BREAD PROJECT: WEEK 1

ELIOT

I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t trying to please someone.

Well, maybe with Griff—I didn’t have to try to keep him happy. Maybe if Griff was still here, I wouldn’t be trying so hard to please Marj. Because I was trying very, very, very hard to please her.

That night, Friday night, I set my alarm for 6 a.m.

For four hours before Marj got up, I worked in the yard. Quietly. Using Griff’s old push mower.

“It’s slower,” Griff told me the first time we did yard work together, “but it cuts clean, and the grass grows better.” He spent an afternoon teaching me how to sharpen the blades.

By 9 a.m., I had all the lawn cut, the shrubs trimmed, and the leaf litter from the flowerbeds bagged. I even cleared out the vines and mess at the back of the yard, something Griff had meant to do this summer. I picked up all the foliage and bagged it, too, while slapping at bugs and scratching where they bit. Finally, I stacked all the bags by the front curb and went in to shower.

By 10 a.m., I smelled like soap. I scrambled eggs, toasted English muffins and made coffee. Then I put three rose buds–the last of the summer–and a length of vine in a vase and arranged it all on a tray. I tiptoed to Marj’s room and knocked.

“Come in.” Then, leaning up on an elbow, Marj asked, “What’s this?”

I used my most cheerful voice. “Saturday morning breakfast.” And I watched her carefully. Would this please her?

“Well. Thank you.” Marj yawned, then rubbed her eyes, then rubbed her nose, like she was trying to rub off freckles. She stretched, stood, opened the window curtains, and sat on the window seat in her pajamas, blinking at the bright light. I put the breakfast tray on the nearby table and sat in the extra chair and watched.

Marj sipped coffee, then looked outside. She glanced at me, and then back outside.

“You do all that?” She waved at the tidy yard.

“Yes.” Nervous, I waited for reaction.

“Wow, it looks great. Thanks.”

Her words weren’t much, but her face relaxed, and she smiled directly at me. It made me smile right back. Pleased that she was pleased.

“When did you do it? Why didn’t I hear you? I would have come out and helped.”

I explained about Griff’s push mower and the hand tools for cutting shrubs. “I can do the yard work myself.”

Marj’s forehead wrinkled, but she said nothing.

I wanted to press her right then, to get her to say that if I kept up the yard work, she’d try to make things work. But I had learned: never push an adult into a corner when they might say, “No.” Better to wait.

I had done enough that morning.

“Well, I’m going to watch cartoons. May I ask a couple friends to come over this afternoon and practice baking bread? For the Bread Project?”

Marj blinked, still looking sleepy. “Not today. But tomorrow afternoon, after church. Whatever time you want.”