DAY 23 OF FLASH AUGUST FICTION. The simplest things can be stories. Just like a simple life, or something like that. If you are out there doing the grueling task of covering the crazy politics and the news of the day. You are my target audience. I hope I can bring you a little break from this nonsense. If you are a truth telling Journalist, let me know, and I will give you a free “paid” subscription so you can see my back posts. I’m Herschel Sterling, and I’m here to help.
Man With a Mower
Just Another Day
1104 WORDS WRITTEN IN ABOUT 45 MINUTES
Harry is new in town. He’s only been around for a couple of years, which, where he lives, is new. He lost his wife to illness a few years back. He sold what he had in the city and moved out to a rural area. He didn’t work when he got there. He doesn’t need to. Between his worth and his wife’s life insurance, he is pretty much set, but that doesn’t sit well with him. He’s not a farmer or a rancher, and there really isn’t a market for his current skill set that he brought with him from the city.
He thought about opening up some kind of shop, but he doesn’t know the area or the people, and they seem to have all of their bases covered. So, Harry bought a lawn mower—a simple mower. A push mower he can put in the back of his pickup truck. He made a few flyers and put them around town, and he had some business cards made up. All his marketing says is “Man With a Mower” and his phone number.
The first call Harry received was from an elderly woman. She told him that she didn’t have much money to pay him, but she could make him some lunch and make sure he had some money for fuel. Harry said that was just fine. He went to her place, and he mowed her yards for a couple of hours and cleaned it up nicely. They had a very nice lunch with fresh local food and Harry made a new friend. He would come out weekly and repeat the work.
She told one of her neighbors about Harry. They were so glad her place was going to be kept up, and they gave him a call. He explained his situation, and they thought that he seemed like a solid guy. They invited him over to their horse ranch because they were getting a delivery of hay, and maybe he could help them unload it and stack it in their hay barn. Harry accepted that opportunity because he had never really seen a horse ranch and would love to have that experience.
Harry learned the proper way to stack hay, and he got a fantastic day of work and a free workout out of the deal. He was able to visit with the horses too. The folks at the ranch paid him, and he had a steak from one of their steers. He tasted goat milk for the first time. He wasn’t crazy about the taste, but he didn’t let on. Now they knew he was a good guy to call if they ever needed help again.
The next call he received was from a couple whose son had just gone to college. They needed someone to mow their large lawn. The husband didn’t like to do that kind of work if he didn’t have to. It was too big for Harry’s small mower, but he used their rider instead. They were so glad to have that work done, and they paid him a little more than what he asked. He now had two regular mowing jobs, and he was meeting new people.
The next project Harry took on was some vacant lots. The town manager called him and said they could use those lots cleared out and mowed. It was a couple of days work. When he was done with the project, the lots looked like new. They were cleared of the dumping messes, and the lawns were cut cleanly and also edged. Harry was able to use some of the town’s equipment to make it very spiffy. He was contracted to keep those lots looking clean and safe going forward.
Harry was turning this effort, which was originally intended to be something to keep him busy once in a while, into a situation that required more responsibility and actual scheduling. He was OK with that. It was something worthwhile, and he was learning new things and becoming a regular guy known around the town.
One day, Harry was doing a random mowing job that came in out of the blue. It was kind of an oddly shaped yard on one of the far edges of town. The house was vacant; the owners were the people who had grown up there, but they had all moved away. It was a family property they intended to keep and begin visiting soon, perhaps during the summer months and on weekends.
The other houses in that area were sparsely spaced, and the closest house abutted the property he was mowing on the far end of it. That house was a mess. It looked like a junkyard, with garbage all over the yard. Harry felt it seemed like a dangerous place in the way that things were so disheveled and in the way the windows were all blocked off with cardboard from the inside.
When Harry would mow in the direction facing that house, he could see the cardboard in one of the windows move. As he got closer, on subsequent passes, he would strain to see who was watching him, and the cardboard would abruptly cover the window. He didn’t think much of it, and he decided to leave it be and not press the issue of seeing who was watching him.
On one pass toward that house, however, Harry happened to check that window again. What he saw startled him, but he tried not to draw any attention to himself by responding hastily. Someone had written the words “Help us” on the cardboard. Harry realized that he had to act. He did so calmly. He turned off the mower, and he went to his truck, where he keeps his phone when he is working.
He called the town manager and explained the situation. The town manager told him it would be best if he just kept doing his work as though everything was normal, to not alarm anyone in the house who could cause some kind of harm. Very soon afterward, he was met by a town safety officer, who told him that a sheriff was on the way with help and that they would find out what was happening. He was instructed to stay in his truck when the sheriff arrived.
Some children who were being neglected were found in the house, and there were no adults in the house at the time. A couple of the kids were not the children of the adults who had the property. It was another situation where Harry was in the right place at the right time.
The End.
Life is weird. Things like this happen all the time. Thank you so much for listening, or reading. This is the Smell the Inside of Your Nose. Do it Right Now podcast. I hope you might get a free or paid subscription, or buy me a coffee, or donate some bitcoin. I wish you the best. I’m Herschel Sterling, and I’m here to help.
Man With a Mower