THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WELL

Chapter 20 – page 2

Granma’s iris-birds of paradises were the talk of the town. She entered them in the County Fair and won prize after prize. She even got her picture in the newspapers! The flowers were as big around as dinner plates and 3 feet tall on sturdy stems. They were so hardy in fact, that often they could be seen blooming in the midst of snow. The local people went crazy over them. In a couple years, she had enough of them to supply the local nursery, and she made a mint too!

Granma can’t stand a plant that isn’t taken care of. She left two avocado seeds in the compost pile close to the house and took 3 mango seeds, 2 more avocado seeds, and some papaya seeds she found in the bottom of one basket and planted them around the fish pond. Do I have to tell you what happened? G was thinking about making a hot house for them, when they got to be about a foot or two tall. She did put some plastic and glass boxes around them for temporary protection from the snow in winter. But to her surprise, everything took off and grew so fast that in 6 months the fruit trees were about 4 feet tall! Incredibly, these 3 mango trees, two avocado trees, and about 6 papaya trees created their own lush, climate-controlled, environment. That’s right! You could walk among the fruit trees any time of year and it would be a nice 70-80 degrees with moisture condensed upon the leaves, like a rain forest. And I forgot to mention the date seeds that they brought back from Listo’s place, the owl. The whole hill above Granma’s house became a tropical garden of avocado, dates, mangoes and papaya. There was a warm, golden glow about the place, even after dark. Julio just wished he was able to bring back a few fireflies to flit among the trees. Sad to report, the one in his shirt pocket did not survive the sucking well trip.

There was no problem whatsoever about Mober and Pepper losing their voices. They jabbered away constantly; so much so that it even became a problem. They started talking to the wild horses in the area and telling them where to hide out so they wouldn’t be rounded up, put into the government corrals, and end up on somebody’s dinner plate. Pepper, who was a rescue foal herself, remembers where she was destined before Granma took her in. She became quite radical in voicing her opinions and dictated many an article and petition, which Granma wrote down diligently and sent in for her. She also became one of the underground leaders for transporting endangered horses to safe barns. Therefore, we keep our location a highly guarded secret. Oh, Mobe & Pep tried talking more with B & C, but they never really caught onto it much. Maybe because they are boys.