"Is this the stop for Clear Skies Conservancy?"
"Yup," the bus driver replied.
"Thank you!"
Basil stepped off the bus. He'd gone far enough from the city that the noise of traffic and the smog in the air felt absent here, though he could still see the city skyline in the distance. A preserve of trees and grassy fields now stood between him and that concrete jungle.
Earlier this morning, Sunny had gone off to see his therapist.
Sunny never felt comfortable being alone with people he doesn't know...
I really hope he's doing fine by himself.
Last night, Sunny's mom told Basil that he could check out the garden near the city. She'd already looked up the bus route and gave him a set of directions to get there. And though Basil had enough spare change to spend on bus tickets, she just wouldn't say no to paying for the trip for him. He essentially received a free round trip to Clear Skies Conservancy.
Basil breathed in deeply the fresh air. It carried a tinge of the wild, reminding him of Faraway a bit, but also quite different. Perhaps the scent came from the new variety of flowers found inside this garden.
He followed the trail from the street up into the wooded hills. A large house stood at the top, welcoming visitors. Pleasant gardens filled with flowers and potted plants surrounded the house. The beautiful array of colors in the garden—tulips, peonies, roses, sunflowers, petunias, and more—reminded Basil of his old house in Faraway, grandma's house. A house now abandoned.
The sign at the entrance informed him he was entering Clear Skies Conservancy, the oldest nature conservation project in the city that had been running for over fifty years. Basil knocked before opening the door.
I wonder what kind of person runs this place?
An anxious ache in his heart gave him feel nervous jitter. He'd always been a little shy visiting other people' homes. He hoped that he would be able to get along with the garden owner.
The only person he saw inside the house was an old woman with short graying black hair, wearing big glasses. She greeted Basil with a friendly smile.
"Hello. How can I help you?"
"Umm, hi," Basil replied shyly. He tried to appear positive. "I'm new to this city, and, umm, I've always loved taking care of plants..."
"It's good to see young people interested in plants," she said. "Would you like me to take you on a tour of this place? I can show you all the plants we have around here."
"Thank you! Yes, please."
Basil felt pleasantly surprised by the elegant flower gardens the old woman maintained all by herself. He learned that her name was Mrs. Li, and she had built this conservancy with her late husband out of a desire to create a nature preserve near the bustling city that anyone could visit to get closer to nature. She had been a gardener all her life and knew how to take care of far more different kinds of flowers than Basil could have imagined.
Grandma would've loved to see this garden...
Mrs. Li informed Basil that teenagers in high school often volunteered at her garden over the summer. They helped water the plants, remove weeds, eliminate invasive species out in the woods around the garden house, and plant new seeds.
"I'd love to volunteer here!" Basil offered. "Are there any positions still available?"
"Around this time, students are going back to school, so we see a drop in volunteers," she said. "I think next week a few positions should open up."
Basil snatched the opportunity. "Can I sign up?"
"Sure you can."
Excitement filled Basil's heart. He put his name down on the volunteering sign up sheet; Mrs. Li must have sensed his eagerness to start gardening.
"Today's a day off for the volunteers, but flowers don't have day offs when it comes to needing water," Mrs. Li said with a smile. "My grand-daughter is arriving at noon to help but I could use a hand right now."
"I'll help out," Basil promised.
Since it was his first time working in this garden, she supervised him as he carried jugs of water out to water the potted plants that needed watering. In a short time, Basil showed Mrs. Li that he was an experienced gardener.
While walking through the house, Basil noticed all the unique art pieces hanging up on the walls. They ranged from cartoonish drawings to impressionist paintings to beautifully realistic pieces of art. Most of them were drawings of plants and flowers, but there were a few of people and places.
"These paintings are really nice!" Basil said to Mrs. Li. "Did you paint them?"
"No, my grand-daughter drew all of them," she answered with a proud smile. "I'm glad you like them."
"I'm not a very good artist myself," Basil admitted.
"Neither am I!" she said with a laugh.
With heavy jugs of water in his hands, he began making round trips from the house out to the garden to water all the plants.
The morning sun rose high into the air. Working up a sweat in this garden felt nice. It gave Basil the rare feeling that he'd finally found a place where he belonged. The city had its fun attractions like the library, but Basil's home would always be a garden, surrounded by flowers.
He especially enjoyed watering the sunflowers.
Basil's thoughts kept turning to his personal promise to Sunny, his promise that he'd take care of his best friend as he reacclimated back to life outside. He'd try to spend as much time with Sunny as possible in the upcoming days, help him out with stuff, and with studying once they went back to school. He wanted to be the bright sunflower in the uncertain days of Sunny's new life.
It was a promise that kept him anchored to life while the sadness in his heart, the void that grew from grandma's passing, threatened to swallow him up.
Not just grandma's passing, but my guilt over taking out Sunny's eye...
