Lawn Adventures

Julia has immense troubles with her lawn. How do people make their lawns look so nice? Julia doesn't know.

Julia thought about buying a giant bag of salt and throwing it all over her lawn. That way nothing would be able to grow.
She ran her mud covered her fingers through her hair, not caring that she was getting the one semi-clean spot left on her body dirty. The front of her shirt and the entire length of her pants was smeared with wet dirt and dead grass. Not to mention her muscles had begun to ache.

She had been out here since six in the morning digging and seeding and digging again. Now, she wished that she would've rather slept more. She thought about how she had woken up with resolve; she had been excited to have her lawn look amazing.

It was now six in the evening, and her optimistic attitude had turned into full blown frustration. Julia had bought these fancy gardening tools that were way overpriced and useless. She had a small feeling that perhaps that she was using them wrong, but she had a big feeling that they were actually useless pieces of crap. Of course she went with the latter.

Pulling her hair up into a ponytail, Julia looked over at her neighbors’ lawns. Mrs and Mrs Lane across the street had a resemblance of a zen garden, with a little water fountain and stones, probably imported from someplace in Asia, all aligned perfectly in little swirls. The house on her left, Mr Robinson, had an orange tree and alive grass that was neatly cut. The house on her right,a family that she had forgotten the name of, had a full blown playground; they had a swing set and a slide. And her? Her lawn was filled with yellow grass and two dead trees that were smack-dab center of the yard.

When she had first moved in, Mr Robinson had told her that the people before her had hooked a hammock between the trees. Julia tried to do the same. The next day she had went out and bought one. She had ripped the packaging open and in an act of pride, she had thrown the directions away.

After about two hours of messing around with it, Julia realized she had screwed herself over. She definitely did not know how to put a hammock together. After another half hour of digging through the trash in an attempt to find the directions, she gave up on the project and crammed the entire thing into her trash can.

Julia had planned on getting all of the lawn done by sunset. That wasn’t happening. The sun sat on the horizon, the sky surrounding it turning a soft orange color. She wished she hadn’t even attempted to work on the lawn. She had just made it a million times worse. There were ugly hacking marks decorating the trunks of the trees where she had tried to cut them down. There were giant piles of salt heaped onto the sidewalk where she had tried to kill off the grass growing through the cracks. Which had done nothing to help, by the way.

“Yard Cat,” she whispered out loud, noticing the bright orange tabby sitting a few feet away from her. Yard Cat was an outdoor cat that liked to hang out near her house. She didn’t know who owned him, or if he had an owner at all, but he always seemed to just be there. Julia liked to think of him as a good omen.  

Yard Cat raised his head and looked at her with distaste, as if he had just noticed her by chance. He then stood up and walked off, not giving her a second glance. He jumped up onto the wall separating the front yard from the back yard and Julia was given a lovely view of his behind. She gave Yard Cat a small wave as he disappeared from view.

She let her hand drop and glared at her gardening tools. Five different tool thingys laid out on the lawn. All of them encrusted with mud and willowed grass. Their designated resting place on the property was in the backyard stuffed inside the tool shed. Julia looked down glumly at her dirty clothes. She really didn’t want to touch them.

Instead of picking up them up and putting the tools where they properly belonged, Julia walked inside. Julia kicked off her sneakers and tossed them into the shoe basket right by her door. All she wanted right now was a boiling hot shower. She stumbled into the bathroom and slammed the door behind her.

     She was officially a mess now. Her entire body from head to toe was covered in dirt. She peeled off all of her clothes and threw them into the garbage bucket. She could have just shoved them into the washing machine and that might have cleaned them, but deep down she knew the dirt would never truly come out.

      During her shower, Julia confirmed that she was just gonna pay someone to do her lawn. It was going to be expensive and she was definitely gonna regret it, but that was ok. At least she was never going to have to deal with that lawn ever again. Now the question was, who will she hire?

       People had come before to her house with pamphlets and business cards, promoting their amazing savings and amazing yard work, but had she payed any attention to them? Ofcourse not. She had not felt it necessary to listen to them. She thought that she could do it just fine. Well, now she was sure she would have to get someone to do the yard for her. Again, the question remained. Who?

Julia wrapped a towel around her body and walked into her kitchen.

        On her microwave she had a little box that her late grandma had given her. The sides were decorated with images of ballet dancers in tutus. On top it said Janice in cursive. When her grandma had this made, she had thought that Julia’s name was Janice. Julia blamed it on her dementia. It was a nice box, nevertheless. She opened the lid and pulled out her stash of business cards.

       She begun flipping through them. None of them mentioned lawns. She went through the entire stack again, placing the cards on the counter as she looked. Julia thought about counting a third time but that would not help. She must have thrown them all out. Clenching her jaw, she put all of the business cards back in the box. She thought she must have at least put one in here.

       She could go and ask one of her neighbors for help. They would definitely know someone that knew what they were doing. She reasoned that she could go talk to them tomorrow afternoon, after she got home from work.

        Julia buried her face in her hands. No, she can't do that. She can never do that. She had boasted to Mr Robinson about how she was going to do it all by herself - that she didn't need help from anyone. She cursed her inability to keep her mouth shut.

     The doorbell rang, snapping Julia out of her thoughts. She wondered who was at the door. It was probably one of her neighbors, Mr Robinson most likely, to talk about her crappy front lawn. She ran her fingers through her still wet hair and moaned loudly. She did not want to talk about her lawn right now. The doorbell rang again and was proceeded by frantic knocking.

     “I'm coming!” Julia yelled out. Okay, Julia thought, that definitely wasn't one of her neighbors. The knocking turned into pounding. Julia swung open the door and Lillian, her younger sister, was standing there, her fist raised.

