On the outskirts of a small town is an obviously renovated house. The “For Sale” sign in the driveway has a bright red “Sold” scribbled over it.
Maggie and Robert, still young enough to spot a challenge, are impressed and excited about their new home. Loretta gets out of the car. A typical “I’m old enough” teenager with neat persuasion, mumbles something about having to start a new school and make new friends. And, of course, is even more so bored when she notices the house and it’s immediate surroundings.
Dereck sits on the sidewalk behind the car. He does not really mind. He’s the loner type anyway. Once everything is packed out he’ll hook up his computer and everything will be as if nothing had changed.
Loretta yells in dismay that the place does not even have a pool. “And look at the dump of a garden! No one will want to make friends with me now. My life is ruined.”
But it does not take the Lawrence family long to settle in. Robert comes home one afternoon, takes Maggie in his arms and tangos laughingly down the corridor. “I’ve got it!” he says. “Peterson’s job opened up and they promoted me all the way to management.” Maggie is overjoyed, and kisses her husband lovingly. “I told you - if you’re strong, we’ll make it. I am so happy for you.”
She strokes his dark brown hair. “And even I have good news. I went to the municipal court today and they’ve Okayed our plan for a pool!” Mark tenderly pulls her closer and whispers in her ear. “I love you - thanks.” With a wild swing, he picks her up and carries her out into the back yard. Right in the middle of the thick lawn he stops. “Here, Maggie my love, I will one of these days give you the biggest thrill of your life.” She pinches his nose. “Yeah stud, promises promises.”
The builders arrive the next morning. All through the day they work. Shoveling soil back and forth and the hole in the ground becomes deeper and deeper. Patches of grass are flung everywhere and Maggie keeps carrying trays of cooldrink out to the workers. Even Loretta, contentedly laughs with three new friends in the background.
It’s not long before the work dies down and the pool is filled with water. Everyone is there. Even new friends. Loretta is dressed in the new neighborhood fashion and is surrounded by giggling girls. Dereck even has come out to see what the excitement is all about. Balloons blow around and loud music starts everyone dancing around the pool.
Robert and Maggie stand next to the pool. “A toast, my love” he says, holding his drink in the air. “May we have a wonderful time!” He puts down his drink and with a wild “yahoo!” picks his wife up and jumps, clothes and all, into the pool. She pulls his hat over his eyes an kisses him. Everyone else jumps in.
It’s late at night. The backyard is quiet and dark. Inside the house Robert and Maggie are washing the dishes together. The piercing sound of music fills the air. Loretta is dancing n her room. In Dereck’s room everything is quiet. The light is low. He is sitting at his desk and in front of him is a wide variety of computers, modem, ambulators, amplifiers and telephones all hooked up to a bright glaring colour screen. With severe intensity and concentration Dereck is playing the computer game. Against his bedroom wall on the background is a dark-blue poster with stars and moons, with bright shining letters “Is there life out there ?”
The backyard is deserted. The bright light of the pool and the reflection of the rippling water evokes an eerie feeling. In one corner lies a pile of soil with patches of grass the builders obviously omitted to remove. At first all sense of reality tells one that the grass patch did not move. It couldn’t have. But on closer inspection it becomes a reality. The grass is moving - and it is not the wind. It is definitely moving towards the pool. No one is aware of what’s happening outside.....
It’s morning. Maggie is in the kitchen preparing breakfast and fixing all the lunch packets. She asks Dereck to empty the garbage and he leaves the room.
A scream. “Hey, something’s in the pool!” Dereck runs closer. He’s not sure what it is. Loretta’s only remark: ”Gross, now who’s going to clean the pool?” Dereck lifts the green mass with the long pool cleaner. “It’s grass, mom” he says as he squashes all the water out of it. “The workers must have left it here.” Dereck puts the patch of grass in the sun. “Seeing we dug up all the grass around her, would you mind me keeping this piece? I’ll try and see if it will grow again. Please Dad?” His father smiles. Dereck bends over the patch “Don’t worry, we’ll have you better in now time!”
