Miranda
The snap-pea crunched in my mouth. They were still warm from the vine in Richard’s garden. The last of the season now that temps were pushing past eighty degrees. Every bite was perfect, and I made a mental note to add snap-peas to the list of early spring crops I wanted to try next year.
I grabbed another from the mixing bowl on Richard’s patio table and dragged it through the shallow dish of hummus I’d made. We were talking about it the day before. He had never even heard of hummus, so I made a special batch just for him.
He loved it.
My skin tingled from two hours in the sun. These days, I was helping Richard in his garden quite a bit. In fact, I was in Richard’s garden so much, I tended my own garden after I put Kacey in bed most nights. I didn’t mind. I loved caring for Richard and Rose’s plants. He taught me so much, and I adored his company.
I didn’t realize how hungry I was for a friend. I neverthought I’d find one this way, but wanted to soak in every moment as his next door neighbor. When I inevitably moved out at some point, I’d still come to visit him.
I knew gobs about Richard’s family. He showed me pictures of each and every grandchild multiple times. Told me story after story.
He apologized once for talking about them too much. But I really didn’t mind listening. Almost felt like I could live the family life I never had through him somehow. Hearing about his sons’ accomplishments, his favorite memories of Rose, and the funny things his grandchildren did made me feel part-of in a small way.
“You know,” he said, still chomping on a pea. “Rose always wanted a daughter. So did I. Wish she was still here to meet you. Would’a taken to you just as quickly as I did.”
“Aw, Richard. I wish I could’ve met her too.”
“She would’ve nabbed you up, treated you like her very own.” He gave a soft, tired chuckle. “Wish you were one of ours.” He leaned back in his chair and patted me on the bottom of the chin. “You better keep coming to see me after you move ‘cause this right here is a smile I’ll miss.”
Being welcomed in, invited, wanted. It was a feeling I rarely experienced, but craved. Its absence was a chasm in my spirit. Every decision I made in my life backfired, pouring salt into the wound. Into the emptiness I always carried.
Warmth flooded my eyes. “I’ll keep coming. I promise.”
He stood from his chair, taking a few wobbling steps as his back muscles unraveled. “Stay put.”
He returned clutching a straw hat. I didn’t have to ask who it belonged to. It was clearly a woman’s. Rose’s.
“This belonged to Rose.” He eased back into the chair and lifted the hat to eye level. Tipped it. Like he was imaging it on her head. “She had pretty hair. It spilled out from under thishat and shimmered. It was gray before she lost it. I liked her gray hair better than her brown. She wore this every day in the garden because she’d lose track of the time and get blister-like burns on her neck.”
He shifted and placed the hat on the table beside our bowl of snap-peas. “You remind me of Rose a bit. Loving, feminine, good listener, eager to help, green thumb.”
I frowned at him on that last point. I was hardly a green thumb.
He nodded at the hat. “Put it on.”
“You want me to try it on?”
“Yes. Come on now.”
Doing such was sacred. I wanted to protest. I couldn’t wear Rose’s hat. But I glanced up at Richard’s eager face. Refusing would disappoint him. So, I smiled, pulled my ponytail free, and put it on.
He looked at me and the slow smile pulled a million lines into his face. A little moisture gathered in his eyes, and he rubbed his knee and looked away. “Yes ma’am. You remind me of my Rose quite a lot.”
“Oh, Richard. You miss her so much.”
“That I do.”
I grabbed the rim of the straw hat and lifted it off my head.
“Don’t take it off. I want you to keep it.”
“Keep it? Richard, I couldn’t…this is something special. Something you should keep.”
He shook his head, determination written across his face. “No, Miranda. Special things are meant to be given away. Rose gave everything away and that right there is what made her so wonderful. She’d want you to have it.”
“You don’t want to keep it for you?”
