Outrunning Shadows

Chapter 8: The Second Encounter

Chapter 8 – The Second Encounter


A few days passed without either Andrew or Evan seeing each other. It was their usual custom- Andrew would go to work at the investment firm and Evan would check on Engrid. Andrew offered to check on her, but she said that wasn’t necessary. She said that it would be too early when he had to come over before work. Engrid was quite impressed with herself. She had two beautiful twenty-somethings fighting over her.


Late Wednesday afternoon, while it was still light out, Andrew was in his backyard. He knew it was late in the season to start, but decided he wanted some flowers in his backyard. He decided since he’d never grown anything except a tiny potted cactus in a windowsill, that he should start with something simple. He had stopped by Graham’s Greenhouses out on Route 6 and got some marigolds and impatiens. After changing into a T-shirt and jeans, he carried the trays of seedlings from the back of the Pathfinder around the side of the house to the backyard. He sat them down. He had a gazebo in his backyard that was very similar to Engrid’s, but Engrid’s was in much better condition. Engrid’s probably would be in just as rough shape as Andrew’s if Evan wasn’t also a talented carpenter and was constantly repainting and replacing termite infested boards. Andrew thought that perhaps he would tear the gazebo down and build a new one. He wanted one with a swing in the middle. That would be lovely on a humid, summer night. He could imagine himself with Evan cuddling on a swing watching the lightening bugs floating on the breeze.


He sat the trays of flowers down heavily next to the gazebo. He had no idea how to prepare the ground for planting, so he went out to the tool shed to see what was available. He saw an assortment of odd looking items. Clearly, Rose’s children hadn’t touched the tool shed after her sudden death. It was cluttered and messy as if it hadn’t been disturbed in years. There was a crusty old countertop made with rough hewn timbers along the left side. It was littered with nuts, bolts, nastily caked grease guns, empty aerosol paint cans, a metal tray of sockets, ratchets, screwdrivers, a battery post brush, empty margarine containers full of washers and electrical connectors. Most anything you could imagine needing was available in Rose’s old tool shed. The trick was finding anything when you needed it. The floor was various shades of gray depending on the number of grease and motor oil stains on a particular spot. Along the right side was a wall of garden implements- hoes, rakes, shovels, a ten pound sledge hammer, a sling blade, a snow shovel, a pick axe, a terribly rusted sickle, and a lawn mower blade hanging on a nail. Andrew thought to himself, ‘I hope a homicidal maniac never gets loose in here.’


Andrew stood in utter bewilderment. He realized that he really was a bit of a city boy. He might need some help. He decided that he might want to break up the soil a little before digging holes. The hoe seemed an appropriate choice. He picked it up from its spot propped against the wall and carried it out on his shoulder. He looked like a laughable imitation of Paul Bunyan- or the farmer from the Peter Rabbit stories.


Evan was on the far side of Engrid’s gazebo. He had been smoothing out the pine bark mulch around the gazebo. He heard a whacking sound and craned his neck to look across the gazebo floor. He saw Andrew heaving the hoe over his shoulder and it bounced off the surface of the packed dirt. Rose hadn’t grown anything around her gazebo in a coon’s age. Evan stood and watched Andrew struggle with the unwieldy and ineffective hoe. He raised it up and with a mighty swoosh, brought the hoe down into the dirt. Thunk. It bounced a little to the right. Evan continued to observe. He was amused that Andrew was trying to break up packed soil with that sad excuse for a hoe. Even though Evan didn’t particularly like Andrew, he also hated to see one of God’s creatures struggling so.


His stony heart was moved with pity- a little. For the moment, he was content to watch Andrew struggle. Andrew threw the hoe down and stomped back toward the tool shed. Evan was curious to see what ingenious thing Andrew tried next. Andrew returned with a flat end shovel. He placed the shovel firmly on the ground and placed his foot on the back of the blade and pushed downward. The shovel didn’t budge. He pushed harder- nothing. He leapt onto the back of the shovel with both feet. He didn’t land very evenly and the shovel snatched its own handle out of his hand and slapped the ground. He fell to the ground and nearly smashed the flowers waiting patiently in their trays. He struggled back to his feet. He picked up the shovel and started smacking the ground with it. That was ineffective as well. Evan couldn’t help but laugh watching this sad spectacle. Andrew was getting angry. He put the shovel down and picked the hoe up again. He raised it as high as he could. As he was swinging it downward, the old hoe end came off the rotted wooden handle and flew away. It hit the privacy fence at the back of the yard and fell to the ground. Evan laughed out loud as Andrew stormed over to the privacy fence to retrieve the hoe head. He clasped his hands over his mouth to keep from being heard.


