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"Thank you for hosting Trey," I choked out "I’o now"

Charlene paused, and then said, "He’s having a wonderful ti up with Charlene, I put the rest of the beetroot cake on a plate, refreshed lass, and took both out onto our patio

The temperature had dropped to soe of the concrete and pulled an close around my middle Our backyard, a healthy size for even a suburban plot, stretched out before hed heavy, but I tried to shake then for beetroot cake It was fudgy, gooey, and delicious, but it reseht about what Dandelion Girl said Alcheh I could use a little of both in ure out how to oo onscoop of it into ht, and I had to train lass "Here’s to you, Petra Polly" It went down the way a good Bordeaux should--s you back to earth I cut another slice of the cake, and that went down handily as well

"You’ve got dandelions co up," said a ruhbor, bent over our low fence Given the hour and our weak porch light, I couldn’t seeexpression "You haven’t had the service come in well over a year, and your son barely does a passable job ht away, the problem will continue to worsen Next year, your backyard will look like a vacant lot in a crack neighborhood"

"Maybe I like dandelions," I said, hearing the slur in ave me a surprised look He’d heard it, too His mouth flattened into a line of disapproval "No one likes dandelions They’re a nuisance A predatory nuisance" He looked at ain, hard "If you can’t pay for it, I will"

"Don’t," I said, waving lass at him to bolster my point "Dandelions aren’t the enemy We can eat theans All the toxins coht out"

"I’ll call the service to I hadn’t responded He pushed himself from the fence, and I could only see the tip of his pointy nose "At this point in the conversation, I believe you should be thankingof yours The service will spray, and the problem will be eradicated"

"Maybe I don’t want my problemseradicated"

"Oh, now I don’t think that’s the truth, Mrs Moresco Though no fault of my own, I’ve been privy to your problems over the past few years If you could call a service to spray away your proble you a favor I’d appreciate if you remember that"

His nose disappeared, and I heard the sharp crack of a door being slahtfully, reled at old Mr Eckhardt while he devoted entire Saturdays to landscaping his yard, even to the point of edging the difficult-to-reach spots with nail scissors We were neatniks but not entirely rigid Our neighbor’s obsession with perfectionus He was obsessive and unfriendly and had disliked us since the day we ht

If I could spray Grief-Be-Gone all over my life, I would, toxins be da rass Once upon a tiusta National Golf Club--sreen perfection Like s, our lawn required constant maintenance I pictured Jesse, T-shirt dotted with sweat, pushing the laer every Saturday, with Trey carefully working the edger around the perimeter I watched fro lemonade and sandwiches when they took a break Jesse and Trey didn’t talka task that had tangible, measurable results appealed to both of their personalities, and bonded them in a way I could understand but couldn’t replicate

I shook off the memory and took a hard look at what had beco--weeds had sprung up all over, dotting the green, pushing up along the fence dividing our property, skirting the edge of the patio I sat on The old ed at one healthy dandelion head with ht off the steout the root of the weed Then I proceeded to toss it over the fence I did it again, and again, and again, until the s me was covered in little craters It looked like the surface of the ood in a way I hadn’t felt in years