11/10

Chapter Twelve

"Come on Fern pull your weight, I'm not Uncle I won't coddle you." Rodo looked over at Fern, swinging his plank of wood in the process. Fern ducked the two paint buckets in his hands grazing the ground.

"No one will coddle me if my head is off." Fern grumbled, the plank straightened out and Fern stood back up. He looked up at the Begay window hoping to catch Ani. To his disappoint the curtains were closed. "Why isn't dad here anyway?" Rodo lead him into the Begay backyard and set down the plank.

"Maybe if you weren't texting your little friends you would have heard him tell you he wanted to take a design class." Fern frowned and put down the buckets of paint. He rubbed both of his tired arms, he didn't even remember what they were doing for the Begay backyard.

"Why would he waste time with that? He's an amazing designer, he changes our backyard every other week."

"It looks good on credentials. Unfortuentlty for us because he's got the latino look, a lot of people lately think he's a gardner." Fern scoffed and put a hand to his mouth. He felt pity for the poor fools who said that.

"A gardner? Do many gardeners dig out and design Koi ponds?"

"No idea, but these Richie Rich looking assholes thought we were there just to clean up the garden. Let's just say their white picket fence became blue." Rodo laughed he took off his jacket and hung it off the Begay fence. Fern smiled humorously, he regretted missing that spectacle.

"So, what are we doing here?" Rodo sighed and rolled his eyes.

"You telling me that this kid Ani is like your butt buddy, but you don't even know what we're doing in his backyard?"

"I know we're landscaping, but why would I talk about his backyard when there are better things to talk about?"

"Like what? You do nothing else with your life." Fern crossed his arms actually feeling lightly insulted, he had been putting in an effort this year.

"Like, soccer, and group...events."

"Yeah?" Rodo smiled he looked amused, he ruffled the top of Fern's head.

"It's pretty basic, we're going to replace this grey fencing with deep brown fencing. Then put a small rock wall below it surrounding the perimeter. We're going to had a garden on the East and West ends of the backyard. Add in a gazebo, we get to choose the design and finish that off with a rock path leading to the gazebo and the back deck." Fern's eyebrows came together in disbelief.

"Um...are we doing that all today?"

"Of course not! I'm not nearly experienced enough to make as many executive decisions as this yard calls for. We're just dropping off supplies, taking measurements, and I'll sketch it out." Rodo said as he gestured to his bag still on his back. Fern nodded, he had no doubt in Rodo's sketching abilities.

"But...then what has Dad been doing here for the past few months?"

"That was just general upkeep dummy. Honestly, do you not pay attention to the world around you?" Fern shrugged and picked up measuring tape that was left near one of the paint buckets.

"Not exactly, but...I feel like I've been paying attention a little more." Rodo raised his eyebrow and smiled bemusedly.

"I'll see it when I believe it." He took out his own measuring tape from his pocket. Rodo handed Fern a small notepad and pencil. "Make sure you right everything down soldier," Fern saluted Rodo and went off into Ani's backyard to begin measuring.

Almost an hour later and Fern was still measuring objects. Rodo wasn't clear what he wanted measured, but Fern refused to ask. He didn't want Rodo to accuse him of being aloof again. Half way through measuring the rock that was holding Ani's backdoor open, Rodo called his attention. Fern looked over his shoulder.