"Weed Whacker"

by Furor Scribendi

2009 Scribendi Productions

June 29th

Mahoro watched as Suguru headed down the street, off to another day of school, massive bento in hand. She had heard from him that the bentos she had made for his lunch were drawing both attention and praise; attention, for the sheer size and scope as to what was given, praise as to the stunning quality of the food. Mahoro wanted to meet this Chizo, who was most complimentary with the adulation.

But that would have to wait until later; right now, there was a formidable task at hand: the garden!

It was determined the previous night, over dinner, that since the first floor of the house was in excellent condition, including the stairs, which had become a de facto library, that the second floor could hold off for a bit. Mahoro had decided to use the weekend to get the exterior of the house in shape, but today would be a preliminary overview, beginning with the lawn.

She turned back, in towards the house, and closed the gate, staring at the grass. Everything was wrong with it: patchy, brown spots here; overgrown in other areas; every shade of green imaginable and the whole expanse infiltrated with all calibers of pernicious weeds and ravenous insects.

If the gardening shed was in any condition like the closet or the kitchen, it would be a major mess. Was there even a gardening shed? Finding the vacuum cleaner was relatively easy; the lawn mower might be tougher. In fact, with her cleaning of the lower level of the house, she did not come across any equipment like that.

As she looked about the yards, examining both the garden and the layout, she did not notice any type of shed for storage. The yard was tidy in that aspect of it. As she came around the back side of the house, she noticed a door. It looked like a normal door, except it was in an odd place on the side of the house. It also has a combination lock on it.

She pondered it for a moment, and then went to the lock. It was showing the signs of being out in the elements for some time and that it may not have been opened for, possibly, years. The dial was a bit stiff, but a few minutes of working it got it rotating. She put her ear against the back side of the lock as she turned the dial. She could easily hear the tumblers click.

"12…..29……10!" She gave the lock a slight tug and it popped open. She removed it from the turn loop, opened the hasp and waited for a moment. Closets and doors around here were filled with nasty surprises. Who knew what lurked inside?

She stood to the side, slowly turning the knob, and then yanked it open. It was quiet. Peering about the door, she saw that it was a garden shed of sorts, but all it held was a spade, a gas can, a kneeling pad and a flat head rake. She could see the hooks and brackets to hold the other equipment, but nothing there. Silent sentinels, awaiting the return of the tools. She shut the door and looked about the yard. Could they be lost out there, somewhere? She scanned the yard and it took on the appearance of a wild jungle, with who knows whatever kinds of beasts were lurking in the underbrush with them?

She had heard the story of a hammer that had been left behind in a tree and the tree grew around it, but that took many, many years. She might get luckier than that. She was working on no more than four years of neglect. Wait. A gas can. Opening the door again, she picked up the can, but felt nothing. She worked the cap off then sloshed it about, but heard nothing. Still, this was a good sign.

At one time there WAS a lawn mower here, so it might be extant. Sitting on the steps of the veranda, she took note of several things. There was no sprinkler system in place, so that meant a hand watering. That would have to be done early in the morning or late in the day to cut down on evaporation. The lawn might also need some aeration, to bring both air and nutrients to the ground.

She knelt down to feel the soil and it was hard-baked. She thought as she pressed her hand about. Perhaps the lawn had not been watered at all and Suguru relied on whatever Mother Nature could muster for it. As she pondered, Guri-chan came up to her and whimpered, placing a paw upon her foot.

"Now, now, Guri-chan. I just fed you and it is a bit too early for a walk, so you will have to wait. I need to consider this lawn." She looked down at the small dog, who then wandered under the veranda to escape the gathering heat.

Mahoro continued to think. "But how would you water the lawn if there is no hose out? Find the hose, for there must be one." She got up and tracked down the spigot, where a hose was attached. She nodded. This was another good sign. As she followed the hose, it disappeared under the veranda. She pulled on it, but it appeared to be hooked on something. Her superior strength could have easily dislodged it, but it wasn't like ripping out a bus seat to clobber a hijacker. She needed more finesse and not destroy things here.

She peered underneath and thought she could make out shapes, but it was looking more and more that she would have to crawl into the area. She felt that soil. It was a bit moister than the lawn and the light through the planking gave a dappled look, but just not enough light to see as well as was needed. Without hesitation, she began her adventure.

