Arizona’s morning had started with a rather loud whack. Then another. Then frustrated grumbling.
“Arizona, I know you can hear me. Come down from there.” It was Agent O’Connor, Agent Henry’s boss, and neither he nor his slap-happy clipboard sounded excited to be here. She figured it was best to get this over with, so she jumped down from the tree. She’d been up there since 2 am, when her apartment had become too cramped and too boring to stand.
“Hello, Agent O’Connor. What can I help you?” That didn’t sound right.
“Why were you in a tree?”
“I was bored, so I came here. It is a very nice place to watch from.”
Agent O’Connor sighed and rubbed his eyes exasperatedly. “You can’t just leave at night. It’s too dangerous.”
“Why?” Arizona did not like Agent O’Connor. He was always telling her what to do.
“Well, first of all, you are blue.” She looked down at her hands. Her palms were human-colored, but her arms were covered in shiny turquoise scales. She immediately panicked, causing her palms to turn blue, too. She took a deep breath to prevent her head combusting, and turned her arms back to human.
“Second of all,” Agent O’Connor continued, “your friend from back home escaped from a containment facility 5 miles down the road sometime in the last week. You have to be careful.” Oh no. Very, very oh no. Arizona could feel herself panicking again, but she successfully pulled herself together before she turned blue.
“He is not my friend, dumb human, he is a government watchman who is trying to either brainwash me or kill me. You do not understand, so you cannot tell me what to do. Goodbye.” She burst into flames for a split second then stomped off back to Pointe Place.
Agent O’Connor stood grumbling for a moment before walking quickly in the other direction. Little did they know they’d had a witness: Ollie Henderson was slumped against the base of a playground structure, stunned into open-mouthed silence.
"That's it," he spoke to the koi swimming by. "It's time to bring the garden to the people, or the people to the garden."
ReplyDeleteSo he gathered small seedling pots, and separated some larger plants, and transplanted them. He stood gazing over his projects.
For the rest of the evening, as the sun was going down, he labelled the pots for delivery to the residents. By 3 AM he had delivered to Anna, Arizona, and Brendan a "Flaming Katy"
to Caris, Cleo, and Joseph a "Panda Plant" to Letitia, Luca, and Pierre a "Crown of Thorns" he thought they all needed a little light and interest in their lives.
To Eliana and Violet a Burro's tail because, well, he couldn't really explain why.
He thought Tyson, Don Tom and Apollo along with Ollie needed a bit of Aloe Vera.
Finally, Maple, Master Gooway and Violet would receive a larger sampling of Jade Plants. For some reason, Jack thought that they needed a Bonsai variation - they needed a hobby to calm themselves.