The next couple of days Dereck was very busy. By the time he came home after school, hockey practice, band, and library studies, he was so tired that not even his computer was switched on. The patch of grass has become bushy and neglected.
The phone in Dereck’s room rings. He stumbles out of bed and answers the call. No one. Sleepily he replaces the receiver and trots back to bed. The telephone rings again. He jumps up and grabs the receiver. “Hello, hello is anyone there” Suddenly his computer screen lights up. Dereck can not believe his eyes. On the black screen, slowly the word “PATCH” appears.
Dereck is stunned. He reaches under the desk and takes hold of the power cord of his computer. To his amazement he realises that the computer is not even plugged in or hooked up to the phone, for that matter. He stuns away, still holding the receiver. All he can utter is a soft: ”Hello, hello, who is this?” Again the word “PATCH” appears. “I,...I don’t understand” Dereck stutters.
The screen clears. Dereck replaces the receiver. From the direction his Hi-fi Frank Sinatra’s voice carries beautifully across the room “Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy” and then silence. Dereck jumps on his bed. He hits the side of his head. “Wake up, wake up! Wake up!”
Suddenly his laserjet printer start to warm up. Dereck panicky plugs in everything that is not hooked up while murmuring: ”Talk to me, talk to me!” Nothing happens.
The screen flashes green and white a few times, and then settles on the most beautifully drawn patch of grass a Super VGA can handle. The printer kicks out a sheet. Right in the middle, it says “Remember me?” For a while Dereck stares at the screen and then at the paper in his hand. “It can’t be!” he says. “It just can’t be” He runs to the window and looks at the hairy mess of grass he had left there two weeks back. He climbs through the window and bends down over the patch. He touches it, but as though it would bite him. He looks down to his hand on the cement. One roots has entangled Dereck’s finger and is softly stroking it. “Hey, you’re alive!”
Dereck picks up the patch and carries it through his window to his room. “Have you been doing this?” he asks. “PATCH THANK U” displays on the screen. “What do you mean?” yet while Dereck says that it suddenly dawns on him that he saved the grass patch life. “It’s OK.” he says while stroking over the grass. “The only problem is, what now? No one must know about you. And I can not plant you - or can I? But where? But first things first, I’ll put you in a box of soil so you won’t die and, oh yeah, you need a haircut.” The grass stands on end. Red “No!”s runs across the computer screen. “Oh, come on, you’re not afraid a haircut, are you? Even I have a haircut now and then. It won’t hurt.” The computer screen turns black and small, very small in the middle are two words “snip, snip?”. He reaches for the scissors. The grass patch curls up all its roots and hair. The computer screen reads “No pain, no pain!”
The trimming starts and within no time the patch looks neat and respectable. “Do you have a name?” Dereck asks. The hi-fi echoes something about the green, green grass of home, the printer flickers all it’s lights and the telephone rings. Dereck answers. The screen turns green and slowly like only the hand of a master would, his name is written in fluorescent green - “PATCH”. “Right on” Dereck snaps his fingers.
For weeks Patch and Dereck do everything together. Dereck has planted Patch in a little box and added some fertiliser which Patch loved! They continued communicating through the computer, and Patch also helped Dereck to achieve high scores on many of the computer games he had been struggling with. They were a great team.
It due time things started going wrong. Some of Patch’s’ hair turned yellow and even developed spots and the spots later changed to a little hole. Dereck was very worried, Patchs’ health was starting to deteriorate. He would make the simplest calculation error and use an incorrect formula for some of Derecks’ biological experiments for school.
Dereck decides to take drastic steps. He cuts a strand from Patch’s’ damaged hair and cycled down to school. He climbs through the window of the biology class and collects all the books on grass and plants he can find. He puts the blade of grass under the microscope and starts examining it. He searches and searches for a long time through all the books around him. He spots something interesting in one of the books and makes a positive ID through the microscope. Patch had indodermovitolitus - a deadly flora disease that had its origin in the rain forest and for which there is only one cure - moistfitdermolix.
