I was doing my computer art, all morning. I smoked pot and got lost in it. My happy place. Lovely!
At 2pm, I decided that I just had to get up and go to mums, as I'd told her I'd be over. And I stood her up last weekend, after all. So, I got ready and left.
When I was nearly there, I remembered that she said she was going out in the afternoon, come in the morning, she said. Doh! Idiot! What a waste of time, served me right. But, you know, I was nearly there, so I might as well pop in just in case she was home after all. You never know, if what she was going to do was cancelled.
I got over my alarm phobia by marching right up to the house and punching that code into the key pad and shutting the damn thing off. There! Done. Don’t be such a pussy in future.
She wasn’t home.
The house was empty.
Now there was something that I came over for, I thought, as I stood in the silent kitchen. It is funny how your parent’s house seems different, in a sense, when they are not in it to give it life. Oh, yes, the lawn. I walked to the front window and looked out. The lawn was in desperate need of a cut. How did I not notice as I walked in?
My pace quickened. I found the shed key. I headed out the back door.
The key twisted sideways in the shed door’s lock, and the door opened with a squeak, and a scrape across the paving in front of it. The shed smelt of the oiliness of equipment and, petrol, which I thought was a good sign indicating there was possibly petrol to run the machine. I crossed my fingers, meaning I wouldn’t have to go to the petrol station to get some.
I grabbed the handle of the mower and unfolded it to the upright position. I unscrewed the petrol tank lid and looked into the tank. It looked shiny and silver in there and the liquid that was in there looked kind of blue too. It almost sparkled, it was a little mesmerising. So, sparkling, or not, the tank was somewhat empty and I needed to find the can of petrol.
Oh, please let there be a can of petrol. Of course, it was me who cut the lawn last, and who therefore handled the can of petrol. What happened last time? Oh, I couldn’t remember.
I glanced up at the shelves and above my head was the can of petrol. I fetched it off the shelf it was on and placed it on the shed floor. It felt heavy as I lifted it down. I quickly unscrewed the tin lid and looked inside hopefully. It was full of petrol. I scanned the shelves again and found the bright yellow funnel.
I pulled the mower out into the sunlight with a bang and a crash out over the door frame of the shed. I slid the bright yellow funnel into the opening to the petrol tank. I grabbed the can of petrol and swished it towards the yellow funnel. I poured the petrol in.
Glug, glug, glug sounded the petrol until it overflowed just a bit and I pulled the bright yellow funnel out of the mower tank. Some of the petrol spilled out and over the mower in a big, wet patch.
I peered into the tank and it was full. I screwed the cap onto the tank. I put the funnel and the can of petrol with the remaining petrol in it back up on the shelf.
I pushed the mower onto the lawn. I put my foot onto the body of the machine, grabbed the handle and took the starter rope handle in my hand and I pulled it with all my strength.
The mower spluttered into life for a second and then died.
I repositioned my foot, took hold of the rope starter handle again and pulled with even more determination. The mower fired into life again for a few seconds and then died again.
I pushed the choke lever up to full. I repositioned my foot yet again. I grabbed the rope starter handle again and pulled with even more determination. The mower roared into life. The revs kicked up to very fast, blue smoke poured out of the engine in a big cloud.
I slid the choke lever to the middle of the gauge and the revs fell into the normal range. The mower sat buzzing with life.
I stepped back into the garden shed and found the safety glasses and slid them on.
I stepped back out into the sun, took hold of the mower handle and started pushing it across the long grass. The smell of cut grass hit me immediately.
I avoided pushing myself up against the vibrating handle like I did when I was a teenager, but I thought about it. The thought made me smile.
The back lawn was quick, as we had a tennis court in our back yard, so there is not so much grass. All those years of family tournaments now lay quiet.
The front yard is not that easy, as the front yard is terraced, four terraces to be exact. And there is a pond with gold fish. Not so many gold fish now a days though, just a couple.
I managed as a kid to master moving the mower from terrace to terrace without having to turn it off. I'd tip it up on its back wheels and rolled it to the edge of the stone wall separating each terrace. Once the back wheels were balance right on the edge of the short stone walls, I’d lower it down until the front wheels rested on the grass of the next terrace down, then I would roll it forward on its front wheels until I had rolled it forward far enough to lower the rear wheels down flat. I'd retained that skill.
I emptied the cut grass catcher at the end of each terrace behind the camellia bushes in the garden.
After I was done, I sat in the kitchen and ate mum's banana cake and drank some tea. I figured that was how long I had to wait. Then I could go without waiting any longer for mum to get home.
Truthfully, she could be with any of her girlfriends. She could be home at any time.
There, done, now Jen and I can go out tonight. Well, you know without guilt. We could go out if I’d visited mum, or not, but this way I had done my son’s duty, so to speak.
Right attitude, you question?
I visited. I can't help it if mum wasn't home. I showed up.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my mum, she is the best mum in the world, she’s funny, and quirky, and smart, and lovely, and lonely now that my dad had died, it’s true, but, I can’t have her cutting into my pot smoking time too drastically, now can I? Ha ha. You've got to get your priorities right in this world, if you are going to get anywhere? Isn’t that what they say.
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