Ask Eva (12 page)

‘But that’s where you’re wrong,’ I said. ‘I spent most of last night on the internet, and
there are all kinds of things you can do to make your garden accessible. We can widen the paths, and build special raised beds, so you can reach them from your chair. We can…..’

Maggie held up her hand. ‘Please stop, Eva,’ she said. ‘This is a very sweet idea, but I think it’s a bit ambitious. You are the most determined girl I know, but you are not a garden designer. Even if you spend six months on the internet, you won’t be able to do this. You would need professional help.’

‘Of course we need professional help, and I know exactly who’s going to give it.’

‘Who?’ asked Maggie, not looking very hopeful.

‘Remember our friend, Aretta – the one we gave the bracelet to? Well, her dad’s a genius garden designer!’

‘But I can’t afford—’

Ella interrupted her. ‘I don’t think he’ll take money.’

‘I think it might even be against the law for him to take money,’ I added. ‘But this isn’t about money, anyway. If you let this man design a garden for you, you’ll be doing him a huge, huge favour. I think you might even change his life.’

And so Ella and I told Maggie all about Aretta and her dad, and when we were finished, Maggie was close to tears.

‘That poor, poor man,’ she said. ‘If helping me will help him, then let’s get started.’

‘Yesss!’ said Ella and I together.

Then Maggie stopped smiling. ‘But who’s going to do the work?’ she said. ‘And who’s going to pay for the materials?’

I grinned. ‘I’ve got a plan,’ I said. ‘You can leave it all to me.’

Chapter Twenty-one

‘G
uess what?’ said Ella as we walked to school the next morning. ‘The most amazing thing has happened. Gigi and her friends in the nursing home have formed a residents’ committee.’

‘And I’m guessing Gigi is the president?’

‘Of course. And Paddy is her second-in-command. Yesterday they had a big formal meeting with Nurse Witch.’

‘That’s brilliant,’ I said. ‘And how did it turn out?’

‘They reviewed all of her stupid rules, and managed to persuade her to change loads of
them.’

‘Wow,’ I said. ‘Good old Gigi.’

‘Yeah, once she gets going, it’s hard to stop her.’

‘OMG,’ I said. ‘What about the no-pet rule? Did they manage to get rid of that?’

Ella shook her head.

‘Unfortunately, that’s the only thing that Nurse Witch wouldn’t budge on. She said that if she allowed one person to visit with a kitten, the next person would want to bring a dog, and before she’d know it there would be donkeys and hyenas and miniature pigs fetching up on her doorstep.’

I giggled. ‘Who knew Nurse Witch had a sense of humour?’

‘I think she was being serious. It sounds like she was kind of afraid. Remember what she was like when Jessie went near her? She’s obviously got a big thing against animals. I’m guessing she got bitten by a dog, or trodden on
by an elephant when she was a kid.’

‘That’s not our problem,’ I said. ‘And why should the old people suffer just because of her phobias?’

‘They shouldn’t, but what can we do about it?’

‘It’s very simple,’ I said. ‘Animals are important to Gigi and her friends, and if Nurse Witch won’t allow animals in, well we’re just going to have to get rid of her.’

‘You’re kidding, right?’

I shrugged. ‘Possibly. I’m not sure, yet.’

At lunchtime, Ella and I told Aretta about our plan for Maggie’s garden. When we’d finished, she had tears in her eyes, which was a bit embarrassing.

‘All you have to do is get your father to go to Maggie’s house,’ I said. ‘And then we can explain how he could help her by designing an
accessible garden for her.’

‘That’s so sweet of you both,’ she said. ‘And I really, really appreciate it, but––’

‘But what?’ I asked. I was a bit disappointed by her reaction, because I thought it was a great plan – one of the best I’d ever had.

‘But, my father is very, very sad all the time.’

‘We
know
,’ I said. ‘That’s why we came up with the plan. We want to give him something to do.’

‘I understand that,’ said Aretta. ‘But the thing is, it is as if my father is hiding away from the world. Some days he barely gets out of bed. I don’t think I will be able to persuade him to go to Maggie’s house.’

‘Does he
ever
leave the centre,’ asked Ella.

‘Very rarely,’ sighed Aretta. ‘He has only left once in the last month.’

‘And what was that for?’ I asked.

‘He came to meet my science teacher. My father would do anything to help me to get a
good education.’

‘Well, don’t say anything about meeting Maggie, then,’ I said. ‘Tell your dad it’s a meeting about your education.’

‘You want me to lie to him?’

‘It won’t be a lie,’ I said. ‘I’ve watched you. I know you spend most of the day worrying about your father, and that has to be a distraction. If your father continues the way he is, your education
is
going to suffer.’

‘That’s true,’ said Aretta.

‘Then it’s sorted,’ I said. ‘Tell your dad you need him to do something to help your school-work. Be all vague about it, and when you get him out of the centre, we’ll bring him to meet Maggie.’

‘You think that’ll work?’ asked Aretta.

‘Sure, it’ll work,’ I said. ‘It’s all sorted. Here, write down this address, and Ella and I will see you there at five o’clock this evening.’

‘I can’t help feeling bad about this,’ said Maggie as we sat in her kitchen that afternoon. ‘It’s like I’m taking advantage of this poor man’s situation.’

‘That’s absolutely not the case,’ I said. ‘Trust me, Maggie. If you let Aretta’s father design a garden for you, you’ll be doing him a huge favour – and if it happens to help you too, well then it’s a win-win, and what’s not to like about that?’

