Chapter 6. THE SECRET GARDEN
“Another key to building a wall of stone,” Barker Ajax offered as he hoisted his glass in a toast, “don’t try to do too much the first day.”
Rhino could only manage a fatigued smile, his beer almost too heavy to lift. His finger hurt like hell. He hadn’t even finished his meal, hardly had enough energy to chew the steak Mom had cooked in celebration. “Sometimes a man just needs a juicy piece of red meat” was the way she put it. Rhino looked like he could use a blood transfusion. A couple of pints at least.
The day’s effort didn’t seem to have much of an impact on Barker’s appetite. He attacked dinner the same way he’d launched into that pile of rocks, like nothing else was more important than what he was doing this very moment. So, of course, nothing was.
“There won’t have to be a second day the way you guys worked,” I said.
“I wouldn’t have believed it could be done,” Mom offered as she placed a chocolate cake on the table. Written in strawberry jelly script across the icing was the message “Conrockulations!”
“Nothing short of a miracle,” I exclaimed.
“Many a man’s talents seem miraculous to a boy,” Barker commented, “but the only miracle involved is simply growing up.”
“I remember watching my father drive the family car,” Mother agreed. “He would drive all over the countryside, take us places he hadn’t been in twenty, thirty years. And he always seemed to know which way to turn. Without a map, just his memory. My sisters and I would sit in the back seat and marvel at his sense of direction. Grow up and you realize anybody can do the same thing.”
“Can’t anybody move all those rocks,” I said. “Can’t anybody build a wall like that.”
“Most folks would be too smart to try,” quipped Barker.
“I feel like a huge weight’s been lifted off my shoulders,” Rhino said.
“Feel like one’s landed on me.”
“I mean it. You showed us something today.”
“I’m just glad I could be of some use.”
“I’d like you to hire on.”
“Me, too,” I dittoed.
“We’d all like you to stay, Barker,” Mother said.
“Thank you. I appreciate that. I really do. But, I just don’t think I can.”
“Why not?,” I asked.
“Let’s just say I don’t feel quite right about it.”
“Free room and board, and I can pay you top wages.”
“I have no doubt you can,” Barker said. “And the grub can’t be beat, that’s a fact….”
“What then?,” I demanded. About which time I found myself the subject of all three adults’ imperious stares.
“Honey, why don’t you go check on the animals before it gets too dark?,” Mother said. It wasn’t a question.
“But, Mom, I….”
“Now,” Rhino said.
I knew better than to argue. So Mongo and I went out the front door and snuck around behind the house, hiding under the deck where I could hear every word that was said.
“More coffee?” That was Mom.
“What seems to be the problem?” Rhino.
“No problem. There’s more to this place than meets the eye is all.” Barker.
“What do you mean?” Mom.
“I’m sure you know better than I.”
There was a moment of silence.
“More cake?” Mom again.
More silence.
“Our tour,” Barker began, “you didn’t show me everything.”
“Oh.” Rhino. Surprised.
“Oh.” Mom. Concerned.
“Oh.” Barker. Simply.
Silence again. Sometimes you eavesdrop and you wonder why they even bothered to make you leave the room.
Someone cleared his throat, must’ve been Rhino. It was his voice I heard next. “I suppose you’re referring to the fruit cellar.”
“If that’s what you call it.”
“Oh.” Mother seemingly didn’t have much to contribute to the conversation.
“We were going to tell you about it,” Rhino explained. “Was hoping you wouldn’t notice.”
“I think you underestimate me.”
“I think you’re right. Believe me, it won’t likely happen again.”
“We were going to tell you,” Mom said. “I guess we were just waiting for the right time.”
“I guess this is as good as time as any.” Rhino.
“I guess it is.” Barker.
“Hiawatha, you tell him.”
“Me!?”
Another lull in the conversation, momentarily, as Mother obviously gave thought to what she was going to tell Barker Ajax, a man who came riding into our lives only yesterday. A total stranger.
I had no doubts about Barker Ajax.
Mom fancied herself a good judge of men. Although based on my own observations of Father and Rhino, I personally harbored some misgivings about her womanly intuitions.
If it’s true a man often lets his penis do his thinking for him, as I had heard, then surely a woman often lets her heart rule her mind. As I had seen. Both sexes seem too frequently controlled by some impulse located far below their brains.
“Below the road, in the pasture, built into the hillside,” hesitantly Mom began, “is a subterranean greenhouse. And in that greenhouse,” she paused, making up her mind, knowing there was still time to change her mind, still the chance to keep the secret.
A chance she didn’t take.
