Mixing Up This and Next then the Plants Died

So my landlord went away on vacation for a week or so and asked me to water his plants while he was gone.... and it reminded me of the last time I had to water plants for someone.

When I was a kid (12ish), the lady who lived next door had this small greenhouse stuck on the side of her house. We didn't get along with her too well because I'd play ball in the backyard or whatever and she'd always be worried that we were going to break her greenhouse and she'd get mad when the ball would go over onto her side. And she'd fight with my mom or whatever. 

Anyway, one day I was outside and she comes up to me and told me she was going on vacation and needed someone to water her plants while she was away. Her regular guy wasn't available or whatever. And she would pay me like $20 or whatever. $20! coolio! I said, 'Ok.' And she said, 'starting next wednesday just come by and give all the plants some water.. Next wednesday (it was Monday when she said this) and I guess as a kid I didn't think of next wednesday as this wednesday I thought of next wednesday as the wednesday next after this wednesday after all it was monday... if she meant this wednesday she should have said this not next.. Or whatever. Or I spaced on it. Not sure what happened there but that's how I remembered how I went and forgot.

Anyway, wednesday comes and it's the start of a friggin heatwave. 95 degrees everyday. Thursday goes by... friday.... saturday... sunday... monday... and finally on tuesday I thought about the watering of the plants. I remember getting suspicious of my memory. It seemed like alot of time went by before I was supposed to 'start'..  So I decided 'be responsible' and check things out a day early. And sure enough I walked into a greenhouse of miserable, browny dying or dead plants. Uh oh spaghettio! I grabbed the hose and frantically started to overwater every plant. I remember staring at them waiting for them to perk up like it was a cartoon. After I was done with all that. I put down the hose and left. What else could I do?

When she got back from vacation she asked me to stop by. I braced myself for the confrontation and got straight in my head to never admit that I didn't water the plants (even though in retrospect it was 100% obvious). She was in the greenhouse and had separated out all the plants that didn't make it (maybe a third. i guess the more delicate ones.). She said that the plants didn't look so good. I explained how there was like the superduper giant heat wave or whatever. And she gave me like a suspicious look like... Did you kill all my plants because I got mad about the baseball in the backyard? Is this payback time? Is this what you do? She handed me the $20. I thought about not taking it because I felt guilty (maybe because I was)- but not taking it would have been admitting guilt. So I took it (it just seemed so much easier to handle it that way)-and went back to playing baseball in the backyard and never really talked to her again. 

Sorry bout that next door neighbor lady.

The end.

ok bye!

tOdd