Short Story Soup

Verdant Pink (gxg)

A/N - This is the Third one shot fanfic for the Pride Book Club that I'm a member of. This is from the book Verdant Ink, a very cool gxg Sci Fi book by pixelmum that I highly recommend checking out!

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"Pelin!" came the voice of my bitch of a boss, Jen Fore. Even over the damned radio I could feel her beady eyes boring into me. "Get your ass over to the job on Prospect Street and start clearing the land! They want that pool in there, pronto!"

               I groaned, having just come back from planting a dozen shrubs in front of a new construction home, and really didn't want to go chop down trees. I knew Prospect Street bordered Wompatuck State Park, here in Hingham Massachusetts, and the trees there would probably be gorgeous. They were certainly not anything I'd want to cut up, and I hated being sent on the assignments that made me do that. I wanted to plant things, not cut them down! This wasn't how I wanted to spend my Friday.

               "Yeah, I'll get it!" I trudged back into the big truck, then backed it up to the woodchipper. Once the trees were cut up, I'd have to call for the dump truck to get all the chips to be made into mulch. The chipper was quickly attached to the truck, and I got out on the road for the trip to the next job. The roads were hilly and windy in that direction, and it took a while with the trailer attached to the truck, but I took my time, and soon enough pulled up to a charming blue cape style house, with an attached garage. I pulled the truck up in front of the house, putting on the emergency flashers since we were still partially in the road.

               I stalked up to the front door, my clipboard with the job details in hand, trying to stand up to every inch of my 5'4" frame. I was already sore, and I hadn't even started the job. Stepping up to the front door, I rang the bell. A few minutes later, I rang it again, and there was finally an answer. A gray haired older lady, Mrs. Karinja according to the paperwork, opened the door, peering out at me.

               "Yes?"

               "Hello, Mrs. Karinja. My name is Pelin, and I work for Alliance Landscaping. I'm here to cut down your trees to put in the pool?" I told her.

               "Oh! Yes! I need the pool for my little grandbabies. They should be visiting this summer!" She perked right up at the mention. "There are stakes and tape, so you know what trees to cut down."

               "Excellent! Thank you very much ma'am. I'll get right to it." I grunted lightly as I stepped off the front steps and walked around to the back yard to understand what was needed. The back was gorgeous, with a chain link fence a good way back that marked the border with the state park, and a large expanse of grass with several trees providing the perfect amount of shade. I could see two wooden stakes in the ground, with orange plastic tape that bounded the area that the pool and deck would encompass.

               Unfortunately, inside that tape were two lovely maple trees, my personal favorites.

               It killed me to think that I'd have to cut them down, but I knew it needed to happen. They were much too big to try to transplant without much bigger equipment than could fit around the house. With a sigh, I went back to the truck. I'd have to trim up a lot of the branches before I got to the main trunks, and it would be a long process.

               When I made my way to the backyard once more, I had to double check I was at the correct house again, because it seemed all wrong. There were no trees inside the tape! Oddly though, it was harder to see the chain link fence now though, almost as if there were more trees between me and it, and there was a slight rustling in the branches, though there was very little breeze. I was losing my mind, right?