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It was a warm and pleasant L.A. morning in the Boonchuy’s back-yard, and Marcy was helping Mr. Boonchuy with a special project in the ramshackle greenhouse which now stood in the middle of it.
Mr. Boonchuy was feeling reminiscent. He stood there lost in thought, filling a garden pot on autopilot.
Marcy had been spending a lot of time at the Boonchuy household in the couple years since she’d gotten back from Amphibia. Her parents had continued with their move only two months after their daughter had gone missing. They ‘Didn't have any choice in the matter, financially.’ her father had told Mr. Boonchuy the last time they’d seen each other. He hadn’t quite decided if he believed that. It was possible, but as a father he still found the decision unconscionable.
These days Marcy was staying with her sister and her sister’s girlfriend, but she’d take any excuse she could find to get out of their little shared apartment. Mr. Boonchuy certainly didn’t mind her being around. He and his wife had made it very clear to her that she was welcome over as much as she’d like.
So, she was over with great frequency. Usually with Anne and Sasha, but it wasn’t rare for her to come over alone. She hadn’t gone back to school after Amphibia-
(“I’ve gotten an honorary degree from Newtopia University, several actually, come to think of it.” She’d told him, but he knew the look of anxiety that flashed over her face when school was brought up.)
-So she had a lot of free time on her hands.
So they were gardening. It was another one of the many things they had in common.
He’d picked the hobby up from his grandmother back in Thailand. Every time he put his trowel to earth, it was like he was right back there with her telling the same old jokes and drinking Cha Yen in the shade. It was his way of keeping her memory with him (as well as being both satisfying and enjoyable in it’s own right).
As far as he could tell Marcy had originally picked gardening up due to her curiosity about the natural world. He could still remember the first time she’d seen his personal garden and she’d asked him so many questions about the flowers and ferns he’d almost struggled to keep up.
After that she’d always made a point to ask about what he was working on or check up on how his plants are doing whenever she, Anne and Sasha were playing in the back-yard. Sometimes she’d ask for advice on how much sun or water her plants should be getting, or tips on re-potting them when they’d started to grow too big for their boots.
He’d only been lucky enough to see her plant collection in person briefly, usually when he’d drop Anne off or pick her back up from Marcy’s old house. But sometimes she used to show him pictures of her newest addition, or an old favorite she’d put some renewed love into. He always liked looking at the pictures, the ones of her geraniums especially. She always looked so proud of those.
Her old collection was gone now though, all either trashed or sold in the move, he didn’t know which.
He’d planted a patch of geraniums over those five long months.
These days she liked to work with him in his garden instead (Maybe it seemed more permanent. Maybe the apartment just didn't have the space for as many plants as she'd like), when she wasn’t with Anne and Sasha or playing games, or sitting inside studying her other favorite topics at least.
“It’s relaxing, and it helps me clear my head I guess.” She’d said a while back, when he asked why she was so into helping him garden these days. “It helped me a lot those first few months in Amphibia too, before Anne found me.”
He remembered the way she smiled at that memory. The smile was quickly chased away by another memory however, and she’d gone back to tilling.
In the present, he was snapped out of his thoughts by the feeling of dirt tumbling onto his gloves. He had gotten distracted enough that he’d been filling the same pot with soil for the last couple of minutes.
Marcy giggled a bit before handing him the dustpan.
***
Today was a special gardening day for both of them. Mr. Boonchuy’s birthday had been a couple days before (When asked how old he was turning, he’d only answered ‘Old enough’), so the girls had brought him back some gifts on their last trip to Amphibia.
Marcy had gotten him plants from another world. The thought alone of actually getting to plant otherworldly flowers and shrubs sent his big nerdy heart racing.
He’d barely been able to stop himself from making a very excited clown of himself when he’d first seen them. (And he’d probably failed entirely, there was too much excited hollering for that). Marcy, too, was excited about them. She was eager to see how they fared in L.A.’s climate.
The next day he and Marcy had enlisted Anne and Sasha to help build that makeshift greenhouse to place the plants in, so as to avoid letting the plants interact with any from earth. They did NOT want to be the cause of the first interdimensional invasive plant species in the United States.
Now they were going through the process of moving the plants in. With each new addition, Marcy told him all about the plant, what it’s name meant, how much water it needed, whether it ate meat, typical plant stuff.
Sometimes she stopped to show him a page from her journal filled with colorful sketches and anatomical diagrams of the plants she was bringing in. A tulip that was as big as your head, or a succulent with blooms like lotus flowers, a small venus flytrap looking plant that was apparently connected to what looked like a bunch of cherry tomato vines, the list went on.
