by KS Henning
The Garden & Other Stories
By KS Henning
Copyright 2016 Karen Sue Henning
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About this work
I admit, this is a hodge-podge of stories and poems encompassing several genres. They represent writing over several years.
The first two stories, Melvin and Demsy Road, are flash fiction I wrote around Halloween one year.
I wrote The Garden during a truly pathetic attempt to start a vegetable garden in what turned out to be a significant drought year. Not to mention the neighbor child who kept running off my pumpkins. I would classify this one as Horror.
I won an Honorable Mention for Student-Teacher Relations during the Summer 2002 Writer's Weekly 24 hour Short Story Contest.
I've also included three poems. Fantasy and Unnamed are, of course, in the fantasy genre while Summer sums up how I feel about the season.
Table of Contents
Flash Fiction
Short Stories
Poetry
About this work
Melvin
Melvin was gone. Of all the times for him to go missing, he had to pick now. Elizabeth hoped he was well. Sure, he'd disappear every so often in that tomcat way of his. But he always came home for supper. His food dish on the kitchen floor was still full with three-day-old Friskies.
The woman at the shelter was no help. She'd guessed at some things.
"we don't have any cats that match your description. If he turns up, we'll give you a call. But we won't release any animal without proof of ownership."
Just thinking about the confrontation, Elizabeth clutched again at the crystal hung from a thin cord around her neck. She just wanted her cat back. For Samhain she needed Melvin. And this year it fell on a full moon. What was it the woman had said?
"Some nut job is taking cats again. Happens sometimes around Halloween. If they're found at all, well, it's best not to say what condition they're in. We do what we can to protect them."
"Freak."
"Weirdo."
Her neighbor loved to taunt her. She should be used to the prejudice by now but it still stung.
The cats of her fellow coven members were AWOL, too. Did they sense the potent magic in the air, the waxing moon building the universe into a crescendo at midnight last night? They made do without the cats.
Now back to the mundane. She turned on the small television on the counter while she fill the coffee pot. Dawn was breaking.
Scratching came from the back porch followed by a plaintive meow. A black dart shot through the door before it was opened more than a crack.
"Melvin! Where have you been you bad boy?" She bent to pick him up. "What's this?" She pulled a shred of black material from his collar.
She looked up at the televisions, startled. "And in breaking news...A local man was arrested about an hour ago. There is evidence that he's responsible for the recent disappearances of pet cats in the area. He is being taken to a mental health facility for observation."
On the screen was her neighbor.
Freak.
He was screaming. What was left of a shredded black robe was just visible under the straight jacket. There was a long bloody scratch on his cheek.
Weirdo.
"The cats! Get them away from me! Oh, God, the cats!"
Elizabeth looked into Melvin's green eyes and smiled. "Some people have no respect for living things. How 'bout some breakfast?"
Demsy Road
"My car!" Jimmy tried forcing the door open but it wouldn't budge. He stiffly pulled himself out through the window.
"My car. My car." His companion mocked. "Is that all you ever think about?"
Jimmy looked through the window he just crawled through and saw his best friend Mark struggling to unbuckle his seat belt. Jimmy took a penknife out of his pocket, leaned in, and cut the belt. Mark climbed over the driver's side and exited through the window, too.
"That's messed up," Mark said as he surveyed the car. It was bent almost in half, every window smashed. Ya' know, I'm getting really tired of doing this with you."
"You know you love it." Jimmy reached into the window again and retrieved a small, square bottle. "Cheers." He tipped the bottle, draining it. He threw it and heard it smash on the railroad track.
"I have to admit, I do love this time of year, anyway." Mark looked up at the clear night sky. "I wish I could go trick-or-treating again."
Jimmy snorted. "Hey, remember that year you dressed up like a clown and Mrs. Johnson's dog chased you all over the neighborhood? That was the best."
Mark laughed. "My dad was so mad at me. That mutt ripped his best golf pants off me." He nodded to the left. "Hey, it's show time."
He nudged Jimmy and pointed down the road. A pair of headlights slowly made their way toward them. The car stopped about a hundred feet away, right on the tracks. The engine stopped and the lights went out. Mark and Jimmy made thier way toward the car and stopped by the trunk. The poeple inside were talking.
"Ron, I don't like it out here. Let's go." Her voiced sounded frightened.
"Relax. I just want to see if the legend it true. If nothing happens in a few minutes, we'll leave, okay, Kathy?"
Jimmy stifled a laugh and Mark rolled his eyes.
"Did two kids really die here?"
"I heard that back in the seventies two guys got drunk. Thier car stalled right here on the tracks and if you come out here on Halloween night, they'll push your car off if a train is coming."
"That is soooo lame. Come on, it's getting cold. I want to go home."
