Page 11 of Finding Basil (Foggy Basin Season Two)

Chapter Seven

Cordelia came by as he was watching his yard being dug into from his newly fixed porch. He stared blankly at the carnage of the sod and dirt as the man drove the bulldozer, or whatever the big machine with the scoop was called.

“Herb…what can I do?”

“Give me all my money back for the house and acreage?”

After laughing a little before she realized he wasn’t kidding, she said, “Well, um…”

“I’m keeping the place, don’t worry. I’d have to suspect you were a money-hungry demon if I thought you knew about all this.”

“I didn’t. Even the appraiser didn’t see all this. What can I do besides that?”

“Nothing unless you can wave a wand and make me some incredible farmer.”

“Can’t do that either. I am, however, waiving my fees for all the work I’ve done for you.”

His head turned as if he was mechanical, and he glared at her. The feeling of strangling her was fleeting, but it felt good while it lasted. “How nice of you.”

She stood by him and set her hands on the rail, like he was doing. “It happens. But, Herb, the community is embracing you. Even Lila Dormer has nothing bad to say about you, and she has something bad to say about everyone. And there’s…Basil.”

Finally, he smiled. “He’s here right now, overseeing things, and he and his brothers and cousins are putting the glass into the greenhouse. He’s determined to get this place up and running to make me some money. He’s even hunting down contracts for the herbs I will be growing.”

“He’s a crazy good farmer. He can make seeds grow just by looking at them. At least, that’s the word around town.”

“He’s amazing,” Herb whispered, and then saw her smile as he did so. “What?”

“Someone has a crush.”

“Can’t help that,” he admitted. “I’ve never met anyone like him.”

“Better you than that crazy ex of his. I mean, sorry if that’s not PC, but he literally was crazy, so I don’t know if that counts.”

“Mentally ill,” Herb corrected. “I haven’t really heard about him, but we’ve yet to discuss our exes, if we ever do. I should wait for him to tell me.”

“Sure, sure. I’m not in the know, of course, not all the details, anyway.”

He seriously doubted that. Cordelia seemed to be in the know about everyone in town.

After she left, he was walking back to the greenhouse and saw Lila speaking to Basil and his brother, Juan. “There he is, the biggest sucker I ever met,” she said and then cackled.

“Lila, that’s mean,” Basil chided. “He loves the place.”

“Sure, it’s a great place, but the house? I’d have bulldozed the whole thing and started over.”

Herb shook her hand and said, “If I’d have known the extent, I likely would have. How are you, Lila?”

“I’m fit as a fiddle, not sick a day in my life. You have some good men helping you out. Hope you’re not taking advantage. You city fellas are known for that kind of thing.”

Basil rolled his eyes as he laughed. “You’re awful, Lila.”

“Well, only to those who don’t take kindly to truth-tellers. Otherwise, I’m universally loved.”

Juan laughed at that. “Sure. Tell that to the city council, the manager at the grocery store, the police and fire chiefs, the—”

“We get the message, you shit,” she said and cackled more. “Like I said, those that hate the truth don’t care a lick for me.”

Herb couldn’t help but like her. “Listen, Lila, the well draining, it was…not original to the house, so to speak. Someone may have broken a pipe and caused it. If you see anyone around, can you let me know?”

“Like I pay attention to other people’s places,” she said.

“Lila…” Basil cautioned.

“Fine. Listen, Bas, you don’t think it was…”

Basil ducked his head and said, “No, I doubt it. He’s…away.”

“Mmhmm. Well, then, I’ll try to keep an eye, but I’m a busy woman. Got my own place to run. See y’all later.”

The cousins came over as they all watched her leave. One of them said, “That woman is a tornado waiting for a place to touch down.”

“Yeah, but she’s got a good heart under all that rough leather,” Juan said. “Helps abuela a lot. Abuela loves her.”

“So does Mom,” Basil said.

Basil’s eyes met Herb’s quickly and then told the others, “I need to talk to Herb for a minute.”

“Talk. Sure,” Juan said with a wink. “Okay, guys, they’re gonna do stuff we don’t care to see. We’ll finish the actual work.”

Basil took his hand and led him off down into the fields. “I guess I need to explain about my ex.”

“I’d never ask, but everyone seems to mention him.”

“His name is Steve. Steve Paladin. The reason I don’t think he did this pipe thing, well, it’s because he’s…in a place.”

“A mental hospital?”

