Pushing Up Daisies

CHAPTER 18

I was on my hands and knees, weeding, when Hugo and Felix pulled into the Peacocks’ driveway in a thirty-foot U-Haul truck. As soon as they parked, the back door rolled up and five other men piled out and immediately started off- loading the shrubs and trees they’d been riding with.

Hugo stayed with the men, acting as foreman, while Felix joined me at the perennial bed. He dropped to his knees alongside me and sat back on his heels.

“Hi, boss. Hugo thought you would want to plant these today,” he said, motioning to the shrubs. “He says it will rain tomorrow and if we get them in the ground today, they’ll get off to a healthy start.”

“Smart thinking.”

“He may even turn me into a gardener-always good to have something to fall back on if the president thing doesn’t work out. He looks after you. You’ve been very kind to him and to Anna.”

“They’re good people,” I said. “I didn’t realize they were a couple. I guess that’s why she comes over so often.”

“That’s not the only reason. She likes you. We all like you,” he said. I realized our knees were almost touching, and scrambled to my feet, losing my balance and nearly falling over into the bed. Felix stayed on the ground for a minute, looking up at me. Then he got up, too, calmly brushing himself off. Hugo joined us and bailed me out of the awkward moment.

“My knight in shining armor. I see you brought in the cavalry again,” I said, referring to his helpers. “We’ll need them.”

“The men are happy to do it,” Hugo said. “For you and for Don Felix. And for the baby. Some of the men consider it a blessing that you found it.”

“I don’t know how much of a blessing it’s been for anyone. I just seem to be annoying people and raking up a lot of old stuff.”

“Perhaps it’s like turning the compost pile,” Hugo said. “The material takes a while before it is ready to be used.”

I hadn’t seen Anna since the incident at my place, and it was unlike her to disappear for days, unless more cosmetic enhancements were involved, which was entirely possible. Now that the cat was out of the bag I asked Hugo how she was doing.

“She is good. Very busy, but she will be back to work this week.”

“You two should have told me,” I said, and he actually blushed.

“Anna wanted to,” he stammered, “but I am a very private person, and old- fashioned. There are traditions to be followed, from my family and my village. It will take some time, but we will be married,” he said proudly.

Two men came over to us, awaiting more instructions. Balled and burlapped trees were dragged to the spots that Felix and Hugo had previously prepared. Nursery pots were placed where they’d eventually be planted-starting with fifty small boxwoods on either side of the oyster- shell path that separated the herb garden and the white garden.

“Is this everything from the nursery?” I asked, getting back to business.

“Only the evergreens. I didn’t think we’d have time to plant everything today. Better to let the nursery’s men water them until we get them in the ground than to have to do it ourselves. Excave los hoyos tan hondos como las bolas de las raнces,“ he told the men.

“їQuй estбs diciendo?” I asked.

“I was just telling them to dig the holes as deep as the root-balls.”

The men operated like an assembly line, and the work went quickly. Dig, place, fertilize, backfill, water. The allйe was finished. Five large rhododendrons replaced those that had had to be severely cut back in the front of the house. Luckily, two twenty- foot viburnums on either side of the porch had survived and would serve as a backdrop for the rhododendrons until they filled in and re-created the lush hedge that had once been there.

Woolly adelgid, the sticky white critters ruining the hemlocks in Connecticut, had done a number on the trees marking the property line shared by Halcyon and the Fifield home. The men planted a dozen new ones. Staggered, they’d look less like puny replacements and more like offspring of the larger ones. At least, I hoped they would.

My biggest challenge had been finding mature cypress trees to fill in Halcyon’s Italianate hedge that lined the far side of the Peacocks’ stone wall and separated the garden from the lawn and Long Island Sound beyond. These were grown in Oregon, and were a remarkable match for the ones Dorothy Peacock had planted.

The men dug a long trench on that side of the wall. The cypresses would be evenly spaced along the length of the wall, providing shelter and privacy, which I now understood was a priority for Dorothy and Renata.

We stood on the brick terrace, telling the men where the trees should go-this one to the left, this one to the right.

“Perhaps we measure the space and plant them equidistant,” Hugo suggested, no longer feeling the need to hide his exceptional English.

“That’s a good start, but they’re not all the same size. We’ll have to eyeball it, too.” I squinted into the sunlight and motioned for the last one to be moved closer to the edge of the wall.

“The third one from the left must be turned around to face the terrace,” someone said decisively.

It was Guido Chiaramonte.

“Mr. Chiaramonte, how are you?”

Arms folded, he inspected our work but didn’t answer. “It looks good, not bad. I’m surprised, with the level of help you have. Scusi,“ he said, barely acknowledging Felix and Hugo’s presence. “These boys, they don’t work hard, and they think you should give them chicken every day for lunch. You have to keep after them, or else they’d sit around all day taking siestas.”

Hugo bristled but said nothing; Felix wisely pulled him away.

“That hasn’t been my experience. My partner and I have worked with some very good men, very knowledgeable, too.”

“Partner, eh?” He laughed.

“That may be a little optimistic on my part, but I certainly hope Hugo will be my partner on future projects.”

I’d had my fill of Guido, with his sexist and racist cracks, but I still had his garden tools and equipment, so I was obliged to suffer his company a little longer.

“Will you be coming to the Historical Society’s event?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Absolutely. There will be beautiful women there. That Anna is a beautiful woman. But she shouldn’t waste her time with a skinny runt like that,” he said, gesturing in Hugo’s direction. He said it loud enough for Hugo and the other men to hear. He leaned in and whispered what he’d like to do to her. I marveled at the acrobatic details.

“I’m just trying to make you jealous.” He chuckled and touched my forearm. “She’s delicious, but she’s not you.”

Oh, goodie. I was still number one. I wriggled out of his oily reach.

“You’re too much of a gigolo for me. I couldn’t keep up with you,” I said. Couldn’t keep from throwing up with you, I wanted to say.

“Don’t say that. I’m a very sensitive man. I know how to take care of a woman.” He flashed a little bit of tongue. If that was supposed to convince me of his desirability, it had the opposite effect.

“Mr. C., I have a small struggling business. I’ve really got to get back to work.” Or go do my hand washables or get a root canal or anything to get away from you, you slug. “I’ll make sure all your tools and machines are returned by the end of the week,” I said, anxious to be out of his debt.

“Come yourself. It was naughty of you last time to send your boys. Forget about that Hugo. I can be a very good partner. We can have a drink to celebrate your new venture.” He patted my cheek and left.

Yikes. Did he have much success with that shtick?

Hugo had been watching us the whole time, waiting to come to my aid if I needed him. I gave him a thumbsup to let him know everything was okay, and we got back to work.

After a few minor adjustments in placement-Guido was right about the tree-we backfilled and tamped down the soil around the cypresses. What would have taken a week on my own took just one day with team Mexico.

When we finished, all the trees and shrubs had been watered in, and Felix and Hugo loaded the men back into the U-Haul.

“Do they have enough air back there?” I asked.

“Sн, sн. The roof is open.” Hugo backed out of the driveway. He looked up at the overcast sky. “With the weather tomorrow, I don’t think you will need us here. There is a new bank going up downtown and they need many workers. And I have a few personal things to attend to, so you will be here on your own then.”

I nodded, and watched Felix leave, flashing a smile that I realized I was going to miss.