I just can't forgive myself for it.
The more he thought about his actions during those final days in Faraway, the more embarrassed and filled with shame he became.
So distraught over the prospect of Sunny moving away, he'd grown completely delusional, even imagining that Something was taking Sunny away rather than Sunny leaving by his own volition.
"Stay away! Stay away from Sunny!"
Those words gripped his chest. They sucked the oxygen out of his lungs, a shameful reminder that his own hand had raised the shears that struck out at Something behind Sunny, Something taking Sunny away from him.
A swift, flailing movement of his arm removed his best friend's vision, half of it, for life.
I don't know how I'll ever be able to make it up to Sunny.
I'll do whatever I can to be less of a bother to him and his family...maybe spending my days gardening here could erase my unnecessary presence in his home...
Yet back at the hospital, Sunny had promised that he would stay together with him from now on.
It's okay, Sunny. You don't have to do that for me.
Just say the words and I'll leave you alone.
A sad smile came over Basil's lips as drops of water indicated the cessation of water flow from his current jug. Even though he felt affection for his best friend, he wouldn't care if his best friend didn't feel the same way back. He always told himself that it was enough for Sunny to be happy.
He picked up the next jug to continue watering the sunflowers in front of him, snapping out of his stormy thoughts when heard his phone ringing in his pocket.
It wasn't actually his phone, just the phone Sunny's mom had given him this morning so that they could stay in contact throughout the day. He answered her call.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Basil. How's the garden?"
"It's great! Thank you so much for showing me this place. I'm having a wonderful time gardening right now."
"Wow, they let you garden there?"
"As a volunteer, yeah."
"That's good to hear. Anyway, Sunny's done with therapy for the day. I'll drive over to pick you up in a couple of hours."
"Thank you! But you don't have to, I know the bus route home."
"Oh, Basil, you don't need to be so self-reliant. I'm sure Sunny wants to visit the garden, too. I'll come by with Sunny, okay?"
"Ah—ah, okay, alright."
"See you soon."
Mrs. S has done a lot for me.
He owed a lot to her, accepting him into her new home at his parent's request. Despite how nice she was, she had the most reason to be upset with him for what he did to her daughter. He still couldn't make any sense out of it.
Why doesn't she get mad at me?
At this point, I'd feel better if she got angry at me—I deserve it, after all that I've done.
Basil finished watering the sunflowers with a cloud of negative thoughts shrouding his mind.
When he went back to Mrs. Li's house with his empty watering cans, he was surprised to find an extremely familiar face standing there talking to her. He felt sure he'd seen her somewhere before, those big red glasses.
Is that Mrs. Li's grand-daughter?
She turned at Basil as he approached. "Hello!"
"Hey," Basil responded shyly.
"My name's Mincy," she introduced herself, a name that also sounded familiar.
"I'm Basil," he replied.
He thought he saw a flash of recognition in her eyes, but she didn't bring it up.
"Basil helped me water the plants this morning, so you have less work to do this afternoon," Mrs. Li said to Mincy. "How about starting with the hydrangea?"
"Sure thing," Mincy replied.
"I'll h—help!" Basil offered, not wanting to spend a second being idle.
"Thanks."
Basil couldn't shake off the feeling that he'd seen Mincy somewhere before. As he helped her water the flowers in the garden, she finally brought it up.
"Umm, have I seen you around before?" she asked.
"Yeah, I think s—so too," Basil replied. "I'm from Faraway Town."
"Oh, I was just in Faraway!" she said, smiling with recognition. "I think I saw you at the park."
I might've caught sight of you around, but I was too busy trying to get my photo album back from Aubrey to really notice back then...
"That's probably where I saw you, too," Basil said, a little embarrassed that he didn't identify her earlier.
"Wow, we're both from Faraway, huh," Mincy spoke. "That's really...hehe, far from here."
"I had to move here," Basil replied, proceeding to a pot of orchids after finishing with the hydrangeas.
"Oh, I see," Mincy said casually.
He considered asking Mincy why she came all the way here but decided it might be rude to ask if she didn't ask him first. Better not to talk about his own sudden removal from Faraway in any case.
Basil noticed Mincy taking out a pencil and sketchpad from her pocket and drawing on it after she was done watering the flowers. Not wanting to interrupt her, he moved on to another patch of flowers.
Mincy must've drawn all those pieces inside Mrs. Li's house...
Sunny used to love drawing in his own journal, too.
With Sunny occupying his thoughts again, Basil couldn't think about anybody else.
One thing that was making him feel all warm and fuzzy inside was the knowledge that Sunny shared his blankets with him each night. He never asked for it, but he always woke up to find Sunny's blankets spread out over his own. Sunny's blankets were much larger than the little one he used to cover his own body, and to be perfectly honest, it provided him such much needed warmth...
