a bit of Aloe Vera.
Finally, Maple, Master Gooway and Violet would receive a larger sampling of Jade Plants. For some reason, Jack thought that they needed a Bonsai variation - they needed a hobby to calm themselves.
Ms. Christie dropped Caris off at the Zip ‘n’ Sip at 10:07 am exactly. He remembered because he was counting down the minutes until he could go home.
ReplyDeleteIt’s not that he didn’t like roller skating, he did. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Anna Evita, he did. Well kind of. She talked too much and sang too loud and danced too wildly. He did like how her name rhymed. And it wasn’t because he was missing the Iron Man cartoon on Nickelodeon at 11 am.
It wasn’t any of this. It was that on his day off he had hoped to walk around town and ask more people what they knew about Mr. Evans. But Ms. Christie and Anna’s mom both had to work so they left their children to stumble around the roller rink until their knees were as dark and purple as the sky outside.
After 52 minutes of dragging himself along the wall around the edge of the rink while Anna skated circles around him, Caris felt dizzy.
“Anna,” he called, “let’s take a break.”
“Already? Just one more second.”
“One,” Caris retorted. “C’mon Ms. Christie gave me some money. I’ll buy us both milkshakes.” Caris knew she wouldn’t say no to that.
“Oh, fine,” she whined. She did one last turn and rolled gracefully to the edge of the rink.
Just as Caris tried to get out of the rink to follow her, the lights flicked, accompanying the huge crack of thunder from outside. Caris tripped on the edge of the rink and fell, hard.
“Let me help you up,” Anna said reaching down to .
Anna reached her hand out again and Caris took it. Caris watched his feet as they moved, intent on not falling again. His skates were a muted brown with a mysterious stain on the tow. He had rented them from the rink. Anna’s skates were hot pink and sparkly but they stayed next to him the whole way.
She began to sing under her breath as they skated. “Anna, Anna, bo-banna
Banana-fana fo-fanna, Fee-fi-mo-manna, Anna!” he wanted to laugh but he was scared to lose his balance.
“How’d you get so good at skating anyway?” Caris asked.
“I come here a lot when my mom can’t watch me. I like how I feel like I’m flying when I skate.”
When they finally reached the counter, they hop up on the bar stools and waited for the soda jerk to take their orders. Caris personally thought the guy was pretty nice but maybe that’s just what they were called in the 50’s.
Caris orders plain chocolate and Anna orders birthday cake flavor with sprinkles inside and whipped cream and a cherry on top. Caris payed with the crumpled $10 bill from his back pocket.
The kids sipped their milkshakes silently and Caris wished he was out finding clues about Mr. Evans. Maybe he still could.
“Did you ever know Mr. Evans?” Caris asked.
“Yup! He’s the one who taught me that song I was singing!”
“Do you know-” Before Caris could finish his thought, the lights flickered again, and again, and again. The last time they didn’t come back on.
“What do we do now?” Caris asked.
“I don’t know,” Anna replied. Caris didn’t know either but he did know that he and Anna would be spending a lot more time together.