A careful twist to the left and Jim could see the two dead juniper bushes he had promised Susan to remove a couple of years ago. Behind them stood three white pines all in a row. He always wanted to describe them as ‘majestic’, but they were mostly just scraggly, turning browner each year. And the tomato-less tomato plants struggling in their shade where the weeds multiplied regularly. It turns out tomato plants and weeds both grow in the same soil. Except weeds do it better. Jim’s gardening activity was mostly about weeding.
Except, just past the weeds was the peony bush, his wife’s favourite, that blossomed there faithfully every spring. When Jim mentioned to her that it had no legitimate colour — red or pink or something real – Susan said he didn’t know what he was talking about and showed him a magazine page. Which Jim said he read but didn’t.
Chunky yanked Jim’s head to force him to look directly straight ahead. “Stay still, my friend, if you want to see tomorrow.”
This allowed Jim to see the part of the garden covered in periwinkle. This was another thing Susan was fond of and Jim thought expendable. Forgetting that she liked that area just the way it was, he kept suggesting alternate uses for it. You can get to a certain age together and still disagree on so many small, but still irritating, things. Up until now, Jim had hoped there was still time left between them to work out more of their nagging differences. He wouldn’t bet on it now. So much could change in just a few minutes.
Chunky turned toward Skinny. “Look at you. How can you eat at a time like this? How many of those have you eaten, anyway?”
Skinny paused his chewing for a moment, stared off into the middle distance, and reflected. “Three”, he said. “I think. Maybe four.”
That morning, together, the pair of them, had robbed a convenience store. They had scored a total of $47 plus a twelve-pack of Snickers. And they left a clear noisy trail, disturbing onlookers and so forth, for police to follow right to this house. Which made the next event inevitable.
When Jim heard the police car loudspeakers crackle and saw the flashing red lights, he took a deep breath.
Right then, all three heard “Come out with your hands up,” just like in the movies Jim streamed online. “We know you’re in there. You have been surrounded. You can’t get away.” There were throbbing red lights, loudspeakers crackling with threats, and yelled conversations.
Chunky groaned and told Skinny it was time to make a run for it. Skinny said “OK.”
The next thing Jim knew, the gun stopped poking him. He pulled the tape off his wrists and stood upright. He blinked and looked out.
There were those ant hills in the cracks between the chipped patio stones. Susan wanted those ants gone, so Jim had dug and sprayed, again, again, and then some more. He tried piling icing sugar around the semi-legal ant spray killer he used. The ants ate the sugar all right, gobbled it right up, but continued merrily multiplying without noticeable pause.
