Part 6
Edwin stared at the row of gamboling, leafy rabbits. They were carved with such skill he could almost see their ears twitching as they waited for his reaction. His mouth opened and close several times, but he found himself unable to form any coherent thoughts, let alone words. Finally a low, half-strangled sound issued forth from his throat. As he realized he was making the sound, Edwin clamped his mouth shut, hoping to stifle the noise before anyone could overhear. “How could this have happened?” he asked himself. His men had been on patrol all night. “How did someone sneak past them?” Unable to continue looking at the joyful bunnies, Edwin turned towards his office door. His hand shook slightly as he unlocked his office and stepped inside, closing the door against the sight of the mutilated shrubbery. Secure in his space, Edwin looked around. Everything was as he left it. The sight steadied him and he decided to continue with his normal morning routine. At night Edwin closed the blinds, first the blinds facing east, then the blonds facing west. To open them, he did the reverse. Edwin crossed the room to the western blinds and opened them. He was relieved that the view from the western window looked out on a perfectly symmetrical trio of spiral trimmed evergreen conifers shaped like upside down cones. “Juniperus,” he reminded himself, disliking the general ambiguity of the term evergreen conifer. The trio was located eight feet back from the wall of the small building housing his office and the points of their cones were, as always trimmed level with the bottom of his windowsill. The sight steadied him. Edwin moved to the eastern facing window and, after opening it, found the trio of cone shaped junipers exactly as it should be as well. Edwin slanted his eyes towards the door as though he could condemn the now vandalized bushes in the front by the comparison. With the windows opened, Edwin turned to his desk. He checked his pencils. All five were in the order he left them. He then moved to the small kitchenette area in the back. He filled his electric kettle with purified water from the container he kept in the cabinet and set the kettle to boil. While it worked he unwrapped one plain black teabag from its paper sheath and took his white ceramic mug from the hook. The teabag went into the mug and he made certain the little string with its paper tag was wrapped around the mug’s handle so that when he added the water it would remain in place. Satisfied with his preparation, Edwin moved to his desk and took a seat, turning to his calendar to review the needs of the day. As he began to review, his thoughts turned back to the situation he found himself in. Above and beyond the vandalism, the location was an issue. His office was deeper into the grounds than the site of the former maze. To reach it, the perpetrator of these heinous acts had to penetrate deep into the estate’s grounds. Not only did it show a certain boldness of action, it exposed a serious gap in security. “Such a gap could cause the residents to be at risk,” he told himself, giving into the need to think the situation through. “Location,” Edwin said in surprise as a thought hit him. The first vandalism occurred on the south lawn. It was the furthest from the main buildings and despite Edwin’s preference for the space, was not well used by the residents. He thought it might be too far from the residence to be convenient for those only wanting a short stroll. “And it can’t be seen from the office,” he reminded himself. Edwin glanced at his windows, one facing east, one facing west and the door facing to the north. He knew his men began their patrols exactly one hour after his arrival in his office. “Giving the perpetrator additional time to escape.” Edwin nodded to himself. “And last night the patrols were concentrated on the south lawn,” he mused. “Therefore leaving the area around my office vulnerable.” In his mind’s eye he could see it. The evil do-er dressed in black his face shielded by black paint and a ski mask, slipping onto the grounds to attach the row of shrubs, shielded by the wall while he worked. “If he avoids the patrols, we will need one closer to the main house to ensure the residents’ safety,” Edwin began. His kettle boiled and Edwin rose to fix his cup. While the tea steeped, Edwin walked over to study the large wall map of the grounds. This was war and he would have to arrange his troops carefully if he wanted to take back any of the ground the intruder was trying to claim. He thought of the sacrifice his shrubs had made. “At least it was for the sake of information,” he decided. Now he knew more about the invader than he had before. Now he could better prepare.
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I have to say, I'm not normally a mean person. But I am kind of having fun causing Edwin emotional trauma.
