My phone rang through the car’s speakers, and I tapped a button to answer, “Hello.”
“Thenie, it’s Dad. I need your help.”
“I’m almost at the Parthenon, Pops. What’s up?”
“Mrs. Bird is out back pecking at the new rose bushes and demanding to see you, Delphi is babysitting your son, and I’ve got a line of customers out the door. I know you promised your mother that you’d help out at the diner, but I could really use your help.”
“Might I mention again that we need seasonal employees?”
“You can lecture me when you get here.”
“I can’t make it right now, Pops. I’ll call Delphi. She can bring Nicholas with her.”
“Thanks, but we need a landscape consultant or we’re going to lose Mrs. Bird’s business.”
“Let Delphi ring up the customers. You can handle Mrs. Bird.”
“That’s not the answer I was looking for.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can, Pops.”
Landscape consultant was on the opposite end of the spectrum from my former job as a newspaper reporter in Chicago. The vibrant tourist town of Sequoia was equally distant on the spectrum from the bustling Windy City that my son and I used to call home. The two cities shared the same water, but the breeze blowing east from Lake Michigan felt different. It smelled different, fresher perhaps.
If circumstances hadn’t forced me to move back into the big family home, I’d still be running around the city, interviewing people and sitting at a computer until late at night to turn in my “noteworthy” articles. Instead, I was able to be outdoors working with plants and flowers and the cheerful people who came to our garden center to buy them. And at last, after one month of working in the office, learning the ins and outs of the business end of the operation, my dad felt I was ready to try my hand at landscape design. Turned out, I loved it.
Who Wrote That?
I think it’s Kate “something”. Ha ha!
ReplyDeleteHappy Wednesday, Lisa.
Pat T
LOL You may be right, Pat! LOL
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