Before and after. The back of the house faced the south. We...

Before and after. The back of the house faced the south. We worked daylong in
the sun, sweating as it described its arc across the sky above this
double-decker in Arlington. The tomatoes got fatter during our two weeks
building these decks, and when the woman who owned the place came out to her
gardens, the smell of basil – that dense, licoricey smell of high summer –
lingered in the air and won, temporarily, against the smell of the sunscreen
and sawdust that coated our skin.