Page 7 of Finding Basil (Foggy Basin Season Two)

Chapter Four

Basil had already dropped the pump and other supplies for the farm and was back with the bathroom and kitchen fixtures Herb had chosen. “As soon as these are installed, and working, you’ll feel much better,” Basil said.

“I’m sure I will. Thanks for helping me today. I’d be…completely lost.”

Basil hopped onto the tailgate of his truck before he unloaded the last box. “I think you would have figured it out for yourself. You seem capable,” he said with a sweet little chuckle that made him blush brightly.

“Thanks. I hope I am.”

The moment they were having was thick in the air, so thick that he couldn’t feel the breeze that was blowing the tall grass around him. Their eyes met, and it was something out of a movie, where the world stopped and there were only the two of them.

Corny, cheesy, but true. In that moment, he knew Basil was someone he wanted in his life. And not just as a friend. “I thought things moved slowly in towns like this, but I feel…”

“Something rushing pretty fast. Yeah. I feel that too.”

The moment, however, was broken when a shrill voice hollered, “Basil, you better get paid for all this here you’re doin’!”

Lila was stomping across the field with hands curled into fists that swung at her sides.

Basil waved happily. “Hi, Lila.”

As she approached, she started poking around in the stuff Basil had already unloaded, and Basil jumped off the tailgate. “What’s all this?”

“Some things to fix up the place.”

“Good. This place needs it. Dropping my property value just living next to it.”

Herb wanted to roll his eyes but restrained. “I will be paying him for all the help, Lila.”

“You best be. He’s a damn good worker. Fixed my fence in record time last summer.”

“I’ll be by to get that door some new hinges this week.”

She nodded curtly. “Much appreciated.”

“Would you too like to come in and have some coffee? I need to take the fixtures up to Rob so he can get them fitted in the upstairs bathroom.”

She eyed him harshly. “I don’t trust many to make me coffee. Besides, it’s pretty late for that. How about you two come by this evening and have a beer with me?”

Herb felt like he was being teased, and at any moment she would laugh and point at him for believing her, but Basil answered for himself. “I’d love it, Lila, but only if you made those kettle chips to eat with it.”

“I’ll put a batch on just for you, honey,” she said, then looked to Herb. “Well?”

“Sure! I’d love to, and you make your own kettle chips?”

Basil answered for her. “She has this old cauldron and makes them over an open fire. It’s insane.”

“The only way they come out right!”

Herb laughed and said, “I have to see that.”

“Then it’s a date. Lookit me, datin’ two younger men. Won’t those old cunts at the Presbyterian Church be waggin’ their jaws?”

She left cackling, and Basil said, once she was gone, “She’s a character.”

“She seems to like you.”

“She didn’t when I was a kid. She’s not too fond of kids.

Once I saw she needed a new door and I offered to get one and install it, she took a liking to me.

We’ve been friends since. And she’s a good friend to have.

For all that she likes to dismiss the town’s people, they all look to her for her opinions on things. ”

“She’s worn and wise, as my grandfather would say.”

“That’s exactly her.”

They carried the boxes of fixtures into the house together, and Herb led Basil up to the bathroom. “Rob, how’s it going?” Herb asked as they stood in the doorway.

“Good. This room’s ready for the fixtures, the basement has the new piping, but the in-between all that is still waitin’.”

Basil shook Rob’s hand as he stood and said, “Hey, Rob. We’ve got everything downstairs if you want to come check it out.”

“Sure thing. I’ll have those in lickety-split and then tomorrow, I’ll get some of the rest of this mess fixed.”

They all went downstairs, and Rob went through the boxes as Basil said, “Who is the best tile guy around, Rob?”

“Joe Margino. That guy’s dang good at tile. Can’t build nothin’ to save his life, but lays tile like a pro.”

“Make sure you give Herb his number when you finish up, if you will. I’ll look over some samples with him.”

“You was at the hardware store. Shoulda looked ‘em over there.”

Herb remarked at the patience Basil had with the people he interacted with. “Oh, I know, but they’re pretty limited. I know of a site online that will give him a better idea.”

“Hmph. Online. All you folks and your online stuff,” he said as he took the box with the shower and sink fixtures and went back up the stairs.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to all this.”

Herb’s hand rested on the table, and Basil set his over it. “You will. You aren’t alone, even though it might feel that way.”

With Basil, he didn’t feel alone at all. “Thank you. That means a lot.”

He hated when Basil moved his hand, but that warmth stayed with Herb as Basil started to scroll on his phone. “I’ll send you the link. They have good tile, cheap, and ship it pretty quickly. If you’d like, I’ll get ahold of Joe and have him come and give you an estimate. What’s your number?”

He couldn’t believe he hadn’t offered it before then. “Hand me your phone and I’ll put it in.”

“Here,” he said, and as Basil handed over the phone, his fingers brushed Herb’s, causing Herb to shiver with excitement.

The guy made him feel things he didn’t know he could feel.

Like the connection was so instant, and so intense, it was scaring him a little, but he loved it as much as it scared him.

He placed his number in Basil’s contacts and handed back the phone. “Call anytime, even if you just want to hang out.”

“I will.”

Their eyes met again, and again they shared a moment that seemed to block out the rest of the world. Basil’s eyes, while dark, had lines of amber radiating from the pupil, like a child’s drawing of the sun.

The light freckles across his nose were a feature not everyone would notice. They were that light, blending in with his soft fawn skin.

As Herb was discovering more about Basil’s beautiful face, he was wrenched from his moment once again, only instead of a shrill voice causing it, it was Gentry.

“Did I let you know you needed a water heater?”

