Bob sighed. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He looked down at his hands. “I have this dumb idea to open public vegetable gardens all over the city. Like, a small public park you can dig and weed and plant in, if you want to.” His voice got more confident. “I got the idea from the vegetable course, with Edward. People want to interact with nature, but it seems overwhelming, especially if you live in a city, and there aren’t a lot of opportunities to show how simple it can be.” He looked up at Laura, and his eyes were bright with enthusiasm. “It used to be that most towns had some kind of public allotments, open spaces people could rent and grow vegetables on . . . and there were victory gardens during the war . . . and people could take classes and do projects . . . kids, of course, but also adults . . . regular gardens and maybe greenhouses . . . or you could come in and sit and enjoy the plants and get fresh produce or flowers. Anything extra would be donated to a food bank. There are community gardens in some places already, but it would be different, you wouldn’t be responsible for any of it, it would be open for everyone.” Laura nodded, understanding what he meant and smiling at how excited he was getting. “You wouldn’t need to make some big commitment, you could wander in and pull weeds for an hour if you felt like it.” He faltered, and said, “Like I said, it’s kind of a dumb idea.”

“Why?” said Laura forcefully. “I think it’s a great idea! In New York the public parks are filled with people all the time, Central Park, Riverside Park . . . they’re one of the best things about the city.”

“Yeah,” said Bob, “and LA has several fantastic public parks for hiking and exploring, and obviously the botanical gardens and other wonderful arboretums, but these would be much smaller, and dotted all over the place.” He smiled crookedly at her. “You don’t think it’s stupid?”

“Not at all. I think it’s fantastic.” She read over the information. “So, why don’t you go do this program?” She looked at him. “It’s only a year, and you have all the requirements.” She read further. “Presumably Edward would write you a letter of recommendation.” She frowned. “What’s stopping you?”

Bob shrugged. “I . . . I’d have to write a proposal, and pull together a résumé.”

Laura nodded. “Sure, but that’s no big deal.”

“I’d have to apply for financial aid.”

“So?” said Laura.

“And I would lose all my customers.”

Laura shrugged. “Which would matter if you wanted to keep doing what you’re doing, but it sounds like you want to do something different.”

“And I’d have to move to Ithaca for a year.” He shivered thinking about it.