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The Man in Our Garden

I guess we can't begrudge a man a meal...
Glee

There was a man in our garden. 

Our back yard.  Our personal, fenced-in space.  Behind our house.  Ein, our loveable Corgi, was pretty upset about it, but I managed to calm him down while one of the roomies, Ann, did a sweep.  Who knew that 20 years later, her military training would still be so useful?

 "It's all clear.  But there's been a lot of disruption to the garden - we'll have to wait until daylight to tell how bad."  Ann glanced out the window again, and sighed. "I'm going back to bed."

 I nodded. "It's been a long night.  I'll see you in the morning. C'mon, Ein!"  The dog and I made our way downstairs to my basement bedroom.

 ***

 In the morning,  Ann and Jenny were both in the kitchen.  The kettle was on to boil.  "Where's Dena?" I asked.

  "Out in the garden, salvaging the melons."  I groaned.  "Apparently in his haste to escape, the man in our back yard tripped over one of the vines, and managed to expose the roots.  The slugs were having a heyday with that." 

 "Great. Any other damage done?" I got a cup from the cupboard, and my jar of herbs from the rack.  Coffee was way too expensive to justify now, so each of us roommates experiemented with different herbs and flowers from our garden until we found our favorite blends. Mine was mint and lemongrass.

 Ann shook her head. "Not that I can tell.  I knew we should have gotten the lock on the gate fixed!"

 Jenny shrugged.  "If he were determined to get in, it wouldn't have mattered.  What I want to know is, why was he there?"

 "I think it's pretty obvious," Ann responded. "Food. We've got some of the best fresh produce in the area."  I poured herbs into the tea basket, and then the boiling water, and sat down at the table to let it steep.

 "True, but everyone knows all they have to do is ask, and we'll share what we can."

 "Do you think it was a migrant?  I read an article the other day in the news saying that the street population seems to be increasing, and if the guy wasn't from around here..." My voice trailed off as my thoughts preoccupied my mind.  If he was a migrant, that would certainly explain thecover-of-night scavenging mission.   There was no denying that downtown was filling up with homeless - where in the past many of the people sleeping in doorways were older men, now increasingly you saw families - some with small children.  The same news article went on to talk about how the homeless shelters were at capacity, and every day the line outside for food got longer and longer.  All of the news outlets put out the announcement: donations of foodstuffs and blankets were desperately needed.  Downtown Portland was starting to look like Calcutta, and people just kept coming.  The parks were usually full at night, and where in the past the police would encourage the vagrants to move along, now it was generally considered acceptable, so long as they weren't hassling anyone.  Let the ReDS fester on the street, and keep it away from the taxpaying citizenry.

 My thoughts were interrupted by Dena coming in. "Good morning! Well, damage wasn't too bad - gave it a good replanting and a little more compost.  Here's hoping the guy didn't have ReDS."  She had meant it to be flippant, but Jenny paled.  She'd lost her brother to ReDS a couple years back, and no longer took it as anything other than the killer it was.  I gave Dena a pointed look, and she had the decency to look chagrined.

 Jenny glanced around.  "I guess we should probably consider filing a police report, eh?" I shrugged, and Ann nodded, but Dena didn't look so sure.  We all looked at her.

 "Well, if he was just trying to find some dinner, I don't want to have him hauled in to the cop-shop.  It's not a crime to be a refugee."

 I nodded.  "That's true.  Maybe we can ask around, see if any of the neighbors have seen anything? Let them know what happened, and to keep an eye out?"

 "I think that works," Ann said. 

 "Yeah," Jenny agreed.  Dena nodded her affirmation.  We turned the topic to more cheerful matters, but I couldn't shake the feeling that there were hundreds of people in the city who'd be going without food... something had to be done to help.

Oct 12
ReDS,migrants,garden


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