The clouds and the thunder roll back in over the point and the fairy tale ends, real life picking up and running with the narrative for the new week. A busy week. A trying week, and it's only Monday. God help us.
The rain is coming back and it makes me happy. My garden loves it. The cauliflower are the size of volleyballs. The lavender is strong and beautiful. The grapes are coming in so fast we can't keep up and the peas and beans are flowering like mad, as are the tomatoes. I have a huge rosemary plant, and an equally impressive oregano one, and I feel accomplished when I look at the gardens. Like I can at least do one thing right. I inherited my grandmother's green thumb and I'll never waste it, that's for sure. The only difference is this year we're doing two cucumber plants instead of seven, because last year things got a little out of hand.
Plus it's therapeutic.
Who's going to knock that?
Lochlan finds me out on the bluff where the strawberry patch is, wind in my freshly shorn hair, skirt billowing around my ankles as I water them diligently. Rain or not, some plants need a ton of water. I'm making sure they get it.
He came and went the past few nights. Leaving just as things were getting good only to reappear when things were on the downswing. He's subtle like that, generous like that, and now he's here to make sure Caleb's most recent gift isn't going to put him on the outside for yet another night.
Peanut. What's this?
Yellow beans.
Ah. Everything's growing amazingly.
I nod.
Bridgie, I know you're mad at me.
I'm not 'mad' per se-
Ruffled.
That's a good way to describe it. Like a bird. I'm a bird.
You are like a bird. Like a magpie. Finding pretty things and flying away.
I say nothing. Here we go with the stay-puts and the stick-beside-mes as if he can undo history and fix all of this shit in one go.
I just wanted to know if you feel better. If it works. If this is what you want. What you need. I don't know. I just want to know that it's worth the sacrifice. If it isn't then we should change it.
I shrug. I don't have the answers I think he wants.
Do you feel better though?
Let me put it this way. I felt like I've felt all along but then just now you got here and now I feel better. Relieved. Safe.
Oh, that's the best answer I could have hoped for. He's got tears in his eyes and I feel so small suddenly.
Loch-
Don't say it. Leave it at that. That was all I needed to hear.
The rain is coming back and it makes me happy. My garden loves it. The cauliflower are the size of volleyballs. The lavender is strong and beautiful. The grapes are coming in so fast we can't keep up and the peas and beans are flowering like mad, as are the tomatoes. I have a huge rosemary plant, and an equally impressive oregano one, and I feel accomplished when I look at the gardens. Like I can at least do one thing right. I inherited my grandmother's green thumb and I'll never waste it, that's for sure. The only difference is this year we're doing two cucumber plants instead of seven, because last year things got a little out of hand.
Plus it's therapeutic.
Who's going to knock that?
Lochlan finds me out on the bluff where the strawberry patch is, wind in my freshly shorn hair, skirt billowing around my ankles as I water them diligently. Rain or not, some plants need a ton of water. I'm making sure they get it.
He came and went the past few nights. Leaving just as things were getting good only to reappear when things were on the downswing. He's subtle like that, generous like that, and now he's here to make sure Caleb's most recent gift isn't going to put him on the outside for yet another night.
Peanut. What's this?
Yellow beans.
Ah. Everything's growing amazingly.
I nod.
Bridgie, I know you're mad at me.
I'm not 'mad' per se-
Ruffled.
That's a good way to describe it. Like a bird. I'm a bird.
You are like a bird. Like a magpie. Finding pretty things and flying away.
I say nothing. Here we go with the stay-puts and the stick-beside-mes as if he can undo history and fix all of this shit in one go.
I just wanted to know if you feel better. If it works. If this is what you want. What you need. I don't know. I just want to know that it's worth the sacrifice. If it isn't then we should change it.
I shrug. I don't have the answers I think he wants.
Do you feel better though?
Let me put it this way. I felt like I've felt all along but then just now you got here and now I feel better. Relieved. Safe.
Oh, that's the best answer I could have hoped for. He's got tears in his eyes and I feel so small suddenly.
Loch-
Don't say it. Leave it at that. That was all I needed to hear.