A train whistle sounded in the distance.
"Let's wait till the train is really close this time and give 'em a good scare."
"Just shut up and start pushing, Jimmy."
The Garden
During an investigation into several disappearances a diary was uncovered. The following are excerpts:
February 22nd. I moved into my new house today. I finally decided I was sick of renting. Hey, I've got a good job now. It's secure and I have more money now than I ever have had before. My house payments are actually a little lower than the rent in the cracker box I was calling home. I really like having control over things, too. If I want to hang a picture there's no landlord nagging me about the holes in the plaster. And I actually have a yard! I only have about three-quarters of an acre but I'm outside the city limits. The south side of my lawn abuts a fairly large stand of trees. I still have neighbors but no more sharing walls! I decided to put in a vegetable garden.
I remember helping my mother in her kitchen garden. Oh, the great vegetables. Of course when I was a little kid, I failed to appreciate it back then. What kid does? I especially hated all the work involved because weeding it was my responsibility. Now I appreciate the value of a job well done. When she remarried she quit the garden.
March 15th. Broke ground for the garden today. I really didn't want to buy any heavy equipment but I couldn't seem to find anyone to hire to do it. I called the three lawn and garden contractors in the Yellow Pages. It was odd. Before they would even tell me if they did rotor tilling, they asked where I lived. All three said they were booked solid. I went down to the local garden shop and shelled out more than I wanted to spend on a new medium-sized tiller. As I was coming home I saw one of my neighbors. I told him
what I was doing when I saw him eyeing the contents of the back of my truck. He gave me a funny look and said that no one gardened around here.
By then it was early afternoon. I spent the next three hours tilling a 30-foot by 30-foot plot near the wood line. I added several bags of manure and worked that in as well. The soil looks very dark so I probably didn't need even that. When I called my mother this evening and told her I'd bought a truckload of shit she wasn't very amused. My whole body aches, especially my arms. I think I'll soak in a hot bath before I go to bed.
March 16th. I spent all morning getting the last few clumps of grass and weeds out of the garden. I'm really sore from yesterday and working with the hoe helped work some of it out. I must run back to town and get some gloves, though. I've got a couple of blisters on my hands. There's a sale on those emergency flashlights. You know the kind that you keep plugged in and charging and if the power goes off they come on automatically. I think I'll pick up one of those while I'm in town. No telling how reliable the electricity is this far out. Tomorrow I plant. String! I must remember to pick up string.
March 17th. I remembered the string. I planted everything into nice neat rows. And I guess now it's just a waiting game. I like to go out and look at my handiwork. It gives me a great sense of satisfaction to see how much I accomplished. When you work behind a desk all day you forget how fulfilling manual labor can be. I wonder if I should put up a fence? I sure didn't plant this garden to feed the rabbits and other creatures from the woods.
April 5th. The garden is starting to turn into more work than I anticipated. Now that I'm back to work from vacation, I can't seem to find the time to work on it. I can't believe how fast the weeds are growing. Everyday there are more of them. There are some big projects at the office coming up so that means even less time for weeding. Too bad I'm not working for an hourly wage. They couldn't afford to keep me if they did. I guess the garden will survive as long as it's watered.
April 18th. I managed to get some of the weeds out of the garden today. It was hard work. It would have been a whole lot easier if I'd been able to keep up with it. While I was weeding I heard a rustling in the woods nearby. I couldn't see what it was and went back to work. A little while later I heard it again. This time I heard a whine, something like you would think a hurt animal would sound like. I know some of the neighbors have pets and with a busy highway not too far away, I decided it was worth checking out. The day had been slightly overcast but as I stepped into the wood line it seemed to grow gloomier. Not that it was any darker than a moment ago, but there was an oppressive feeling to the air.
I moved toward where I though I'd heard the sound but didn't find anything. Just as I was about to start back I thought I heard the rustling behind me. I held very still and listened. There wasn't a sound. Not a bird. Not an insect. The trees were even silent. It suddenly dawned on me that I never really heard birds or insects in the woods before this either. I slowly and deliberately started walking toward where I'd entered. If I hadn't forced myself I probably would have broken into an all out panicked dash for the house. Even with the strange thing about no wildlife, there shouldn't have been anything to frighten me like that. But it was overpowering. I never found a trace of whatever made the noises. Come to think of it, there should be squirrels in the woods, too.