“Careful, that one might bite.” She said, pointing to it’s very visible teeth.
“No kidding.” He said as he scratched his head. “Hop Pop really has a lot on his plate back there, huh?”
She laughed in agreement and they went back to work.
***
By noon, the two were still hard at work in the garden. Marcy was busy digging spots in one of the planting beds so she could transplant some Tadpole’s-Breath, while Mr. Boonchuy hung up some baskets of Olm’s Ivy she’d given him.
She plunged her trowel into the soil, but when she pulled it back up she noticed something brownish-pink in the dirt.
A worm!
She plucked it gently from the soil and walked over to Mr. Boonchuy.
“Check it out!” She held her hand out to him.
The worm sat atop her palm like some sort of royalty among invertebrates.
“Nice!” He replied, giving her a warm grin.
“The little guy must’ve snuck in with the soil we brought over yesterday.” She looked a little closer. It looked like a worm from earth, but then again the differences were pretty subtle.
“I think I’ll move it over to the box with the Silver Webfoots ‘cause the soil is pretty moist there and it’d just get eaten if I left it with the Tadpole’s-Breath.” She said as she shimmied past him to get to the planter she was looking for.
“Wait wait wait-” He said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “-Baby’s-Breath eat bugs in Amphibia?”
She saw him look over at the Tadpole’s-Breath nervously. It didn’t look carnivorous. The blooms looked just like Baby’s-Breath, only much, much larger.
“Yeah. I’m not even sure why they do it either. They don’t seem to need it to survive.” She stated as she lowered the worm softly into the soil of the planter. “I guess they just find it fun or something. Never attacked me though.”
“Yeesh.” Mr. Boonchuy grumbled. “Why don’t we talk about something else for a while, before I decide that maybe these plants aren’t the safest things to keep around.”
Marcy laughed a bit. “Whatever you want, Mr. Boonchuy. Have you seen the new Vagabondia Online expansion trailer?”
“Wait, really? The trailer’s out?” Mr. Boonchuy asked, excited. “Okay, now we’re definitely gonna take a break so I can watch it.”
***
Afternoon was starting to give way to evening and they were sitting down, done with their work for the day, in the shade of the tree in the back-yard.
“-and then I realized my cloak was on fire again!” Marcy said with a laugh. “I was thinking to myself, ‘That is the last time I get distracted playing ‘Era of Empires’ while on a mission.’ but I just couldn’t put the game down!”
Mr. Boonchuy had a hearty chuckle, but she could tell by his face that he was lost in his own thoughts. She paused for a moment.
“Whatcha thinkin’ about, Mr. B?” She asked.
He hummed thoughtfully. Marcy had noticed that Anne hummed in the same way when she was thinking deeply.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about my ยาย, my grandma on my mother’s side today.” He said, with a wistful tone in his voice. “I think about her a lot while gardening. She taught me almost everything I know about plants.”
“I never really knew either of my grandmas.” Marcy said softly, running her hand through the grass. “They both passed away before I was born, I think. Maybe a little bit after.”
They reflected on that in silence for a moment.
“What was she like?” Marcy asked, voice almost a whisper.
Mr. Boonchuy looked at her with that big, warm smile of his.
“She was amazing. Very very sweet, but also a little mean at the same time. Like she had this uh, sharp edge to her. And stubborn too.” He paused, sorting out his thoughts. “Like she might tease you a bit if you messed up, but you could tell it came from a place of affection. If she really didn’t like someone she just wouldn’t talk to them at all. And the jokes she’d tell were so rude, like, maybe you expect to hear them from other boys at school but not your grandma!”
He laughed warmly. “And she had such a green thumb. She’d garden in this little yard, but it was always so thick with plants you’d almost think you were in the forest. I’d visit on the weekends and after we got done working we’d sit in the cool shade there and drink tea and laugh until it got dark and I had to go home.”
He paused to wipe what Marcy thought might’ve been the beginnings of a tear from his eye.
“She was a smart lady. You know when I first brought yo-” He stopped to correct himself. (Did he almost just say ‘Your mother’?) “-Mrs. Boonchuy home to meet my family, she pulled me aside and said: ‘Boy, you listen to me, that woman is strong. You’d better treat her right, cause if she decides to keep you around, you’ll be a lucky man.’ And she was right! She was so right.”
He laughed again and turned his head up to look at the clouds.
“She would’ve really loved the greenhouse. She always liked unusual plants.”
“What was her name?” Marcy asked, the seedling of an idea sprouting in her mind.
