2 Twenty minutes later the bowl was empty bits of green were stuck in her teeth crumbs of soil clung to her lips and she was still famished Jessamine needed more She stood up in the dark kitchen and went to the window Jessamine looked out into the apartment building’s backyard lit by floodlights to save the landlord insurance money but with not a square inch of unpaved ground A couple of dandelions had managed to grab a foothold along the fence on one side but otherwise the backyard was bare a lifeless slab of cement She could also see into the backyard of the next-door next-door neighbor She could see a small and bent tree in the center of the overgrown yard undecorated and
unkempt aside from a single ornamental scarecrow scarier now no doubt after surviving dozens of summer storms and hellish blizzards than it had been when it was first stuffed and mounted Jessamine had seen these things before standing at the kitchen’s back window and looking out letting the soothing steam from a cup of coffee waft up over her face on a winter morning That was before she’d gotten pregnant of course She hadn’t touched coffee in ages Tonight she hardly noticed the tree and the scarecrow Instead her eyes slid over the unkempt yard and its beautiful yield foot-high dandelions each boasting leaves grander and more delicious looking than any she’d plucked from her own yard She had to have them She grabbed an empty paper bag opened the kitchen window’s screen and stepped carefully over the windowsill and onto the fire escape The neighbor had no floodlights Aside from that she was something of a mystery Jessamine stepped carefully down to the second-floor
second-floor fire escape The window on that level was dark as well normal people slept at this hour of course no matter how hot it was Jessamine’s belly barely fit through the opening to the ladder that led to the ground Still she squeezed through I’m sorry baby she muttered as she went It’ll be worth it At the bottom of the ladder Jessamine let herself drop to the cement patio She headed for the decrepit wooden fence that separated the backyards and got on her tiptoes The woman next door was a mystery yes but one about whom the neighborhood loved to speculate She’s the oldest woman in the neighborhood they said In the state they argued In the world they dared Unlikely thought Jessamine as she went back behind her building and found a tall sturdy garbage can She dragged it toward the fence But that wasn’t all they said She’s still alive because of dark magic they whispered
