Chapter 117: Vicious Pruning
“Don’t do it, then.” Tesla slapped Tulland’s hand as he moved the clippers towards a branch. “If you don’t know why you are pruning, don’t prune.”
“You told me to take away the branches I didn’t want! You said to feel it.” Tulland held up the clippers close to the Tesla’s face and shook them. “I was feeling it. Like you said. Why can’t I cut this?”
“If you were feeling things correctly, you’d know why. Now take a walk. Come back when you aren’t so dang whiny about things.”
Tulland dropped the clippers and walked off without another word. It had been this way for a while now. Kelsa was an infuriating teacher. Most of their classes progressed not on pre-set tracks but with sudden alterations from Kelsa, and all of Kelsa’s personal input appeared to have been related to loving plants. Not just liking them. Not just appreciating them. Absolutely loving them with every fiber of her being.
She didn’t even differentiate between one plant and the next in her all-encompassing love for the damn things. She loved shrubs as much as she loved trees, and liked both as much as she liked mosses and flowers. Tulland, who had never really interacted with any plant in way that wasn’t strictly utilitarian, was annoyed with this at first. These days, he was enraged. There was simply no way to get the woman to tell him what to do without wading through an hour’s worth of discussion of fern feelings.
For her part, the woman was patient but clearly exhausted with Tulland’s inability to take the inner lives of plants seriously. He wanted to help her out, but it was impossible for him to understand the will and emotions of plants the way she did. This had all been a few hours into the process, but after two weeks trapped in her garden, he was beginning to go a bit mad.
Could we be trapped here forever? If I don’t understand whatever she’s teaching, will I be stuck?
Of course not. In fact, you must be understanding at least some of what she’s teaching, or you would have been kicked out by now. You are growing, just in some way you can’t see.
It’s still incredibly frustrating.