They glided back, and Jonathan went upstairs with her to help her stack the electropack. He said he and Belle would be there at 5:00 that evening, if she was still up to it.
“Absolutely. I’ll go up to the roof garden to pick some things.” She hugged him goodbye and walked up the flight of stairs to the roof. She always said going up and down stairs was the main thing that kept her fit, but she took it slowly.
The roof garden looked good with the spring plants coming on. She looked out over the flat and terraced roof tops of the adjoining buildings alive with their gardens of edible plants and colorful flowers. Most roof tops also had small greenhouses for year-round production. With the park in the background, it looked green and lush.
She wandered over to the small, glass beehive in the specially shaded area and watched the little bees as they flew in and out. She had always been fascinated with bees and, with the glass hive, you could see them working inside. Molly especially loved to watch the queen. The bees too seemed to like the glass, as if they liked to look out. One landed lightly on her hand. She chatted quietly to the little bee. With the promotion of the meliponines stingless species, bees had become very popular. Urban bees were thriving; there was such a variety of flowers to collect pollen from.
Molly’s own garden area always did well. She had more time than most of the other residents, so she helped with all their gardens. It was one of her great passions. Everyone in the apartment block shared what was grown, so it worked to everyone’s benefit.
Molly picked a few tomatoes in the greenhouse, and some young spinach. As she walked back into the building, she noticed a strange mold on her neighbor’s lettuces and saw that the leaves were wilting badly. They were planted close to a rose bush that seemed to be thriving and blossoming magnificently. But the roses had bloomed far too early. She looked around the nearby gardens and saw a little of the same white mold on a curly kale and on some early beets. She made a note to herself to ask her neighbor what he had put on the roses to promote such flowers. But she was more concerned about what had happened to the vegetables. She thought to herself that there were more and more mysteries these days.
Cooking dinner kept her mind off everything. She lightly steamed the caigua and improvised the filling with the nutty macambo. She made a corn salad with the tomatoes she’d picked and added lots of cilantro from the kitchen herb planter. She washed the spinach ready to make the green salad and sat down to contact friends about Linorio. As promised, Viktor had set up a group on the Notice Space. It said if anyone was in contact with Linorio, to ask him to reconsider leaving. Comments had already flooded in. People were spreading the word, and there were pledges from many to respect Linorio’s time and privacy.