The Garden Thief (2 page)

Alex Kirk said he had to take care of his garden and left.

Mr. Yee took several deep breaths, then said, “Come, let’s walk through my garden plot.”

The Aldens followed him, careful to not step on any plants. That was a bit hard to do because the plants were sprawled out everywhere.

And so were weeds. Jessie knew that the tall grass-like stalks didn’t belong in the middle of the plants. Mr. Yee needs our help to weed his garden, she thought. He can’t do it with one arm in a cast.

Mr. Yee stopped in the middle of a long path. He pointed to the far end of two rows of carrots. “Notice how the carrots at the far end of each row are bigger than the ones in the middle of the rows,” he said. “And the ones where we’re standing are the smallest of the carrots.”

The Aldens looked and nodded. “You must have planted some carrots earlier than others,” said Henry.

“That is right,” said Mr. Yee. “I was able to plant seeds, but I can’t weed or thin.” He frowned. “My rows are not very straight,” he said. “That’s because of my broken arm.”

Benny looked at the rows of carrots. “But I’ll bet the carrots taste good, even though the rows aren’t straight.”

Mr. Yee looked at Benny. “You have already grasped what is important, Benny—that the vegetables taste good.”

“But you would also like to win prizes if you can,” said Violet.

“You have also grasped what is important, Violet,” said Mr. Yee. He rubbed his hands together—which was not easy to do because his right arm stuck out at an angle because of the cast.

“So,” he said. “Here we have rows of lettuce, radishes, and carrots. They need to be thinned, and they need to be weeded.”

“What’s thinned mean?” asked Violet.

Mr. Yee squatted so that he was closer to the plants. “If we let all of these carrots grow in one spot, none of them will grow large. But if we pull out some of the carrots, the ones we leave in the ground will grow large.” Mr. Yee carefully pulled out a few green tops.

“There’s a baby carrot at the end of each one!” said Benny.

“And they’re purple!” exclaimed Violet. “I love purple carrots!”

“I have a bucket of clean water over there,” said Mr. Yee, pointing. “Could you bring it to me?” he asked Henry.

Henry brought the bucket of water and Mr. Yee rinsed the tiny carrots in water. Then he tore off the green tops and gave two tiny carrots to each of the children.

“Yum!” said Benny. “They’re so sweet.”

“And so crisp,” said Jessie.

“And so purple!” Violet laughed. “Jessie and I can thin the carrots if you show us how,” she said to Mr. Yee. “And also the radishes and lettuce.”

Mr. Yee smiled. “That will be wonderful.” He showed them how to thin the lettuce and radishes. And he gave them a basket to put the thinnings in. “You can take the thinnings home to Mrs. McGregor,” he said.

After he was satisfied that Violet and Jessie were doing a good job, Mr. Yee led Henry and Benny to a different part of the garden.

“What are those?” asked Benny, pointing to large leaves that sprawled across the ground.

A sad look passed over Mr. Yee’s face. “Those are my beans and my peas,” he explained. “They are climbing plants, but I haven’t been able to put up poles or trellises for them to climb on.”

“I can do that,” Henry offered. “Tomorrow I’ll bring my toolbox.”

Mr. Yee looked happy. “Thank you,” he said. “You can use the lumber I have here in the garden, past the strawberries.”

“Strawberries?” said Benny. “Where are they?”

“Look down, Benny.” Mr. Yee chuckled as he pointed at Benny’s feet, where long rows of short plants grew.

“I see leaves,” said Benny as he looked down, “but I don’t see strawberries.”

With difficulty Mr. Lee squatted and gently ran his hand underneath the strawberry plant leaves, lifting them upward.

“Strawberries!” said Benny.

“And they look delicious,” said Henry as he studied the bright red fruits.

Mr. Yee plucked a ripe strawberry and handed it to Benny. He plucked another and handed it to Henry.

“This is the best-tasting strawberry I’ve ever had,” said Henry. “Do you win prizes for your strawberries, too, Mr. Yee?”

Mr. Yee struggled to his feet and laughed. “Not yet. But maybe if Benny helps me, we can win this year.”

“Really?” asked Benny, who wanted more strawberries. “What should I do?”

“Well,” said Mr. Yee, “I have two long rows of strawberries.” He pointed to the row they were standing at and the one next to it.

Henry whistled. “Each row is at least twenty-five feet long,” he said.

“Thirty feet,” corrected Mr. Yee proudly.

“Can you eat that many strawberries all by yourself?” asked Benny as he looked at the two long rows. Benny thought that even he couldn’t eat that many berries, no matter how much he loved them.

“No,” Mr. Yee answered. “I freeze some and I make strawberry jam from some. But mostly I eat them myself and give them to friends. Lots of friends.”

Mr. Yee then explained to Benny that strawberry plants had to be watered before the ground became totally dry. He showed both Benny and Henry where the water spigots were, one spigot outside each section, and he showed them where he kept his buckets and watering cans.

Henry looked at the water spigot, which was on a pipe that came up from the ground. “Do all community gardens have a water supply?” he asked.

“No,” said Mr. Yee. “Many depend on the rainfall, and sometimes on water that people bring in trucks. But Mr. Kirk had an irrigation system in this field, and after he loaned the field to the town of Greenfield, the town paid to install the upright pipes and spigots.”

“It’s wonderful of Mr. Kirk to loan his land for a community garden,” Henry said.

Mr. Yee agreed.

“Now let me show you my tomato plants,” he said. “Last year I won a blue ribbon for my tomatoes.”

Henry and Benny followed Mr. Yee back into the garden, past the peas and beans, past the strawberry plants, and around a corner.

As they rounded the corner, Mr. Yee cried out, “No! No! What has happened? Somebody has broken my tomato stakes!”

