The garden

[WP] Nobody intentionally comes to your garden, but those that do are never looking for anything other than their final resting place. You’ve seen a variety of people come your way from all walks of life, but this newcomer surprises you.

always remember how people would say how special my garden was. Even when I was just starting it, I would often see people peeking over the garden gates just to get a peek at the progress I had made in my garden. That was during the first decade at least. After I went on to experiment with my plants… Everyone started avoiding my garden like the plague. I wouldn’t be surprised. It was as if every plant in the garden came alive. 

Eventually, I had to expand my land. I had to sell some of the saplings and the unique fruits the trees would bear to the city to get more funds to expand my land. It was all worthwhile and for quite some time, I came to a point where my plants were in demand. I even had some visitors wanting to come to have a view of the parent plant but what I didn’t know was that my plants had more to them than providing for produce and appeal. 

By the second decade, I witnessed the strangest thing I ever could in my garden. Seeing them come to life was not the strangest, no. There was apparently more to see. 

One time, a visitor dropped by. She probably was in her 70s but I never asked because it was rude to ask women about their ages. I remember she was asking to see my plants and of course I welcomed her with open arms. I was showing her around as I walked her to my hut so that we could enjoy some tea that I just harvested that morning. It was a floral tea and I could see that she enjoyed the aroma and flavor so much but perhaps that’s because she was new to the flavor. Anyways, after having tea and some biscuits, I took her deeper into the garden. The moment we reached the center, she stopped in her tracks after seeing the one I called my grand tree. It was the one I experimented with hybridization the most and the one most capable of having different kinds of fruits now. I honestly just thought she was fascinated by the different fruits it bore but that wasn’t the case. 

“This… I have been dreaming about this for the longest time..” She turned to face me, as if a sense of relief and peace had washed over her “It seems, I finally found somewhere I can rest. Would you be a dear and take care of my things? There’s a letter in that bag. If you could mail those… you can have whatever is left in the bag as my thanks for helping me find my peace” She handed me the small pink bag she had with her and then she walked towards my grand tree. 

I honestly thought I was daydreaming when the tree opened up and welcomed her inside as if it knew about her arrival. I was honestly terrified at first but then I saw its branches and the other plants come closer to me as if comforting me and assuring me that it was not my time yet so I had no reason to be scared of them. Those plants that could move just stayed with me to watch how the old lady was encapsulated in the amounts of vines and roots. I, later on, realized that she had become part of the garden because I could feel her warm presence around me once she had been fully enclosed. 

After that, I went on to go through her bag. I found a few letters there which were addressed to three people. I sent them all but I never expected a reply. So I found out she was abandoned by her children. It was the nursing home she stayed in that explained the entire situation to me. 

Since then, I have had a few people of all ages and ethnicity come to visit. All with the same purpose, and that was when I decided to keep expanding the land because they all kept leaving items they kept insisting I used and that I did. I wanted to keep their resting place safe. I wanted them to have the peace they all deserved after all the suffering they shared with me. What was peculiar was the very last visitor I ever had. She was the youngest I ever had. 

Her name was Feng Ai but she introduced herself as just Ai, a 12-year-old immigrant. She told me that her parents hoped they would have a better life in the States but if anything, it just put her in a worse situation because they could barely eat and the immigration housing… was like a pigsty. She knew very minimal english so I had to make out what she was saying half the time. It wasn’t that bad but I just kept wondering why the garden called out to her. 

I had no complaints though. I enjoyed her company. And I witnessed how fast she would pick up on everything. She was definitely a smart girl and it was a good thing that she found her way here. 

“Aaron!” She called out as she hung upside down from one of the branches

“Yes, Ai?” I was still tending to some of the new saplings then and I had tasked her to help me pick fruits for breakfast. She already knew which ones were ready to harvest and which weren’t. Or maybe the plants were teaching her too since they somehow took a liking to her more than my previous visitors. 

“The plants were telling me something about staying here?” She asked curiously as she handed me a few fruits “What does that mean?” 

“It just means that maybe they want you to take care of them? They told me the same thing when they started moving on their own” I offered her a warm smile as I looked around my vast garden. Yeah… I stayed here because of them and I loved all 68 years of it. “What else did they tell you?” 

She then got down from the branch. And we made our way back. “They told me you need to go soon” Her lips curled into a pout at the thought “And that I can stay here even after you’re gone. They said I was fun and I was a good girl” 

“Well, you are. And you know I’m old already so I don’t think I have much time left to stick around but don’t worry, I’ll stay with you for as long as I can” With that, I gave her a pat on the head and ushered her to get the table ready while I made breakfast for the both of us. 

The remaining four years I had left with her, the time seemed to fly by so fast. Every moment was such a happy one. She grew into such a healthy and independent girl that eventually became the one who began to scold me when I was doing something she knew was bad for my health. It wasn’t moments I enjoyed but I knew she only meant well. I treated her as my own daughter even if I never had one but I was sure that was what caring for a daughter was like. 

In our last few moments together… I remember how sad she was but she still kept on her smile as if nothing was wrong but I knew it was just her being strong. It pained me to see it but I told her one last thing before I went off “The garden will always provide. One day, someone will keep you company here so you just have to wait a while for it, okay?” 

She just nodded and bit her lips harder to stifle her sobs as she watched me walk into the grand tree. It broke my heart, watching her having to cry like that in my final moments but it was just my time. It was better to see her off with a proper goodbye than to her suddenly finding my corpse not breathing anymore. And so, I went on deeper into the tree where I was greeted with the grandest casket I had ever seen them offer anyone who had come to find their peace in the garden. I was happy with their greeting and in my final moments, I knew I was at peace. 

Been a while since I had time to write. I'm gonna try to find a balance somehow because freelancing is harder than how I remebered it to be