(eng) Pam Uphoff - Wine of The Gods 34 by Last Merge

Author:Last Merge [Merge, Last]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

***

Rael finally escaped from her office.

Two weeks straight of writing and reading reports and attending meetings! I need my two days off!

Her little red car started up like a champ, never mind three weeks of dust from sitting in the parking lot at Versalle.

She stopped for gas and a car wash, and relaxed as she turn onto her street . . .

There was a tree in her yard.

Much larger than anything she ever seen at the nursery the few times she'd thought about landscaping. Probably ten meters tall, branching gracefully.

And that infuriatingly irresistible man was standing out on the sidewalk beside her grumpy neighbor, the pair of them looking at the tree. No doubt half the rest of the neighbors were watching from the presumed safety of their homes.

Rael pulled into her driveway and joined them. "So . . . what kind of tree is it? And . . . what are those?" Two big stone bowls now bracketed her front door. Big viney things . . . "Grapes?"

"Yep. A merlot and a chardonnay. I'll move them to the back or get rid of them altogether if you don't like them."

The grumpy neighbor snorted. "Fancy schmancy. Get the whole neighborhood's taxes raised."

Rael clutched her head. "Sorry Mr. Keric. But I probably did that already by getting this guy to fix up the worst house on the block. And . . . I'm not going to start making wine, either."

"Then eat them, or let the birds have them." Xen glanced up the street. "I suppose all the water mains and storm drains and whatever are all pretty old. Must be why gentrification is going so slow."

Mr. Keric growled a bit. "Pack of la-di-dah Oners moving in. And then what's an honest man to do, surrounded by a pack of nasty mind-readers."

"Laugh at them." Xen shrugged. "I mean, they mostly don't use their abilities for anything but glowing and fencing. Those Oner names are just potential. Three-quarters of them never even try to develop it. Just a few like Rael, here. Now she's dangerous."

The old grump looked Xen up and down, spat on her weeds and stomped off.

"Do you laugh at us?" Rael batted her eyelashes and tried to look hurt.

Xen grinned. "About as often as I laugh at myself. So, do you want a stereotypical suburban lawn, or we could try some low ground cover like wild violets?"

"I was thinking in terms of buying plants, not . . . where did you get that tree?"

"In a forest on an Empty World. The grapes . . . my dad has a vineyard. He's constantly planting grapes, starting them in pots and . . . then he hasn't got any place for them, so he sticks them in bubbles. He was quite happy to have me take a couple. The wild violets—most places consider them weeds. Silly. Much prettier than grass, and low maintenance."

"Oh yeah? No drawbacks?"

"It doesn't take trampling very well. Not good if you . . . are planning on volleyball."

Why that pause? Oh .

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