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December 2007
Making a Healing Garden
by John Cannizzo
Danny likes this time of year best. Fall turns to winter. He whistles. We walk. Cool breeze blows. He dashes into the street. With a loud screech a car jams on its brakes. He veers, runs, looses his balance, gets up again.
“You're not in Puerto Rico anymore."¯
“We're still alive."
We bring back the coffee. Interns are working at the Whitestone library. It is hidden behind a wooden construction fence. Steam rises from the hot coffee. Matt blows across it. Danny does the same. Sharon shivers. “Brrr,"¯ she says. “It's windy today."
Danny throws two crumbs. Three birds hop in his direction. He holds out a crumb to the third. It takes the bread and hops away, looking back, almost as if it expects Danny to follow.
David moves to the gate. Danny shyly tags along. David gives him the level. With a little practice he uses it well. All day we position the big pieces of steel that will be the trellis. Much of this space will be surfaced in one way or another. I have to stop and rest but the interns never get tired. Two weeks have passed since Danny started working with us. He forgets a lot of things, but he is one of the family.
How peculiar the weather is! Two weeks ago still felt like summer. The leaves are as green as they were in August. Looking at the tree's green leaves you sense something is wrong. The trees should be red and orange.
“Push it through," David says.
David and Jeffrey slide a big piece of steel through the fence. It drops on Matt's finger. I stoop down beside his kneeling figure, fearing the worst. As he peels off the bloody glove the thick wide black gash clotted with blood bleeds freely. Later at St. Vincent Emergency Room we eat a turkey and bacon sandwich. It will only need stitches.
Next day at 7:00 a.m. We wait for the truck to deliver plants to St. Vincent's Catholic Medical Center. Danny picks a leaf off a tree and without thinking blows on it with all his might. Today we are making the autumn planting. The air has turned cold and the leaves on the trees are no longer green.
** All photos courtesy of John Cannizzo
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