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MULCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Jane and Shelley are taking a gardening class, but the teacher is injured before the first class and there's a substitute who digs in and bores the class senseless with own muddy interests.
Jane is incapacitated with a broken foot, cast and crutches that have their own minds about where Jane's heading. So she's not thrilled with the class decides to relieve the tedium by visiting each other's gardens.
Dirty deeds and soiled secrets follow by the shovelful. And the clue to the attack on the teacher and a subsequent murder lie fallow for a while until Jane realizes that the solution is in the styles of the gardens. But meanwhile, Jane has family problems on her mind to deal with as well.
"Katie, you're going to have to take over some of the cooking for us," Jane said. "It's too hard for me to get around the kitchen with this cast. Why don't we make up some menus? It's time you learned to cook."
"What about Mike? He's older than I am. Make him learn to cook," Katie said.
"Your brother doesn't care what he eats."
The kitchen door opened and closed while they were speaking. "Are you talking about me?" he asked, coming into the living room with a girl in tow.
"Mom, this is Kipsy Topper. We met today at the garden place where I'm working for the summer."
Jane had to make a serious effort to keep her jaw from dropping. Kipsy Topper was the last thing she'd ever expected Mike to bring home. She had flame-colored hair. Or maybe it was a wig. Sort of like a big Raggedy Ann doll. Her eyebrows and nose were pierced and she was wearing what looked like a flimsy slip over baggy jeans. There was a snake tattoo on her skinny shoulder. She could have been fourteen or twenty-four. Either too young or too old for Mike. And too bizarre. He'd always gone for the perky blond cheerleader type.
"If you're talking about food," Mike said, "Kipsy and are going to a Thai restaurant where she works. She was buying plants for the owner to decorate the place. They're in my truck and we're taking them over now. Be back late, probably."
Jane sat thunderstruck as Mike whisked Kipsy out of the house.
"Wow!" Katie said.
"Is that a good wow or a bad one?" Jane asked.
"Mom, you can't go on judging people by how they look. It's frumpy and bigoted."
"I certainly can judge people when they're making an effort to look like freaks," Jane said. "That says something about their personality."
Katie said, "I thought she looked cool...I might do that to my hair."
"Over my dead body or yours!" Jane replied.
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