Doreen studied her and guessed she had to be in her mid-to-late seventies. “Kiwis are an interesting fruit to grow here,” she said. “I never would have guessed.”
“Oh, they do quite well,” she said. “Of course, they have to be indoors over winter. The rules allow them to be in a greenhouse over winter, but you have to have them out in the garden by their stated date. Still I’ve managed to make it work.”
“If you say so,” Doreen said. “I have a lot more experience with perennials than I do fruits.”
“Well, kiwis, they really have to be babied,” she said. “I do have a bunch of plants in the back, but I keep a very tight rein on who gets to come in and out because I don’t want anybody to steal my secrets.”
Doreen couldn’t help but wonder what secrets one would have that had anything to do with growing kiwis. “Is the contest that ferocious?”
“Oh my, yes,” Marsha said with a big smile. “A certain amount of cash is involved in winning the awards, but, once you do win, it’s way worse because you have to keep winning.”
“But it’s all in good fun, isn’t it?” Doreen said cautiously. Mugs walked towards her then laid down on the cement. Goliath flumped beside him. Apparently, they’d had enough of this spot. Or maybe they wanted to have a long nap here. The vagaries of her animals was something she still didn’t understand. Thaddeus appeared to be snoring gently at her neck too.
“Well, of course it’s in good fun. … But it’s really not in good fun. I mean,” she said, “it’s a contest. And some people are deadly competitive.”
At the term deadly competitive, Doreen winced. “Because, of course, it was competitive for some and deadly for others. I hear Rosie would have something that would give you a better run for your money,” she said with a smile.
At that, Marsha snorted. “No,” she said. “No way she was because it was not possible. I’m definitely by far the better kiwi grower.”
“Ah,” she said in a more conciliatory tone seeing Mugs now on his feet and glaring at Marsha. “Well, I understood that she had some kiwis growing here in a community garden that would supposedly outdo yours.”
The woman waved her hand at her. “People have been saying that for a long time,” she said. “But it’s absolutely not possible. My kiwis are stupendous.”
“Of course I can’t see them, can I?” she said.
Marsha gave her a fat smile and said, “Nope.”
“Ah,” Doreen said. “Okay then.” She could see the greenhouse around the side of the house. “And I see you’ve got quite a good-size greenhouse too.”
“Absolutely.”
She smiled, then she waved her hand at the garden of flowers. “This is truly beautiful too.”
“Thank you,” she said. “I was thinking about entering the contest again.”
“Do you know who your competitors are before you go into each contest?”
“No,” she said, “not always. There’re the usual suspects, and that’s how I know that I’ll win the kiwis again though. And, of course, I should because I’ve got the better plants.”
“Do you grow the kiwis and keep the seeds?” she asked curiously.
“I do,” she said. “However, sometimes the next-generation seeds aren’t as good.”
“Right,” Doreen said with a nod. “Has anybody ever come close?”
“Rosie did last year,” the woman said with a sniff. “I was pretty sure she was cheating.”
At that, Doreen’s eyebrows rose. “How does one cheat?”
The woman lowered her voice and leaned forward. “Greenhouse work,” she said. “Too much greenhousing time. They do not allow us to have greenhouse plants in the contest. There are hardy kiwi varieties but they produce really tiny fruit so this way, being judged by size, we have to grow the normal varieties to be competitive.”
“Which, I guess, considering kiwis are tropical, would make it even more of a challenge.”
“Would it ever,” the woman said with her eye roll. “You have to baby them and watch the summer nights in the spring and the dead heat in the summer.”
“Right,” Doreen said with an all-knowing nod. But inside, she was trying to figure out how would anybody maintain the temperature when it was so variable here. Kelowna did get a lot of days where it could be 40 degrees or in the high 30s for weeks on end, but that wasn’t exactly tropical weather either. And sometimes it would be 25 degrees Celsius every day for a whole month in August. That was not tropical in any way. “Well, I’ll be excited to see how you do this year.”
“I’ll win,” the woman said without question in her voice.
“Nice to be so confident,” she said. “Did you hear what happened to Rosie though?”
“No,” she said, stabbing her rake in the ground. “What happened?”
“Oh, dear,” Doreen said. “Maybe I shouldn’t tell you. Or, at least I should tell you, but I’m sorry. It might upset you. She passed away Sunday morning.”
The woman looked at her in shock. “Seriously?”
“Yes,” she said, “seriously.”
“Well, that’s too bad,” she said slowly. “Rosie was the only one who could give me a run for my money.”
“I’m sorry,” Doreen said. “I guess it does help to do better when you realize that you are challenged by a competitor.”
“Competition is healthy,” Marsha said, staring off in the distance. “I heard that a couple other women had passed away, who were involved in the contest too, but they were never really viable contestants.”
At that, Doreen turned to look at her. She listed the names of the four women.
Marsha nodded. “They were all in the same contest, you know?”
“Wow,” Doreen said with a smile. “Apparently growing kiwis is deadly.”
The woman laughed. “Oh my,” she said. “That’s really funny. But, no, I’m not worried. In my world, kiwis are a lifesaver and not a killer.”
“Why is that?”
The woman paused, and a small smile played around her lips. “Because I was more or less dead inside, until I started
