The Garden

An old woman sat on her verandah in her rocking chair. She was

wrapped in a quilt that was patterned with little hand sewn

patches, it draped over her like a blanket. Her face and hands

were wrinkled and decrepit. She wore tiny square glasses on the

end of her nose. In her fluttering hand she held last weeks paper

and squinted at it, trying to make out the headlines.

She had been young once, long, long ago. She had worn a bonnet

and a pretty meuve dress. But now she sat out watching the winter

rain, under her verandah. Vines weaved around the splintering

poles. A tree she had planted long ago, had twisted itself up

through the greening floorboards. The old womans wheel chair sat

stationary, next to her antique rocking chair.

The old woman frowned for a moment and looked out into the

garden. She stared into the garden, it was full of overgrown

weeds. In the middle of the yard there was a lifeless pile of

leaves, timber and tree limbs which dimly glistened in the

afternoon rain. Patches of grass were sprouting from it. Presently

the woman shivered as a burst of cold wind struck her. The

deteriorated garden beds were overgrown. The vegetables had gone

to seed. A lemon tree was to one side of the yard, its fruit

rotten and moulding on the ground. The fence was broken in the

middle, planks of wood stuck out from it, swaying in the wind. The

front gate was covered in ivy, long flakes of paint dangled from

its rusted frame. A piece of metal scraped at the gate, creating a

piercing squeal through the air. The old lady threw her hands over

her ears, dropping the paper on the damp boards. As she shut her

eyes, deep crows feet wrinkles appeared at the sides of her eyes.

The gate squealed again, the woman squeezed her eyelids

tighter. Her eyes began to throb, pumping the extruding violent

blue veins in her eyelids harder. The gate still squealed. The

looming darkness behind her eyes was replaced by small pixels of

white light. The white light became more intense and washed over

every part of her. Her arms became weak and numb. Dizziness swept

over and she slumped back into the chair. Gently her body rocked

back and forth. Confused rays of coloured light danced in the

darkness like lasers. She heard an overbearing sound, similar to

the sound of a sea shell being put over ones ear. It faded in and out