The First Gardener by Denise Hildreth Jones

Jessica. “Okay, let’s do it.”
    They left the kitchen and headed for her office. But then Mackenzie caught sight of a familiar figure through the windows. “Be right back, Jessica.” She didn’t wait for the protest. “Jeremiah!” she called out to the figure standing over a bed of hydrangeas that formed a sea of pom-poms at his feet.
    Jeremiah Williams turned as she came out on the veranda and stood smiling as she descended the stone staircase.
    “You late today, Miz Mackenzie,” he said softly.
    She leaned in and kissed him on his freckled cheek. “My life has officially changed, Jeremiah. My baby just walked out of my house with a book bag and lunch money, and I don’t quite know what to do with myself.”
    He reached out one hand and took hers, his calluses hard against her soft palm. The other hand extended the most perfect thorn-free red rosebud. “Well, it still be Monday.”
    “This is the most beautiful one yet, Jeremiah.”
    He pulled a blue handkerchief from his back pocket and wiped the beaded sweat from his high forehead. “You say that every Monday. But I sure ’nough think it be the purtiest one we findin’ today.”
    She removed her hand from his and pointed at the hydrangeas. “Do you mind cutting me some of these for our dinner Wednesday night?”
    “Thought that there florist gon’ do your flowers for that dinner.”
    “She is; she is. But ours are beautiful and I’d like to use them.” She smiled mischievously. “I’ll let Jessica tell her.”
    “You let me know how many you be needin’, and we’ll be gettin’ you some.”
    “I’ll have Jessica give you a count.”
    He shook his head. “She all wound up, Miz Mackenzie, and now you gon’ go on and wound her up some more.”
    Mackenzie laughed. Jeremiah missed nothing—probably knew more about what went on in the house than she did. “Jessica’s good at her job,” she said.
    He shook his head in that sweet manner he had, as if he would have to trust her on that one. “How’d our Maddie do today?”
    The emotion came hard. “It was even tougher than I thought. For us, that is. But she didn’t even notice we were gone. What did she say to you this morning?”
    “She gone and ax me to go with her.”
    Mackenzie laughed. “I’m sure she did. She would have dragged you around there like you were a kindergartner too.”
    “My baby girl, she do the same thing her first day a kin’ergarten. Don’t know what it is ’bout little girls and schools. My boys, they run fast as they could ’side that schoolhouse and forget they gots a mama and daddy soon’s they feet hit that concrete. But not my girl. My girl wanted me in the whole way. And they love ’em some purty outfits too, don’t they.”
    “They sure do.”
    “Maddie Mae showed me that outfit a hers.”
    “I saw her swinging around for you.”
    He patted her arm and spoke, his cadence soft and slow. “She gots to grow up, Miz Mackenzie, even though it be hard on her mama.” He chuckled. “Way I figure it, though, that girl gon’ be principal a that school by the time her first week’s all used up.”
    Mackenzie laughed, grateful that it pushed the tears back to their place. “You’re probably right about that.” She looked down at her flower. “Well, I’ve got a packed day. Thank you for my flower today, Jeremiah.”
    He nodded and turned back to work his magic. He made these grounds come to life in a way that rivaled the Garden of Eden.
    If God was the very first Gardener, Mackenzie was certain he had taught Jeremiah Williams everything he knew.

    “No heart is bigger than a child’s. And at no time is a heart more moldable than in childhood. So our job is to offer children the opportunity to see where the needs in their community lie. And I am confident that when they see the need, they will have a desire to help meet that need. All we have to do is lead them. I’m willing. Are you?”
    Mackenzie let the silence linger. Then she walked from the