“Yeah, a rehab, they call it, but not the drug kind. In fact, it’s kind of the opposite with Steve. He keeps going off his meds. He’s been diagnosed a thousand times, and they’ve had a hard time pinning any down for him.”

They walked in the sunlight, but the conversation was dark, as if a cloud was following their progress. “I’ve heard that before.”

“Well, he’s one of them. Bipolar for sure, but he’s also been told he has borderline personality, DID, but that one, well, they dismissed it.

Um, others, I can’t remember them all, but the big one is bipolar.

Severe bipolar. I mean, one day he could be so depressed he wouldn’t get out of bed, and the very next day he was up buying a tractor that he drove all over the county, through people’s yards and fields, just a mess.

He even tried to buy a plane once, thinking he could learn to fly it by actually flying it. ”

“Damn. I’m sorry, Basil.”

“I met him when he was on his meds. He was the sweetest guy, just loving and giving. Herb, I never thought I could leave someone because they were sick, but when he went off his meds…

“It was…I hate to say this to you, but the reason he went off his meds was sex. They made it hard for him to…”

“Get hard. Got it. No need to go into details.”

Basil nodded and said, “I didn’t want to.

He loved me, or thought he did, and he wanted off them to show me, you know, how much.

Well, they left his system pretty fast. The doctors said because he’s got this really high metabolism.

And once they were, he became a little obsessed with me. Especially after we…”

“Got it.”

“I talked him into getting help. It wasn’t easy. He made me promise to wait for him. That was two years ago, and he’s never left the hospital.”

“Not even when he got back on his meds?”

Basil’s face was pained, and he looked near tears. “They don’t know why the meds stopped working. They’ve been trying since to find a new cocktail of meds for him, but so far, nothing’s worked. It’s…it’s been very hard. He calls sometimes to remind me that I said I’d wait.”

“Was he from here?”

Basil nodded. “His family bought a place on the other side of town. They’re raising these special dogs. They retired and that is a hobby place for them. I go see them now and then to say hello. It wasn’t their fault, and they liked me.”

As uncomfortable as it was for him to speak about, Herb knew he had to do something. He turned Basil to him and held him close, breathing in the fresh air through his thick black hair. “It’s okay, Basil. I’m here for you. I’ll help you in any way I can, and him too. I can see you care about him.”

“I didn’t stop caring. I just stopped loving him. And…”

“You feel guilty about that. Especially after meeting me and we hit it off so fast and so much.”

“Yeah,” he said with a cracking voice. Herb held him while he cried a little, but then Basil kissed him. “Thank you.”

“No thanks needed. I like you, Basil. I’d like to become closer to you eventually, when we’re both ready. And that kind of relationship is a partnership. Partners are there for one another and do for the other as much as they do for themselves. So far, you’ve done a lot more for me.”

“I don’t think you know how much you’re doing for me, just letting me help you with this farm.”

“I’d give you the damn thing if it wasn’t just a money pit.”

“I’d never take it, and not for that reason.”

Basil took his hand again, and they walked into the fields. After he stopped, he kneeled in the dirt and took a handful of it before he asked Herb to join him.

After Herb kneeled, Basil handed him the clump of dirt.

“This isn’t yours exactly. It’s been asked of you to look over it and cultivate it into food.

You’ll watch over, protect and grow in it until it passes to another, who’ll be tasked with the same.

Respect it, love it, nurture it, and in return, it’ll repay all the sweat and blood you’ve added to it. ”

Herb’s eyes filled with tears as the emotion of it hit him. The weight of that, the heart of it, Basil made him feel it.

The house was just something that sheltered him. The real thing he’d purchased without even realizing it was the land that could grow things.

That was no small thing. Just looking into Basil’s dark eyes told him that. Basil believed in that, was raised it a reverence for the land that went as high as believing in God.

A place that could grow things to feed people. That was a cherished place. Fighting the elements, weather, pests, diseases, all to make enough food to feed a hungry populace.

“No matter what, Basil, I’ll work to make this place something you’ll be proud of.”

Basil smiled and whispered, “I know that. I see it in you, before you even knew it was there.”

On their knees in the dirt, Basil kissed him, and the sin was warm on their faces, the breeze cool on their skin, and Basil’s body close, tender as he was held like it was he, Herb Buffet, that was the cherished thing on that land.

When they got back, the glass was set in the greenhouse, and it looked beautiful. “Wow, this is so big. How much of the crop can we start here?”

Juan said, “A big bunch of it.”