PATCH OF GRASS

The woman and the man were holding boxes. 

There was a girl. A small girl, with braided pigtails black as a beetle’s shell, and just as shiny too. Her eyes couldn’t stay in one place; they were dancing in time with her bouncing heels on the pavement. 

The three members of the family were standing on the patio. 

The woman turned to the girl and smiled. “Isn’t this a pretty backyard, Piper?” 

Piper clapped her hands with delight. 

The girl’s name was Piper! 

You knew that already. 

What a quaint little name for a quaint little girl. 

Her eyes landed on me and widened with wonder. We were going to have such a delightful time together. 

-

The family had just begun moving all of their things into the house. It was a simple house: one story, plenty of windows, with blue shutters. They were lucky to have chosen a beautiful day to transport their things. The sky was clear, with not a single cloud blocking the sun. 

“Hey,” the woman said to the man as she stood on the grass, “come over and look at this.”

The man walked over. He was standing in my periphery. “What is it?”

“We’re not casting a shadow. Look.”

The man turned around completely, inspecting the ground the whole time. “Huh. Weird. Maybe it has to do with the sun being directly above us or something.”

The woman bit her lip, obviously disturbed. She looked directly at me, and her eyes widened with wonder. Her shoulders relaxed. “Yeah, that’s probably it. Nothing to worry about.”

They walked back inside. I watched them go in as the door closed behind them. Piper waved from the living room window.

-

The family had been at the house for a year now. Piper and the woman and the man were sitting at a new table they had placed on the patio. The man and the woman were reading separate newspapers while Piper was playing with her hair. She was wearing pigtail braids, as would be expected from a young girl named Piper. 

“Can we get a puppy?” Piper asked the woman. 

“Why?” the woman said. “What about your fish?”

“He’s not very fun. And he’s small. I want a dog, like the girl next door has got, so I can throw things and he’ll get them for me.”

“You can throw things and I’ll get them for you,” the man offered. 

“That’s not the same.”

The woman and man looked at each other, shrugged, and went back to their papers. 

Piper needed a puppy. And I needed Piper to be satisfied.

-

The barking started early the following morning. The sun had just barely risen; it was peering over the horizon, straining to see what the world was up to that day. The sky was a wonderful mixture of blue and orange. Those are complimentary colors, you know. Piper learns these things in her art classes at school.

The dog was still barking. I watched as the lights popped on, tracking the family’s progression to the back door. The woman and man appeared first in the threshold, with Piper peeping under between the frame of their bodies. Their eyes landed on the dog simultaneously. 

Piper squealed with delight and jumped over to the creature. “It’s a puppy!”

The woman and man looked at each other, alarmed. “Yes, it is,” said the woman.

“We have to keep it!” Piper was ecstatic.

The woman and man looked directly at me. Their eyes widened with wonder. “Alright,” they said in unison. 

Piper was very happy with her dog. She named him Patch. 

-

It was snowing. The family was getting ready for Christmas inside the house. The tree had been put up a month prior and there was a wreath on the back door. Piper was very excited for Santa Claus to come and bring presents and eat her cookies and land on the rooftop with his reindeer friends. They all sat together by the fire until Piper drifted off to sleep. The man carried her into her bedroom, and then returned with the woman to the room the two of them shared. 

Piper awoke the next morning before the sun did. (It was always lazier in the winter). She raced down the stairs, checking for signs of Santa. 

The presents had been delivered. 

The cookies each had a bite taken out of them. 

There were reindeer tracks on a patch of grass in the backyard. 

The woman and the man joined Piper outside when she made this last discovery of the tracks. Both of them looked at each other, confused. 

“Did you do that?” The woman asked the man. 

“No,” the man replied, “I thought you had.”

Their eyebrows scrunched, forming a crease above their noses. They each turned back around to look at Piper, who was joyfully inspecting the tracks. I caught each of their eyes and their shoulders relaxed and their eyes widened with wonder. 

-

The family had hired a new worker to take care of the backyard. They had been living in the house for about five years now. The new worker raked the leaves, mowed the grass, and pulled the weeds. 

After she was finished, I watched her walk up to the door and knock. The man answered. 

“The job’s done, but something’s strange ‘bout your backyard,” the worker said. “The leaves fall weird and the grass grows funny over there, just there only.” She pointed at me. 

Didn’t anyone ever tell her that it’s rude to point?

The man followed the finger of the worker and looked directly at me. His shoulders relaxed. “It’s probably just a different kind of grass. The trees are far from it, so obviously the leaves wouldn’t always make it over there. Nothing to worry about.” 

The worker looked confused by this reaction, but she just shook her head and took the check from the man. She left in her large truck full of unnatural equipment. 

-

It was the summer before Piper started high school. The woman and man were sitting on the patio with her, discussing plans for the summer. Piper was very sad, because she was going to have to get braces right before the start of high school because her teeth were bad. 

Piper did not want braces. 

The woman and man were adamant that she would have to get them, no matter how much she protested. They both went inside. Piper walked over sadly and laid down, her form resting within my limits. She fell asleep, comfortable. 

The next day, the family returned from the orthodontist. To Piper’s delight, it had been determined that there had been an error; her teeth were perfectly straight, with no need for braces. The orthodontist was mystified, but Piper was ecstatic. 

-

There was going to be a dance at Piper’s school, but she didn’t have a date. She was sad about it. 

She was laying down, in the confines of my grass, as she did now when she was upset. She fell asleep, but woke up when there was a knock on the fence next to us. She opened the gate, and there was a boy standing there. He smiled at her, and she smiled back. 

“Hi,” the boy said. “I’m new to the neighborhood, and I wanted to meet some of my neighbors.” He stuck out his hand.

Piper took it and shook it. “I’m Piper. Do you want to come sit on the grass and talk? I’m awfully bored.” 

The boy nodded.

Piper was very happy. She will always stay here. I will always take care of her.