Peru sits up on the bluff where the Illinois River makes its long bend, and summer mornings arrive here wet with dew before the heat ever finds the top of the hill. Alex's lawn care works those hours — mowing while the grass is still cool, trimming close along fences and foundations, edging the walks until the line between concrete and green is one clean stroke. Cuttings get cleared, corners get caught, and the yard is handed back looking like somebody meant it. It is ordinary work done carefully, week after week, from the first flush of April to the last slow growth of October. A tidy lawn in this valley town is a small daily kindness to the whole street.