Tom the Green Keeper

The highlight of the school day, a drag show. Not sure I know this kid but he's dead keen to blink his false eyelashes in front of an audience. He's got thighs like fence posts and is built like a brick shit house but his performance under the lights rates with Carmen, Polly Filla, and Tess Tickle. Energising and nothing I though I would ever see in a school drama room.

Round the corner from home I meet Kahu who is supposed to be doing jobs but stayed at Sam's to help him tidy up. I grit my teeth and swallow the protest swelling up my gorge. It's far too hot to argue. The Ozone hole. Well it seems there's been one above the North Pole this year, as a result of an unusually strong polar vortex. It opened this year because cold air was concentrated for much longer than is typical. Meanwhile, our Ozone hole, which has existed for nearly four decades, is our seasonal reality and burn time is about 12 minutes. Today, it feels like 6. It's searing and stepping outside is like stepping into a furnace.  

Tom is already here preparing to level the front lawn. Wow. I head for the fridge to fish out ice cubes for a glass of water. Tom drinks at least 6 and I return for chat after chat. His stories are pain filled. NZ Cricket disestablished his position as green keeper of Hagley Oval after 29 and a half years, their lawyer gave him a day to leave the house he'd raised 6 kids in, and he got cellulitis in both legs. Watching him work under a hot sun, I remark he's got a high pain threshold. He stops from time to time and looks into the middle distance. He's recovering but I get the feeling he's checking in with the universe. Still here and still working. Still contributing. He's got a strong body, hammering in wooden planks and pegs, raking and levelling soil without stopping. Except for a drink. Kahu wheel barrows dirt from the pile Kevin deposited at the front, to the back, back to the front. I take over for 4 barrows and am tuckered out. Tom keeps going. He's got stories about Twizel, green keeping, other customers, and life. He's got the certainty of the straight up. He pulls no punches and, after all he's been through, he's still smiling. His eye for the dirt is sure, his touch is true. I can see my front lawn is in expert hands. At the end of it all, I ask how much he wants. At $230, including the wood, it's more than fair. Says he'd go mad if he wasn't working. I'm very grateful because I didn't have a landscaping budget and wouldn't know where to start.

One swim later, I'm reset. News from the US is 2,000 new Covid cases per day. Seems unreal. Here in New Zealand, we live a Covid free life. A free life. I wouldn't have it any other way. Neither would Tom.