Part 5 Edwin watched the clock tick down the final minutes of his shift. After discovering the unknown sculptor’s nest, a staff meeting had been held. It was clear to Edwin that the perpetrator of these misdeeds would not risk a daylight assault and no doubt planned to return in the night. He would not find the estate such an easy target a second time. The men were split into shifts and sectors. The site of the former maze was the first sector. With those tools so neatly arranged, Edwin had no doubt the remaining hedges were planned targets and he wanted them protected. The second sector was the sight of the trysting tree. There his men would be placed so that they could watch the tools, and wait for the perpetrator. The patrol would be spread out and hopefully they would not only catch the miscreant, but they would see how access to the grounds was granted. Edwin thought over the staff meeting. At the end he had asked for comments, something he rarely did. He hadn’t expected any to arise and was surprised when Michaelson stepped forward. “Sir,” Michaelson began. “No doubt you plan to be with the patrols, checking on them. May I make a suggestion?” “You may,” Edwin said calmly, wondering what suggestion he would make. “You are known as a man of order, of routine,” Michaelson said. “No doubt anyone watching the estate will be watching you, sir. They will look to see if you deviate from your routine. If they do, then they would suspect something out of the ordinary.” Edwin had nodded solemnly, pleased with Michaelson’s reasoning. “If they see something is amiss, they might not return tonight, but wait until our guard is down again.” “And if they see you going about your business as though everything is normal,” Michaelson began. “They might be lulled into a false sense of security,” Edwin finished. “Excellent reasoning. Michaelson, you will be in charge of the hedgerow sector and Lucas, since you so adequately dealt with the eradication of the hive today, you will be in charge of the patrols near the large oak.” Even though Edwin personally thought of it as the trysting tree, he could never bring himself to say the words out loud. Now, the long day was almost done. The sun was low enough that the estate was a mix of red gold light and deepening shadows. The small chimes of Edwin’s desk clock rang, signaling the hour. He shifted his mind from thoughts of the patrols and concentrated on his routine. All papers were placed into their appropriate folders and filed in his cabinet. The five pencils he kept on his desk were sharpened so that they each had not only an adequate point, but were the same length. He lined them up at in a row at the top of his calendar blotter. Satisfied with their placement, he took a red pen and made a precise x over the day on his calendar, marking the work day as complete. The pen was re-capped and put away in his drawer. Edwin stood, tugged his uniform straight and tucked his chair under the desk. He then closed the venetian blinds over the office’s two windows, first the east and then the west. Once done, he walked to the door and let himself out, locking the office for the night. As the estate’s lights began to come on, illuminating small pools in the growing shadow land, Edwin looked towards his wall and its row of perfectly squared shrubbery. The lights let him see the wall, but nothing beyond and the illusion of the entire world being as precisely ordered as his wall and shrubs filled him with a quiet sense of peace. Edwin headed to his quarters on the far side of the grounds. As he walked, he wondered if anyone was watching and found the urge to look around harder to resist than he thought. “Let them look,” he told himself sternly. “They will see nothing out of place. Let them think they are unobserved so this matter can be settled quickly.” As he reached his quarters and went about his normal evening routine, he wondered what he was going to do about the sculpted hedgerow. Clearly it could not be allowed to remain. Unfortunately removing it would cause difficulties as well. There were, or had been, fifteen precisely aligned rows of hedges. The center row lined up neatly with the southern corner of the main house. If he removed the one row that had been defiled, the center line would be off. “The farthest hedgerow will need to be removed as well,” Edwin thought. As he polished the buttons on the shirt he planned to wear in the morning, he wondered if that would provide too much lawn. Would that much open space prove too much for the residents? Would they worry over too much of an expanse of open lawn? He finished his buttons and moved on to polishing his shoes. “The off center rows would be worse,” he decided. His mind settled on the matter, Edwin continued, through dinner, showering, reading and finally to bed at precisely ten o’clock. Sleep proved elusive however as he thought of his men patrolling in the darkness. When sleep finally caught him, it was fitful and filled with dreams of elephants on parade. Even though he was bleary eyed, Edwin awoke early and had to force himself to stay in bed until his alarm rang. Falling back into his routine soothed him and he wondered if the perpetrator was still watching or if he had been apprehended in the night. Edwin ate his one slice of buttered toast, brushed his teeth, washed his face and dressed for the day. At six forty five, he left his quarters to head to his office. Unable to resist, Edwin turned his steps to the small staff room, where he knew his men would be gathered after their patrols. As he arrived, Michaelson and Lucas were walking up. Their eyes were red from a long night of watching and waiting. As they saw Edwin, they straightened and waited for him. “Any news?” he asked. “None,” Michaelson replied shaking his head. “There was no sign of anyone in the hedgerows, sir. I left a patrol on watch, in case there is an early morning foray.” “Good,” Edwin replied. He looked to Lucas. “And your sector?” “Nothing sir,” Lucas replied. “The tools are exactly how they were left yesterday.” “Probably giving us time to relax our guard,” Edwin surmised. He dismissed both men to their rest and turned his steps towards his office. Clearly they would have to keep up the patrols until the perpetrator felt comfortable returning. “Perhaps surveillance cameras,” Edwin thought. The thought didn’t have much hope as he knew Dr. Vargas did not want the privacy of the residents violated. “Of course the residents are currently prohibited from the south lawn,” Edwin mused as he walked. Perhaps that could be used to sway the doctor into temporary approval. Edwin reached his office door and unlocked it, trying to decide if he could mount a viable argument for the installation. As was his habit, before entering the office he looked at his wall and shrubbery. In the morning the light shone upon the area while still leaving the rest of the grounds shrouded in morning mist, giving him the same illusion as the evening shadows. This morning however as Edwin looked at his perfectly squared off rows they were not the two foot square cubes he had come to expect. Edwin felt his mouth open in surprise and his hand fell away from the door. His row of perfect shrubs had been transformed in the night. Now instead of cubes, green bunny rabbits now gamboled in a row against the red brick of his wall. The bunnies sculpted from his hedges were nibbling grass, frozen in leaps, cuddled together in small groups. His mind blank with shock, Edwin could only stare at what had once been a perfect row of shrubbery. Just a quick announcement to let everyone know my latest book Wildwood is now available. Check out the excerpt on the Home page of this website or the full book on Amazon:
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