Fox - Bedtime for Bonsai

Penelope Porter pulled her car up in front of her

Dylan Mersey was accidentally drunk.

Not fifteen minutes after Lucy left the shop with the

Hes an ex-con, Penelope said, looking direly at Georgia.

Had she asked for it? He was sure of it.

No, no, no, no, no! Penelope raced across the room

Penelope had never felt so attracted to anyone in her

That night Penelope decided to pamper herself. Aside from the

Penelope stood outside her shop minutes after the girls had

It was a miracle. All six of her guests were

She was wired. Shed cleaned the house, loaded the dishwasher

Dylan sat at his potting wheel working an eight-pound block

The place was a mess. All of his displays had

Thats the whole story, Penelope finished telling the girls. She

Dylan closed his shop at six and took off running

Dylan was half glad for the crazy day. Women from

Penelopes hands shook as Sara Mersey handed her a cup

When they reached closing time and Dylan had still not

Penelope leaned in to Dylan, snaked her arm snugly through

Penelope Porter pulled her car up in front of her ex-husbands house.

Her friends were going to kill her. Her family might disown her. Her father, in particular, would call her the worst kind of fool. But they would all, she knew, come around in the end.

Once she and Glenn had gotten back together.

Her heart pounded and her palms were damp as she ran them back and forth over the top of the steering wheel, looking toward the glowing windows of the house.

Only one window on the first floor shone with light, and none on the second floor.

Penelope grabbed her purse off the seat beside her and rummaged inside until she found her brush. Running it through her hair, she practiced: Glenn , I was driving by , saw the lights on and thought Id stop by. I havent been in the house for so longI wanted to see if you kept the yellow kitchen.

With that she would smile her gentlest smile, recalling with him how theyd argued about the color. Hed wanted redclaiming that restaurants were always redbut all her life shed had a yellow kitchen. She even had one now. Shed finally managed to win that long-ago battle by saying yellow put her in an amorous mood more than any other color in the spectrum. He hadnt believed her, but he had laughed as hed conceded and told her shed be called upon to prove it once the painting was complete.

She had. That part of their life together had been good, at least in the beginning.

Penelope plopped the brush back into her purse and looked resolutely at the house. First shed have to make sure he didnt have any company. Then she could implement her plan.

She got out of the car, closing the door with a push instead of a slamjust in caseand walked across the lawn. The air was warm, fallen leaves still few and far between this early in October.

The curtains on the front window were drawn, but there was a gap that shed be able to see through if she could get in close. It would require pushing past the bushes, but that was okay. She had dressed carefully, wearing jeans and a light sweater with her brand-new boots. She could wrestle with a bush or two without coming out the worse for wear.

She hefted her purse up higher on her shoulder with one hand while holding branches back with the other. The bushes only came to about her waist, but a few ragged stems protruded and what was low was thick. Glad of the darkness, for fear of neighbors thinking she was an intruder, she peered through the window into the lit room where Glenn satalonein a recliner, a remote control resting in one hand on his thigh.

She sighed and watched him a moment. Was he lonely? His curly hair was mussed, but he still wore his suit pants and button-down shirt from work, though the tie was gone and the collar open at the neck. Underneath she could see his white tee-shirt. He hated wearing shirts without a tee-shirt underneath because he loathed the way some men got sweat stains in their armpits.

Or was it she who had hated that? In any case, he still wore the undershirt.

She smiled to herself, turned to push back out of the bushes and dropped her keys. She heard them hit the ground with a soft clink and backed up a step. The stacked heel of her brand-new boots hit something solid and her car horn blasted to life, jarring as a marching band in a library.

She jumped and spun on her heel, looking down into the brush at her feet. Shed obviously stepped on the panic button and there was no stopping the damn thing until she could find her key fob and hit it again.

As the horn honked over and over and over, head-and taillights flashing in time with the noise, Penelope struggled not to panic.

Noooo , she wailed, her voicenow needlesslyquiet. No no no no no.

She squatted in the bushes, hands scrabbling in the mulch. Nothing. She rose up and stomped around with her boots again, reasoning if shed turned it on that way the reverse could work too. But they were nowhere.

What if shed buried them when shed stepped on them? She bent down again, digging under the branches, dirt shoving up her fingernails and azalea branches catching at her hair. Shed planted these damn bushes, she thought. Why had he let them get so big?

A minute later, the worst happened. From her position near the ground she saw light spill across the front porch.

Glenn had opened the door.

Staying low, her fingers crawling through the mulch like spiders, she kept her eyes trained on his feet. Hed never see her here.

But then, he would see her car. Her silver Mercedes Benz C-Class sport sedannot altogether commonflashing like a UFO directly in front of the house.

Dammit.

Still, he might think it belonged to somebody else, especially if she could find her keys and get the damn thing turned off. Her fingers continued to sift through the dirt around her feet.

Glenns legs stepped out onto the porch. She could tell from the way his feet moved that he was looking up and down the street. He thought it was her car, she just knew it.

Did she come out now and confess? Or did she wait and hope he went back inside? Who came outside to investigate a car alarm, anyway? They went off all the time. A nuisance, mostly.

On the other hand, this was a quiet neighborhood, and the neighbors might come out soon too.

But how could she reveal herself? What reason could she possibly have for being in the bushes, other than that shed been looking at him through the window?

She had the truthwhich was not so awful, she told herself. Hed understand that she had not wanted to interrupt if he had company, and they could laugh about it later.

With a deep breath, she rose and backed out of the bushes.

Penelope? His voice was incredulous. And loud. It had to be, over the noise the car was making.

She looked up as if she hadnt seen him there. Oh! Glenn! Hi. She gave him her brightest smile. Not that he could necessarily see it in the dim light.

What on earth are you doing? Shut that thing off, will you?

Okay, this was not the best start.

She brushed her long hair back from her shoulders, pulled a small twig from near her ear, and tried to remain upbeat.

I cant. I was just about to knock on your door, but I dropped my keys andand the panic button got pushed and thenthen all hell broke loose. She threw a hand toward the car with a laugh.

How did you drop your keys in the bushes ?

She laughed again; her nervous laugh. I dont know exactly. You know how that happens sometimes, you drop something and somehow it goes really far