—–
Lady Lily has been a neighbor of us for a long time, so she even met my husband back then, and saw Elena grow up since she was a baby I carried around with my arms. She was very surprised to see her, as Elena had stopped walking around here from her school, and it has been probably years since she met her.
“Yeah… I guess I grew up.” Elena said while feeling slightly shy.
“Hahah, don’t be shy dear.” Lily said with a gentle smile. “I know you since you were a little baby after all!”
“Hmm… We came looking for cactus. Can they survive winter?” Wondered Elena.
“Yeah they can! As long as you protect them from the snow that’s it.” Said Lily. .
“Are there Succulents?!” I asked.
“Hahaha, yeah, there’s a bunch. Recently I brought a big haul of very colorful ones imported from Texas, come with me!” Lily quickly guided us around her shop, as I began filling my little supermarket car with tons of plants I wanted, I also got some tools, rich soil, and other things.
“If you want, I can come later to your house to help you in the garden. I’ve begun to close early due to a lack of clients, and my back hurts a lot if I am standing for too long as well.” Lily said.
“Ooh… Sure thing! But today we are going to Elena’s friend house, so maybe another day?” I asked, as Lily seemed happy that I accepted her offer.
“Really? Sure thing! I would love to help you Elayne, you’re such a good girl.” Lily gave me a head pat. It made me remember those summers I came here to look at the plants when I was younger, and Rita would pester me that plants are a boring thing that nobody care about, urging me to go to the karaoke with her instead.
“Hehehe, thanks, I am just doing my best.” I said with a smile.
At the end, everything ended costing almost 200 Canadian Dollars. It was rather… expensive, even my daughter looked at me with surprise. But I have recently gotten a very nice raise in my pay so I was able to afford this little thing once in a while.
I also wanted to help Lily with her funds by buying her tons of things. She is struggling to keep her shop now. Nowadays people is never interested in making gardens or taking care of plants, so there are whole weeks where nobody ever comes to buy her anything.
“Take care, Elayne, Elena! Thank you so much for buying!” Lily said happily.
“No problem! I’ll come pick you up whenever I am free!” I said.
“Sure!” Lily seemed as gentle as always. Despite being an old lady, she’s as radiant as in her younger years.
As we walked back home, Elena seemed a bit surprised over my overly friendliness with Lily.
“I had no idea you were such good friends with her, you should bring her more with you then. Maybe invite to the house?” Wondered Elena.
“Yeah… I mean, I am well acquainted with her but I can’t really say we are friends… But this is a nice opportunity, don’t you think?” I said happily.
“Hm, I think she’s similar to you so you should get along well.” Said Elena.
“S-Similar?” I wondered, tilting my head.
“Yeah, you are both… Well, y’know.” She said.
“How… so?” I asked while raising an eyebrow.
“Err… Nothing. Never mind.” She said while averting her gaze.
I feel like Elena was going to say something quite offensive but eventually didn’t said a thing… Now I am left just wondering what in the world she wanted to actually say… Well, at the very least we got the plants, it is time to get things done!
We quickly began working in the garden, which was very dried out and rather desolate. The soil was dry and nutrient less. So we had to begin pouring a lot of the soil we got.
“Hm, this is more boring than I imagined…” Elena said while looking dispirited.
“Come on, help me expand the soil around… Like this…” I said, grabbing a shovel and then beginning to expand the soil with it. It was way easier than I imagined.
Though… I wish I could be like in the game and just turn any place I wanted into Healthy Soil, that would be so easy and convenient… Especially with this shovel-
“UWAH?!”
Suddenly, for a split of a second, I saw as if the shovel began to shine brightly. It shone with a green light which shoot down into the ground, but nothing happened.
I was so panicked that I ended dropping the whole shovel in the floor, gasping for air as if I had just drowned in the water.
“What happened?! Mom?!” Elena ran to my side.
“I…” I muttered, looking around.
Was I hallucinating again? Maybe playing too much the game is messing my head. Ah… I guess it must be because I didn’t slept too well.
I hope… I really hope it is not something like dementia. At such a young age getting dementia or becoming schizophrenic would really be horrendous…
“N-Nothing dear… I think I saw a bug, that’s all.” I sighed in relief, quickly looking around and calming down. Things were okay and there was no problem in anything.
It was just… nothing.
“O-Okay… Did it sting you?” She wondered.
“N-no, it’s fine. Let’s put these little buds first. Lily said that putting plants like this will make them grow up way more easily… Also, let’s water them a bit more.” I said.
For a moment, I saw as if the soil was strangely more shiny. It felt strange. Was it because it was a very rich one? The plants themselves seemed to enjoy it; it was very easy to put them in the soil.
“What’s this one?” Wondered Elena.
“Oh, that’s a tomato plant! It might give us tomatoes for this spring.” I said, putting the plant in the soil and using a stick to help it stand up.
“Fresh tomato sauce would be nice… I am looking forward to it.” My daughter said.
“Me too!”
I guess we had a lot of fun at the end, and right in time, as a big limousine appeared right in front of our house.
“Elenaaaa! We are hereee~!”
—–