6

SUCCULENT PLANTING AND A RING BOX

After a long, warm shower and with a belly full of carbs and fat, Molly arrived at the garden center earlier than her normal starting time. Usually, she was the first one at the center at 8:00 a.m. Theo had early morning soccer practice nearly every day, and May was getting her kids ready for school. Molly enjoyed the solitude and quiet of the place before they opened at nine. The strong floral and soil scents always struck her as she entered the shop. Every time, the smell centered her and reminded her of their late grandparents. She involuntarily inhaled deeply as she entered the store in the morning.

Sherlock emerged from the back of the shop, bleary-eyed, and stretched his black-and-white kitty body as far as it would go. He sauntered over to Molly and wrapped his tail around her legs. “Good morning, Mr. Sherlock,” she said, petting him from ears to tail in one sweep. This was also part of her morning routine: being greeted by Sherlock and filling his water and food bowls behind the counter. She knew that he also nagged whoever opened the shop on Saturday to feed him, and that person doled out an extra scoop in the bowl for Sunday.

After inhaling half of his bowl of kitty kibble, Sherlock ambled into the shoppable greenhouse section of the store. He found a sunny spot to nap between some of the shade-loving annuals and perennials. Since they’d been restocked in the spring, Sherlock seemed to consider pink impatiens his nap buddies. Molly didn’t understand why the kitty left the houseplants in the greenhouse alone but was grateful that he didn’t chomp on them. As children, she and May had cats that were always taking nibbles of their mother’s spider plants and Monstera.

Molly wandered into the staff-only greenhouse, located in the back of the building and off-limits to customers. The back area of the store also contained a cramped staff break room, the employee restroom, and a storage room. She separated a few tomato plants into individual pots. The succulent cuttings under grow lights on one shelf were doing especially well. She needed to separate out the succulents that she would sell at the Saturday morning Farmer’s Market, but before she did, Molly said in a soft but confident voice, “You are the most beautiful succulents. You are such good growers, and I love you all.” Grandma Patty used to say positive affirmations to growing plants, and she had wonderful success. Molly carried on the tradition, especially because she found working with succulents to be a challenge. She worked her way down, addressing each shelf. It seemed she was always growing succulents. The number of cacti and aloe vera they sold at the shop and at the market still surprised her. Didn’t people in Hawthorn Heights already have enough of the little plants?

Molly was crouched down, addressing the bottom shelf of baby succulents, when she heard the front door chime. They were not open yet, and she didn’t know who to expect. She couldn’t remember if she had locked the door behind her, as she usually did in the mornings.

“Good morning,” Theo called before Molly heard the door swing closed behind him. He shed his jacket before he entered the back room, swinging it onto their employee coat hooks on the wooden paneling of the workroom with muscle memory, not looking.

“Hey there. You’re here early,” Molly said to Theo as she moved over to the worktable with a tray of the most mature succulents. She felt silly talking to the plants in front of him and abandoned her affirmations. At least there was only one shelf left without positive thoughts.

“I forgot to tell you,” Theo said, leaning against the stainless steel worktable, arms crossed. “Coach canceled practice this morning. I figured I’d come in early. I didn’t sleep so well last night after everything. How are you holding up?”

“I tossed and turned a lot and had weird dreams,” Molly replied. Theo looked as sleep-deprived as she was, with slightly red eyes surrounded by puffy skin.

“Yeah, yeah. Me, too. Do you have any more news about Trevor? Nothing in the local news. I really thought there’d be something.”

“I don’t have any new info. I was thinking of calling Joe later today, though.”

“Seems like a good idea,” Theo said.

“He might know something, at least. And didn’t one of the police officers say something about a detective following up with us? That whole couple of hours is a bit of a blur to me still.”

“I hear you. Such a weird afternoon.” Theo let out a long breath. “Yeah, I think they said something about a detective calling if they wanted more information. I don’t think we have anything more to provide, though.” Theo pushed away from the worktable. “So, uh, before I work on some restocking, I thought I should show you what I picked up after work last night, even after all the chaos.” Theo’s demeanor turned from concerned to nervous, an unusual state for him.

“Oh, really?” Molly’s eyebrows raised expectantly, her hands frozen in place in their succulent sorting.

“Yeah. I don’t feel like I have a good enough plan yet, but I figure I should keep it with me in case the ideal situation arises.” Theo pulled a small box out of his pocket. Then he turned the box over and gave it a little shake. He extracted a velvet box out of it as one would separate Russian nesting dolls. The distinctive popping sound of the ring box opening gave Molly a shiver of excitement. Engagement rings held such hope for the future.

“Theo, it’s beautiful!”

“She has a thing for white gold. I found a place in Cleveland that uses recycled gold, so that’s cool. And I figured I should get as many diamonds as I could afford, but she deserves more.” Theo’s attention was on the floor, not on the ring.

“Vivian will love it. It’s perfect!” Molly realized she was smiling wider than she had in the past twenty-four hours. Theo smiled back, although he still lacked his usual confidence. Molly admired Theo’s girlfriend immensely. Vivian was working on her PhD while also treating patients with psychiatric issues. Molly thought her dark skin was beautiful and was jealous of her long braids that held charms and beads.

“I think she’ll like it. I talked to her aunt about what she wanted and stuff. Anyway, I wanted to show you.”

“And you’ll tell me when that ideal situation arises?” Molly asked.

“You know I will,” Theo said as he tucked the boxes back together. “I’ll work on the mulch restock now. Let me know if you need anything.”

Molly heard him move around the front of the store and continued with her work, humming, now with much more on her mind than just succulents.

Molly was practiced at planting succulents en masse. First, she filled a variety of small, decorative pots halfway with her standard succulent mixture of sand and soil. She went back down the assembly line and poked a divot in each container of soil, one by one. Then she plopped a little a little grey-green plant in each pot, working down the row. Finally, she surrounded the individual plants with more of the soil-sand mixture, gently patting down the soil around the roots with her fingertips and below each fleshy leaf. This solitary, silent work felt joyful and productive, her mind on her work and not on the missing college student and her cousin.

Molly also had to put together the living flower arrangement by this afternoon. Archie had followed up with some texts, and they had agreed to meet at the Home and Garden Show at 10:00 a.m. That meant Molly needed to get her “something purple with three succulents” arrangement done before then.

Molly cleared off her stainless steel workspace, doing a second pass with a soft cloth to remove all the gritty sand and soil. She chose a wide ceramic pot glazed in bright royal purple for her foundation. She would place many pots of plants inside this large one, and customers could divide them up after their event was over. Instead of using bulky chunks of floral foam to secure the pots in place, which could not be recycled and were made of plastic, Molly usually opted for a mix of moss and shredded newspaper, which could be composted or recycled when it was time to divide up the arrangement. Sometimes she used chicken wire to hold the pots in place, or just a grid of floral tape if her plants crowded themselves into place well enough. Above the individual pots, she placed dried moss or curly Spanish moss.

Molly selected some already potted succulents, a stack of twigs, and a few small pots of annual garden plants—light purple violas and yellow kalanchoe. The kalanchoe was a bit like a succulent and would pair well with them. She also chose bright-green indoor pothos for added texture and greenery. She soaked the twigs in water so they would bend easily. The different shades of purple with a few pops of yellow came together well with a light purple Graptopetalum succulent and an Echeveria tolimanensis that was light green with purple tones. She couldn’t decide what the third succulent should be: probably a more standard green. The color combinations delighted Molly, and she found herself humming while she worked.