Lib Novel Page 109
“I guess we did test their bladder control. How about we change,” Cleo suggested, “and take that walk around in pj’s?”
“Now, that’s what I call being home.”
Clover sang it out with Steve Perry’s “Missing You.”
“Okay,” Sonya said with a laugh, “that’s being home.”
When they’d changed, they joined Yoda and Pye. As they walked, Sonya used an app on her phone to take pictures of bushes and identify them.
“I need that app.” Cleo pulled out her phone. “I’m downloading that app.”
“It’ll work better—lots—when everything has leaves. Better yet flowers. If they get flowers, because we don’t know that yet. And there’s stuff poking out of the ground over there, over there. I don’t think they’re weeds.”
“Rosebushes over there. You don’t need an app to recognize rosebushes.”
“Or hydrangeas. So we’ve got those. And you know what else we’ve got? Gardening books in the library.”
“Then let’s get to it.”
Since the air had chilled by the time they went in, they brewed a pot of tea to take up with them. Where a fire already crackled in the hearth.
“That’s nice. Thanks, Molly—or Jerome,” Cleo considered. “Either way, it’s nice.”
They pulled out books, and Cleo grabbed one of Sonya’s sketch pads. As they sat, Sonya opened one of the books, blew out a breath. “It’s a lot.”
“We can handle it. While it’s fresh in my head, I’m going to sketch out what we’ve got—or think we’ve got.”
They spent an hour and more, peaceful, by the fire thinking of gardens, imagining flowers.
Each took a book with them to bed.
Sonya fell asleep thinking of gardens, imagining flowers.
And dreamed.
Chapter Fifteen
1964
We did it! Charlie and me got totally hitched.
We weren’t going to. I mean, get real, like Charlie says, marriage is just another establishment construct. Like you need a license to love?
That’s serious bullshit.
I mean, man, my parents got the license, the house in the burbs and all that. And as long as I can remember they spent most of their time bitching at each other, bitching about each other, or ignoring each other.
Sure wasn’t a lot of love in my house.
When they weren’t doing that, they were ragging on me. I figure they blamed me for not just calling it and moving the hell on.
So I moved the hell on and took off. Freedom, baby! Rode my thumb all the way to San Francisco. I met a lot of cool people along the way—and some not so cool for sure. Picked up some work here and there when I needed to—hungry isn’t fun, let me tell you.
But waiting tables means you’re going to eat.
If you’re open, and man, I was wide open, you find people who’ll give you a place to flop awhile. And you talk about this bullshit world and how you’d fix it. You listen to music, get a little high.
I stayed at this farm, a commune thing, for a time. Really, really cool. Everybody took care of everybody. We grew our own food, had these cool chickens, some cows. A lot of work, yeah, but I liked it. I learned a lot, too.