Khaya's Rooftop Garden

Mr. Trellis' Garden

Doug Glenning II

88 East Avenue

Bridgeton, NJ 08302

[phone]

[e-mail]

Glenning Mr. Trellis' Garden

Page One:

My family and I live on the fourth floor of a tall apartment building on Long Island with my two twin sisters. There are lots of different people who live in our building. Mrs. Rosa lives with her husband and son. They are from Uruguay, a country in South America. Mr. Ritter is from Tennessee; he teaches social studies at a high school not far from our building. My parents were born in Kenya, Africa. My father came to America to study medicine. He is a doctor at a hospital in New York. Today is his birthday, so Mama and I are making him a special dinner.

Page Two:

On the roof of our apartment building there is a garden. It belongs to everyone in the building, but only one person takes care of it. His name is Mr. Trellis. Whenever someone needs tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes or carrots, they can take a basket up to the roof and Mr. Trellis will pick them for you. He also has many different types of flowers in the rooftop garden, some for each color of the rainbow. Today, my mother and I are going to the roof to see Mr. Trellis. We need some vegetables for my father's birthday dinner

and some flowers for the table.

Page Three:

We have to walk up a lot of stairs to reach the roof and I am very tired when we get there. Mr. Trellis has a bench that you can sit on in the middle of the garden. I love to sit there while Mama gets the flowers and vegetables. There are many lovely flowers around the bench. Sometimes hummingbirds and bees will zip from flower to flower. There is

Glenning Mr. Trellis' Garden

even a little pond with swimming orange and white fish. Mama calls me over to pick out what kind of flowers we should get for the table. I choose my favorite flower: hydrangeas.

Page Four:

Mr. Trellis uses a special pair of scissors to cut the flowers out of the pot. He snips them off near the soil and hands them to me. "Here you are, Violet." Mr. Trellis is a very tall man with a very deep voice. Some of the other kids in my building are scared of him, but I think he has beautiful blue eyes and looks just like Santa Claus from his hair to his shoes.

Page Five:

That night, Daddy is very surprised by his birthday dinner and his flowers! He also likes the present I gave him that I made all by myself. We are all surprised by a knock at our door. It is Mr. Trellis. We invite him to sit in our living room. Mama gets him a glass of water. He tells us that his sister is sick and that he is going to visit her. "Would you look after the garden for me while I'm away?" he asks. When Mama and Daddy say they will I smile from ear to ear. On his way out Mama sends him home with two pieces of Daddy's birthday cake for him and his wife.

Page Six:

Mama wakes me early in the morning when the sun is beginning to peek through the curtains in my bedroom. We have to get up early to take care of the flowers and vegetables so Daddy can help us before he leaves for work. When we first get up to the roof I feel butterflies in my stomach looking around at all these plants that we have to take

Glenning Mr. Trellis' Garden

care of.

Daddy takes me over to the spigot where Mr. Trellis fills up the watering cans. Mama takes two of the watering cans over to the part of the roof where all the flowers are. I help Daddy carry another watering can over to the vegetables. A small cucumber plant has tipped over. It was probably knocked off one of the shelves by a pigeon; they like Mr. Trellis' garden, too.

Page Seven:

Mr. Trellis keeps extra flower pots on the roof in case he needs them. I rush over to Daddy with one of the extras. He sends me over to Mama to get some extra soil for the cucumber plant. I pour some of the soil into the pot, but before Daddy puts in the plant, he shows me the roots. "Roots are very important." he tells me. "They have a big job to do. When we pour water into the soil, the roots have to soak it all up and spread it to the whole plant. They also have to take the vitamins out of the soil so the plant can be healthy." Mama comes up behind us and says,

"They also keep the plant in one place, like an anchor on a boat."

Page Eight:

When we finish watering all the plants, including the cucumber plant in its new pot, I kiss Daddy goodbye and he goes off to work. I sit on the bench by the fish pond while Mama goes down to check on Grandma and my sisters. While she is gone Mrs. Rosa comes up to the rooftop garden. I meet her at the doorway and ask her if she needs any help. I tell her that Mama and I are taking care of the garden while Mr. Trellis is away. "Well, then you are the one I am looking for. I'm running low on tomatoes and I need

Glenning Mr. Trellis' Garden

two more for the sofrito I am making. Can you get them for me?"

