I had to make up my mind about this character in the spaces between words, since there were at least a couple of ways things could go wrong. Just to buy more time, I said, “Are you Mr. Boone?”

He seemed to think this was funny. “Ha! No such person!” He wore long, baggy shorts, a black T-shirt, and rope sandals. In Marin you could never tell if people were bums or billionaires.

“But you live here,” I said, since it was easiest to keep talking. “With Mrs. Boone.”

“Is that what she’s calling herself now. I’m in residence. Is Viridian up yet?”

“Who?”

“Viridian. Like the pigment.” I expect I had the same suspicious look on my face. “It’s a color,” he told me. “Green.”

We were back to colors now. “I just got here,” I said. “I haven’t seen anybody.” I started in digging again. I wasn’t afraid of him by then, but a planting spade is a good thing to have in your hands just in case.

“You’re the gardener, huh.”

“I work for a landscaping company.”

“That must be great. It’s the closest you could come to being a plant yourself.”

I looked up to see if he was making fun of me, but he had such a blissed-out, pleased expression on his face, and I remembered my mom saying you could never tell when somebody might be a little bit off, a little simple-minded, and you should treat them charitably.

“You mind if I do my exercises here? I won’t get in your way.”

“Go right ahead.” I was all right as long as it wasn’t naked yoga or something like that. I kept digging and didn’t look up.

Whatever kind of exercise it was, it involved a lot of loud breathing and grunting, a lot of bending himself double and reaching this way and that. This went on for a while. Then he stopped and clutched at his knees and puffed out his cheeks. His face was bright pink. He didn’t seem to be in very good shape. When he caught his breath again, he said, “So how do you like California?”

“Fine, I guess.”

“I find it takes some getting used to. I mean, it’s like walking around inside a giant piece of fruit, isn’t it?”

Yeah, whatever. “I wouldn’t know. I haven’t lived anywhere else.”

“A California native? Wow. I didn’t think there were any of those.”

“We were hunted almost to extinction for our pelts, but we’re making a comeback.”

I thought I’d stepped in it and was going to get myself run off the place, but after a moment he started laughing, or wheezing was more like it, anyway, he wasn’t mad, and if I could get these last few plants in the ground, watered up, and covered over, I could make a break for it.