Spring Flowers

Khaat had a great number of flats of fresh spring flowers delivered to her house early that morning, just after Rob left. Just at sunrise. She was up, and and magically altered her old clothes to be big enough to fit her and was outside, on her knees, cleaning weeds out of the flowerbeds. The ground was still wet from all the rain yesterday, and it was perfect for pulling out weeds. She had a black plastic trashbag she was putting her weeds on and a wheelbarrow nearby to periodically empty the weeds into. She could have done the work magically, but she preferred getting her hands dirty, getting into the soil. Planting, like cooking, was best done by hand. Muggle style. She had put a piece of the black plastic under her knees so the wet ground didn't make her wet too. Beside her was two thermoses. One of her beloved french roast. The other held hot spiced cider for John. She had two old ceramic mugs that were still serviceable but that didn't matter if they got broken or lost. One held her coffee, and the other awaited John Walker.

She sat, enjoying the fresh clean early morning air and the silence, and worked on digging out weeds and rocks, breaking up the soil and mixing it with peat moss and compost in order to make it ready for bedding plants. She had a lot of flower beds, but she wanted her house to be loaded with so many flowers that it was fit for any magazine cover, either wizard or muggle. She had painting she wanted done on the front of her house. She had a lot she wanted done. And there was no time like the present to get started.

As far as the painting went, she had started the scraper to magically scrape the trim and the doors. The rest of the house was stone, so that's really all the painting it took. Well, that and the gutters. She had paint and brushes out and was going to set them about repainting when the scraping was done. She hoped she couod finish all the flowerbeds in just a couple of days. And she was considering adding a couple of weeping cherry trees to her yard. Maybe some yard lights for the flowerbeds and walkways and some other decorations. She knew what she wanted. She also knew Rob did not have time to help her, much as he liked outside work.

steven aperated to Khaats home John beside him wodering where these weeds were and how he could get them out quickly "hay Khaat hard at work"can't hold ya back now can we " he said walking up to her and giving her a hug in welcome " I brought John so will leave ya too it " he said by to John and aperated back to the farm to finish Andrews room.

John stood watching ehr as his dad left , he was a little aperhensive but knew Khaat as she had been the one who had saved him those weeks ago "so maam " he said softly "ya want me to pull weeds?" he asked

"Hi, John. Good to see you again. You can just call me Khaat. That's what all my friends call me. Hey, that green thermos over there has a special treat for you. I made some hot spiced apple cider just for you. And the yellow mug is for you to use to put the cider in. Help yourself. Let me know if you need my help pouring it. In fact,...here." She pointed her left index finger at the thermos. "Pour!" she directed it. It poured hot spiced cider into the yellow mug for John, recapped itself, and set itself back down on the ground.

"Your dad said you are good help in the flower beds. Says you know all about how to pull weeds. So, well, yeah. if you can help pull weeds, that would be wonderful," she smiled.

John saw the flask pour out the cider and picked up the cup tasting the golden liquid inside "this is good ,ma...Khaat " he corrected himself and moved to sit next to her feeling his trousers become damp frm the ground , but he didn't mind the cider warmed him inside. Placing the cup down he lent forward and began pulling weds "Are these weeds maam" he poited to some light blue flowering plants"

"Those are little wildflowers. We could leave those, I suppose. At least for now. They're not hurting anything there. John, here." she said. She took a plastic bag and handed it to him. "Use that to sit on. You don't want to sit on that cold wet ground all day or you'll end up with a cold. I really do appreciate your help today, you know. I'm going to have a baby in August, and things are getting just a little harder to do for me right now. I might need your help a few more times during the summer when we need to re-weed it, if you're interested. I'll make it worth your while. I'll pay you 4 sickles plus your food and snacks for the days you work here with me. If you come every other week, on a schedule, I'll pay you 5 sickles instead of 4 because I will know I can count on you. You think about it and talk to your dad if you're interested and then let me know. The longer the summer gets, the harder it will be for me to get out here and make sure the flowers look like they should."

John looked at the flowers then to Khaat and nodded "sure dad told me , a girl right " he said pulling a few more weeds , taking the bag he slipped it under his knees glad now that they could dry off as he worked "maam I never got to say thank you" he said his voice baerly a whisper as he looked from her to a weed then back as he pulled it and tossed it into the black bag with the others.

"You're welcome," she smiled, speaking softly. "I don't know what they did to you while they were gone, John, but I do know what men like that do. I know its sometimes hard to talk to your dad about that because you don't want him to hurt knowing what you went through. But if you ever want to talk about it, I'm here. I do know what its like to have someone hurt you deliberately. You can talk to me, and it will stay between us if you want. Believe me, I'm strong enough to handle anything you want to tell me."

John looked at her in his eyes sat a look of wanting to tell her but he shook his head and pulled another weed but in the next moment he looked back at her as if wanting to speak . Deep inside her wanted to let it all out but it was as if something stopped him , he threw the weed into the bag in frustration and pulled another sitting for a moment he took a drink of his cider holding the cup in both hands though it had gone warm it still tasted good to him.

"No hurry," she smiled. "It can be scary to talk about. But I can't think of anything scarier than thinking I had to keep that all locked up inside myself, all alone. Its far less scary to share it with someone than to know that nobody else knows what happened to me. You take your time, though. You're safe here. Nobody's going to hurt you here--ever. I promise. I'm a good fighter. I'd make sure nobody ever hurt you."

Steven loked at her then back at the weed he held "I can't they ... they said they would hurt my dad if I did" he said he looked up at her his eyes filled with tears as he spoke . placing the next weed into the bag he once more picked up his mug this time finishing the cider inside and placing it down beside his again "I know they killed mom"he said softly "they told me they ahd kill dad too but i knew they ahdn't and when you came I knew he'd sent you" he gave a rare smile