Seedfolks

Sae Young grew up in Korea with five sisters and many friends. When she left for America with her husband, she did not speak English fluently. When they couldn’t conceive children, she grew even lonelier. They opened a dry-cleaning shop, but her husband later died. Two years ago, Sae Young survived a violent robbery at the same shop. For many months after the incident, she could not even open the door for the neighbors who brought her food. Recently, she has begun shopping on her own again, but she still fears people.

One evening, Sae Young hears voices while passing by the lot and sees Kim harvesting lima beans and people talking over rows of corn. She resolves to return. She is ready to be with people again. Few people speak to her, but it feels good to listen to conversations, and she feels safe as she plants her own lot. One day, Sam asks her about her hot Korean peppers, and she is so excited that she has trouble speaking.

Sam announces a contest to solve the water problem. He will give $20 to the child with the best idea for getting water into the garden. Sae Young watches the children present their plans and hears many outlandish ideas, including running a hose from Lake Erie. The winner, a young Black girl, proposes that they gather the rain from the gutters into clean trash bins and distribute the saved water. The day after the garbage bins are installed, a thunderstorm fills them to the top, but then a new problem arises. Sae Young watches as people scoop the water with pots and try to pour it into cans, spilling along the way. She quickly buys three funnels and lays them next to each of the garbage bins. When she sees people using them, she feels like she is part of a community that is almost like family.

Curtis sees the garden as a way to get his former girlfriend, Lateesha, back. He lived on Gibb Street when he was younger, three doors down from Kapp’s gym, where he worked out until he developed a muscular physique. He wanted to enjoy his youth and his many female admirers, but Lateesha broke up with him because she wanted him to commit. Curtis then moved to Cincinnati, and when he returned, he saw the garden across from Lateesha’s apartment.

Lateesha will not talk to him, so he decides to grow the biggest, juiciest tomatoes for her, remembering how much she loved her aunt’s tomatoes. He begins to tend six beefsteak tomato plants. Tίo Juan helps him stake the plants, and other gardeners give him tips, telling him about the diseases that could kill them. Curtis obsessively tends them, and they thrive right beneath Lateesha’s window. Below her apartment is a boarded liquor store where a few drunk people loiter. They shout insults and racist slurs at him, but he ignores them even though he knows that he could easily fight them. He hopes to show Lateesha that he is more than his physique.

Then, people begin to steal Curtis’s tomatoes. Other gardeners also complain of missing crops and of people sleeping in the garden. Curtis discovers that 15-year-old Royce, who reminds Curtis of his younger self, was abandoned by his abusive father and sleeps in the garden. Curtis makes a deal with him, buying him a sleeping bag, giving him money for food, and finding him a place beside his tomato plants where he can remain hidden at night. In exchange, he asks Royce to keep people away from the tomatoes. He hangs up a big sign that says “Lateesha's Tomatoes” for Lateesha and the world to see.

British caretaker Nora worries for Mr. Myles, who seems to have lost much of the spark of life. After suffering two strokes, he cannot speak and requires a wheelchair. He is a mystery to Nora, but her belief in healing walks prompts her to wheel him up and down Gibb Street for fresh air. One day, they see the garden. Mr. Myles, who often falls asleep on their walks, throws his hand up as they pass, and Nora stops. They watch. Once Nora feels they have lingered enough, she wheels Mr. Myles away. Again, he throws his arm up and motions for her to roll him into the garden. As they explore, she recalls that an ancient Egyptian medical treatise prescribed walking in a garden as a cure for mental illness. She realizes that Mr. Myles needs more stimulation than he can get from watching. On her next visit, she brings a plastic garbage can and a packet of seeds. Poking holes along the sides and filling it with dirt, she creates a raised bed for him. She shows him the selection of seeds, and he chooses beautiful flowers, planting them with care and concentration.

The two become regulars, gardening on their own until a downpour forces them to seek shelter with the other gardeners underneath an awning. There, Nora meets the other growers, and she and Mr. Myles become part of the group. When they’re absent, the gardeners always ask about Mr. Myles’s health. Nora becomes so attached to the garden that when she rides the Terminal Tower with out-of-town guests, she must refrain from pointing out the Gibb Street lot.