I looked around the room. The walls were still a deep kelly green. The dark oak chairs with the rounded sides like the drumsticks being stored in a holder large enough to sit in. The woven blueberry blue and lots of green bands making the cushions a warm tartan . Suddenly I felt like I was interfering with someone’s work, I should get out of the way. I didn’t have anything to be doing . Not really. I felt useless and cast off. Nobody misses me. I slipped on my old shoes, they were ratty and had bits of cuts in the sides of the leather. They were the shoes , that I slipped on when I didn’t want to damage my good ,comfortable shoes. Funny, that they were now the only shoes I had.

For lack of any place I was supposed to be going, I walked out to the patio and turned right toward the now familiar walkway around the side of the building. In the carved out garden , someone was there. I felt cheated. My chin fell and I looked at the pebbles which had ground into my hands, the other day.

“Hi, Come on over, I need some help” The lady was not much different from me, perhaps a bit older and a bigger middle. She called and waved a trowel back and forth. I smiled and went over to where she was on her knees , by the tall yellow and orange stalks. There were almost like white swords planted in the ground and mounted with a orange pyramid only shifting in the light wind which was stronger out in the open.

” Hi, I am Marie , I haven’t been over to the big house, this week. Are you getting away from the Conference, ? ” One leg was under her but the other leg was straight out. She rocked and grimaced. ” I am sorry to have to call you over like I am some old grouse. ” Her knee was lodged against the stone border and it was becoming very red. I cursed myself for nothing seeing that she was in trouble to begin with. ” Certainly, Could you like a – I mean Would you like an arm up.?” I reached down and grabbed her around her elbow , having to use the stone border to anchor myself to pull her up. ” Thank you so much, I was trying to plant to tigers’s tails and I leaned over to far. ” She swiped her hands together and rubbed them on her shirttail. “Could you bring that box over there and lets take them over to the corner bed. I have to get these in the ground, before the weather moves in. I don’t know how long they will last. ”

I deposited the box, feeling productive , silly me. Marie was putting the small mounds of flowers into a trench ,pushing dirt in as she went. ” I had to get away from those books and get some fresh air. Do you like books?” She was a bright soul but my gosh she could talk! I nodded my head and chuckled.
” I got into a lot of trouble ,reading books when I was supposed to be working at something else. I love the little library but i didn’t realize it was someone else’s work area.” Frowning , I turn and look out to the meadows ” funny, how you can become attach to a certain space. ”

Marie crumpled her forehead. She pulled out a plant and moving it to another spot , shaking the dirt from the petals. ” you must be our new guest . I trust you like your room and aren’t having any trouble settling in? Anybody giving you grief? ” I didn’t know if I should say what I had overheard . Trouble seems to be pouncing. Furrows as deep as the flower bed seemed to have become plowed into my head. ” Settling in. I am not settled. I am here and in a couple of weeks , I don’t know what is going to be”. I had not meant to sound so mean. I bit my lip . Settling in ?

Nobody had said where I was supposed to be . Where was I supposed to be? I was supposed to be going out with the girls and planning Sue’s baby shower. I was supposed to be shopping with Mom. My tears clouded my vision. Why were other people scrambling my life and not giving me any choices? ” I have been snuggled in the small library over there, but it seems to be a supervisor’s business office. Marie scrunched up the dirt around a small mound of yellow and purple flowers ” I don’t know of any supervisor having a business office over here. ”

“If you want to read and scurry down in the cushions, you go on and do so. Anyone give you trouble , let me talk to them.” The soft voice and the cheery face disappeared . ” I don’t know of anyone who even uses the garden room anymore, not with the new building. You can just consider it your space! ” She gave me a dirty and smelly hug, but it was a good ,good hug. ” Thank you, I don’t really have any reason to be staying on, except that I can’t -seem to get my world to make sense. ” Settling in? For how long?