Indeed, Mr. Yee had a long row of tomato plants, each tied to a strong wooden stake that had been pounded into the ground. But Henry could see that somebody had come along and whacked each stake near the bottom, cracking it. Now the weight of the tomato plants was pulling the stakes outward. Soon the stakes would crack and topple over. And so would the tomato plants.

“Who would do such a terrible thing?” asked Henry.

“The vandal!” shouted Mr. Yee. “The vandal who is trying to destroy the community gardens!” He paced back and forth and ran his hand over his gray hair. “What am I going to do?” he cried. “What am I going to do? My tomato plants are ruined!”

Suddenly a man stood up in the next garden. Henry hadn’t seen him before. He must have been kneeling down, weeding, thought Henry.

The man rushed over to Mr. Yee.

“Albert, what’s wrong?” asked the man.

Mr. Yee just shook his head sadly and pointed at his tomato plants.

“Oh, no,” said the man. “This is terrible.” He looked at the plants, then looked at Mr. Yee. “It’s the vandal again,” he said. “The same person who’s been riding his ATV through the gardens.”

“Yes,” said Mr. Yee.

“Hi,” said the man to Henry and Benny. “I’m Roger Walski. You can call me Roger. That’s my garden plot.” He pointed to plot number one, right next to Mr. Yee’s plot number two.

“I’m Henry Alden,” said Henry. “And this is my brother Benny. Our sisters Jessie and Violet are here, too, over by the carrots and lettuce.”

Roger Walski nodded. “I’m sorry this happened to your plants, Albert. But I’ve been telling you, this isn’t a good site for the community gardens. We should move further down the road, to new land.”

Mr. Yee shook his head back and forth. “No, Roger, I disagree. We Chinese believe in luck, and this is just bad luck. It will go away. This is a wonderful spot to garden.”

“You’ll have to give up on your tomatoes,” said Mr. Walski. “With your broken arm, you won’t be able to replace these stakes.”

“I’ll replace the stakes,” said Henry. “Mr. Yee will show me how to take out the broken ones without hurting the plants.”

Mr. Yee looked at Henry gratefully. “Thank you, Henry. We can do that tomorrow.”

Roger Walski frowned. “Well,” he said, “I’m glad you can save your tomatoes. But you won’t win first prize for them this year, not with this setback.”

“I suppose you think you will win a blue ribbon with your cucumbers,” snapped Mr. Yee, who did not like the thought of losing.

“Yes, I will,” said Mr. Walski with a smile.

“I love cucumbers,” said Benny.

Mr. Walski looked at Henry and Benny. “Come with me,” he said, “and I’ll teach you something about cucumbers.”

“First we have to help Mr. Yee,” said Henry.

“No, no,” said Mr. Yee. “Let us go see Roger’s cucumbers.”

The four of them walked down a path between rows of plants that Henry didn’t recognize. They stepped across a string marker that separated Mr. Yee’s garden plot from Roger’s, and Roger led them down a path to a row of trellises shaped like teepees.

Henry liked the way that three poles were pushed into the ground at an angle, tilted toward each other, and tied at the top. “Did you build these?” he asked.

“Yes,” said Roger.

“They’re very well built,” said Henry. “And they seem to work so well.”

“They do work well,” said Roger. “The cucumber vines climb up the poles and hang from them. That means they don’t spread on the ground, and that means I have more ground space to grow other vegetables.”

Benny leaned over backward and tried to look up into the teepee-shaped structure.

Roger Walski laughed. “Here,” he said, pushing aside some leaves and revealing a cucumber.

“Wow!” said Benny. “Are they ready to eat yet?”

“Some will be ready to eat tomorrow,” said Roger. “And others will be ready in two weeks. And I’ll have more cucumbers that will be ready for the Greenfield Fair.”

Mr. Yee smashed a clump of dirt with the toe of his shoe. “You were going to tell Henry and Benny something about cucumbers,” he reminded Roger. “I hope it wasn’t just bragging that you will win a blue ribbon.”

Roger looked at the children. “Here’s what I wanted to teach you: the inside of a cucumber is always cooler than the temperature around it. That’s why people say ‘cool as a cucumber’—because the cucumber is cool on the inside.”

“What does that mean?” asked Benny.

“To be cool as a cucumber is to be calm,” said Henry. “It means you don’t get angry or flustered.”

“That’s right,” said Roger. “And I am cool. As cool as a cucumber.”

“What do you mean?” asked Henry.

Roger stood straight. “It means that despite the vandalism and despite the fact that somebody might be stealing vegetables, I remain calm.”

Mr. Yee shook his head at this. “It is easy to remain calm,” he said, “when it is not
your
garden that has been harmed.”

“I remain calm,” Roger repeated, “because I’m the one who knows what must be done.”

Everybody looked at Roger Walski.

“What must be done?” asked Henry.

“We community gardeners must move to a new location,” said Roger.

Just as Roger was speaking, a young woman rode up on a racing bike, dismounted, and walked toward the middle plot—the plot that had a fence all around it.

“That’s Taylor Harris,” said Roger. He scowled. “She claims her vegetables will win first prize. But she doesn’t want any of us to see them. That’s why she built a fence all around her garden. Not a very friendly thing to do.”

Jessie and Violet, who were still thinning and weeding plants, saw a young woman ride her bike almost right up to them.

“Hi,” she said as she locked her bike to the chain link fence that surrounded plot number three. “I’m Taylor Harris.”

Jessie stood up and introduced herself and Violet. They shook hands with Taylor Harris, who was dressed in purple and yellow cycling gear. Violet thought the colors looked really good against Taylor’s black skin.

“Are you helping Mr. Yee?” Taylor asked as she took a pair of dumbbells from her bike pack. Taylor began to do arm exercises with the dumbbells.