The Dangers of Pomegranate Salad

Chapter 2

Chapter 2, Tall, Dark, and Creepy.

I’m standing in front of the Underlan’s house a few days later, with a truck full of supplies. My mom dropped me off with one of the supply trucks, and had Henri take her home, so I have a truck, which I cannot drive, lots of stuff to make a garden with. I look at the house. It’s what I would describe as tall, dark, and creepy. It’s old and Victorian.  I go up to the house and knock on the door. I look around, there’s a scraggly bush that needs trimming off to the side, which has swallowed up a penguin statue.

 After a few seconds the door opens and Haden is standing in front of me, wearing a “Nightmare Before Christmas” shirt and jeans, but no shoes. He’s holding the note book I always see him with. I have a sudden urge to hide behind a trash can. He looks at me questioningly

“Hi! I’m Terre D’Artiste, from D’Artiste Landscaping and Gardens” after a moment of silence I add “I’m here to make a fairy garden?” I wonder if his parents decided not to get a fairy garden

 He looks confused then he has an, “Oh yeah” face. He nods, and motions me inside. Does he talk?  I can’t recall hearing him speak much at school “Mom, Dad, The landscaper is here” he calls out quietly. He has a soft melodious voice.

 Their house is very dark on the inside too, lots of antiques, the only thing that looks youthful is a blue back pack with penguins on it sitting on the steps. A dark haired woman, I assume his mother, comes down the stairs. She smiles and says hello. “So you’re going to make a fairy garden for us?” she asks enthusiastically. “Yep, that’s the plan.” I smile. She leads me to the back yard. It looks promising. A nice weeping willow, some tree stumps, I can work with this. “So do you want to buy fairy houses or do you want to make your own?” I ask. 

She considers. “How much will they be if we buy them from you?”  

“Twenty-five each” I say knowingly.

She thinks for a moment then nods, “Sure why not?”  

“Just one?”

“Yes, one is just right. Under the willow tree would be perfect” she say happily.

I nod. That’s where I was thinking too. “Ok so what kind of plant do you want?” I ask. “Something low maintenance, preferably. We want something pretty that we don’t have to work too hard to keep alive, besides weeding of course.”

 “Ok and what kind of design would you want?”

“Actually, your mother told us that you were very good at creating your own gardens, so my husband and I would like you to design it. We’ll look over and make suggestions, but mostly we wanted you to make it.” Now I’m really excited. I get to design it myself? Yay!  “Ok, I’ll get started with some sketches, for you.” I say pulling out a sketch pad. She nods and leaves me be. I sketch for a while, coming up with ideas. I wish I was a better artist. I’m terrible at art, really. I flunked art during the school year, but I can draft ok, it’s very simple drawings, but I’ll get my mom to help me be more elaborate. I’m in my own little world sketching out a garden.  

“Hi” Says a quiet voice. I’m startled out of my own little world, and drop the sketch book. Haden reaches down and picks it up. He has a notebook with him. I wonder what’s in it.  “Sorry” he says nervously, as he hands me the sketchbook. He turns, and walks off toward the woods at the back of the yard. I watch him disappear into the trees, intrigued, he spoke to me. I think about following him, but that would be awkward, so I go back to drawing. I look back up to where I saw him enter the woods. I think I see something there, a flash of something green, but maybe not, so I go back to drawing.

Later that day Mom comes and gets me and the truck. As we leave, I think I see something in one of the higher windows. It was a glowing green light; it came out of nowhere, and was gone as soon as I saw it. Probably nothing or maybe a rogue ninja, I think jokingly.

“So how was your first day?” mom asks.

“Good, they want me to make design the garden myself!” I say excitedly.

“Wow, that’s great!” My mom pauses, so I decide to ask her about the drafting.

 “Sure when we get home we can.”  We are silent for a moment. “So… Is Haden cute?”

 My face gets hot “MOM!”  

