The Dangers of Pomegranate Salad

Chapter 3

Chapter 3, Montage!

The next morning before Mom leaves, she gets me up and we go over my inept drafts. “Ok, so we have a building here right?”

“Mom, that’s their pond” I mumble, embarrassed.

 “Oh, right” she sketches a much better pond on her paper.  “Ok, and this thing here is…” she looks at me for help, “that’s a tree” I say.

“Right! Tree, ok, erm, what kind of tree?”

“It’s a small pine”

She sketches that out. “Ok and this big… thing here is… a um, a tree?” she asks. “Yes, a willow” “Yes. That’s what I thought”

Usually my drafting is better, and mom can actually interpret it, but I was kind of nervous about my first job and well, it looks like a bunch of squiggles.

 “And how big is this willow?” she asks me.

“It’s probably as big at their house” my mom nods and sketches that on. “And what are these wobbly things inside the willow?”

“Those are some other tree stumps.” I explain. She nods, and sketches those in, then thinks for a minute. “Ok, so that’s the basics. Where do you want the garden exactly?” she asks me.

 I point at the willow tree “I was thinking we could put it under the tree.” Mom nods thoughtfully. “So we’re going to need low light plants, what are you thinking?” “I was thinking maybe some fuchsias here and maybe here” I point where I was thinking “is the soil right for them?” mom asks. “Yeah, I think so, but I can add different dirt if not.”  Mom frowns but keeps going “Ok and you should use primrose if it’s so near to the pond, I’m not so sure about the fuchsias” “Ok, what about forget-me-nots?” I ask mom. “Yeah, those are a better plan than the fuchsias” she writes down the plants. “What else?”  I make a cheeky grin. “Lily of the valley?”  Mom rolls her eyes, “You and those lilies.” She adds them to the list. “You are definitely going to need hostas.” She tells me, adding them without asking. “What about some azaleas?” “Maybe, I’ll add them to the list” My mom suddenly notices the time, “crap, I’m going to be late, love you, and do some research! Bye!” she rushes out the door leaving me to work with my wits and crappy artistic skills.

Henri takes me to the Underlan’s house later that day to do some more drafting. He drops me off and leaves without a good bye. It sort of feels like he banished me.

 Today I don’t have the truck since I’m just looking around to see what all I have again. It’s like an adventurer mapping out an unexplored area. I walk up to the Underlan’s house again and knock on the door.

 I jump as a something loudly slams into the door, and a sound of breaking glass ensues. I hear a grumble of swearing and then the door swings open, revealing Haden, and next to him pieces of what once must have been a vase.  He sees me looking at it and, with bare feet, kicks it under a table. He looks at me wide eyed.

“Hello” he says with a clumsy wave.

“Hi.” I reply.

 He nods awkwardly. “Hello” he repeats.

“You already said that”

  “Oh, right”

 there’s a pause. “Um I need to go to the back yard, is that ok?” I ask him. He nods and gestures for me to come inside. “Are your parents’ home?” I ask him, feeling ridiculous for asking it. He shakes his head and walks over to a closet. “Um, I’m going to the back yard now.” I say. He’s in the closet, looking for a broom, I assume (heh heh rhyme) he sticks a hand out of the closet and gives a thumbs up. I quickly walk to the back yard.

Once I’m outside I head over to under the willow tree, and walk under its dangling leaves. I love willows. They are so sad looking. It makes them seem mysterious. I walk around under the willow. It’s pretty good size under here. Maybe ten to twelve feet in diameter. It droops all the way down on one side and partially on one side letting in enough light to let some weeds grow. I think it will be enough for the plants I want.

 As I wander around, I start to think about the last time I saw him in school. It was the last day, and I was waiting for him in my normal place, the behind the trash can near his locker. He always came the other direction, because his last class was on the other side of the school.

As I waited for him I started looking over some old notes, just out of boredom, and laughing at my grammar mistakes. 

“What are you doing?” startled I turned quickly to see Haden, who had come the other way. He looked at me expectantly, waiting for an answer. “I’m, uh, I….” I totally blank, and blurt out the first thing that pops into my head “Wood worms!” I stammer out, jumping up and running away towards my locker.

I arrive to see my friend Paige, who has the locker next to me. She gives me with a knowing look. I’ve done this many times. “Who was it this time?” she asks with a smile “janitor or a teacher?” I shake my head. “Neither” She raises an eye brow. “Oh? Who then?” my expression said it all, and she laughs. “It was him!?” she exclaims. “What did you say?” She asks me. I explain my blanking and my lame quote. She laughs harder. “Well, when in doubt, quote BBC.” She says in between giggles. Looking back on it, it’s a lot funnier. I wonder if he still remembers that. Probably. It’s hard to forget random people behind trash cans yelling about plant parasites.

It’s been a few days and the garden has been designed and I’ve started working on it. It’s going to be a secret garden under the willow tree. Everything is great. Well, mostly.  While I’ve been working here I’ve notice that Mr. and Mrs. Underlan are a bit… Odd. I mean they try to hide it but I can hear them arguing in the house from outside. I shouldn’t really pry but when they stop Haden always walks out of the house looking upset, and he walks into the forest. I wonder what he does out there.

Another thing is they’re kind of rude.  Once I dropped pen and it rolled under the door to their basement, I asked Mr. Underlan if I could go get it, because I don’t want to just go into their basement, that would be rude, and he was really angry about it, like how dare I ask if I could get my pen. It was my favorite pen too. It was a fancy looking pen, and my dad had given it to me. When I went back outside I found it sitting on my bag. Weird.

The weirdest thing of all though was that I always feel like I’m being watched. Obviously I have been watching too many crime shows with Henri. Although, I do notice the Underlan’s glaring at me a lot for no reason and whispering about me. It’s like school all over again. Aren’t adults supposed to act, mature?  Sometimes they look at the garden in disgust, like they don’t really want it. I will never understand adults.

But my biggest concern is the fact that Haden hasn’t said anything since the first day. Every day he walks out after his parents argue (at the exact same time every day. This family is totally synchronized) with his note book and goes into the woods, but he never says anything as he passes. Once he stopped and watched me for a while, and scribbled something in his book, but then he went into the woods. I sometimes see him watching me from the woods, and he hides behind the trees as if he hopes I haven’t noticed him. It’s kind of creepy, but that’s what I did to him during school. I wonder if he thinks about me a lot. I look at where I last saw him, then go back to work, every so often glancing to see if he’s still watching me. He is.