That was fascinating. While I knew a bit about gardening from maintaining the perennials and herbs my mom had planted, I hadn’t ever thought about cold weather crops versus warm weather crops. However, that wasn’t what I meant.
I hit him with what he called the “teacher look”, and he just laughed.
“It’s not some grand conspiracy,” he said. “I ran into one of the ladies who organizes the garden at the grocery store and helped carry her bags to the store since their helping hands department was short. Apparently, there’s a bit of a stomach bug going around?”
I nodded. Ihadheard about that. Some of the teachers had to sub in for lunch, recess, or after-school monitoring.
“Yeah, it’s a nasty one.”
“Ick. But yeah, all I did was help her with her bags, and we chit-chatted a bit, and it came up while I was there. I mentioned getting some sort of party platter, and she told me all the veggies in there were so flavorless and she’d give me the hookup for something fresher.” He laughed again, and I found myself smiling along with him. “I wasn’t sure what to expect when I rocked up yesterday evening, but she had a whole basket full of these kaleidoscope carrots, broccoli, radishes, and cauliflower. And I’m not gonna fib, I’ve snacked on a couple of these and I might never be able to enjoy store-bought again.”
“That’s the risk of eating homegrown,” Nox said sagely. “Haven’t been able to stomach grocery-store strawberries ever since we were kids and drove to that berry-picking farm in that one hick town.”
“We should do that again,” my father said, setting his newspaper down and standing to join the other two Fischbachers around the cooler. As much as I was mystified as to why they were all so invested, it was so damn cute. I wished everyone in the world could have the same support system I did. It would make a lot of things so much better for so many people. “Why did we stop going?”
No one said anything, but it was because we all knew the answer. We stopped going when Mom started to get really sick, and once she died, it felt wrong to go without her. By the time we’d mostly worked through our grief,Iwas at my sickest, and got the diagnosis we’d been dreading as a family.
Once I got better for the first time and really started to understand how to manage things, suddenly three out of the four of us were adults facing down everything that came with that, and Nox was getting ready for college. I knew it was so easy to do, but it was kind of sad how we’d all been caught up in the grind of everything. I would have liked to say that we soon found a good work-life balance, but honestly, when was the last time we’d done anything together? Christmas?
That was far too long. It wouldn’t be easy, what with the rising costs of everything, but I was determined that we’d make a little more time for each other, especially once summer rolled around.
Despite the slight hiccup of sadness, the mood quickly picked right back up as my family loaded the cooler with the veggie platter, a myriad of dips, some electrolyte drinks in case my Ensures weren’t enough, and the potato salad I had made, sans any raisins or grapes. It wasn’t exactly fine dining cuisine, and even though Ben said I didn’t need to bring anything, I didn’t want to show up empty-handed.
Normally, I would have spent the last two days cooking up a feast, staying up way too late and tiring myself out, but Benmade me promise not to do that. And I liked to think I would have known better even if he hadn’t, because I was trying to be better about not pushing myself too hard.
Just like Ben, I was a work in progress, but the important thing was that there wasprogress.
“You have fun now, you hear?” Nox said as I triple-checked whether I’d put my sunscreen in my travel bag. Although the place we were going to was apparently dense with trees, and it was still early spring, I figured it couldn’t hurt to be careful with my pale skin. Unlike Ben, Benny, and Natalia, who all had a sun-kissed glow to their skin, I was basically bioluminescent in the dark. At least Veronica was pale like me, but she was also a toddler, so who knew how long that would last.
“I will,” I said, and I was absolutely sure of that. Life could be pretty unpredictable. After all, I’d had about the wildest year of my life so far—and that was saying something all things considered. But even though I was nervous, I was confident I would have a good time. I’d even brought a book in case I needed to sit and recover my energy.
Past Giselle would have tried to force herself to tough it out no matter how weak I was feeling, no matter how hungry or tired, but like I said,progress.
“Pardon me for getting sappy,” Nox said, looping their arm over my shoulder. “But it’s really nice to see you happy.”
I gave my youngest sibling a somewhat suspicious look. “Am I normally not?” I knew I could be a bit hard on myself, but I liked to think that I had a generally optimistic disposition.
“Eh, don’t get me wrong. You can be cheerful, and you sure are nice to people around you, but I don’t think that always translates tohappy. Especially with the way you talked about yourself. But now?” They smiled big and broad at me and, oh dear, was I tearing up? It was way too soon in the day for that. “Now I definitely see it.Happy.It’s all over you.”
“Thank you, Nox,” I murmured, trying to compose myself. I’d always been relatively in touch with my emotions, but my sibling’s words were an arrow to my heart. A loving arrow, mind you. “That means a lot.”
“Of course,” they said with a wink, returning to their normal, cheeky demeanor. “I said it after all.”
I gave them a playful shove, and they cackled while disappearing back to the kitchen, no doubt to haul the cooler to the front porch to await for Ben.
We didn’t have to wait long, since Ben was as punctual as ever. My family launched into general chitchat with him, but with the kids waiting in the car, we couldn’t exactly lollygag.
However, that didn’t stop Benny from unbuckling himself and practically sprinting up the pathway to our porch, eagerly introducing himself to everyone.
“Hi! I’m Benny! Miss Fischbacher is my teacher!” He sounded so excited about it, like he was announcing I was a superhero. I blushed. Having a kid be so genuinely excited about my existence was a major ego boost.
“Wait, Benny?” My father said, rubbing his chin. “That sounds familiar. You wouldn’t so happen to be the brave young man who helped my daughter when she had a fall in your class, are you?”
Benny turned a bright red.
Ben’s shoulders straightened, and pride shone on his face. God, the man really did love his son.
“Aw, it wasn’t a big deal,” Benny said, scuffing his shoe across the ground. “Just did what anyone shoulda.”
