Chapter 25

It was on a Monday morning in the middle of May when I checked out the greenhouse. I found the Weed alive and well. It was ready to transplant into the fields. I might have done it that day, if the weather forecast had been better. After checking the long range weather several places, I decided to shoot for the second week in June.

The weather should be good at that time. In the meantime I could do more lawn work. I signed up a small senior living residential apartment’s yard work. I found the work easier than most private residence yards. It required mostly unobstructed runs with the Cub Cadet mower. I allowed Michael to do the mower work, while I did the weed eater work.

It was my opinion that Michael was not a completely out of control drinker, but he getting close to it. He didn’t come to work drunk, but he was borderline out of control some mornings. I still had to decide whether or not I could trust him. It was entirely possible that he was a plant.

I hadn’t seen much of Trina, since our mini orgy. I called her about a week before I planned to transplant the first of the plants to the outdoor field. I also harvested some of the greenhouse plants. I hung those plants in the loft of the chicken house/barn. I could handle the weed alone, but only if Michael took over most of the lawn care work. He could take over the lawn work, if I could arrange the transportation for him. Since I didn’t want to lose the customers, I arranged for bug to deliver Michael and the tools.

I used the older Cub Cadet on the farm. I could transport the plants to the field using it. The only thing was June wasn’t familiar with driving a long flatbed trailer around. It was going to be difficult for her, but totally doable. Also Michael and I could most of the afternoon jobs. It was just the big jobs, where I needed him. On those jobs we had to juggle the work load. Most of my landscape work could be handled in half a day, which left me the second half to work on the farm. I was busy as hell during the summer’s growing season, which was to be expected.

Since I was growing only one small crop of weed in the field, all of it was drying in the chicken house/barn by the end of October. June and I had been careful about Michael for over a year. We watched him and even baited him now and then. I also ran a slow con on him now and then to see how sincere he really was. So far I hadn’t caught him in any lies. Best of all he was a hard worker. He had passed all the tests, So by Thanksgiving I decided to let him in on my big secret.

“Michael, we need to talk,” I said on the phone. “Since it’s raining like hell, why don’t I come by and take you to lunch. We can have the talk while we eat.”

“Sure Ty, June and I were planning to eat lunch together. If you would rather we didn’t take her along. I’m sure she will understand.” Michael suggested.

“You obviously don’t know much about women. Keeping her in the dark will just piss her off, but this time it’s for her own good,” I suggested.

“Okay, but it sounds ominous,” Michael replied.

“It’s not as bad as all that,” I replied. “I’ll be there at 11:30.”

I was only five minutes early, which meant I was ten minutes late. I called Michael to inform him that I was in the parking lot. He came out of the office. My guess was that he spent the time between my first and second call trying to convince June that we were going to talk about his future with me. Which was exactly what I had in mind.

I drove the two of us to the FCX store for their lunch counter fare. I bought a bag full of the crystal burger knockoffs. They were also the a 1950’s recipe southern burgers. It was a small patty with minced onions fried on the grill with the burger. It was served on a dinner roll and it was delicious. I picked up a couple of orders of their homemade chips and a couple of root beers to complete our lunch menu. We drove my truck to the city park to have our lunch in the rain.

“Michael give me you phone,” I demanded. He didn’t ask why, he just handed it over. I removed the battery before I continue. I also put it inside a well padded bag.

“What’s that all about,” Michael finally asked.

“Just being careful,” I replied. “Michael, I’m careful for a reason. I didn’t like the prison farm, and it’s a holiday camp compared the state prison. I’m making a real effort to stay the fuck of that one. So I question and challenge everything I think I know. I hope it will keep me out of jail.”

“So what are we going to do?” Michael.

“I’m going to grow weed for medical patients,” I said. “I did that for a few years, then I got out for a couple of years. Now I’m ready to go back into business. Frankly Michael, I need a junior partner. The offer comes with some risk. I promise you this, I will take the fall, if we get caught.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Michael said. “But thanks for the offer.”

“There is one thing. You have to get into a program and work it. If you don’t, you will be a danger to us both,” I demanded. “There is a waiting list at Peace Haven, so you can move here without costing either of us anything. Michael if you fuck me, at this I will kill you.” I whispered it and didn’t smile at all.

“That’s understandable,” he said.

“Okay get sober and we will work out the other things as we go along,” I demanded. “You need to think about working through your aversion to driving. The first step needs to be riding my scooter. If you fuck up you will be the only one who gets killed. So don’t think about driving a car for now. Just use the scooter for errands.”