The High-Heeled Eco-Worrier: An Eco Romance Comedy by Bourne Debbie

Author:Bourne, Debbie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Malchik Media
Published: 2024-04-17T00:00:00+00:00

16. Smoking Guns

‘Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs.

Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes.’

Ben pauses from reciting his Shakespearean quote to take a puff of his joint. ‘I’ve missed hanging out with you guys.’ He inhales, and smiles with satisfaction.

‘Yes, it’s great to see you too, Ben.’ I hug the strapping 19-year-old I’ve not seen for two years, and sneeze.

Nat and I first met Ben—or, as we used to call him, ‘Benjy-bard’—when we started developing our community garden together five years ago. Ben was as renowned for his love of Shakespeare as for the quantity, and, apparently, quality of the marijuana he grew.

@NTS: Is this a reefer I see before me …

We had always judged Ben as an unlikely candidate for university, but he surprised us all by getting an offer at Newcastle Uni to study agronomy.

‘So, how’s your degree going?’ I ask as I sneeze again. I zip up my puffer jacket to ward off the chill that permeates through my body on this freezing-cold March afternoon.

‘You got yon terrible cold there,’ Ben says, as he hands me a perfectly laundered white handkerchief.

‘I caught it at a birdwatching event last week. It turned out that it had been cancelled due to the rain, but we didn’t find out till we got back here.’ I wipe my nose and sigh. ‘I thought it was meant to be spring by March.’

Ben shakes his head. ‘You know what they say. “Beware them ides of March.”‘

‘Benjy-bard!’ Nat shrieks, as she rushes up and throws her arms around him. ‘I’m so psyched you finally made it. I hope you’re impressed with our Good Life project?’ She points to the fridge that is being cleaned out by Pippa, and to the Chip Fat Travellers Van where Lucia is bent over the bonnet busily fixing something ...

‘Who’d have thought when we started our small community garden that it would expand into a Good Life smallholding in a deconsecrated church!’ she laughs. ‘In the back garden we’ve got chickens and even a pet owl!’

‘Yeah, you noble girls hast done good. It’s almost as lit here as our campus,’ says Ben. ‘We’ve got a flock o’ sheep, a dairy unit, even a modern pig finishing unit.’

‘Did someone mention pigs?’ Marg asks, as she walks up to us. She takes a lead from her bag. Old Spot grunts, clearly as unimpressed with Ben’s comment as with the lead that Marg now places around his neck to take him for a walk.

Ben bends down to tickle Old Spot’s nose. ‘I’m loving agronomy. It’s the science and tech of producing plants for food, fuel, and fibre. I’m currently studying strategies for sustainable agriculture. It’s totally goat.’

‘We’ve not got any goats yet.’ Nat shakes her head. ‘But it’s a good idea.’

‘No, he means G-O-A-T-, as in Greatest of All Time,’ Marg explains. ‘Don’t you girls keep up with teenage vernacular?’

Ben winks at Marg. ‘However, with molecular and genetics on the crop management horizon, there’s some real shady stuff going on.

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