     Lillian lowered her arm and flared her nostrils. “What the hell, Julie!” She said, pushing past Julia and entering Julia’s house. Julia closed the door and clicked her tongue. “Nice to see you too, Lily.”     

      Lillian rolled her eyes. “That's what you have to say for yourself?” She responded, sitting down on Julia’s couch. “You totally ditched me. Why the hell didn't you answer your phone? I've tried to get ahold of you all day!” Lillian met Julia’s eyes and raised her eyebrows. “Why are you only wearing a towel? Is someone here? Is that why you blew me off?”

      Julia looked down and saw that she was in fact only wearing a towel. Her face flushed bright red and she self consciously wrapped her arms around her bust. “No! No one is here!” Julia said, defending herself. She adjusted her towel. “Now what are you rambling on about?”

      Lillian rolled her eyes again. “We were supposed to go out with our step mom today, and you didn't show,” she said, picking Julia’s phone up from the coffee table. She turned in on and flashed Julia the lock screen. “Thirty two missed calls and forty six texts unanswered,” Lillian read out, tossing the phone back onto the coffee table.

     “I'm sorry,” Julia said, not really listening to her sister, “I totally forgot.”

      Lillian groaned loudly and ran her fingers through her hair. “I don't believe you. I think you like purposely skipped out,” she said, pointing a manicured finger at Julia. “Do you know how infuriating that woman is? God, she gets on my nerves literally so badly, like you don't understand. If I like knew you weren't going to show, I wouldn’t have either.”

    Julia shrugged her shoulders and fought the urge to kick out her little sister. When she and Lillian were kids, their real mom had left them. No explanation, no note. One day she was there and the next day she wasn’t. Their dad had been absolutely heartbroken. Julia remembered being in her bedroom with Lillian, her dad sobs vibrating through the whole house. The both of them had spread all of their toys over the floor, as if it could compensate for their mom’s absence. The next week was when Gertrude, their step mom, had appeared. She had snatched onto her dad’s grief like a viper and a two years later they got married. Just the thought of Gertrude made Julia’s heart beat painfully.

   “I'm going to go get dressed,” Julia announced, already heading towards her bedroom. She heard Lillian launch herself up from the couch, her converse sneakers making a loud thud on the tile.

     “Are you even like listening to me?” Lillian asked, sticking her foot out in between the bedroom door. She frowned at Julia. “Obviously not.”

    “I need to get dressed, you bum,” Julia snapped, kicking Lillian’s foot away and slamming the door.

    “That was rude!” Lillian shouted through the door, though Julia didn't hear.

    Julia rolled her eyes and tossed her towel onto her bed. Her bedroom was messy, but Julia didn't mind. Dirty clothes were heaped onto the corner of her bed; a stack of library book sat on her desk, ready to topple over; papers were strewn all over the floor. Careful not to step on anything, she opened her closet door.

      She had completely forgotten about the shopping thing with Gertrude. No, she didn't forget it. She had blocked it out. She had purposely planned to do lawn work today as opposed to hanging out with her stepmom. It was a good excuse, Julia thought, lawn work is very important.

     Pulling her shirt on over her head, Julia willed herself to calm down. Lillian was still talking through the door. She was now ranting about how Gertrude had bought her a lot of lacy undergarments. Julia walked over to her door and swung it open. Lillian stumbled forward, as she was leaning on the door, but she caught herself and stood up, hitting Julia’s chin with the top of her head.

    “What the hell, Lily!” Julia yelled, rubbing her jaw.

   “You have to give a girl more warning than that!” Lillian yelled back.

     Julia sighed and rubbed her temples. She hated how Lillian had just abruptly showed up. Everything Lillian did was abrupt and it annoyed the hell out of Julia. Julia was the exact opposite. She needed at least three days advance before doing anything.

      “You need to leave,” Julia said, grabbing ahold of Lillian’s wrist.

     Lillian yanked her wrist away. “No!”

    “Yes!” Julia snatched Lillian’s wrist again and begun dragging her to the front door. Julia loved Lillian to death, but she just couldn't handle her little sister right now. She had had enough on her plate today with the lawn work. She didn't need her sister’s annoying nagging.

    “I can't though!” Lillian whined. She yanked away from Julia again and sat down on Julia’s couch.

    “Why?” Julia asked, her fingers on the the door handle.

     “Because I may or may not have like invited Gertrude over tonight,” Lillian said, twirling a piece of her hair.

    Julia’s heart stopped in her chest. Her whole, entire body was shaking. It felt like Lillian had scooped out her heart with a rusty butter knife.

“Get out!” Julia screamed, feeling numb and hollow.

    Lillian sat up, hurt evident on her face. She opened her mouth to speak but Julia cut her off.

    “That's it! That's it! I never want to see you again! That is the last straw. Gertrude is an awful human being and I hate her! Why do you think I moved? I didn't want her to know where I lived! And you just gave her my address without even talking to me!” Everything started spinning.

    Lillian stood up from the couch, her eyes wide. “I'm so sorry! I wasn't thinking-”

   “That's the thing!” Julia screamed, her throats growing sore. “You never think! Never ever! Tell her to leave me alone! I don't want to see her! I will never see her!” Julia didn't know when she had started crying. Big fat tears were rolling down her cheeks.

    “She won't come over,” Lillian said, linking her fingers together.

      “Leave, Right now! I want you to leave! ” Julia threw her front door open and stomped her foot. Her heart felt like it was gonna jump out of her chest. The world was spinning fast around her. Her legs gave out and she slid down to the floor. Lillian walked past her and the door shut softly behind her.

Julia started crying her heart out as the floor welcomed her. The coldness of the floor somehow provided the comfort that she wasn't sure anything could.

Author's Note

Really any critiques of this will be helpful. I wrote this for my writing class and we never went over it so I really want some feedback on it. Thanks in advance <3