As she wriggled through the tiny opening between the base board of the veranda and the ground, her hand came across something metal. The dirt was loose enough for her to dig and she discovered the trowel. She looked about the entire under-veranda area; dare she hope?

Staying with the hose line, she discovered the leaf rake, the fork, a pair of loppers and a claw. How did they all get down here? There were either buried in the earth or ensnarled by a ground-cover vine that ran throughout the area. Crawling along, inch by inch, she struck her head onto a pipe. Holding her head, she felt about to discover…"The lawnmower! But how did this get here?"

She lay in the cool of the darkness, trying to put together some kind of explanation to all of this. The wheels had gotten mired in the soft dirt and then it got hard, so that explained how it was stuck here. The hose was tied around the handle. To act as a reminder line? Then it was forgotten? Why shove it underneath? Was the lawnmower out but the shed already locked?

Was someone trying to help out and, when things went wrong, left it all behind? All this equipment? Mahoro pondered this thought as she dug out the wheels and freed the lawnmower, dragging it back to the opening. Once those two items were out, she made a full inspection underneath, rescuing three more tools: a short rake, an edger and the water sprinkler

Just before she came back out, she saw one more tool, but it was more of a loop than a full tool. As she resurrected it, she saw her ikebana shears. With everything laid out on the lawn, the garden door was opened and everything put into its place. A few tools were still AWOL: a branch saw, a dustpan, an aerator and a hand weeder. Commander Misato was just as precise at home as he was at work, as each tool was outlined in the place it was to go to.

After one last expedition underneath, scaring out Guri-chan in the process, Mahoro had to conclude that the items were just completely lost. The next step would to see if the mower still worked. Grabbing the gas can, he headed to the nearest petrol station. It was a walk, so Guri-chan was leashed up. Smiling as she trundled along, she felt good that she had made another step in rescuing the Haunted House from its past.

Mahoro began to feel odd, as she noticed that everyone was looking at her. Perhaps they had not seen a maid with a gas can in hand, walking down the street, tiny dog in tow. At the petrol station, she went up to the cashier. "I would like three liters of regular, please."

The cashier looked up at her. "I bet you need it for your lawn mower, as you have been working in the yard."

Mahoro was stunned. "That's right. But…..how could you tell?"

"Well, it appears that the yard has been working on you." He held up a mirror for her to see.

Mahoro blanched. Her face was smeared with dirt and her apron was now no longer white, but streaked with brown, showing where it had wrinkled up during her crawl beneath the porch. "Oh….oh, my…..I….I…" She began to go red with embarrassment.

The cashier snickered. "I wish I had a maid like you. Unafraid to get really dirty to keep my house clean." He put the mirror down and handed her a moist towelette. "Although it really won't do you much good to clean up; you'll just get dirty again."

"But I have an image to maintain. I never want to present myself in such a sloppy manner. What would people think?" Mahoro scrubbed her face, looking into the mirror to make sure she didn't miss any spots.

"They would think that you are a hard-working, dedicated maid. I think you are a hard-working, dedicated maid. That dirt is not a badge of shame, but a symbol of honor, of a willingness to roll up your sleeves and get the job done." He tapped a few buttons on his console. "Go to pump 4 and get your fuel. I do not wish to keep you any longer from your duties. Best of luck on the lawn."

Mahoro bowed. "Thank you for your words. I never thought of it that way." It didn't take long for the can to be filled and soon Mahoro was back at the yard, looking at the mower. Freed from its vine prison, Mahoro put in the fuel and primed the engine. She did five sets of 20 pumps. It had been a long time since it may have been started.

Grabbing the pull line, she gave a series of small tugs until it was at the proper catch point. Throttle opened to three-quarters, she gave a pull. It made some coughing noises, but did not turn over. She primed it some more and opened the throttle all the way. This time it sputtered, belched off a black cloud and turned over, roaring loudly.

Guri-chan fled into the protection of his dog house while Mahoro guided the mower about the lawn. She was going for a consistent look for the present, so the lawn would be shorter and bare, rather than longer and bare. Once that was done, she took the edger and really defined the border between lawn and flower bed.

