The First Gardener by Denise Hildreth Jones

her head.
    For the next hour and a half, women filtered through the cafeteria. Mackenzie made conversation while she dished out the mashed potatoes. Maddie kept busy delivering trays and talking to babies. When the last woman had been served, they helped a little with cleanup, then turned in their hats and aprons and prepared to leave.
    They ran into their friend Harrison Wheeler at the elevator as they were leaving. “Maddie, how cute do you look tonight?”
    “Harry!” Maddie’s hands shot up.
    The young man shifted his bulky duffel bag and gave her a fist bump. “I bet you were a big help in the dining room tonight.”
    “I put out twenty trays.”
    “Twenty trays? Oh my goodness, that is amazing. I should bring you back in the kitchen to cook next time. Whoops, here’s our elevator.”
    Harrison had been volunteering in the center’s kitchen for about a year now. His mother had gone through a life-recovery program a few years back and now worked in the mission’s corporate office. Her son was serving the place that had saved his mother’s life.
    On the ride down, Mackenzie heard a noise coming from Harrison’s duffel bag. Maddie obviously heard it too because she popped her head around Harrison. Her little nose crinkled as she tried to peer right through the duffel’s mesh sides. “What’s in your bag?”
    He shifted the bag to another shoulder and held it close to his side. “Nothing.” They all heard the sound again.
    The door to the elevator opened, and Maddie followed Harrison out, reaching for the bag. He grabbed her hand. “Wait. I’ll get in trouble if you open that bag.”
    He hurried out the door and into the parking lot. Maddie burst out the door behind him and Mackenzie followed close behind. From the sounds coming from the bag, Mackenzie was pretty sure what was in there. And she knew it was not anything she wanted or Maddie needed.
    “Maddie, if Harrison has asked you not to open his bag, you need to leave it alone.”
    Maddie turned her perplexed face to her mother. “Mommy . . .”
    “Don’t whine, Maddie.”
    “But why would Harry bring something in here to get him in trouble?”
    She gave Harrison the look.
    “Well,” he said, “I couldn’t keep it at home, or I would have gotten in trouble with my landlady.”
    “You got all kinds of troubles,” Maddie surmised.
    Harrison laughed. He looked around the parking lot, then back at Maddie, and curled his finger at her. They followed him to his car, where he raised the trunk, setting the duffel bag on the edge. Then he pulled the zipper back, and two little furry heads popped out.
    “Puppies!” Maddie clapped her hands, and her feet started to dance wildly. “Mommy, puppies!”
    Mackenzie sighed. She’d been waging the puppy battle for the last year. She didn’t think Maddie needed a puppy until she could take care of it herself.
    “Harry, can I have one? You got two!”
    Harrison looked nervously at Mackenzie, who was shaking her head emphatically. “Uh, I’m thinking I probably need to keep both of them. I actually got one for my girlfriend because she’s been dying to get a dog, and the other one is for my sister.”
    Maddie knelt down and picked up the one that had already halfway clawed its way out of the bag. “But what if you went and got another one for your sister?” She nuzzled into its fur and started giggling when it kissed her nose. “Look, Mommy. It loves me already.”
    “You’re easy to love, baby. But those are Harrison’s puppies, so we can’t take them.”
    “Well, I would—”
    “We can’t take them.”
    The other puppy finally jumped out of the bag and walked over to sniff Maddie’s nose. “It loves me too, Mommy!” Maddie scooped it up as well.
    Mackenzie slowly moved toward Harrison’s trunk. She couldn’t help it. The little things were so dang cute. “What kind are they?”
    One jumped from Maddie’s arms into the trunk and walked toward Mackenzie. She reluctantly scooped it