With a quick, "Yes, ma'am!", I run over to the vegetable garden. Some of the plants look the same, but it is easy for me to spot the tomatoes. I carefully hold the tomatoes and twist each one off the stem and bring them to Mrs. Rosa.

"Gracias, Violet." Then I remember something that Mr. Trellis always says.

"No need to thank me. It's your garden, too." Mrs. Rosa smiles at me then walks back down to her apartment.

Page Nine:

I wait a while to see if anyone else will come up after Mrs. Rosa. No one comes. I look out from the rooftop and see all the cars driving on the road and all the people walking about on the sidewalks. From up here in the rooftop garden I can see clear to the bay. Across the street I see someone on the rooftop of another building. They are feeding the pigeons. I wave to them and they wave back. After that I decide to feed the fish. They all come to where I am standing and stick their faces out of the water, opening and closing their mouths. After I put the fish food away I sit on the bench and wish that I had brought a book. Mama comes back up to the rooftop garden and tells me that I can go down to the apartment with Grandma and my sisters.

Page Ten:

The next morning, I wake up to see Grandma making pancakes in the kitchen. She tells me that I am going to the pharmacy with her. Mama and Daddy have already been up to the garden without me. I tell Grandma that I want to go up, but she says not until after our errands. We drop off my sisters at a neighbor's apartment. I spend the next two days going places with Grandma in the mornings, but the afternoons I spend in Mr. Trellis'

Glenning Mr. Trellis' Garden

garden. Lots of people come up from our building to get their vegetables and flowers.

Page Eleven:

A new family I have never seen before comes up to the garden with Mr. Pryor, the landlord. "This is our garden." he tells them. "It's taken care of by one of your neighbors, Mr. Trellis." Mr. Pryor notices us and waves to my mother. "Here are some of your neighbors now. In fact, they live on the same floor, three doors down."

"Nice to meet you." my Mama says. They are a small family, just a Mom, Dad, and a girl the same age as me. I try to introduce myself, but the little girl hides behind her Dad.

"She's shy." Her mother says. "This is a lovely garden you have." Then I say, "Thanks, but it's your garden, too."

Page Twelve:

Daddy and I go up to water the plants, bonsai trees, and vegetables the next morning. Together we see the sun rise up over our whole neighborhood. While Daddy feeds the fish, I go over to smell the hydrangeas. It's my favorite smell in the whole world! I notice that one of the leaves has a hole in it, so I pluck it off. Daddy comes up behind me, and sees the leaf in my hand. "Should I throw it away?" I ask. Daddy just takes it out of my hand. He rolls it over and over again in between his fingers.

"You know, the leaves are very valuable to the plant. They help the plant in so many different ways." He bends down, and points at one of the leaves on the hydrangeas. "First, the leaves use the sunlight to make food for the plant. Also, it lets out water that's evaporated through its leaves to keep itself cool."

"Really?"

Glenning Mr. Trellis' Garden

"The leaves also pull in the air we cannot breathe, called carbon dioxide, and sends out the air we can breathe, oxygen, through its leaves." I reach up and hold Daddy's hand.

"Leaves are very special things." I say.

Page Thirteen:

After lunch, Grandma brings me up to the garden to help Mama pass out the vegetables and flowers. Grandma and I take watering cans around to the bonsai trees and garden plants. Today is such a hot day the plants have already dried out from their watering this morning.

While I am watering a small yellow tree with wide leaves, I notice something that I haven't seen before. Two shiny black elephants facing each other are in the pot of one of the larger bonsai trees, one with palm leaves that go straight up almost. The elephants are near the bottom which looks like a big, fat brown pinecone. They shine bright in the sun and look like real elephants in a jungle. I pick them up and carry them over to Mama, who is talking with Mr. Ritter. He is Mr. Trellis' next door neighbor.

Page Fourteen:

"Look Mama! Look what I found!" I hold the two elephants up over

my head.

"Very nice Violet, but where did you get them?"

"The bonsai garden." I say pointing to the table where the little trees sit. "Aren't they pretty?"