She laughs “I’m kidding!” I roll my eyes. We arrive home. Jen is writing in her penguin journal, and Henri has surfaced from his room.

Henri looks a lot like Jen; only, Henri’s blond hair is a mess. He’s looking for food, not that that’s unusual. “So what are we having for dinner?” Henri asks.

Jen raises a hand and pointing at the ceiling. “Pizza!” she yells.

  Mom nods, “Well, we really haven’t got anything in the fridge, so I guess we could order pizza. I need to go grocery shopping.” She mumbles the last part. She grabs her phone and calls Pizza Hut.

While she’s ordering I go feed Chat, who is a yellowy Persian, and our dogs, Zero, a yellow lab mix, and K-9, an Australian Shepherd mix. Dad named them. I miss dad, he’s a pilot for the air force and he’s overseas. He won’t be back for six months. Dad rescued them a few years ago, and named them after Dogs from his favorite shows. I miss my dad, with his curly Carmel colored hair and blue eyes. I have my dad’s hair but my mom’s eyes. I finish feeding the dogs and head back to the kitchen. K-9 and Zero are quite happy to be fed, so I head back inside.

 Henri and Jen are wrestling over her notebook. Henri took it to be funny and Jen tackled him. It’s interesting to watch because she’s eighty pounds and he’s a hundred sixty.  It looks like she’s winning.

 “I’m on the phone!” mom yells from the kitchen. Jen and Henri stop fighting immediately. When mom yells you know it means business. Henri hands Jen her notebook, which she swipes from his hand. She sticks her tongue out at him then says “Swiper no swiping”

 He raises an eyebrow. “Did you really just quote Dora at me?”

I jump onto the couch, and turn on the TV. I look at what’s on. I’m very tempted to put on one of my favorite shows, but decide to play it safe, choosing science over hot cartoon characters in the sake of dignity. I turn on Mythbusters, a family favorite.

 After mom finishes ordering she comes and watches with us. We start talking about whether or not the myth is going to be proven. Henri and Mom are both on busted, Jen’s on Confirmed and I’m on plausible. After half an hour of heated discussion, the pizza gets here and we eat.

 As we do, Henri and Jen, well, mostly Jen, bombard me with questions about my day at the Underlan’s house. “Was it a cool house? Are they nice? Did you talk to Haden? Is he cute?” I blush at the last one. “Why does everyone keep asking me that? It’s kind of annoying” I mumble under my breath. It was a bad Idea, because as soon as I do, Henri starts up his normally dormant motor mouth. “Is he cute? Is he cute? Do you think he’s cute? Is there any possibility he’s cute? Terre, you must tell me if you think he’s cute!” I’m extremely overwhelmed, so mom turns to Henri and calmly says “shut up” he pauses. “Is he cute?” Mom stands up “That’s it; you have just nominated yourself for dishes tonight.” She grabs Henri’s arm and drags him into the kitchen, Henri protesting the entire way.

While he’s doing the dishes I start to answer Jen’s questions, leaving out the one that got Henri in trouble. She asks me to tell her what Happened, so I explained. When I got to the part about Haden watching me, Jen makes a face “Ew, what a creeper” I sigh. “He’s not a creeper, He was just…” I’m not sure how to explain Haden’s spying on me. “Being a guy” I answer. “The boy’s in my class don’t do that” she says. “Well that’s because they’re not teenagers” “some of them are” “and they are still convinced you have cooties” I retort. “No one’s played cooties since third grade, and even then it was lame” I rolled my eyes. Mom comes back in and sits down to watch TV. We finish the Myth busters, Henri and Mom where right, and watch a sit com, mostly talking through it, until we all slowly start to head back to our rooms. I read for about two hours before actually going to bed.  I lie awake on my bed, thinking about Haden. He spoke to me! I wish he had spoken more, but he spoke to me. He has a nice voice, I think.  And I fall asleep and dream about the garden.