rose garden – but this time the pool house blinds were closed.
I didn’t bother watering the roses. Instead, I pushed my way into the darkened pool house, where I found Old Man Winchester sitting on the edge of the unmade bed. He wore a smartly tailored three-piece suit and had a cheque book open on his lap.
‘How much, Mr Fowler?’ He had the deep, steely voice of a man accustomed to getting his way.
‘Excuse me?’
‘How much to walk away now and never see Kyle again?’
‘Is that what he wants?’ I asked.
‘That’s what I want.’
‘Do you always get what you want?’
‘Always.’
I stared at the old man.
‘If I see you here next week, I’ll call and cancel the lawn care contract. Your employers will want to know why. Do you want me to tell them?’
I didn’t respond. I still hadn’t come out of the toolshed.
Winchester wrote a cheque, tore it from the cheque book, and then slipped the cheque book and pen into his inside jacket pocket. As he stood, he folded the cheque in half. He crossed the small room and slid the cheque into my shirt pocket.
‘Kyle speaks highly of you. I think he’s going to miss you.’ Then Winchester patted my chest and smiled the smile of an old and exceedingly dangerous shark. ‘Finish with the roses before you leave, Mr Fowler. They’re looking a little droopy.’
After I finished with the roses, I returned the truck to the lawn care office and asked my supervisor to give me a different Thursday assignment.
I didn’t look at the cheque until I was home that evening. I pulled it from my shirt and flattened it on my kitchen table.
$10,000.00.
I’d never seen that much money before.
I’ll probably never see that much again.
I shredded the cheque and ran the pieces down my garbage disposal. Then I drank myself to sleep and called in sick the next morning.
When my fellow gardeners tell their stories about a “guy they used to work with” or a “friend of a guy they used to work with” seduced by the woman of the house where they were working, I don’t say a thing.
Who would believe me anyhow?
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