"Very pretty. Now go put them back."

"Can I take them down to my room? Just for a little while?" Mr. Ritter bends down and points to one of the two elephants in my hands.

Glenning Mr. Trellis' Garden

"Oh, these are very special to Mr. Trellis. I don't think he would want them to be taken out of the garden." I look down sadly at the two black elephants. Then, looking up at Mr. Ritter, I ask,

"Do you know where he got them?"

"A long time ago, when he was a young man, Mr. Trellis was in the Navy. He sailed on a big ship all around the oceans. Sometimes they would be at sea for months. Once, his ship stopped in India. Mr. Trellis decided to go ashore. While he was there he saw someone selling these two elephants in a marketplace. Mr. Trellis bought them and mailed them home to Mrs. Trellis. He's had them a very long time."

After hearing this story my Mama looked straight at me and said,

"Please put them back exactly where you got them from. I don't want to see you touching them again."

"Yes Mama."

Page Fifteen:

All day, I kept thinking about those shiny black elephants up on the roof. I thought about them through dinner, during my bath, the whole time Daddy was reading

me a story before bed, and even as I was lying down, trying to fall asleep.

The next day, after breakfast, I went up with Mama to water the plants and help our neighbors get what they need. Not many people came up that day, but the new girl and her Mama came up to the rooftop garden. "Good afternoon." my Mama says to the new girl's mother. "How can we help you?"

"Well, I was thinking of getting some flowers to brighten up Heather's new bedroom."

Glenning Mr. Trellis' Garden

"There are many different types of flowers. I'm sure we can find you something." To me Mama says, "Violet, why don't you show Heather around the garden?"

I take Heather by the hand and lead her over to the bench I like to sit at.

Page Sixteen:

As Heather sits on the bench in the middle of the garden I decide to run and get the fish food so she can see the fish in the pond. I notice that Mama and Heather's mother have walked over to the far side of the rooftop garden where Mama is showing her the daisies and black-eyed-susans. I quickly grab the fish food and race back to the bench. Heather smells the yellow roses. "Watch this!" I say, stepping up to the pond. Heather stands next to me as I pour in some of the food pellets. All of the orange and white fish come to the surface, popping their mouths open and shut. I giggle and look at Heather, who smiles back, then looks away. "Don't you think that's neat?"

"It's okay. My Grandma has fish in a pond like that back home."

"Do you want to see the vegetables?"

"No thanks." I look around the garden. Then, turning to Heather, I say,

"Come on, I've got something really cool to show you. I found it yesterday."

Page Seventeen:

Heather follows me over to the bonsai garden. Here I take her to the big plant that looks like a giant pinecone at the bottom. Sitting in the pot are the two shiny black elephants Mr. Ritter told me about yesterday. We just stare at them for a moment. "Aren't they pretty?" Heather reaches out to touch one, but I grab her hand. She looks at me, and pulls her hand away. "We're not allowed to touch them." I say.

Glenning Mr. Trellis' Garden

"I was just going to hold it for a minute."

"Mr. Ritter says they're special to Mr. Trellis, and Mama said she doesn't want to see us touching them."

"She can't see us touching them from over there." Heather points past the bonsai trees to the other side of the garden where her mother smells some hyacinths. "So, it's okay if I hold it." Heather reaches out and picks up one of the shiny black elephants.

Page Eighteen:

She twists her hands to make it sparkle when the sun hits it, and it looks even prettier. "Here let me hold it!" I say trying to grab it from her. Heather turns away and says,

"Not yet! It's still my turn." She turns it again so she is looking at its face. She runs her finger along its ears, trunk and tusks. "It's so pretty!"

"Come on, it's my turn." I say, reaching for the elephant.

"Not yet!" She pulls her hand away again. I push myself in front of her, trying to grab it, and bump her hand.

Page Nineteen:

I watch the elephant slip out of her hand as she drops it. I try to catch it, but it smacks the edge of the table the bonsai trees sit on, and then falls straight down to the floor.

Crash!

A tusk comes off and slides away from it. "Oh no, Oh no!" I hear Heather say. I grab the elephant off the floor and she picks up the tusk. She snatches the elephant out of my hand and tries to put it back on the elephant, but instead the tusk falls to the floor again.

