In the afternoon we went to Home Depot, where Dave struggled against his recent overwhelming desire to buy more plants. “Let’s come up with a plan first,” I said, reminding him of his earlier plan to come up with a plan.
By the time we got home with firewood and mulch and landscape bags, I was so hungry I almost didn’t help carry any of it into the yard. But then I saw Dave walk out to the sidewalk to talk to the neighbors, and I didn’t have keys to get inside, so I started hoisting bags from the trunk, hoping it would speed things up once he was done consulting about the bare spot on the parkway that used to be a tree.
“I’ve got a bag of grass seed from last year,” I heard him offer. I lifted out the last bag and tried to slam the trunk in such a way that would make him notice me and want to let me inside. I know I should carry my keys but sometimes I don’t know where they are or I think they’re in my purse but actually they’re in a different purse or sometimes I just don’t feel like it.
The trunk slamming didn’t work. He was still talking with the neighbors, a pleasant woman and man, and gesturing at the bare spot on the parkway. They all seemed to agree that nothing seemed to be growing there. I ventured a few steps toward them and announced, “I’m sorry but I need to get inside.”
“Oh, sorry,” said Dave immediately; and then, “this is why you should have your keys.”
“Yep.” Dave started to follow me inside, but then made the error of saying to the neighbors, “Oh, by the way, I wanted to ask you about these.” He pointed to some flattened plants peeking out from under the tangled coil of the neighbor’s water hose.
“Yes?” They walked up to look.
“These day lilies.”
“Oh, the day lilies,” said the neighbor woman. “Those grow like weeds.”
“Yes, well, I was thinking maybe I could move them.”
“…What?”
“So they can grow,” Dave explained.
“Oh.” Suddenly the temperature seemed to go down. “Well, where would you move them?”
“I’d find a place for them, “ Dave said.
The neighbor couple looked at each other and then back at Dave. “I don’t know about that,” said the neighbor woman.
“I could move them closer to the front of your house,” Dave offered. “I’ve moved a bunch of ours.”
The four of us stood in silence.
“Or not,” said Dave. “I just thought, so they could grow.”
“I’m going to have to think about that one,” said the neighbor.
“Dave, I’ve got to get inside and eat something,” said I.
We got inside and I ate something. Heather stopped by and we went to Gene’s Sausage Shop for a rooftop beer. “Look under that hose,” I said as we exited, “but don’t look like you’re looking.”
“Got it,” she said.
At Gene’s, she told us how her father had planted a whole fence-worth of day lilies, dividing them season after season until they spanned the length of the yard. “But then we got new neighbors,” she said, “and it turned out the day lilies were over their property line. So they dug them up and put in a fence.”
“Oh no,” I said, “your poor dad.”
Heather shrugged, “They grow like weeds.”