He didn't let his thoughts wander any farther than that.
Sunny couldn't just be doing that by accident, could he?
Just thinking about it made him blush all red.
This subject wasn't something he could just bring up in conversation with Sunny. He didn't want to make Sunny feel uncomfortable. Even if Sunny had been stuck indoors for the past four years, any boy his age would by now understand that sharing blankets was a very intimate thing to do and no boy would want to get caught—
Intimate.
Basil turned completely red. If Mincy looked at him now, she'd probably ask him what's going on, afraid that he could be suffering from heat stroke.
Focus on gardening, Basil!
Sunny is your best friend. He might care about you, but you shouldn't think of him as any more than that.
The water flowing from his can spilled a few drops over to a nearby patch of sunflowers, already watered by his hand earlier this morning.
I can't let my abnormal feelings affect my relationship with Sunny.
A voice in his head, belonging to his grandma, reminded him, "Your feelings are perfectly normal."
"It's okay for a boy to wear a flower in his hair, so go ahead and put on whatever makes you feel comfortable."
Basil shut his eyes.
What would grandma think of my feelings for Sunny...?
He shook his head. He tried to focus—he lived to help Sunny adjust to his new life, he had to atone after taking out Sunny's eye. Feelings would just get in the way of his goal. Best to get rid of them.
And then the phone rang in his pocket again.
"Basil, we're here at the garden," Mrs. S spoke through the phone.
"Oh—oh, okay. I'll come on over."
"Wait, Sunny wants to explore the garden with you. Why don't you wait there for us?"
"Ummm...why?"
"He wants to get some exercise out in nature. This area looks beautiful!"
"Okay? I'll wait, then?"
"Thanks, Basil. We'll be right there soon."
Basil's hands trembled, but his head also felt a bit lighter.
Whenever he was alone for too long, his head became a storm of anxious thoughts. He could wander that labyrinth of painful and confusing emotions for hours, never finding the exit.
But as soon as Sunny showed up, as soon as he even heard that Sunny was coming to see him—
The way out of the labyrinth became illuminated by a ray of sunshine that pierced through the storm.
I can't believe I'm so dependent on him.
...But Sunny won't be there for me forever, so I have to learn to be happy on my own.
Basil went back to Mincy to pick up another watering can. The hot afternoon sun covered his back with sweat.
He wondered how Sunny's therapy session went.
Having by now explored most of the places where Mrs. Li planted her flowers, he'd also noticed that the whole of the Clear Skies Conservancy was actually a lot bigger than just the garden. It included the woods and hills behind the house, with a trail leading into the dense trees. He wondered what was inside the woods.
"Hey, Basil," Sunny's voice broke through Basil's thoughts.
Sunny and Mrs. S walked towards them from the back porch of the house. Mrs. Li came along as well.
Mincy turned towards Sunny, instantly recognizing him. "Sunny?"
"Mincy?"
"I didn't know you were here!" she exclaimed.
"Oh, you two know each other?" Mrs. Li asked.
"Yeah, I know Sunny from back in Faraway," Mincy replied, then her tone darkened. "Wait, Sunny. I heard you got sent to the hospital...what happened to your eye?"
Basil averted his gaze.
"Just an accident," Sunny responded evasively. "Don't worry about it."
"That looks bad!"
"It doesn't hurt anymore. The doctors said I'll be fine." Sunny smiled, and it hurt Basil's heart to see his best friend try to cover for his own guilty actions.
"Is your eye going to be okay?" Mincy asked.
Sunny's smile dropped. "My sight in that eye probably won't be coming back."
"I'm so sorry..."
"It's alright."
"Are you sure it's never coming back?"
"I've already gotten used to it."
Mincy looked despondent. "Okay..."
Sunny tried to change the subject. "Just wondering, how come you're all the way here in this city?"
Mincy still seemed concerned. "I lived with my aunt in Faraway. Just a few days ago, she was laid off from her job and had to go back to her home country. I didn't want to go with her because...I'm embarrassed to say...I don't know the language that well! So, yesterday, I moved in with my grandma in this city to finish high school here."
Basil raised his eyes in astonishment. He'd assumed Mincy was just visiting. It was crazy that another person from Faraway had moved here along with Sunny and himself.
His crimes seemed to be following him in the form of a brigade of potential witnesses, people who knew the Sunny before his eye was irreversibly scarred by a bad friend's bad life decisions.
"Are we going to the same high school then?" Sunny asked. "The one by the library?"
"Yup, that's the one," Mincy replied.
Wow...
"I'm glad you now have friends you know in this city," Mrs. Li said cheerfully to Mincy.
"Isn't it great?" Mrs. S added. "I was so afraid Sunny wasn't going to know anybody here, but it's so relieving to see people he knows attending the same high school with him."
Basil smiled nervously.