"Heather, honey, it's time to go."

Glenning Mr. Trellis' Garden

"Okay Mom. Heather reaches down and picks up the tusk. Her mother walks over to where we are, and Heather quickly shoves the tusk into her pocket.

"What are you doing?" Heather looks really nervous as her mom reaches out for her hand.

"Nothing, Mom. We're just looking at the trees."

"Let's go put your new flowers in your room, okay?" Nodding, Heather leaves with her mother. I quickly put the elephant back in the pot, and switch where the two elephants are standing. Now, the elephant's broken tusk is close to the big pinecone bottom.

"I sure hope nobody notices." I say as they head downstairs.

Page Twenty:

At dinner, Daddy tells us Mr. Trellis will be back tomorrow afternoon. All the rest of that day, I find myself thinking about that elephant again. I think about it while watching television with my sisters, while Daddy is dishing up strawberry ice cream, even while I am putting on my favorite pajamas. Only this time, I'm thinking about what Mama or Daddy will say if they find out that one of the elephants is broken. Oh, no! What if Mr. Trellis finds out that the elephant is broken? I stay awake in bed worrying about what I should do tomorrow. If I stay away from the garden tomorrow, Mama or Daddy might find the broken elephant. If I go up to the garden, then I have to stay there until Mr. Trellis comes back, and I won't be able to hide when he finds the elephant. Before I fall asleep I decide to go up to the garden in the morning, and try to fix the elephant.

Glenning Mr. Trellis' Garden

Page Twenty-one:

In the morning Grandma is in the kitchen making breakfast. She sets a small plate with two big pancakes on it in front of me at the table. "Eat up Violet. We've got lots of errands to run."

"Are we going up to the garden later?"

"Not today sweetie." My palms start to get all sweaty. The butterflies I felt on the first day we had to water Mr. Trellis' garden--they're back, fluttering around in my tummy. What will I do? Mama or Daddy or Mr. Trellis is sure to find the broken elephant, now! Then, one of my little sisters picks up a pancake, and the other one grabs the same pancake. They try to pull it away from each other, but it rips in half. That's when I remember about the tusk. I wait until Grandma sits at the table. Then I ask,

"Grandma: can I stay and play at my friend Heather's?"

"Well..."

"Please Grandma? Please?"

"Where does she live?" I think back to the day Mr. Pryor, the landlord, brought them up to the roof. He said where they live...

"Three doors down! Apartment 21." Grandma sighs.

"I suppose so." With that, I shovel my pancakes into my mouth, kiss Grandma and my sisters goodbye, and run out the door, down the hall toward Heather's apartment.

Page Twenty-two:

Heather opens the door when I knock. Her mother is vacuuming around the couch in their living room. I step into the apartment, and see her father sorting through a few small boxes, and laying the things on their dining room table. Heather looks over her

Glenning Mr. Trellis' Garden

shoulder and says to her mother, "We're going to go play in my room."

Heather's room has windows on two sides. Out of one window I can see the bay. Out of the other window I can see the railroad tracks. I can only see the buildings across the street from my bedroom window.

Heather reaches into her top dresser drawer, and pulls out the broken elephant tusk. "Mr. Trellis is coming back today." I tell her.

"What are you going to do?"

"First, we have to get up to the garden."

Page Twenty-three:

The rooftop is a busy place today. It seems like everyone in the building has come to Mr. Trellis' garden for something. Even Mr. Pryor, the landlord, is up on the roof today picking up some vegetables. Mama is busy helping Mrs. Rosa near the flowers and Daddy and Mr. Ritter are talking near the fish pond. Heather and I don't waste any time going over to the bonsai garden and finding the big plant with the two black elephants.

Before we left Heather's apartment she went into her mom's room and came out with a small tube of super sticky glue. "This will fix anything!" Heather tells me. "Dad's broken dishes before, and Mom always uses this to put them back together."

"Okay, but hurry up."

"You just keep a look out for your parents." While Heather is gluing the tusk back onto the elephant, the rooftop door opens.

"It's Mr. Trellis! He's back!" I turn to look at Heather. "Is it fixed yet?"

