Chapter 8 Strengthened by Adversity
After lunch Dignity put on old clothes and drove to Founders Grove, feeling only half comforted by the interview with Grace. He more or less believed that the old man would prevent any actionable injury from taking place, because he had learned to take anything the old man said as gospel. But Grace had shown no interest in finding some way to release him from his Marshal’s duties, and so here he was, burdened with the care of the Grove.
He was here to mow, for the grass was already much too long, and he only hoped the riding mower would work properly. He was no mechanic; almost any problem would defeat him. While approaching the shed that held the mower, he noticed that many large tree limbs were littering the grassy areas of the park. Every one of them would have to be removed, and he was the only one to do it. He made a mental note to see if some civic organization or student group might be recruited for this sort of thing. But people, he reflected, are such selfish brutes.
One by one he tugged the limbs over into the edge of the woods, until he came to one that would not move. Why was he barely able to shift it when it seemed no bigger than some of the others? Looking up, he found Adversity grinning at him and standing on the far end of the limb.
“Hi, fella!”
“Will you quit clowning around and get off!” Dignity said roughly.
“Nah, this is good for you. It’ll make you stronger.”
Dignity gave it up and stood. “You have any idea why there were so many limbs down on the ground here away from where the fire was?”
“Sure,” the big man replied, stepping off the limb. “I drug ’em out here from the woods. Hell, I gotta give you some kind of challenge!”
For some moments Dignity was speechless with anger, and when he could speak, he could think of nothing telling to say. This was Adversity and he would not change. He could not be argued down or cajoled. Maybe he could be bought, but Dignity was short on cash. It wasn’t easy keeping up with the needs of a wife and two growing kids. With lips compressed, he turned away, went to the mower shed, and opened the wide door. He looked at the mower in disgust. This pile of tin had been a cheap model to begin with, hardly sufficient for a homeowner with a large lawn, let alone a park. Now it was old enough to have rust spots here and there. He rolled it out and added gas to the tank.
Adversity, who had followed him, looked over his shoulder and whistled low. “Hope it makes it through the afternoon.”
“Just go away,” Dignity said, knowing by now that he could not hurt Adversity’s feelings. He had none.
He climbed on the mower and found that it started with a reassuring roar. He engaged the twin blades and it roared louder. So far, so good.
“That deck don’t look no good to me!” Adversity shouted.
“Just stand back!” Dignity shouted back.
Instead of obeying, Adversity gave the side of the deck a firm kick with a heavy boot. The deck was floating and so it rocked back and forth for a moment. Then it dropped. Dignity’s stomach clenched. This looked bad. He turned off the mower, got off and crouched beside it, and pulled at the deck. Yes, it was no longer floating, it was down. The height adjustment handle did nothing now. Something had snapped.
With a look of hatred for Adversity, he lay down on his side to look underneath. He soon found the problem. The height adjustment cable had been severed in such a way that there was no way to reattach it; some of the threaded end of the cable had broken off and the rest was still in the hole.
“And I don’t own a pickup truck or anything like that,” he said, more to himself than to Adversity, as he stood up slowly. “So no way to move it to a repair shop, let alone funds to repair it.”
“Gee, that’s rough,” Adversity replied with the charm and sympathy of a movie monster. “You should’ve got a better mower.”
“You broke it,” Dignity said flatly.
“Hey, it was ready to go. I thought that deck looked about shot and sure enough.”
“So are you going to pay to get it fixed?”
Adversity laughed and shrugged. “It’s no use talking to me.”
Which was true, so Dignity didn’t. Instead he looked at the now useless mower and felt finished, beaten. It wasn’t just this, it was all the months, no years now, of battling troubles started by Guiles. Always hanging on, finding solutions, finding paths through the muck Guiles always left behind him. Always more problems and more toughing it out. But now he was stopped. He could not mow, and so the grass would grow all summer, past knee high, and he would be first warned about it, then cited for it, then dragged into court about it. People who used the park, particularly those who lived nearby, would be calling him, telling him it was his responsibility to keep up with the grass. He was cooked.
Suddenly, here was his wife Obscurity driving up to them in her business vehicle, a van that said Big ‘O’ Security Systems on the side of it. Soon she and both his kids, Favor and Blessing, were beside him, and he explained to them in a few words why there would be no mowing.
But mechanical things were not such a mystery to Obscurity. While the kids ran around and Adversity made non-helpful comments, she inspected the deck.
“Oh, come on, Dig, it’s not as bad as that. Look, you don’t care about adjusting the deck, do you, just so you get it at a good height and keep it there?”
He admitted this was so.
“Well, one end of the cable is still in place, so all we have to do is attach the other end to something that will hold. Here, I’ll just wrap it around and around this to shorten it and, hey, you, be a pal and hold this up, huh?” This was addressed to Adversity and accompanied with such a sweet and pretty smile that, before he knew what he was doing, he was holding the deck up at a reasonable height, his big arms straining. “OK, so I stick the threaded end up through this hole in the floor part.” She patted Adversity on the shoulder. “Stay where you are, guy; I just have to run to the van and get a nut and a wrench.”
In half a minute she was back and had soon tried a few nuts until she found one that fit. She slipped on a washer and tightened the nut in place down over the half broken off, threaded end of the cable.
She stood, looking smug. “OK, you can let go now,” she said to Adversity. He let go, and the deck lowered slightly but stayed up.
“Hey, your little lady’s got more gumption than you do!” Adversity said to Dignity.
“Yeah, always did,” Dignity agreed.
Obscurity took the keys from Dignity and climbed on the mower to test the repair. In a moment she drove off, leaving a mowed path behind her. She had fixed it in about five minutes. As he watched her, Dignity had a very odd feeling such as he had not had during the recent years of dealing with Guiles, years full of worrisome and rabbity emotions. He had the sudden impression that God was playing a merry game with him, erecting multiple difficulties for him to solve, to happily solve. There was a feeling of invitation, and it included all his problems, not omitting the burned woods. It was a loving invitation to play.
He wants me to lighten up, Dignity thought. What I see as dreary and horrible, He sees as fun.
Big, horrible Adversity was watching Obscurity mow and laughing out loud. Dignity did not laugh with him, but had the impression that it would be all right to do so. He had never imagined having such a thought.