A notice in the newspaper caught the eye of genial Molly Reagan, a mother of two and wife of an overworked husband who'd insisted in moving out of her beloved apartment eighteen months ago to a house with a big garden.
Well, Molly now lived with diminishing resentment in a lovely house which she cleans and keeps tidy but the garden is a mess. The advertisement stated β 'Call Tom the Gardener to tidy up what your husband won't do'. Molly flushed when she thought of one small garden he could attend to as often as Tom wished but then chastised herself for being so disgusting. She made the call.
"Tom, this is Molly.
"Yes, I'm aware it's a lovely name. I want some gardening done; I would like a price"
"You don't do house calls to give estimates - why not?"
"Oh, you work only by an hourly rate? Well, how much work do you do in an hour?
"An hour's worth in an hour is not a helpful answer Tom.
"I'm not wasting your time, Tom. I'm trying to get a handle on this. Can you give me references?
"They are written reports from satisfied customers usually who state that you do a thoroughly good job and left them very well pleased.
"Saying you don't go in for paperwork is no use to me, Tom.
"What do you mean I can stick my garden? That doesn't sound very nice.
"Oh well, come and work for me for four hours this Wednesday afternoon.
"You go bowling on Wednesday afternoons. But you can come in the morning? Very well, here is my address β yes I will serve a hearty morning tea and coffee again at 11:00. And yes you can use one of our showers.
"Thank you Tom. Yes, I will be out of bed at 9:00. Goodbye."
Wednesday began like any other weekday morning. David the husband who Molly saw on week days from 8 o'clock the previous evening to 6:30 the next morning when he'd drive off to the station to catch the 6.45 for his law office in the city, leaving her either sexually unsatisfied because he'd not 'done it' or sexually unsatisfied because he'd left her with a deposit of semen after a quick bang before he jumped out of bed. He'd not have time to really get her away and then to cuddle her.
She'd drift back to sleep then her alarm would go and she'd shower, wake the children, ensure they ate their breakfast and walk the short distance to the corner and wait with them and some other mothers for the school bus.
Then� Not a great deal, really, apart from watching morning TV before it became boring enough to make coffee then she'd begin cleaning the house.
When they lived in the apartment she'd see the girls off to school then enter the coffee shop below their apartment building to be greet by up to a dozen friends β they'd drift off to their apartments and then she'd join several of them to go shopping and then lunch where they'd start off with a martini andβ¦well, that life had ended in emptiness for her.
Tom the gardener had sounded like a tired old man, but waiting for him she fancied him as a blond big-chest hunk from one of those underpants ads β and visualized running her hands over his 6-pack stomach to find what was being unsuccessfully concealed by his incredibly white briefs. Feeling aroused she raced in and turned on TV as a diversion and listened to a boring head going on about the mistreatment of animals.
Molly had lived her entire life in Faulton City and environs, but had traveled to Boston several times, New York every two years or so and to law conferences in Chicago, LA, Dallas and Philadelphia. Aged 32, she thought there ought to be more to life than watching morning TV and fanaticizing about an old gardener, turning him into something he wasn't.
Socially her problem was her neighbors β David had purchased the only decent house in the street with the best views of the lake, and the women in the street showed only stiffness and deference to her as her husband was an attorney in the city while theirs worked locally in motor service centers or owned small businesses or were assistant managers at the mall or cut up meat or cut grass at the country club or drove a cab.
The doorbell went β the cheeky man, it was the front door bell. She checked her hair and lipstick in the mirror and was wearing an old shirt but crisp new white shorts as he was only a gardener which rated him marginally below a carpet cleaner demonstrator. Had he been someone coming to talk about life insurance or joining a Dining Out Club she'd put on full makeup, one of her new bras and a low-cut slinky dress just to enjoy watching the eyes roam and the guy fluffing his lines and having to start again.
"Yes?" she asked, opening the door as if expecting no-one.
"Gosh, I was expecting a fat, sour-faced dame looking to be seduced."
Resisting a great urge to slam the door and race to get David's handgun, Molly said stiffly, "Pardon me?"
"Sorry, I have a weird sense of humor. I'm Tom the gardener."
"Tom who?"
"Just Tom will suffice. Pay me cash and no-one will know I've been here."
"Are you an alien?"
Tom's confidence drained from him and he looked around nervously β but the nearest neighbor was fifty meters away and inside her house watching morning TV.
"Er."
"What kind of answer is that?"