Trouble's Garden

By Robert Reynolds

A stray winds up at the family's door...   Trouble's Garden tells a warm, poignant story of a lost cat and a loving family's friendship.  It's a delightful read for all ages--warming your heart and making you cry.  Come experience Trouble's Garden.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert Reynolds
• Release date: Feb 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9781329884151

Robert Reynolds

Based in Calgary, Robert is an emerging author who spends his days working in the oil and gas industry but has been a big fan of the spy thriller genre ever since his childhood when he read one of his grandfather's original James Bond paperbacks from the late 50's. He is married with a young daughter and when he's not day dreaming about dangerous adventures in exotic locales he enjoys running and other outdoor pursuits.

Book preview

Prologue

She had lived a long and comfortable life, sunning on toasty windowsills, curling asleep before the flickering embers of a cozy fireplace, savoring her favorite, and tastiest cat treats.  She slept with her family when she chose to and napped alone during her private moments, having many favorite places where she could sneak off to be alone.  At other times she sat primly in rays of sunshine primping and cleaning, licking her paw and washing across her gentle face.  She was well tended to but not overly pampered—and she did not expect it.  The family puppy received most of their attention.  It yapped incessantly, bounded about wildly and constantly wagged its tail in a most annoying way.  To make matters worse, it slurped at her with its slippery tongue and chased her through the house.  It was a pest and it displayed more energy than she wished to expend.  She was dignified in her old age and preferred a more sedate life.

But a time came when something curious happened in that house.  There were boxes on the floor and closets being emptied, every room was in disarray and her secret places torn apart.  Her people hurried this way and that, telling her to scat when she got under foot.  The energetic, yapping dog made her nervous.  She darted this way and that and it seemed as if each place where she took shelter someone soon disrupted it.  At last, heart pounding, she broke for outdoors, darting into a hiding place within the shrubs. In all the commotion, no one saw her go. 

She crouched hidden for a very long time hearing the hyper little animal’s muffled yapping and the sounds of boxes being shuffled about.  Some time later, a big truck came and strange men hauled out boxes one after another; strange voices and strange faces.  They spoke roughly and one of them shouted, scat! when she ventured out to investigate so she scampered back into the safety of the bushes.  Soon, the unfamiliar humans began lugging containers and boxes from with the house and tossed them noisily onto the big van.  The goings on in her home became a cacophony of turmoil and disorder and now, even outside, it was frightening.  She grew hungry, but with all the commotion going on, she did not venture back inside.  No one came for her and no one called, so after a while she wandered off to look for food.  She had not roamed loose in the neighborhood for many years and she wandered about inspecting garbage cans and back porches.  Food was sparse.  It became dark and at last a familiar voice called, but it was faraway and she bounded toward home.  Headlights came on and she heard the rumble of a truck motor, and then saw it pull away.  She hid in the neighbors shrubs, crouching low and out of sight as the big truck rumbled past. Then the car of her humans rolled from the driveway and drove off, its red taillights disappearing into the night.  A monotonous yapping faded away.  She crouched there for a long time then crept back home.  There were no lights and no sounds.  Someone had placed her food bowl near the front door, but another animal got too it first and now only a few pellets were left—probably the pesky orange tabby next door; she had sparred with it through a window on earlier occasions.  Whatever had visited her bowl left only enough for her to get barely more than a taste.  She nibbled up the last remaining pellets then padded around the house checking at the doors and windows.  All was quiet and dark.  She found a corner to curl into for the night.  She slept for a while then went to prowl until daybreak.  Scary, unnerving sounds came from unfamiliar places, but like all cats, she was curious about what lay around the next corner.  She snooped and prowled, then worked her way home as it grew light.  Still, no one came for her. 

The confused animal stayed close to home throughout the day, straying only to search for food, at last finding chicken bones in a neighbor’s trash.  Her humans had not returned home and by the third-day, she set out on her own.

PART ONE

Chapter 1     

There arrived a morning when the child was small and her curiosity high.

She played in her room and then in the kitchen, helping her mother bake dinner rolls.  She made a bit of a mess, but that was how she baked.  She rolled out the doughy paste and kneaded it precisely the way her mother did, then fashioned it into tiny, misshapen rolls.  The oven’s heat warmed the room and she loved the aroma of the baking bread and yeast, vanilla and cinnamon—and her mother allowed her to eat the small clumps of brown sugar that often caked in the sugar container.  Tiny brown granules dotted the corners of her mouth now. 

I need to put that away, Mrs. Kelly said.

Just one more, mommy, little April Kelly said, digging her tiny fingers into the sugar jar; April, because she was born in the season of the spring when flowers bloom and new life takes hold. 

Don’t make a mess!

Mother began to clean up the untidy kitchen, so April wandered off to play in another room.  She ambled in that unsteady way children do after graduating from toddler steps but not yet having gained true confidence in her tottering gait.

The morning sun was shining at a sharp angle over the giant, full-canopied oaks that grew along a lazy, slow-flowing stream that meandered through the countryside.  A new housing development had sprung up there outside the city and except for this section of new homes, golden fields and emerald forests surrounded enclave. A greenbelt grew immediately behind the house and ran for some distance until it became part of the forest.  Here, the gentle stream was lined with oak and elm, cedar and sycamore, so thick that it was dark and shadowy to a young mind.  There was a mystery to the forest.  It was a place where her mother and father did not allow her to go on her