I was knelt down in the garden trimming the grass when a shadow towered over me. I looked up to see a slightly familiar guy stood in front of me.

"Are you pruning that or trying to hack it to death? Hi. I'm Henry Brandis, Jonathan's grandfather. Sorry it's taken me so long to come over and introduce myself." He smiled and held out his hand for me to shake.

I smiled back and stood up to shake his hand. "Nice to meet you."

Henry slowly lowered himself down to the ground and I quickly followed. "So, are you trimming all these to the same height?" He asked me.

I nodded. "Well, yeah, that's what I was thinking, but I don't know." I sighed and looked at the shrubs in front of me. I then looked up at Henry. "Do you think it would look better to take them out?"

Henry pointed at them and nodded. "Oh, these are Hicksii shrubs. These will prune up nicely."

"Listen, Mr. Brandis-"
"Call me Henry." He smiled.
I sighed. "Henry. If you're here because of what Jonathan said, I don't need your help."

"I read about you in the paper. Renee would've sat up in that tree with you. She would've sat up there all night."

My eyebrows creased together at the unfamiliar name. "Renee?"

"My wife. You remind me a lot of her."
I couldn't help but smile a little.

We worked on the yard for weeks. And the whole time we worked, we talked. He wanted to know more about the sycamore tree. He knew exactly what it meant about the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

He said it was the same with people, but sometimes with people, the whole could be less.

I thought that was pretty interesting. I started looking at people I'd known since elementary school - trying to figure out if they were more or less than the sum of their parts.

Henry was right. A lot of them were less. Of all my classmates, the one person I couldn't seem to place was Jonathan. Until recently, I would've said with absolute certainty that he was greater, far greater, than the sum of his parts. But now I wasn't so sure.

***

"It's looking good, Sarah. Nice job." A familiar voice said. I knew it was Jonathan, so I kept my eyes glued to what I was doing.

"Thanks. Henry did most of it." I replied.

"I'm sorry for what I did." Jonathan breathed out.

I shook my head and looked up at the tall, blond boy towering over me. "I just don't get it, Jonathan. Why didn't you just tell me?"

Was he really sorry? Or was he just saying these things to make himself feel better? Then I thought maybe I just wanted him to be more than the sum of his parts. But as I looked into his eyes... those dazzling eyes... for the first time, I was pretty sure that Jonathan Brandis was less.

Jonathan shrugged. "I don't know! It was dumb. And I shouldn't have said anything about your yard, either."

"It wasn't right." I said, pulling my gardening gloves off my hands and standing up. "Maybe it's all for the best. I mean, look, I learned so much from Henry, it's amazing." I paused for a moment before continuing.

"You're lucky. I don't even have grandparents anymore. I feel sorry for him. He misses your grandma. Can you believe it? He says I remind him of her."

Jonathan raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"I know! That's what I said. But he meant it in a nice way; something about her spirit." I looked down at the grass and smiled to myself.

"Yeah. Well... Good luck with the grass. I'm sure it'll come up great." Jonathan smiled at me.

"Thanks." I replied.
"I guess I'll see you around." Jonathan said, taking his hands out of his pockets and giving me a small wave.
I slowly nodded before sighing. "I guess so."