Mr. Quimby didn’t fit in with the community on Junebug Hill St. He didn’t come out to celebrate block parties in the cul-de-sac. He didn’t bring any plants outside from his upstairs, indoor hothouse. He only left his house to deliver his horticulture projects to his individual clients.
When the neighborhood association approached him, he told them that not only would he NEVER join, he was going to sue them if his neighbors couldn’t stop their dogs from breaking down their inferior fences and getting onto his lawn. He said they dug up his lawn a lot and caused problems with runoff. He hated all the barking at night anyway.
The neighborhood association rebuffed him, saying that all the good lawyers in town were on their side. Further, that his lawn was just grass, so why all the fuss? It was their own fences being broken and their own lawns receiving the runoff. Why would he worry about it anyway?
He said he’d been wanting to put a plant or two outside, but didn’t want to because dogs would likely tear them up. Besides, they might be mildly poisonous, and he didn’t want to be responsible.
The neighborhood association said to put some out. That it would be their own fault. Hadn’t he warned them? They gave it to him in writing.
He put out a plant on his back patio. He said it was a new species named the ‘rainbow eye shrub.’ . . . there are a few dogs missing . . . but all’s well, right?
*OPMC
