Free The First Gardener by Denise Hildreth Jones Page B

her.
    He answered as if he did. “Oh, right. Lulu’s coming too, huh?”
    “Daddy!”
    Mackenzie’s car pulled into the garage. “We’ll see you later.” And in that moment all was perfect with her world.

Maddie Mae done bust out that door like her britches on fire. I chuckled to myself today ever’ time I thought ’bout that li’l spitfire takin’ over that schoolhouse with her spirited self and that mouth that don’t close ’less it’s full up with some kind a ice cream cone or sump’n. That chil’ can carry her an entire conversation with them big ol’ blue eyes and thick eyebrows. She raise ’em, roll ’em, squint ’em, and purty soon she gone and tol’ you ’bout the whole day without ever openin’ her mouth.
    “Jeremiah!”
    Lord knows I love to hear that chil’ call my name. Took her a while ’fore she able to say it where you had a clue what she was sayin’.
    “Maddie Mae!” I knelt down ’cause I knowed what be comin’. The mud on my overalls was still kinda wet as I planted my ol’ creaky knees down on the cushy grass. “How your valley be today?”
    She throwed her li’l frame up against me ’til she ’bout knocked me backward. “Green!” she squealed.
    Make my belly shake ever’ time. Hers too. She laugh that li’l giggle that make me glad God thought ’nough ’bout this ol’ earth to make chil’rens. Ever’ time I see her, I think ’bout my own granchil’ren. On days like today, I get to wonderin’ what they like. How they smell. How they voices sound. I ain’t never seen any a them kids. Life gone and messed that up good. But when my ache to hold ’em or know ’em floods over me, I thank God he give me this chil’ to love.
    I finally let go and put her back on her own two feet.
    “Jeremiah, it was awesome!” Them bony li’l fingers still planted top a my shoulders like she the teacher and I’m her pupil. That girl love tellin’ anyone what to do.
    “Awesome, huh? That’s a big ol’ word.”
    She let go my shoulders and throwed her body down in that grass we just cut and then laid on her back like she could drink in the world. “My teacher loved me, you know.”
    I plopped my own self down on that furry grass and stared at the eighth wonder a this ever-spinnin’ world. “I ain’t got no doubt.”
    She popped up, pushed her palms behind her like she seen some big girl do. “You didn’t? You mean, when I left this morning, you thought my teacher was going to love me?”
    “Yep, sure ’nough did.”
    She crossed her ankles. “How’d you get so smart, Jeremiah?”
    I stuck a piece a grass ’tween my teeth. “Just come out that way, I guess.”
    She wrinkled her nose and pushed her lips up, then grabbed her a piece a grass too. “She said I can be her helper this entire week.”
    “Well, ain’t no better helper in this whole universe.”
    She nodded her head while she chewed as if she agreed. “Wish I could do it all year.”
    “Well, you gots to give those other chil’rens chances too.”
    “That’s what Mommy says. She says I’ve got to share.”
    “Yep, sharin’ always be a good thing. Way I see it, you keep your hands open . . .”
    She fell back in the grass like she do, starin’ up there at that big ol’ blue sky, and finished my sentence. “. . . and God can get more in. But if you keep ’em closed, all you got be all you get.”
    Couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “Guess I done said that a coupla times.”
    She lifted her hands up to the sky and twirled her fingers. “Trillions.”
    That’s when I gone and spied with my li’l eye sump’n big and ornery—Miz Eugenia comin’ down them stairs all decked out in some yeller outfit. I knowed she gon’ be carryin’ on like the canary she look like. She act like she live here. Drop in whenever she want and ain’t got the sense to keep her opinions to herself. She think all creation need to know her thoughts. I know God don’t make no mistakes, but with