Engrid had been watching too from further away as she had been carrying a water hose out to her neat and tidy tool shed. All of her tools were in good repair and were unlikely to become orbital objects. She walked up behind Evan.


“Well, are you going to go help the boy?”


“I hadn’t planned on it, no.” Evan ran his fingers through his hair and laughed. Engrid couldn’t help but laugh a little herself as Andrew disappeared back into his tool shed.


“Wonder what he’ll try next?” Engrid mused.


“I don’t know. The shovel was a classic.” Evan couldn’t contain his laugher into his hands as he leaned against the edge of the gazebo floor. “Fell, then got ticked off and started smacking the ground. Like that was supposed to help or something.”


“But that hoe coming off. It looked like the blasted Three Stooges.” Engrid was laughing now herself.


“Except there’s only one!” Tears were welling up in Evan’s eyes.


Andrew returned with the rusted lawn mower blade and another hoe. Engrid and Evan exchanged baffled but amused looks.


“What’s he gonna do with that?” Evan asked out loud.


“Be blast if I know.”


Andrew bent over and started scratching the ground. He scratched at the ground for a moment.


“He can’t be serious.” Evan said.


“Evan, you’d better go help him before he kills his fool self.”


“I guess so, Engrid.” She and Evan were both laughing.


“Calm down first or he’ll know we were watching.” She grabbed Evan’s arm as he stepped out from behind the gazebo. He stepped back and leaned against a pole and tried to catch his breath. Engrid leaned around him to see what Andrew was doing now. He was aiming the hoe again.


“Wait, there he goes again!” Engrid said pointing.


Evan turned around just as Andrew swung the hoe. It bounced.


“He’s persistent, I’ll have to give him that,” Evan said. He regained his composure and stepped out from behind the gazebo and walked toward Andrew’s sweating, heaving form. He turned before he saw Evan and so his back was toward him as he approached. Just as Evan got up behind him Andrew raised the hoe again.


“Whoa, whoa, there sparky!” Evan called out as he grabbed the end of the hoe.


“What the….?”


“I see you’re having some trouble.” Evan said gruffly.


“Go away. I can do this myself.” Andrew huffed, “I don’t need your help.”


“So I can see. Well, if you change your mind, too bad.” Evan turned and walked back toward Engrid’s gazebo. Since he knew she was there, he noticed her wrinkled old face peeking around one of the posts watching the goings on. She shrugged her shoulders to ask what happened.


“Wait,” Andrew called out. Evan stopped and slowly turned around.


“Yes? What’s the matter now?”


“Um, well, uh, do you have any suggestions?”


“I’m not planting the cussed things for you.”


“I just wondered if you might, you know, have other ideas.”


“Use the grubbing hoe. It works better.” He turned and started walking again.


“Okay, okay, you win. What’s a grubbing hoe?”


“It looks sort of like a pick, only it isn’t. And it’s bigger.” Evan called back over his shoulder. It was getting darker. It would be twilight soon. Andrew threw the hoe down and walked quickly back to the shed. It was very dark inside. He’d have to install a light bulb tomorrow. He found something fitting that description and took it back outside. He took a swing. It made a dent in the ground but that was about it. Evan had disappeared. He and Engrid were back behind her gazebo watching him with curious interest.


“He’s so dumb I feel sorry for him,” Evan commented.


“He can’t help he doesn’t know any better,” Engrid said, “He’ll learn, you’ve just got to give him some time. It also wouldn’t kill you to help him out now and then. Experience is a good teacher. You could teach Andrew a lot of things.”


Evan thought to himself, “Engrid, you have no idea.”


He had fallen silent and was watching Andrew chopping away at the earth. The grubbing hoe was just the ticket. What Evan feared Engrid discovering was that he was becoming entranced by Andrew. The hostility that he showed toward him belied serious concerns on his part. He found himself attracted to Andrew. He wasn’t attracted to him as a friend or neighbor. He had plenty of friends and neighbors. He felt something else from Andrew. He felt a spark. He knew the sense from New York that 6th sense that let one gay man know that another was in the vicinity. It was a look and a sensation that non-gay people miss entirely. It was almost like subliminal communication. He saw that look at Andrew’s office last Monday. He saw it again tonight when he approached. Andrew was openly antagonistic, but then he called out to him to ask for help. It was in his voice tone, the way he stood when he asked about other suggestions, and the way he carried himself. Evan wasn’t sure how to approach the subject with Andrew, but he knew it would have to be done- and soon.