The Victory Garden

Chapter One

If my brother Jeff loved anything as much as he loved airplanes, which I doubt, it was tomatoes. He used to swipe them from the Burts when he went over to cut their grass, and he'd eat them right there, fresh off the vine. It's a good thing old man Burt didn't catch him, that's all I can say.

Jeff was on my mind as Dad and I worked in the garden on Saturday morning, that morning that should have been the beginning of a normal weekend. Our tomato plants were already a foot high, and it was only late April.

I tugged on the bill of my baseball cap and scanned the garden. "All clear," I said.

"Secret weapons!" said Dad.

We leaned over the plants, pulled something from our overall pockets and worked our way down the row.

"This is war!" I said.

Dad answered, "Fire away!"

I wrinkled my nose at the smell of the leaves, musty, like wet dust. The yellow blossoms smelled awful, too, but I didn't care. I was tasting the sweetness of the tomatoes to come and smelling the success of beating old man Burt again.

A movement caught my attention. I snatched t ... read full excerpt from: The Victory Garden ebook