Dereck runs out as fast as he can. He stops at the first chemist on the road home, but they never heard of such medicine. After explaining to them that it was for his dying pet, they refer him to the nearest veterinarian hospital. There they advise him to bring the animal in for closer observation. Dereck does not even say good-bye. He realized he was in the wrong place.
Cycling home, desperately disappointed and sad, he passes the nursery. Like a flash he runs in and asks the botanist about the medicine. The lady is very helpful and doesn’t ask a lot of questions. Dereck cycles home holding on to the bottle of moistfitdermolix as though his own life depended on it.
On arrival home, Patch is in a very bad state. It can barely communicate. Dereck sprays a little of the fluid on it every four hours according to the indications on the bottle. And he waits. He never even closes his eyes that night. By morning Dereck is exhausted. Suddenly the image of a beautiful healthy grass patch appears on the computer screen and the printer spews a paper. It reads “Remember me?” “You’re back!” shouts Dereck. “You’re back. I’m so happy!” He strokes Patch’s’ healthy looking blades.
After trimming Patches hair to a reasonable length again, Patch writes on the screen - “Miss friends”. Dereck is saddened about those words, for he realises that there is very little he can do about it. He puts the box of grass next to him in bed. He was sure this would at least help a little to make Patch feel better.
The next morning Dereck gets up for school, but he is feeling very off-colour. On arriving at the breakfast table Maggie takes one look at him and calls her husband. Dereck is covered in a rash. They all get in the car and quickly drives to the doctor. After a battery of tests, it is determined that Dereck had a severe allergy to GRASS.
No one can understand why his skin would react this way, for most of the grass around the house was taken away when the swimming pool was built. Dereck has to tell them the truth about Patch. He is scared that he would have to loose his best friend, but opens up to his parents and tells them the whole story. He cries a lot and explains the extend of their friendship and that Patch wasn’t just a hump of grass and soil.
Loretta comes up with a great idea. She said: ”Remember how grandmother used to love the feel of grass? Well maybe we can plant Patch on her grave. You guys are always complaining that the wind blows the flowers we put there away. This way grandma will have her own permanent blanket.” “Hey Sis” Robert says. “That’s just a great idea.”
They arrive at the graveyard and ceremoniously plants Patch in the middle of the grave and pours water over it. Maggie places a bulb of gladioli right in the middle. “Look after this area well now, young man” Maggie smiles at Patch. “Hold that bulb warm till summer so that she can bloom and spread grandma’s joy all around.” Slowly they walk away. In his heart Dereck is sad, but he knows it is for the best.
One year has passed and Dereck decides to visit his grandma’s grave. In his heart he is hoping to see Patch again. He stands in front of the grave. It is covered in soft woolen bright green grass patches and right in the middle stands the reddest gladioli flower he has ever seen. Suspecting he would get no reply he softly says “Thanks Patch - you kept our promise.” Suddenly one of the grass blades stands upright. Dereck kneels down and runs his fingers through Patches hair. Dereck looks around at all the grass and asks: “Who are these others, your friends?” Patch wilts his blades. “Wives?” All Patches hair stands on end and waves in the wind. “All of them?” Dereck asks. Patch lifts 3 blades high up in the air. “Oh, good boy!” says Dereck. “And I suppose next you’re going to tell me the rest are your babies!” Patch lifts all his blades up and waves them in the breeze. Dereck is very happy, he knew he had done the right thing.
“Is there anything else I can do for you, my friend?” Dereck asks. His pocket calculator bleeps. Dereck takes it out. It says: “Snip, snip?”
In South Africa today security plays a vital part in any business or private home. This book and the volumes to follow, will guide you step by step through the essential precautionary measures to be taken in protecting your family and valuables. From employing security guards, evacuation of your site and security measures to burglar bars and alarms in your private home.
a Book compiled by me from experience gained after 10 years in the security industry as Industrial relations officer with Nosa qualifications, 1st Aid, fire protection and also S.O.B. grade A.
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