Scott and I have spent years as neighbors and to be honest he’s been one of my closest friends. When we go out of town he picks up the paper for us and hides it inside our fence. He’ll close our garage if we leave it open. Drops off treats for the kids on holidays. A picture perfect suburban neighbor. A man of the earth too and I think that’s what connected us.

I had big hopes for my Pinterest like garden. Perfect rows and spacing of raised beds with a steel trellis for peas at the entrance. My eyes were bigger than the project. I think it was 3 days in, I had a couple piles of gravel, sand, mulch and soil. A gorgeous stack of cedar timber for the beds. I was exhausted, my hands hurt and my feet had blisters. Clearing the space was way more difficult than I anticipated and I only had 2 days left before I had to go back to work.

In came my ray of sun shine. “Hey there neighbor I couldn’t help but notice your piles not getting smaller and thought I’d swing by to see if you needed a hand” I was fortunately bringing my last load of dirt and weeds to the curb.

“Hey there Scott” I managed to spit out through a sheet of sweat dripping off my mustache. “I’m working on a raised bed and I thoroughly under estimated the project” as I laughed.

“Haha been there. Let me give you a hand. I’ve fine tuned my garden and have redone my layout for years” as he began to throw his gloves on. He had a laser level on his hip as well as some string. He said it was to mark off the layout so we can get an idea before I commit to a setup. Man did that save some time.

Before I knew it I had a picture perfect garden and to top it off Scott brought a few plants from his own garden to get me started. One plant per section. A perfectly trimmed rosemary bush, an abundant banana pepper plant, and lastly a fig starter tree from his own tree.

He carried on helping me with odd and end projects for years without me ever noticing a thing. I wanted to get more into natural remedies and started fermenting my own foods and making tinctures. I read that certain plants can have incredible immune health with the right process.

Scott of course had tons of experience with this and offered some help. We were getting the honey and garlic fermentation setup when he mentions that if you let the garlic carry on for exactly one week after it ferments, the garlic will begin to produce some bad toxins. I figured it was some old native knowledge or maybe read it in a book and thought nothing of it at the time. Later that night I looked up effects from bad garlic and found some weird results. Everything from thicker hair and 2 years of life but one constant warning was botulism. A silent killer that is undetectable to the eye. People have been known to die within weeks of ingesting the garlic.

This happened again when I asked about making a tincture from salvia and rosemary. He cautioned me about how hot the mixture got due to the potential release of poison toxins from the salvia. I knew he made many tinctures from seeing him load his car with them. Which got me thinking I had never heard him mention a company or where he sold his bottles so one morning I saw him gardening and asked where he sold his tinctures. He looked at me so confused as to why I would be asking. I mentioned seeing him loading a box in his car as well as the card board boxes I often saw in his recycling.

“Why would you know what is in my recycling?” He asked simply. His body language changed very subtly but a calm anger seemed to set in.

I felt I had tread on something I shouldn’t have. “Well sometimes we build forts for the kids so I occasionally will grab what cardboard you have early in the morning before it’s picked up” I say very calmly. “I’m sorry to not mention it but I swear we recycle it once we are done.” Trying to placate him. But he suddenly is back to normal.

“Well that makes total sense and I’m glad it’s still getting recycled. We all have to do our part but if you’ll excuse me I do need to get cleaned up” he never mentions his tinctures though.

One morning I have a small vial sitting on my door with a simple letter from him. “I hope this brings you good health!” It reads but nothing says what it is. I really didn’t think anything of it and planned to drink it before I had my coffee. I unstoppered the bottle and was about to drink it when I stopped to get a glass. In my experience anything concentrated can have a nasty bite to it so I set it down to grab a cup. I’m filling up a cup when I hear the glass shatter from a ball. I sigh as I look at the mess of liquid dripping of the counter. I planned to feign ignorance and started to wipe it up but of course a dog can’t help but be nosy and takes quick tastes. I yell but it’s to late and he runs off. I finish cleaning when I hear a scream from behind. Our dog has vomit blood and is hacking. He’s gone before I make it to the living room. I stare in shock. Gone in just seconds after a small taste and I feel a chill. He never mentioned what he does with his tinctures.