May 1st. I finally got the courage to do more in the garden than water it. All I had to do was turn on the hose near the house. I keep telling myself that I let my imagination get carried away. There isn't anything to be afraid of out there. Except maybe poison ivy. But I still feel uneasy about being near those tress. Things are really growing fast out there. Weeds have started to take over again but I think I really don't care anymore. That would mean having to spend a lot of time near the woods. The odd thing is I never got around to spraying pesticide like I'd planned but the plants (and the weeds) look perfect. No little chew marks, no yellow leaves. Just perfect. I found a dead chipmunk near the snap peas. I went inside the house, found an old shoebox and buried the little critter at the edge of the garden. I felt a little ridiculous and made sure the neighbors weren't watching. But I couldn't leave the poor thing to rot in the open.
May 17th. Very tired tonight. I barely made it through work. There was an awful storm last night that almost knocked out the power a couple of times. I've always loved thunderstorms so I was sitting in the kitchen watching it with the lights out. I have this huge picture window so I had a great view. There was some spectacular lightning. I thought for a while I saw something hovering over the garden. It seemed to be about the size of a hummingbird. But with he next series of lightning flashes it was gone.
May 18th. I went out after work tonight to check on the garden. I wanted to make sure the storm hadn't destroyed anything. The only thing I might have lost were the snap peas. They looked like they had been tramples and then the plant stems near the ground had been twisted deliberately. I don't know if they can survive that. There were two dead birds but it was late and still very soggy with the weeds and all holding in the water. I'll get them out this weekend and dispose of them. They were pretty little songbirds, too.
While I was out there, I hadn't realized it was getting so late. It was near dusk and I suddenly got an uneasy feeling. I beat a hasty retreat into the house.
May 22nd. I went out early to get the birds out of the garden and see if anything needed to be done. All the plants are quite robust and healthy looking. Even the snap peas seem to be recovering. I thought they were dead for sure. I probably won't get as much from them but at least there will be something. I looked for the birds and when I finally found them I was amazed and a little frightened. The weeds seemed to have entwined themselves around the small bodies and if I didn't know better, I'd have sworn they had lain out there for at least a month, not just three or four days. There was little left but bone and feathers. There were no flies.
While I was looking for them I stumbled across the body of a cat. I remembered seeing a flier up in the neighborhood for it. Some little kid is going to be really sad when "Whiskers" doesn't come home. The weeds were already starting to entwine themselves around it. I decided to just leave it all alone. I thought about calling the number that had been on the flier. But what was I going to tell them? I found your cat dead in my garden but I'm afraid to move it? Yeah.
June 13th. I'm spending less and less time in the garden. I don't even like to go out and check it anymore. Every time I go out, there's more dead animals, all being absorbed by the weeds. I don't know how else to describe it. Toads and birds and chipmunks. I never know what to expect when I go out there. I'm scared to tell anyone. They'd only think I was nuts. Until I showed them the garden, anyway. Wait. Scratch that. They'd think I was so nuts I was doing it myself. The bad part is it seems to be going after bigger animals now. I found a dog that must have been a stray: no collar or tags. I don't know if I could even stop it now. I keep thinking back to the snap peas. This is crazy. It's just a garden. Maybe I'm under too much pressure at work. I have been working some long hours.
July 17th. I haven't been out to the garden in over a month. I've even stopped watering it. But it continues to thrive. More dogs and cast are missing in the neighborhood. I'm afraid to even look.
July 18th. I woke up and found vegetables from the garden on my back porch. The dew was still on the ground and I could see a clear path all the way across the lawn. I went outside to look at it. I couldn't tell who or what made it but whatever did didn't leave prints outside of that one path from the garden to the porch. It looked like someone had shuffled across the lawn.
July 23rd. More and more vegetables are piling up on my porch. They've blocked my back door.
July 24th. I saw one of my neighbors while I was leaving this morning. Alice Davidson I think her name is. I waved and smiled. She just watched me drive down the road with a sour look on her face. I've seen her and some of my other neighbors laughing and talking. They all seem friendly enough...to each other. I guess it just take
s a while for the people here to accept someone new.
August 14th. I saw on the evening news that Roger Davidson has turned up missing. I thought I was afraid to look in the garden when it was only animals. More vegetables keep appearing on my back porch. I refuse to touch them. They just lie there in a stinking rotting pile. I don't see any ants or other insects anywhere near it. There is this strange black, bubbly mildew over the older parts of the pile. That thing I saw during the thunderstorm is back. It lazily hovers over the garden just after dusk. It is darker than dark. It seems to absorb all the light that touches it, sucking it away like a small black hole above my garden.
August 26th. Two more neighbors are missing. A couple of cops came to my door asking if I'd heard or seen anything. What could I tell them? The plants in my garden are eating them? I'd be hauled off for sure. I just said that I'd been working long hours and had seen nothing unusual. When they asked about the pile up against the house I told them it was compost. I don't think they believed me. I might even be a suspect now for all I know. That thing is visiting more and getting bolder as each day passes. I still haven't seen it as long as the sun is still above the horizon.
