Chapter 3
Ethan arrived at eight a.m. Saturday and Lena was already in the apartment filling boxes and green garbage bags with loose items that were sitting around. Ethan carried the bags and boxes down the stairs to the garage and stacked the keepers on a pallet and the disposables in the far corner closest to the bay door. Then he started carrying down the stationary bike, a small treadmill and boxes of record albums.
Lena started looking through the stacked boxes one by one to see what was in them. Then she told Ethan which ones were to go on the pallet and which ones were to go in the corner. Much of the stuff belonged to her kids and they would have to come and deal with that in the future.
This took a few hours. When all the boxes and other miscellany had been removed, and all that remained was the furniture Ethan planned to utilize, it was almost one o'clock and Lena announced it was time for lunch. They went to the house, washed up, and she served a huge salad—all from her garden—tuna sandwiches and iced tea. They ate ravenously and soon were back to work.
The walk-in closet was full of boxes too, and garment bags on hangers. While Ethan carried the garment bags down to the garage, Lena went through the boxes one by one and determined that they were all papers and items related to her husband's business, which had been defunct for a few years since his death. By the time Ethan had carried them all down to the garage and piled them with the disposables, it was getting to be late afternoon.
"Well, it looks like we got quite a lot done today!" Lena exclaimed as she removed the sheet covering the sofa and plopped down.
"We sure did," Ethan said, sitting down beside her. "Thank you so much. You worked hard!"
"So did you. But I've been meaning to clear this stuff out for ages. I'm glad you came along; I appreciate the help."
"If it's okay, I'll come by tomorrow morning and clean," he said. It's really not bad at all, just windows and floor and kitchen and bathroom."
"That's fine, you can move in tomorrow," she said, and walked to the kitchen and handed him a key. "I'll worry about getting rid of the junk downstairs some other time."
Ethan took the key and followed Lena out the door and down the stairs. They walked past the garden to the side of the house.
"Thank you, Lena. I appreciate what you're doing for me and I look forward to being neighbors."
He hugged her before he got into his car and drove off.
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Ethan showed up Sunday morning with his cleaning supplies and got to work. He knocked down a few cobwebs, and then cleaned the kitchen counter and cabinets. Then the bathroom, which wasn't too bad: the commode needed a good scrubbing but shower looked like it had rarely been used. He mopped the floors. The windows were the worst; they looked like they'd never been cleaned and were covered with years of grime. But after a few hours he was done, and more than pleased with the result.
He was walking to his car to start moving all of his things into the apartment when he saw Lena on her knees in the garden. He waved and walked over.
"How's the cleaning coming, Ethan?" Lena called.
"All done. Going to move my stuff in now," he said, admiring her thriving garden, lush growth in what had been a very dry summer. "Man, Lena, your garden is amazing! Dry season we've had, most gardens are barely hanging on and yours is flourishing! How do you do it?"
"Pig shit!" Lena said.
"What?" Ethan said, laughing. It was funny hearing her curse.
"Pig shit. That's the secret. That plus weeding and watering. Most people spend small fortunes on fancy fertilizers and sacks of cow manure and miracle this and that. Me, I call this old farmer friend of mine and he brings over a big truckload of pig manure—he loves having someplace to get rid of it—and dumps it here. And I shovel it and till it and plant and weed and water and this is what you get. Hell, sometimes I grow things I didn't even plant!"
"Wow, that's one I never heard before."
"You heard it here first!"
"So when I'm weeding the garden I'll be kneeling in pig shit?"
"Yep, so don't wear your Sunday best!"
Ethan laughed and said, "Well, I'm going to unload my car and move my stuff in. Tomorrow when I get home from work I'll do some weeding."
"We all need something to look forward to!" she said.