“I don’t really remember her name. She never used it. Her nickname meant ‘Rose’, though.” He chuckled. “I think she liked that it was a pretty flower that would poke people.”
With that Marcy hopped to her feet and ran towards the house.
“Wha- Are you okay Marcy? I didn’t mean to upset you!” Mr. Boonchuy called after her, concern clear in his voice.
She turned and gave him a small smile as she continued towards the house.
“I’m fine Mr. B! I just need to grab something real quick!”
She ran inside the house and went straight to Mrs. Boonchuy’s old work-out room, where she still had all her craft supplies. She quickly grabbed a piece of cardboard and a sharpie, and started writing as she jogged back outside.
She finished what she was working on right as she walked through the greenhouse door and set the cardboard sign up in the front window. Then she stepped back outside to admire her handiwork with Mr. Boonchuy, who by now had wandered over to see just what she was up to.
The sign she had just made featured a little doodle of what looked like a little boy and a grandmother. The words read “Rose and Mr. Boonchuy’s Garden”.
Mr. Boonchuy put a hand on her shoulder as he laughed happily.
“Marcy, I love it, but uh-”
He paused to inhale a short breath.
“Do you not remember my name?”
A panic shot through her.
“What?! No, of course I remember! I just, uhhhh, decided that it wasn’t… Formal enough?”
She felt like she was sweating bullets. (Oh god, what if he hates me now? I messed up BAD. He definitely hates me now. I might as well just run. He’s gonna be so mad-)
"Your name is uhhhh, Jeff?" She asked more than answered.
"It is not, no." He replied.
He seemed to take notice of her anxiety and patted her on the back while chuckling.
“Calm down Marcy, it’s alright! The sign is really sweet. And besides, come to think of it, I don’t even know if anyone ever told you my given name.” He laughed a little. “Also, she would’ve found it really funny.”
He put on his best grandma voice.
“Ah, you’re ‘Mr. Boonchuy’ now? So serious sounding. Why, I still remember the time when you were little and you dug a hole big enough to sit in, in my garden, and you stayed there all afternoon eating dirt!” He said, smiling.
"You know what, she would've really liked you too." He started towards the greenhouse door. "That actually gives me an idea, can you toss me the marker?"
She did as he asked and he quickly started writing an addition on the sign. Then he put it back up in the window.
"Rose and Mr. Boonchuy’s (And Marcy's) Garden" He'd also tried to add a little drawing of Marcy to her drawing of him and his grandmother, but he wasn't nearly as good of an artist as she was so the quality stood out a little. That didn't matter to Marcy though, it was still nearly moving her to tears.
After a minute of them admiring their now combined handiwork, he pointed towards the house.
“Now how about I cook us up a little grub. I mean- Not actual grubs, just- Tch, ah you get it.”
If she didn’t know any better she’d almost think he’d fumbled that one intentionally to help distract her from her own social faux-pas.
“I could cook you some actual grubs if you’d like though. Hop Pop keeps leaving them in our fridge.”
That earned a laugh from her. She gave him a nod.
“Food would be nice, but I think I could do without the grubs.”
“You got it.” he chuckled.
By the time they reached the house, she’d forgotten about her embarrassment entirely. It was replaced by a sense of pride.
***
The warm afternoon sun was still on its descent through the sky, which was growing more orange by the second, by the time Marcy and Mr. Boonchuy had found their seats on the patio to enjoy their dinner. After a long day of working in the greenhouse it turned out they were both too tired to do much more than heat up a pizza and grab some cold drinks from the fridge.
They ate quietly for a while. Mr. Boonchuy looked like he was thinking real hard about something. Marcy was pretty socially tired out by then, so she didn’t really know how to break the silence. She was glad when Mr. Boonchuy finally spoke up.
“Soooo Marcy.” He said carefully, like he was trying to calm a horse that would bolt at any moment. “Are there any girls you like?”
She almost choked on her pizza. (What did he just ask?)
“What? No!” Marcy lied. She’d have shouted it if she wasn’t currently hacking up bits of pizza. It ended up sounding more like a croak. “Why would you even ask that?”
She was not expecting this level of awkward paternal conversation. Especially not after, y’know, her dad had up and left L.A.
“Whaaat? I was just curious, you never talk about your personal life that much.” He said with a little laugh. “We really don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
Marcy thought about it. She wasn’t really used to people asking personal questions like that, barring one very large exception. But that had ended with him stabbing her in the back and putting her in a tube.
Still though, Mr. Boonchuy wasn’t like him at all. And he did seem like maybe he knew about relationships. Maybe he could give her some advice.