The edger was an old monster, a half-moon-shaped tool face, its yellow paint all but worked off, but it still had a good slice to it and Mahoro made short work of the demarcation line. The day was getting hotter and hotter; she took a break for lunch and planned the afternoon work that lay ahead of her.

At the table, she saw an ad in the paper. The Hiryu Convention Center was having a Flower and Garden Show. A variety of lawn care folks would be there. She went over to the sliding glass door to peer out at the miasma that was the back lawn, then went to the front door and looked over the walkway. She certainly could use some degree of guidance in this area.

She knew that Commander Misato liked things neat and he even kept a little garden at the Vesper outpost. He certainly would not want thing to fall into disarray. This would be the plan of action for the afternoon: she would rake out the areas in the flower beds, removing the detritus and any potential weeds there. That would be followed with light dead-heading, as she now had the shears for that. Depending on what time she finished would decide if more could be done this day.

With lunch finished, she began the assault on the front yard. She would start at the side of the house and work along that to the fence, seeing how far it would take her. That meant beginning at the hydrangeas. They were in profuse abundance, so she had to take care not to damage them. As she raked, a lot of material came out, so she left piles to be picked up later.

She did not know how far back the hydrangeas went, so she gently squeezed through one clump to get to the fence. As she pushed them aside and got to the wall, she came upon a discovery: leaning up against the back fence was the aerator and a garden bag to put the clippings into.

She got down on all fours to really examine everything and found the dustpan, stuffed under the base of a plant. It was an all-metal pan, so it was in good condition, although it was a bit banged up. "Look out, clippings! I am ready to do battle!" She held the pan aloft, as if it were some kind of tremendous weapon and the weeds would flee in fear.

The tools were rescued and placed on the lawn, and then she went back in to rake the dirt clean. She got to the tree in the corner of the yard and noticed a small step ladder at well. It was at the base of the tree, opened up, so someone could have….

She got up on the ladder and peered towards the tree. Could it be the hammer story all over again? She then climbed into the tree to look about. She was now high enough to be seen from the street, over the wall. Some pedestrians stared over at her as they passed by. A dirt-covered maid, clambering about, in a tree? How absurd.

As Mahoro scanned, she discovered what she hoped for: the branch saw. It was closed up, so it was hanging on a branch stump from its leather loop. She opened it up. It would need a good de-rusting to get back to its fighting form, but she was slowly finding everything.

As the afternoon wore on, the yard was starting to take shape. There was still a great deal of work to do, as the lawn needed the most work of all and that would take a couple of months to rectify, but the early results were good.

With all the clippings now in the bag, she grabbed the aerator and went to work. It was a nasty-looking piece of equipment, with four spikes in a straight line. It would go down about four inches, to give enough penetration and make the soil more manageable. It looked more like a demented pogo stick, owing more to the size, but it would really help

She decided to aerate first and then water. She started at one side of the house and tried the place-and-step-on approach, but that seemed a bit slow. She wondered if she could do this more efficiently. She treated the aerator like it really was a pogo stick, jumping up and down with it across the lawn. People passing by the gate peered in to see a maid bounding all about, concentrating on doing the job well.

Her skirt went flapping with the force of exertion as she went hither and thither across the yard. Once everything was properly plugged, she started the sprinkler, watching it oscillate. Normally, it would have been too hot to run it, as she would lose a lot of moisture in the heat, but she wanted to take advantage of the new holes in the lawn to help things along.

While it worked about, Mahoro began to tidy up Guri-chan's house. At the very least, it needed a wipe-down and a clipping of the grass thickets about the sides of his place. She did nothing about the inside, though. After all, it was a dog house and Guri-chan had it just the way he wanted it. As Mahoro set up the sprinkler in spot after spot, she attended to other chores.

She worked on cleaning up the lawnmower, so it looked less forlorn. The tools were spruced up, so at least the rust was held at bay. She had discovered a small bottle of conditioning oil and that helped with all the hinge and lever items, so they moved smoother and with no ear-cringing squeaking. Some of them sounded like the proverbial old gate opening up, loud and piercing.

