Orange is the New Bag

Sevan and Kash were sentenced to 90 minutes of heavy labour after showing up late to the task at Grove Farm. They were given a commutation of the sentence only because they had shown goodwill by participating in parkrun-to-foodbank runs earlier in the day. Instead of digging trenches, they were sent to Northolt to clear Miss J's garden.

Miss J recognised the recidivists as they had been to her garden before with their accomplice Madhan, who managed to escape the long arm of the law this time. Miss J was firmly against the punishment of electrocution by a lawnmower on wet grass (Sevan and Kash were caught by a storm in Northolt again!) and asked them to use a strimmer to trim the lawn instead. She promised to get Secan and Kash black bags to pack the green waste, but when she returned, she brought orange bags. Well, orange is the new black!

Kash hasn't been operating that model of a strimmer yet, but she had no trouble fixing the strimmer line. Based on previous experiences, the wire was the first thing she checked, and, not unexpectedly, the string was missing! Luckily, it just had been improperly attached and pulled inside the case. Kash was not sure what to do with the fact that the shield of the strimmer was not facing her, so Sevan looked up the instructions on the internet and figured out how to rotate the protector so that Kash was not too worried about not packing protective eyewear in the morning. Both Sevan and Kash expected a slightly different task (which was supposed to be hedge-cutting), and Sevan even packed brambleproof gloves but not a device for protection from short circuits during mowing.

Because of the wet grass, cutting the lawn evenly was challenging. The first section Kash trimmed ended up with patches of mud between long grass. Sevan pointed out she might have been holding the strimmer too low, so she adjusted. The second challenge was the strimmer line - it was nearly finished and Kash had to be very careful not to cut it off. At some point, she had to take the case out and attach the wire differently, so it would last longer. Sevan was diligently raking and packing the green substance into orange bags. He was also combing the grass, uncovering the long bits the strimmer didn't catch.

Sevan and Kash were hoping for a more stunning result at the end of their penalty but couldn't do anything about the wet grass and the fact that by the end of their work, the strimmer line was gone. After serving the 90-minute sentence, they were released and put on probation. Miss J said she would vouch for them, but Sevan and Kash had a feeling they might be coming back to Miss J in the future.