Life lesson

A short story by Paul Kain


Pete stood at the kitchen window watching his wife in the garden.

He couldnt figure out why she liked gardening so much.
He personally hated garden work as it was a strong reminder of his father who had forced Peter to work in the garden on saturday mornings.

He stood for a while longer watching Marisa digging in the garden while thinking back to his youth when his father used to make him work in the garden.
How he hated it.

Thats why he employed a garden service, it was their duty to make sure the lawns were smooth, the hedges trimmed and the flower beds all spruced up and turned.

Marisa had one day said that it was relaxing for her and that it gave her time to think.

He poured himself a glass of water drank it down in 2 gulps and refilled the glass before walking out the kitchen door and down the wheel chair ramp that they had built for Damon after his accident.

He walked over to Marisa and stood behind her.

"why dont you use the long handled spade and not the short one?" he asked
"That way you dont have to be on your hands and knees"

She paused and looked up at him "Thats because I cant find it. Is that for me?"

He gave her the glass of water.

"you know" he said, watching her drink the water "it cant be doing your back much good to be hunkered up like that the whole time"

she shrugged her shoulders and gave him back the glass "well if I could find the other spade I wouldn't be on my hands and knees now would I?"

Her words had a sting and immediately he realised that she was still bitter about the argument that they had had the previous evening.

He clenched his jaw rather than blurt something out which might spark another full blown argument and turned away.

He walked back up to the kitchen and put the glass on the kitchen counter.

He paused for a second then decided to rather rinse the glass and put it on the drying rack.

Marisa was forever moaning that after 27 years of marriage he never forgot to buy stocks or fire half a dozen people in one afternoon or employee a dozen others yet he forgets to put stuff away.

Her words sometimes hurt him but he thought that he was never too old to change his ways and put the rinsed, clean glass on the drying rack and walked to the tv room.

He switched on the tv and flicked through the channels till he found the channel that was showing the cricket.

It had just started.

As he was about to sit down he thought about the argument that they had the night before and was feeling a bit sheepish as it had been his fault.

Too many hours at the office, too many golfing afternoons with the boys.

He knew why he wanted to escape though, it was because the pain and anger of seeing Damon in a wheel chair and knowing that he was going to be that way for ever was a very bitter pill to swallow.

He switched the tv off and made his way to the bedroom at the end of the landing to check up on Damon.

He knocked softly on the door and entered. Damon was already in his wheel chair and was putting on a shirt.

Pete noticed the wet towel on the bed and asked "Did you get in and out of the shower by yourself? I thought you were going to call me for help ?"

Damon pulled the shirt over his head and smiled at his father, his green eyes shining brilliantly "Dad, i need to accomplish things for myself. and I did. Dont ever think I dont need you, I do. you and mom take care of me, you made alterations to the house to accomodate the chair, you broke your study down on this landing so I could have a downstairs bedroom. you even built an en suite bathroom, seriously what more can you do for me? I need you to understand that I have to start doing things for myself."

Pete grimaced and nodded "I understand."

Damon smiled again and enquired "has the cricket started?"

Pete nodded "yep. but before I sit down to watch I want to go find the long handled spade for your mother so she doesnt hurt her back in the garden."

Damon grimmaced "mom was complaining that her back has been hurting her dad. Have you looked in the shed?"

Pete shook his head "I'm on the way there now"

Damon pleaded "please dad, find it. Mom's seriously not doing well lately and having a bad back is only going to make it worse.

Pete replied "ok i will, but that means I wont be able to watch cricket right now"

Damon shrugged his shoulders and said "well I am not going to watch the game here, Jay is coming to fetch me in a few minutes, we are going to watch the game at a pub."

Pete nodded again. His heart sank but he kept his smile "ok. I wasnt really interested in watching this match anyway, we've won the series."
He had been forward to watching the game with his son.

Damon smiled again "yeah but i'm hoping to meet a few honey's today"

Pete laughed and shook his head.
It was amazing how despite becoming paralyzed from the waist down, Damon could still be so positive.
he ruffled Damon's hair and made his way outside again, down the ramp and down the path to the shed.

He looked around for the long handled spade and couldnt find it.

The shed was normally well packed, however he could see that Marisa had been rummaging through it.
Obviously to find the long handled spade. There was another of those short spades though.

Pete sighed and grabbed the spade and the pair of gloves hanging on a hook behind the door. The gloves looked almost brand new. A sign that they werent used much for garden work.
He couldnt let his wife sit all morning and most of the afternoon hurting her back even more. He decided to help her and get it over and done with quickly.

Pete made his way to where marisa was digging away. He pulled the gloves on and bent to his knees beside his wife.

He put an arm around her and whispered "I'm sorry about last night"

She smiled up at him "its ok. Now tell me, why do you have those gloves on and why do you have another spade?"

Pete looked down at the ground "well i was hoping you would show me what to do so i could help you finish up here quickly"

Marisa smiled at Pete "you sweet sweet man. I spend time in this garden because I enjoy it. Not because its a job that needs to be done. However since you are here and have offered. Let me teach you, you old dog you. Are you ready to learn?"

Pete let this life lesson sink in and nodded slowly "teach me"

Damon wheeled his chair outside onto the balcony and watched his parents in the garden. He could hear his mother giggle as his father flicked dirt at her.
He watched as his mother held up a flower and showed it to his father. He watched his father drive the little spade deep into the ground and heard his mother shriek with laughter and smack his arm.
He smirked because he just knew that his father had just cracked a dirty joke.
It was music to his hears because ever since his accident, there had been little laughing in this house, his parents were always fighting and it was taking its toll.
he smiled to himself as his parents continued their banter and made his way down the ramp. Jay would be here any second. He wheeled himself down the driveway and used his remote to open the gate and wheeled himself out to the road and waited for Jay to arrive.

Jay arrived shortly and pulled his van up to the curb.
"Hey hey buddy! lets go watch some cricket!"
He hopped out and while making idle chatter helped Damon into the van. He folded up the chair and put it in the back.

Just before climbing back into the van Damon called him around to the passenger window

"Dude, do me a favour"
Jay looked around and wondered why Damon was talking so softly "yeah?"
Damon laughed and pointed to a row of bushes lined up against the outside of the house "ok dude, the 2nd bush. theres a package behind it wrapped in plastic that I hid there last night, please go get it, we need to dump it somewhere"
Jay looked puzzled "what is it?"

Damon laughed "Its a long handled gardening spade"

Great story, pretty heartwarming

Just one mistake I noticed :



He had been looking forward?

That's actually quite good