Chapter #3The Courtyard. by: Unknown "...how does trimming the hedge maze sound?"
Like a bit of a disappointment, to be honest, but at least it was still a courtyard job. "Sounds good. How much of it?"
"Just section 2; we'd already done the rest. Gonna be there in ten?"
"Be there in ten. Bye!"
The speaker clicked off, and I opened a metal door built nearby on the same wall. I sidestepped to weave my way into a spiral staircase that swirled down underneath the floor of the carriage, trapping myself in total darkness once I shut the door behind. I tiptoed deeper through two stories of total black until my chest hit another door, behind this one a lit room painted all in white, save for a station on a segment of clear tubing whose ends curved into the wall. With a rubberized hiss, the vacuum of the tube was broken by the station's main panel opening automatically, leaving a line of red velvet seats inside out in the open.
Fairly excited, I hurried over the stoop and settled into the pneumatic pod, buckling in at the front. With a press of the button under the visor, the doorframe briefly lit up with red before the flap came back down, fusing back into the car as the air pressure was sucked away.
Now fully enclosed, the pod was utterly silent for several seconds until the vents of the pneumatic system came to life, growing in volume till the suction moved the pod forward through the curve, then accelerated into a full blast that rocketed me along the car's length.
.....
Ca-Chnk!
Without any trash, the garbage pail standing on the roof of the passage easily slid away, letting the moist warmth of the courtyard dribble into the narrow climb for the ground. With the glass roof being the main source of light for the park, the maze was only lit by a pathway along the ground of mellow orange lamps when I climbed over the last few rungs of the ladder, but I could still make out the rough ends for the long walls of pure bushel.
A hedge trimmer'd been set up on a bench right next right next to the secret door, complete with a set of safety goggles and gloves hanging from the tip. I geared myself up, but also went for a pair of earbuds that coiled into the MP3 sitting in my chest pocket.
The sound of the trimmer's grinding burning the air was snuffed out by a string of peppy drumbeats being pumped into my ears,  and a bop danced around in my arms and head as I brought the blades along the hedge, showering me and the ground with a mint-smelling hailstone of ground shrubbery...
.....
Two hours and thirty six minutes of funk-charged danceworking later...
.....
"C'mon...just a few more swipes..." I could barely hear my own voice over my music and the trimmer's buzzing, with each glance at my watch coming another minute close to the gate's opening.
I'd ended up cutting it pretty close, with the light of the oncoming morning brightening the sky enough that I could just make out the maze. All the lengths of hedge that I'd spent the rest of the night scuttling along were now shaved into a nice, smooth finish, but I still had one last turn in the quadrant to clean up.
Almost there...and... "Done!"
After mowing down the last triangle of rough hedge, I triumphantly shut off the trimmer, and relished in the glorious silence of the maze, and a lack of a constant buzzing in my arms. It only felt better when I looked down at my pocket, and punched out three minutes before six.
"...and now it's mimosa time."
I picked up the hedge trimmer, clipping my goggles and gloves under my arm, but I'd only just turned around the corner when the beautiful silence was broken. It was the rustle of a branch, one way too erratic to be the wind.
"Hm?" I looked over my shoulder. Nobody was there, nobody to be seen, at least, but the sound came again, even louder, and joined by a thump on the ground from somewhere around the bend. The edges of the corner murmured from the footfalls stomping my way, and out of instinct my feet carried me behind the corner and out of sight, only enough that I could still peek over at whoever was snagging an early peek at the maze...  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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