Before she could answer, the doorbell rang, and Ella ran to answer it.

She came back with a nervous-looking Aretta, who introduced us to her very embarrassed-looking father, who had to be wondering what he was doing standing in Maggie’s kitchen.

Aretta’s dad was a tall man with a thin, serious face. His clothes were worn and shabby
and his shoes looked like something from an old-fashioned movie. We all shook hands and then there was a long silence. Everyone looked at me, like I was supposed to know what to do next.

‘Er … it’s really warm in here,’ I said in the end. ‘Why don’t we go out to the garden for a bit?’

Even the people who were in on the plan looked at me like I was crazy, but I ignored them. I opened the back door and practically dragged Aretta and Ella outside. Aretta’s dad politely stood back, so Maggie could wheel herself through the door, and then he followed.

‘Not much room here,’ I said brightly, as the five of us squashed together on the tiny patio. ‘Why don’t we all go down the garden a bit?’

Then I turned around, like I had just noticed that Maggie was there in her wheelchair.

‘Oh, so sorry, Maggie,’ I said. ‘I forgot you
can’t go past the patio. Isn’t that a terrible pity? I couldn’t imagine not being able to go down to the end of my very own garden.’

Ella rolled her eyes at me, but I just made a face at her. After all, it wasn’t like she was rushing in with any amazing idea of her own.

But then Aretta’s dad spoke for the first time. ‘This path is too narrow for you,’ he said to Maggie. ‘It would not be difficult to make it wider so you could go to the end of the garden.’

‘Yes, I …’ began Maggie, but she stopped because Aretta’s dad was walking away through the overgrown grass and shrubs. I thought he was being a bit rude, but then I saw that Aretta was smiling.

‘OMG,’ she said. ‘Did you see that look on his face? I haven’t seen that for weeks and weeks.’

‘He looks really interested,’ said Ella.

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘And with a bit of luck, Aretta,
he might even forget that you tricked him to get him here.’

We stood there for a bit, occasionally seeing Aretta’s dad walking up and down the garden. In the end he came back to us.

‘Could I trouble you for a pen and some paper?’ he said politely to Maggie.

I ran in and grabbed an old notebook and a pencil from the kitchen table.

Aretta’s dad took it from me and wandered back in to the jungle, with Lucky following at his heels, like she was going to have to protect him from wild animals.

‘Don’t worry,’ I said. ‘If you get lost, Lucky knows the way back.’

But Aretta’s dad didn’t turn around. He just kept on walking, like it was a matter of life or death.

‘This is so amazing,’ said Aretta as the rest of us went inside. ‘I can’t believe my father is doing something besides sitting around
looking sad. I know this mightn’t be a big deal to any of you guys, but to me it’s like a miracle.’

Maggie squeezed my hand. ‘Eva’s our little miracle-worker,’ she said, and I had to look away, so no one could see how embarrassed I was.

Twenty minutes later Aretta’s dad came inside and sat next to Maggie at the kitchen table. He was all buzzy and excited.

‘When I was in horticultural college in Nigeria,’ he said. ‘Everyone had to do a graduation project, and mine was a design of an accessible garden. I was proud of my work, but I never had the opportunity to use my ideas. That was many years ago, but I haven’t forgotten them.’

He put a page in front of Maggie. ‘This is very rough,’ he said. ‘But I think you can see what I would like to do. We can widen the paths and put the plants in raised beds and
hanging baskets, all at a height suitable to you. We can build a barbecue that you can reach, and maybe a small fish-pond. We can make a kennel for Lucky. Do you need that shed for storage?’

‘Not really,’ said Maggie. ‘There’s just a few things in it.’

‘Excellent,’ said Aretta’s dad. ‘We can make a small storage box for the far corner of the garden where no one will see it, and we can adapt the shed to make a gazebo, where you can sit on the sunniest days.’

Maggie was laughing. ‘This all sounds very ambitious,’ she said.

Aretta’s father laughed too. ‘Ambition is good,’ he said. ‘It is important to have something to dream of. Now, would you allow me to draw up a proper plan for your garden?’

‘I would
love
that,’ said Maggie. ‘But I have to make it clear that I can’t afford to pay you for your work.’

Aretta’s dad smiled at her. ‘Payment is not always about money,’ he said.

At school the next morning, Aretta was smiling so much I thought her face was going to crack in two.

‘My father barely slept last night,’ she said. ‘He spent hours on the ancient computer in the common room. He’s already got the outline of the design drawn up, and when I left this morning, he was working on the smaller details.’

‘That’s so cool,’ said Ella.

‘It’s
very
cool,’ said Aretta. ‘It’s like it’s been raining for months, and now the sun has come out. My father has come back to me.’

‘That’s brilliant news. I’m glad our plan worked out.’

‘Oh,’ said Aretta. ‘There’s one thing I need to ask you.’

‘What?’

‘Are you and Ella free after school? My father is going to the library to do some research this afternoon, so I thought maybe the three of us could hang out for a bit?’

‘OMG!’ I said as I hugged her. ‘Cinderella is dead! Let’s go.’

‘Oh, no,’ said Aretta. ‘I can’t go yet. I’ve just remembered something.’

‘What?’ I asked. Was she already changing her mind?

‘I’ve got to go to sign up for after-school basketball,’ she said. ‘I’m going to start next week.’

‘That’s brilliant,’ I said. ‘I bet you’ll be the star of the team.’

But then I remembered something too. ‘Oh no!’ I said. ‘We’ve got heaps of maths homework, and it’s going to take me hours. I have
no
idea how to do it.’