"If you don't mind me asking, how come you moved here?" Mincy asked Basil.
Oh.
I'll tell the truth.
"Ummm...my grandma died, and my parents plan to sell her home in Faraway. In the meantime, they sent me to live with Sunny at his new home."
Mincy smiled. "Oh, you two are living together?"
Basil glanced over and thought he saw a faint blush on Sunny's cheeks. "Yeah..."
"Lucky! Sunny encouraged me when I showed him my art."
So that's how they know each other.
"Ah—ah, yeah, Sunny's a really nice person," Basil stammered.
Now Sunny was the one averting his eyes; he picked up a watering can and went over to the remaining unwatered hydrangeas, probably trying to deflect the attention being thrown towards him.
"You're gardening too?" Basil asked.
"Thought I'd sign up to get some volunteering hours," Sunny replied with a smile.
Basil's head felt light again.
Living together, going to the same high school, volunteering at the same place...
I don't get it, why is Sunny being so nice to me?
He should hate me for permanently damaging his eye, yet...he's doing everything together with me...
Basil made himself look happy. "That's really good!"
"All the gardening tips you taught me yesterday are gonna be really helpful," Sunny added.
"Basil, you taught Sunny gardening?" Mincy asked.
Basil just smiled again. "Y—Yeah."
"Ah, it's so nice that you're both volunteering here! This garden means a lot to me and my family."
For the rest of the afternoon, they helped Mrs. Li water the remaining plants in her garden. Mincy chatted with Sunny, and they seemed to get along well talking about art. Sunny even mentioned that he might be interested in getting back into drawing again.
Basil couldn't help but feel all warm and fuzzy again. He only wished to see Sunny happy.
***
"I hope you don't mind me asking...how did therapy go?" Basil asked Sunny at the dinner table.
"It was okay," Sunny replied. "I talked about some things that were on my mind. I think I feel better now."
"Did you talk to her about everything you needed to?" Mrs. S asked.
"Yeah. She helped clear up most of the things that were bothering me..."
The lack of detail in this conversation evidently indicated that there was not much more to say. Everyone still treaded on a thin tightrope. Basil didn't want to prod deeply into Sunny's private thoughts for fear of being intrusive. Sunny must have wanted to avoid talking about very painful memories. Mrs. S probably tried to avoid bringing up trauma in general to what she presumed must be her two very damaged children.
Children?
Basil almost made a double take on his own thoughts.
What else should I call myself if not that?
I suppose, to Mrs. S, I'm not too different from how I was to Polly.
Just a useless kid who needs to be taken care of because my parents can't bother to spend any time with me.
"Basil," Sunny spoke, "Thanks for letting me come to the garden today."
"You're welcome?"
"I'm honestly glad you're exploring all these places in the city. I wouldn't have been brave enough to talk to Mrs. Li by myself."
Sunny ate some meat loaf, chewed, and swallowed. "Because of you, I got to meet Mincy again. And I've found a place where I can really enjoy volunteering with you!"
"T...Thank you?"
"I can't wait to go gardening with you again."
Heat rushed into Basil's face, hearing that from Sunny. Words like that from Sunny were honey to his ears.
Nectar.
Divine, honeyed milk.
He couldn't stop blushing, because that feeling in his chest, the feeling of receiving thanks from Sunny, it was the best reward he could ever receive in the world.
Sunny's smile, Sunny's kind words, they pumped his brain with lovely, lovely chemicals.
All his dark, stormy thoughts became washed away by soft, fluffy feelings that rolled over him like an ocean of smooth feathers.
Life was a dark, cold night, and Sunny was the bright ray of dawn.
Basil failed to hide his blush, but embarrassment couldn't hold a candle to how happy he felt.
I hope Mrs. S doesn't start to suspect things...
"Gardening's a good hobby," she just said.
"It's a good workout too," Sunny added.
"Oh, before I forget," Mrs. S spoke, getting up from her chair. "Basil, a letter arrived from your parents."
Huh?
Mrs S handed Basil a letter from her mailbox.
I haven't received a letter from my parents in so long.
Not to mention, they usually call me if they want to talk to me instead of sending something by mail...
I don't have a good feeling about this.
"Thank you," Basil said to Mrs. S. Then, turning to the bathroom, "excuse m—me."
"Are you feeling alright?" Sunny asked.
"Don't worry about me! I'll be fine."
Inside the bathroom, with shaking fingers, Basil opened the letter.
He took out the piece of paper from inside, expecting it to be something horrible. Maybe his parents were finally done with him, done with this burden they had to carry for sixteen years, and they were officially disowning him.
It would be nice to get the farce over with.
His eyes scanned the piece of paper trembling in his hands.
What the...?
It was a cheque for two thousand dollars, with instructions on opening a bank account to deposit that money for his personal use.