The clippings bag was dumped and the garden shed had all the tools replaced where they needed to be. Even the lawnmower was placed inside. Everything was back where it belonged, save for the weeder. That tool was completely lost, and she had investigated the entire lawn, front and back. When she set up the sprinkler at the last spot, she saw it was time for her to get ready for Suguru's return. But there was still so much to be done!

Heading into the house, she went upstairs to change out of her soiled outfit and send that through the wash. Then she washed her hands and face again and began to prepare for the after-school snack for him as well as getting dinner done. As with most things around the Misato household, it just took more time than she had anticipated. She looked out at the lawn and did notice a change. It almost appeared that the garden was happy for what had been done to it. Was the grass a bit greener? Were the hydrangeas standing a smudge taller? Did the tree look a touch fuller in its canopy?

She went out to turn off the sprinkler and coil up the hose. There was no place to hang it on the house, nor was their any kind of hose reel. That would need to be attended to, but not now. The hose was disconnected and placed under the spigot, sprinkler atop the pile.

Mahoro continued to prepare things, but then she looked at the clock. Suguru was running late. Could there be a problem at school? She went to the front door and opened it to see Suguru just standing there at the gate, his bag and bento at his feet, in stunned appreciation, as he gazed upon the yard.

Mahoro came out to him. "Are you all right, Suguru?"

"What did you do to the yard?" The words came out slowly as his head rotated from right to left and back again.

"Is there a problem, Suguru?" Mahoro was nervous. Did she overstep her boundaries again?

"It looks amazing. You did all this in one day? Imagine what you could do in a week!"

Mahoro perked up. "Yes, yes. That is something that I need to discuss with you over dinner. So, come inside. It may be too hot for you out here." She noticed that Suguru was staring at her. "Is there something wrong?"

"Do you have….dirt on your face?"

Mahoro panicked. "NO! NO! Not at all. What kind of maid would I be if I looked like I was dragged through the mud and the muck? That is not the kind of impression that one should ever leave. It just must be some shadows over my face. Here! Let's get you inside the house for a nice glass of iced tea!"

Mahoro practically shoved Suguru ahead of her, mortified that she was not fully cleaned up for him. How could she have missed any spot? Suguru smiled as they escaped into much cooler environment of the house.

When all was quiet, Guri-chan came out from beneath the veranda and made his way to his dog house. Even he could see that it looked a lot better. Giving out an appreciative yip, he hid inside. Away from the withering glare of the relentless sun, he went for his favorite chew toy. As the heat of the day faded into the cool of the evening, he gnawed happily on the well-bitten handle of the weeder.

MAHORO'S SYSTEMS WILL CEASE TO FUNCTION IN 386 DAYS

End Notes

A lot has been made as to what Mahoro did inside the house and passing comments as to how nice the outside looks, but not much beyond that. In Season One, Episode Four, she comments that she cannot go to the beach because "…the weeds grow as fast as I can pull them."

So, what does she do with the garden? In the manga, both in the very first chapter and, again, in the very last chapter, we observe that the hydrangeas appear to care for themselves, but the lawn takes it on the chin both times.

Now, I will be honest on this, but I have never seen a garage in ANY amine or manga that I have read. Storage sheds, sure, but never a real garage. (I could be reading or seeing the wrong shows) I know they must (should?) have them, but since I haven't even noticed a driveway anywhere, perhaps cars are parked elsewhere or many do not have a car. (No car? Really? I find that truly hard to swallow.)

In the US, few of us have a storage shed, but we have a garage to store lawn equipment. I did know of a house with a kind of outside door as described here, but it always smelled mildewy inside.

The hammer story was "borrowed" from an episode of "CSI". Whether or not it is true doesn't matter, as it is a great tale.

I wanted to have Mahoro attempt to spilt the time between the first floor work and the second floor work, as Suguru is a couple of days away from Mahoro doing the second floor and discovering Riho and her friends under Suguru's bed. Also, the "investigation" is about a week away as well, so it's getting busy in her life.

As we see, her plans are not going to adhere to anything that looks like a schedule. There would still be sufficient time for her to at least get the lawn and garden work started. If it is not fully completed, she can decide to move back to the house and the second floor.

I also have the "next" chapter of this Second Season, which is a kind of partner piece to this one, so a lot of comments must be kept hidden at this time.