Page 2 of Falling for the Enemy

I shut the curtain so I couldn’t see right into the neighbor’s front yard. I had lived here for years, watched many come and go, but Shirley had been here longer. I didn’t know if I was ready to go over there, knowing that she wasn’t there and would never be back. It was going to take some time to admit that to myself.

Later on in the day, I left for work. The plant was open all day and night, and night paid better. It was just getting dark out and I could see right into the open windows of the house next door. I didn’t think she realized that others could see right in. I could see her sitting down at the dining room table, going through old photos and albums. She was upset, tears and a red face made me look away. I didn’t know why, but I didn’t want to see it. I was sad too.

I got on my bike and started it up, revving the engine and leaving a few minutes before ten. I would be back in the morning and maybe I would introduce myself, maybe not. I didn’t know yet if I even wanted a new neighbor. I’d liked the one I had.

* * *

The next morning,I got home, and the woman was out on the porch. She eyed me as I was driving up the gravel road to my house. She didn’t seem happy with the bike or the way I revved the engine before I shut it off. I waved; she didn’t wave back. Instead, she gave me a dirty look and then went in the house, the screen door slapping against the frame as she left. I chuckled to myself and sighed. I guess we weren’t going to be friends.

Since I was up and about, I figured I might as well get some work done. The hedges were getting too long, and I'd been meaning to get to them. I wasn’t ready to go to sleep yet, which was really problematic. My schedule was awful with the time and if I tried to get to sleep right away, a lot of times I stayed up for hours.

It didn't take long for me to start getting hot. The temperature was still pretty low, but I ran hot in general and was always sweating. I took my shirt off and went to the outside building to get supplies. By the time I got out, the sun was starting to shine through the clouds, and it looked like it was going to be a pretty day. I added a little gas to the machine, before moving toward the hedges between me and the neighbor’s house. She had already gone in, giving me a dirty look on the way, and I figured at least she wasn't asleep and wouldn’t be bothered by it. I kept strange hours because of how I worked. Most people were still sleeping, but she wasn’t, and I thought about her for a moment before I started on the hedges. Then there was nothing else to think about but work.

I cut the hedges pretty short and there was a mess of pieces that had been cut off from the top that were spilling over into my yard and into the new girl’s yard. It would have never been a problem before. Shirley would have likely brought me out something to drink because I was working so hard. She saw it as me helping her out too, because then she didn't have to worry about the hedges. Whoever was living in her house now did not feel the same way.

The hedge trimmers were pretty loud, and I didn't hear her right off the bat. I saw her coming toward me, her mouth moving like she was yelling, and her expression certainly wasn't a happy one. I finally turned off the trimmers when she got close, because I figured that she wasn't going to go away. I didn't know why but she looked comical in her anger. She was so tiny, flashing green eyes and apparently had courage to stand up to a six foot stranger like me.

She stopped, huffing. “What the hell are you doing!”

I looked at the hedges and then at the trimmer. I thought it was pretty clear what I was doing. Maybe she was being rhetorical, I didn't know.

“What do you mean? I am cutting the hedges.” My tone did sound a bit annoyed.

“You're kidding. It's all over the yard. Look at it over here. You dropped it all over on my yard!” The tiny woman sputtered, eyes so mad they were shooting daggers that her mouth couldn’t. What had her all worked up?

“This is Shirley’s yard,” I said, stating the obvious.

“Shirley was my grandmother and she left it to me in the will. I guess you are close enough to know that. My name is Amber, and this is my yard now. I don't want your crap all over it.” Amber huffed, chest still heaving in anger. She was becoming less comical and more beautiful in her rage. There was also a touch of sadness hidden in her emerald depths. It made me feel bad.

“If you are Shirley’s granddaughter, I sure don't see the resemblance and you definitely don’t act like her,” I said. Crap, that wasn’t going to help, but, man, they were like oil and water, and I couldn’t help saying it. They were very different.

She snapped her mouth shut and told me that I needed to pick it up. I was going to, I had every intention of it, but the way she was talking to me didn’t sit well with me and instead of picking it up like I was going to the whole time, I instead went into the house and made a snack. I was debating if I was just going to leave it all there until after I woke up this evening.

The way she talked to me did not sit well at all. She was nothing like her grandmother Shirley. I couldn’t believe that they were related. How could they be? Shirley was graceful and sweet. Amber was foul and just altogether unpleasant. Why would Shirley leave her house to her? I didn’t get it. Maybe the good genes skipped a generation or two in her family. There was no other explanation.

3

Amber

Iwatched the neighbor put his trimmer up and go back in his house, but he did not pick up any of the pieces that he had taken off from the hedges. I didn't know what was wrong with him, but he was by far one of the rudest people I had ever met in my life. I’d tried to reason with him, but obviously that was my first mistake. I didn't think that Frank[SS1] was someone to reason with. He was instead someone that I was going to stay as far away from as possible. I didn't want to have anything to do with him.

Going back in my house, I told myself that I wasn't going to worry about it, but he made me start thinking of the yard itself. I was quite sure that my grandma hadn’t been doing it all this time. There was no way that she would have been physically able to. So, who took care of it?

It was one of many things I needed to find out but worried that it would be more complicated than it first appeared. She had a pretty big yard, and I didn't know anything about it. I didn't even know if the hedges were mine or the neighbor’s. Did he even have a right to lop them off like he did?

The biggest problem of all was that the rude man was gorgeous. He had taken his shirt off for whatever reason, even though it had been pretty cold, and I had been watching him work. He was foul to the core, but he had a really pretty package. The draw I felt to him was more animalistic than anything else. It wasn't something that I should have even been thinking about, but when I closed my eyes, all I saw was his raw sensuality.

Trying to focus on something else, I started looking through drawers, trying to find some kind of phone book or anything that would say where I could find someone to clean up the yard from the mess that the neighbor had made, as well as maintain it. My grandma was very particular about her grass and how everything looked. Up until a couple of years ago, she was in the garden almost every day when it was warm enough and the ground was soft enough to accept new plants. I knew that she had to have someone, and when I finally ran across a list of ‘helpers’ as they were called, I started to relax. I didn't know why, but I felt this pressure to make sure that her yard was just as pretty as it had always been. It was now my duty. She'd made it so.

I was still trying to figure out what I was even doing here. I didn't know why my grandmother, a proponent of free-will stronger than anybody else, would make me come here. There was no sidestepping the reality of it. That's exactly what she had done. She had forced my hand, something that she had never done before, and it made me feel strange. It made me wonder why and since we both believed that everything happened for a reason, I guess I was still searching for the reason. Grandma wasn't mystical or anything, but did she know something that I didn't?

Taking my mind away from impossible thoughts, I went to the phone and dialed the number for the yard guy. That's how my grandmother had noted it in the calendar that I was holding, and I wished for once that she had been more specific about names. How was I going to ask for his help? What was I going to call him? Hey you?

The phone rang and after just three rings I figured that it would go to an answering machine or something. I was about to hang up when a sleepy and rough voice answered. It all sounded familiar, but I didn't even know anybody here. So how could it?

“Hi, my name is Amber and I recently got willed a house from my grandmother. She has you written down as the person who takes care of her lawn. I was wondering if you were still interested in doing that and how much you charge.”

It just came out in one big rush. I wasn't even sure who I was talking to, just that it was someone that my grandmother trusted with her yard and garden. I was going to have to trust him as well. Grandma was usually a good judge of character, even if she looked a bit harder than I did.

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