So she took a deep breath.
“Okay, maybe I do like someone. A girl. A little bit. Aaand I don’t know what to do about it.” She admitted. She looked like she was trying to stare holes into the concrete below her. “Y-you don’t know her though, she lives uh, somewhere else. Yeah.”
“Go ooon.” Mr. Boonchuy was resting his chin on his hands. Marcy knew he liked gossip (He’d spent enough time with Anne and Sasha that if he didn’t he might’ve gone crazy), but that seemed a little performative to her. “What’s she like?”
“Well, she’s kind, and good with like… people, and stuff.” She rubbed her wrist with her hand nervously. “And she’s like, pretty. Really pretty.”
She was trying to avoid going too into detail. She did not want to deal with a ‘So, I’m kinda in love with your daughter’ conversation right now.
“So what’s the problem? She sounds nice. And don’t give me any ‘I’m not worthy of her affection’ stuff. We both know that isn’t true.” He said matter-of-factly.
She buried her face in her hands, partly to try and muffle her voice, and partly to try and cover her blushing face.
“The problem is… I’m also in love with her best friend.” She said it as quietly as she possibly could. “And I don’t think I can pick just one of them.”
She couldn’t bear to look up at him. He must’ve been judging her for being so indecisive.
He hummed. (He had to realize that reminded her of Anne. Was he trying to do that?)
“That is a lot.” He moved one of his hands to stroke his chin in thought. “Do you have to?”
“What?” She wasn’t sure she just heard him correctly.
She finally chanced a look at him. He appeared lost in thought. She was seeing a lot of that side of him today.
“Do you have to pick just one of them?” He asked, his tone earnest. “Maybe if they were okay with it, you could date both of them. I think I heard that was a thing once.”
“I uh-.” She paused. (Could she date both of them?) “-I guess I hadn’t really thought about that. I mean I thought maybe one of them would like me back, but what are the chances they both would?”
He laughed at that. “You sell yourself short, Marcy. I think you’re probably more likeable than you know. Besides, how are you gonna know if you never ask?”
“What would I even say though? I don’t think I’m really the best at the ‘big romantic gesture’ kinda thing.” She said, before pausing to stare at the concrete again. “I’m barely even able to fumble my words out around either of them.”
“Marcy, listen to me-” He started to reach over to put his hand on her shoulder reassuringly, but paused, as if to ask if it was ok. She gave him a nod. “-Whatever way you decide to ask Anne, she’ll say yes. She’s crazy about you.”
“Waitwhat?!” She fell straight out of her chair in surprise. He was giving her the biggest shit-eating grin imaginable.
(How did he know How did he know How did he know-)
As if he’d just read her mind, he continued. “What? I’ve got a father’s intuition about these things.”
(Marcy didn’t know it, but that was total bullshit. His wife had told him a while ago about their daughter’s hastily-recanted confession to her and Sasha in the kitchen. Anne must've thought they'd bought her denial of it. They hadn't.)
She felt like she was about to start hyperventilating.
“I think you could do better than Sasha though.” He deadpanned.
She jackknifed from panicking to dramatically annoyed in an instant. He was making a face that she could only describe as eerily reminiscent of the ‘:3’ emoticon. She tried shooting him her best attempt at a Sasha-style death glare as she huffed. It seemed to break through his kayfabe.
“Kidding, kidding!” He was full-on belly laughing now.
She decided to wait for him to calm down. After what felt like a solid minute he finally stopped laughing, wiping the tears from his eyes as he did.
“If you’re done laughing at my predicament now?” She said, annoyed tone in her voice betrayed by the smirk she couldn’t hide.
“Sorry, Marcy.” His voice was a little hoarse from all the laughing. “But I really do think you’re worrying over nothing.”
She scoffed a little at that and pulled her knees up to her chest with her arms.
“No, listen to me, you bring a lot to the table. You’re smart, funny, and incredibly caring.” He sounded almost like he was lecturing her.
“Well sure, but I’m also geeky, clumsy, and a huge dork.” She thought better than to voice her other concern. (And I betrayed them both.)
“If Anne takes after her mother as much as I think she does-” He leaned over in his chair slightly so that he could look Marcy in the eyes. The look on his face was kinder than she thought she deserved.
“-She has a soft spot for geeky, clumsy dorks.” He grinned. “I won’t say I know what’s going on in Sasha’s head, but it’s still crystal clear to me that she cares about you more than anything. They both do.”