Basil actually jumped when the voice rang out from the staircase, and Herb gritted his teeth as he called, “Yes! You did!”

“Okie dokie, then.”

“Let me show you the cells you’ll be using to start your seeds, and I can start cleaning out the old glass.”

“I can help.”

“Great,” he said, then blushed brightly.

Inside the greenhouse, Basil led him to a table in the corner that held a tall stack of green trays with two dozen cells in each. “You fill these with the seed starter, or just potting soil, then add three or four seeds in each cell.”

“Three or four?”

The look on Basil’s face as he spoke next just rocked Herb.

It was as if he were picturing something so beautiful, so perfect, only his face could express it.

“Growing things is bringing life into the world, just like children. One seed might not work, but out of the three or four, you’ll get a seedling.

Maybe you get more, but life starts, and it grows.

Us men, we can’t have a baby, but we can still bring life.

This is how we can feel a little taste of what women feel when they make a child.

It’s not the same, sure, but a tiny piece of that, we can feel. ”

“That’s really beautiful.”

“I’ll admit that I’ve seen this done in making a baby too, recently.

My sister and her husband have been trying for three years and finally are trying IVF.

In vitro fertilization. They do the same with it, taking multiple eggs of hers and placing them in the dish, fertilizing them and implanting them back inside her uterus. ”

“I’ve heard of it, yeah. Did it work for her?”

Proudly, chin rising, he said, “She’s carrying twins right now. Twin girls.”

Herb proffered his hand. “Congratulations, Uncle Basil.”

“Thanks. I’m pretty happy. I love kids. We have a big family, so there are always little ones running around.”

He could see Basil chasing the kids, playing tag, playing hide-and-go-seek.

Basil’s sweet disposition would be welcoming to kids.

“I love kids, but I’ll admit, I haven’t been around a lot of them.

I don’t have a big family. I’m an only child, and most of my extended family was spread all over the place. I’ve never met most of them.”

“That’s really sad. Family is special, but then again, we can usually find people to make our own too. I have a few found families that I cherish as much as my birth family.”

He could see that too. Basil likely made friends wherever he went. “When are your nieces due?”

“She’s only eight weeks, so we have a ways to go. We’re really close, her and me. We’re only a little over a year apart, and all our siblings are a lot older. We were the annoying baby siblings that they had to babysit all the time.”

“I don’t have any, so I can only imagine. I always wanted siblings. Especially a big brother or sister.”

“Come to my house this Sunday for dinner. You can meet my family. Before the fried ice cream, you’ll have siblings. We’re a welcoming family.”

“I’d love it.”

“Good. Now, pay attention. Let’s get you farming.”

The first thing Basil set Herb to do was to get the greenhouse contained again with the new glass, which came the following day, then he learned how to vent the hot air to keep the plants from wilting.

He learned the watering system, and then Basil helped him buy the soil to start some seedlings that he’d grow and keep in the greenhouse.

A start, he said, to farming. If it went well, he’d show him how to plow and plant a small field for the first year.

If that went well, well, he could do more the following year.

Or if it didn’t, Basil said he could rent the fields out to another farmer and make money that way.

The few days after that initial trip to the hardware store, Herb found his way back there several times.

First, he bought the things he’d need for the tile man to redo the tile in the bathroom and kitchen, then he purchased screws, stain and lumber for his back deck and the floors in the living room, which needed replacing.

As he watched his bank account getting smaller each passing day, he realized he would have to get good at farming just to stay in Foggy Basin.

Putting the money to work for him was important, but it was very nice getting the house done.

Like Basil said, the more he put into it, the more it felt like it was truly his own.

Sunday found him trying on clothes for two hours, never quite finding the right thing to wear to meet Basil’s family. It was strange for him to meet the family of a guy he was interested in, especially since they had yet to so much as date.

Not that it hadn’t crossed his mind a thousand times, but each time he wanted to ask, another thing broke or needed to be installed.

Basil came to pick him up, since it was a rural road with numbers instead of a name to find his family’s property, and even GPS had a hard time in sending people to the right place.

A soft green sweater with a white shirt beneath it and tan slacks was his final choice. As he climbed into Basil’s truck, Basil noticed his outfit and said, “You look nice.”

“I clean up okay, I guess. You always look good,” he said, then chuckled. “I mean…”

“I know what you mean. I wouldn’t flirt so openly with me once we get to my house. My abuela will become our chaperone until we’re married.”

“Oh, we’re getting married now?”

“Good Catholics don’t even kiss before marriage,” Basil said, laughing. “Of course, I don’t know many good Catholics.”

The thought of it should have sent him running.

He’d never been one to dream of marrying anyone, but for some reason, he didn’t want to run.

Herb thought of it as if he’d wanted it all along, a special guy in a home he’d made his own, and fields of herbs outside the window sending waves of scents into the house on summer breezes.

The road took them farther from Foggy Basin, and on the side were lines of Japanese elm, shading their way from the outside of barbed wire fences. They moved over a little bridge that crossed a running stream, and then Basil turned right, taking the road under a sign declaring, Casa Jimenez .

The road wound around the two fields that held the last vestiges of the cabbages they grew, and to the left of them, Herb saw the orchard, lines of trees tall and strong that gave the family most of their income.

“It’s so beautiful here, Basil.”

“We like it. The house isn’t big like yours. My folks added a couple of rooms in the back, and the yard, well, that is where we usually gather when all the family comes each Sunday.”

“Even in winter?”

“We have a fireplace outside and heaters. We rarely stay inside. There’s just too many of us.”

That made him nervous as hell. “Too many? Like…how many?”

With a sly smile, Basil glanced over and said, “You’ll see.”