The Gardens of Digby Green: Hiring
The timing of a traffic light ensured that Ray didn’t miss Digby’s turn onto 6th Street. He followed, passing a couple of businesses before Digby pulled into the lot of CJ Future’s Lawn and Landscaping. The property was large, and Ray could park away from Digby’s truck, as the man stepped through the front door.
Behind that building were greenhouses, a tree nursery area, and the largest assortment of pavers, and shaped concrete blocks for retaining walls Ray had ever seen. Employees driving several trucks of multiple types, some towing trailers, left the lot on their way to job sites. Ray settled in to wait.
More than an hour oozed by. The car interior heated, and Ray rolled down the front and back windows. He adjusted the visor as the sun angle shifted. Finally, the building door opened, and Digby Green stepped out, carrying papers in one hand, another baseball cap and a polo shirt clutched in the other.
Green tossed the papers and shirt into his truck, took off the hat he wore, with its orange bill, and replaced it with a beige one with a centered company logo on the front. He stuffed the old hat into a trash container, then got into his truck.
Ray grunted. Green had apparently found himself a new employer. The man’s previous hat had been more distinctive. This one would be harder to notice in a crowd.
Was Green on his way to a job site already? If that was so, what would Ray do? Being aware of what the man did grew increasingly difficult. Green’s truck backed out, and turned toward Sixth Street.
No way was Ray going to lose an opportunity to question the man. He had to have the answer, the truth. Turning the key in the ignition, Ray gave the Chrysler gas, and followed.
Green left 6th Street and turned onto State Road 30 again, heading away from town for a short distance before slowing at Sunnyside Avenue, and turning in at Hillside Cottages, a motel from a former era, when the accommodations took the form of small, connected, single story cabins.
Ray drove past, made a turn, and parked in a nearby Mexican restaurant lot.
The Gardens of Digby Green: Hiring is an installment of a short story which posts on Fridays. You can find the first part and read from the beginning, here.
Krystine Kercher
Heidi Kortman