"It won't stay in; I've got to hold it while it dries." Everyone seems glad to see Mr. Trellis. Everyone but Heather and I that is.

Glenning Mr. Trellis' Garden

Page Twenty-four:

All of our neighbors are coming up to Mr. Trellis and telling him how glad they are he is back. Mr. Trellis nods, shakes hands with people and smiles at everyone who comes up to him. Mr. Trellis begins to look through the crowd and he sees Mama, Daddy and Mr. Ritter standing in the back. He makes his way through the crowd, shakes my father's hand and turning to my mother he says in his big deep voice, "Thank you so much for taking care of my garden."

"It was our pleasure." Mama says with a smile. "Violet helped every day, even early in the morning." Mama looks over the crowd and notices Heather and me standing in the bonsai garden. "Come here girls!" I begin to step out, but Heather grabs my elbow.

She says in a hushed voice, "Violet, the elephant is stuck to my fingers!" Daddy looks over to us, along with the rest of the crowd.

"Come along Violet. Don't keep Mr. Trellis waiting." I see out of the corner of my eye that Heather is trying to pry her fingers off the elephant with no success. I step away from her, leaving Heather to free herself from the tusk. I keep my eyes to the ground, staring at my feet so no one will see the worry on my face. It's funny how your mom always knows when you're guilty of something.

"Violet Eden Kalifi." When your mama says your whole name, you know you're in real big trouble. Suddenly, I feel the eyes of everyone on the roof staring at me.

Page Twenty-five:

My throat feels like it's getting smaller. There is a bad taste in my mouth and I cannot swallow. I lift my eyes and find myself staring not at Daddy or Mama, but into Mr.

Glenning Mr. Trellis' Garden

Trellis' blue eyes. He takes a deep breath and before he says anything, I blurt out,

"I'm sorry Mr. Trellis!" I feel the tears run down alongside my nose, and taste their salt on my lips. "I broke your elephant." My head falls into my hands, and I start to cry.

I don't see Mama, but I can feel her next to me. "Violet! I thought I told you--"

"It wasn't her fault!" I look up, still crying, to see Heather moving through the crowd. Her voice sounds sad, and I see her begin to cry. "She told me not to touch the elephant. I dropped it, and it broke." She pauses to breath in a deep breath. "I tried to fix it, but now" she holds up the elephant to Mr. Trellis, "it's stuck to my fingers." Mr. Trellis doesn't say anything to either of us. Instead, he turns to Mr. Ritter and asks him to go and get the glue solvent from the toolbox in the bonsai garden. Within minutes Heather's fingers are free of the elephant, which looks good as new thanks to the super sticky glue and my new best friend.

Page Twenty-six:

Heather has gone downstairs, along with most of the other people who live in our building. Mama, Daddy, Mr. Ritter and Mr. Trellis are still talking. I am sitting on the bench watching the hummingbirds fly from flower to flower and wishing I, too, could fly away from here.

Mama and Daddy are mad at me. Mr. Trellis probably hates me.

He comes over and sits next to me on the bench. I wrap my arms around my waist and wait for him to yell at me; to tell me to get off his roof and to stay away from his plants. Mama and Daddy stand across from us. I don't want to look at anyone.

"Violet." Daddy says. "Mr. Trellis wants to tell you something." There is a long pause before Mr. Trellis speaks.

Glenning Mr. Trellis' Garden

"Violet, I'm very disappointed in you. When you broke my elephant you should've told your mother or father about it."

"I'm sorry Mr. Trellis."

"Sorry is good, but it doesn't un-break my elephant. That elephant is very important to me. I've had it for a very long time."

"I know. It's just so pretty!"

"That's no excuse for what you did." Mama tells me. Mr. Trellis takes another deep breath.

"For the rest of the year..." I want to vanish before he says I can't come back. "You will work with me here in the garden, planting, weeding, and watering." I look up at him, and I must have looked confused.

"You thought I was going to say something else?"

"I thought you were going to tell me to never come back." Suddenly, he smiles. His eyes are bright again, like they usually are.

"Violet, you will always be welcome back. After all: it's your garden, too."

THE END