They sat in silence again for a bit while Marcy mulled over his words. Maybe he had a point. Even if Anne or Sasha didn’t share her feelings, they clearly valued her friendship greatly. The worst case scenario was just some heavy embarrassment. She could deal with that, she’d been impaled before. No confession could go worse than that one.
“I think you might be right.” She said, after a minute before beaming at him. “That actually helped a lot. Thanks dad.”
Her blood ran cold again as her eyes widened to a comical degree. She buried them in her hands.
(Oh god what the fuck did I just call him dad? Like dad dad? What is wrong with me? I was literally just talking to him about my huge crush on his daughter this is so weird I should apologize-)
“Sorry!” She yelped, as she suddenly stared straight at him. Then, quieter, “That was really weird.”
He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and he had a look on his face that was very ‘deer in headlights’, but that might’ve just been because of her sudden yell and the hyper-stare she was giving him though. He laughed nervously.
“Maybe a little bit. It was an honest mistake though.” He put that shit-eating grin back on. “Aaaand besides, if you play your cards with my daughter right, one day I could be your dad-in-law!”
That was not a less weird statement. If anything he’d just taken an opportunity to steer their conversational car away from the awkwardness of her mishap and instead steered head-on towards it and tried to run it down like the maniac driver from ‘Wacky Taxi’. It helped her feel a little less weird about her mistake though. He was good at that.
“You’re not gonna let me live that one down, are you?” She asked, head back in her hands.
“No.” He was making that smug face again.
“You’re gonna keep teasing me aren’t you.”
“Maybe.” The smug face intensified.
This time they both broke out laughing.
***
Later that night, well after the sun found its place past the horizon, Mrs. Boonchuy was reading her book in bed as Mr. Boonchuy got ready to crawl into bed with her. He couldn’t help but retain that smugness from earlier.
“I think I’m gonna win our challenge.” He gloated.
“Oh do you now?” Mrs. Boonchuy replied, face completely neutral as she looked past her book at him.
A month earlier they had a dinner with Anne and her best friends that was full to the brim with pining glances and stray hand touches. Bashful blushes and yearning hearts. Frankly, the Boonchuys were sick of it. They thought it was sweet at first, sure, but things had been going on like this for what must’ve been a year at least, and it seemed to them that everyone in two worlds must’ve been aware of what those girls felt for each other. Everyone except for them, apparently.
They had decided to ask Hop Pop about it, if the girls were like this in the Plantar household back in Amphibia.
“Yup.” Hop Pop had sighed. Then he cleared his throat. “Ahh, the sweet blossom of young romance, love brighter than the shimmer on a morning pond. Oh how I miss those halcyon days-”
“We get it.” Mrs. Boonchuy cut him off. “We were actually wondering if you could say something to Anne. See if she could speed it up a little. She doesn’t really like it when we get into her personal life, but maybe she’d listen to you?”
“Hmmmm.” Hop Pop scratched his chin. At least they thought that must’ve been his chin. “I don’t really think that’d be such a good idea. One time I pried too much about her dating life, and Anne pushed me off a cliff!”
That sounded about right.
Still, things couldn’t go on like this. The obvious tension was driving the Boonchuys up the wall. Eventually they made something that was somewhere between a pact and a bet. They had agreed that whichever of them convinced one of the three to ask the other two out (finally) would earn first dibs on the T.V. for a year, and more importantly, bragging rights for life.
Neither of them thought they had a chance in hell with convincing Anne to do anything. She was the wildcard. Instead they’d each laid de-facto claim to hyping up one the other girls.
That wasn’t to say that Mr. Boonchuy’s ulterior motives impacted his decision making much. He really had meant every single thing he’d said to Marcy, and he wanted the best for her as much as for Anne and Sasha. He still felt a little pang of guilt.
“I had a talk with Marcy earlier.” He said as he climbed under the covers. “Don’t be surprised if my champion totally wipes the floor with yours.”
“She who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious.” Mrs. Boonchuy didn’t even look up at him. “Also, your nerd threats mean nothing to me.”
They were both silent for a moment.
Then they both started laughing.
“I love you honey.” Mr. Boonchuy said through chuckles as he leaned over for a gentle kiss.
“I love you too.” Mrs. Boonchuy replied after she broke away.
Years and years into their relationship and he still didn’t think he’d ever get sick of the fact that she wanted to kiss him. It had gained some regularity, sure, but every time it made some part of him feel like a kid again.
They said their goodnights as she turned off the lamp on the end table.
As Mr. Boonchuy drifted off into sleep, there was only one thought in his mind.
I’m the luckiest man in the world.