Lawncare For Love Day!

In the summer, you mow her lawn. In the fall, you rake her leaves. In the winter, you shovel her walk. In the spring, you pick one daisy from the garden by the walk and you offer it to her.

It's the last year of high school. Rich girl Jenny's going off to college soon. Her father's money is going to send her far away. Your father's absence and your mother's unemployment will bring you to her front yard once again to rake her leaves, and to shovel her walk. And she'll offer you hope as she likes to do, in the form of a cup of hot cocoa walked out into the yard by Jenny personally. She'll be kind to you when it's clear you're only in her presence to earn her father's money.

"Going to the dance?" you'll ask, if there's a dance on the calendar.

"Of course," she'll say. Knowing full well your attendance at the dance isn't such a foregone conclusion.

It's in the spring, when nature takes care of itself just fine, when your presence at her door cannot be misconstrued. For three seasons she's flattered by the unspoken knowledge that you're sweating in her front lawn only to be near her, and perhaps share a word with her. But in the spring, you show up again, with a flower in your hand, and you force her to send you away until the sun's too hot and the grass grows too high.

Don't fight it. You'd be as much a fool as if you were to try to fight the passage of the seasons over time. Jenny's a rich girl and you're a poor boy. And the world keeps spinning along.

Happy Lawncare For Love Day!