I saw it the other night right outside the house, hovering over the pile. It also seems to be growing. I wish I could think of a way to stop it. I'm afraid who will be next. I've even spent a couple of nights at the office because I didn't want to get home after dark.
August 27th. I couldn't sleep at all. I just kept thinking about that thing. I called into work today. I have to take some kind of action. I can't sit by while this thing kills everyone and thing in this area. I went into town and ran into a guy I work with while I was at the register. Just my luck. Maybe it won't get back to the office I was playing hooky. I spread a truck bed full of rock salt over the garden. If this can't kill plant life, I don't know what will. Just to be on the safe side I threw all the herbicide and pesticide I could find in the shed on top of that. I also installed floodlights with motion detectors. I'll just have to wait now.
August 28th. Last night was terrible. I had the lights off, sitting at the kitchen table. When the sun set nothing much happened. After about an hour the floodlights came on. There was nothing out there. After the lights went back off, something hit the house. Then the floods came back up. This went on all night. Something hitting the house, the lights coming up. A clod of dirt and rock crashed through the picture window I was looking through. I sat frozen, waiting.
The light went off. When my eyes finally readjusted, I noticed the thing. It was just outside the hole in the window. I had been wrong. This thing was not drawing in the surrounding light. It was oozing darkness. I could see dark, curling tendrils of blackness wisping around the core like smoke. It looked like a small black sun. I couldn't move. I was so terrified. It seemed to finally notice me. How this thing could see or think was beyond me. But something about its aspect changed. It started to move through the home. Something inside me snapped. I raced to the light switch and turned it on. Instantly the thing disappeared. The floodlight outside came back up. I stood laughing and crying in the middle of the room.
I went to every room in the house and turned on all the lights. Two other windows on the south side of the house were broken in. Why hadn't the thing come through those? Maybe it was looking for me. Am I next? I spent the rest of the night keeping watch. I didn't turn off the lights until an hour after sunrise. I have got to get some sleep.
August 29th.I slept fitfully for a few hours. I woke up around two this afternoon. I went outside and saw the south side of the house had been pelted with dirt and vegetables. I took the motion sensors off the floodlights. This thing doesn't seem to be able to do anything in bright light. Well, I'll keep it at bay until I can think of what else to do.
August 30th. Most of last night was quiet but it was the worst by far. I was sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee around 4am when the electricity went out. My flashlight came on and I grabbed it and went to the window. I turned it off to see what would happen. I didn't see anything when my eyes adjusted. I went back to the kitchen table. Suddenly I felt the hairs on my neck prickle up. The thing was in the house.
I turned around swinging the flashlight as I turned it on. The thing dodged the light and went to hover in the corner above the refrigerator. I turned the flashlight on it and it seemed to diffuse slightly before it could dodge out of the way. I chased it around the kitchen for a few minutes like this. Then it lunged at me.
It kind of splatted into my chest. At first I was too scared and stunned to move. My chest started to feel weird. It felt hot and cold at the same time and my breath caught in my throat. It felt like something vital was being ripped out of me. Almost without thinking I started hitting it with the flashlight. It didn't help. May arms were starting to feel weak and I would swear my heart was slowing down despite the fact I was scared to death and fighting as hard as I could. I started to black out. Finally I realized I should turn the light on it. That did the trick. The thing flew off of me and back up into the corner. I half crawled to the sink, opened the cupboard underneath it, and dragged myself in. I was breathing in ragged gasps and my head felt like it was on fire. I wanted to throw up. I stayed in the cupboard with the flashlight on until I could see light around the cracks. I dragged myself back out and passed out on the floor. I woke up around noon.
August 31st, 7:00 PM. I still feel extremely weak. I managed to open a can of soup hoping that that would help. I couldn't keep it down. The electricity is still out. I tried to call for repair but the phone is dead, too. I just want to leave. I have to get out of here but I can't even stand without passing out. I'd never make it to the car. Oh god, help me. It will be dark soon.
Student - Teacher Relations
Principal Adams rose from her chair and shook hands with the tall, handsome man. He was thin with close cropped brown hair.
"Have a seat. You wanted so see me about the entrance hall buuletin board, John?" She asked.
"I'd like to post some of my students' work there. Sort of a hall of fame for the English class. I feel that seeing some of hteir work there will help encourage participation in class. I have some talented kids. Sarah White and Greg Hopkins especially."
She took her seat and leaned back. She smiled and crow's feet appeared at the corners of her green eyes. The light reflected off her silver-gray hair, cut stylishly short.
"I like that idea. Yes. You know, I'm happy I took a gamble on you now that I see how well you deal with the students. When I heard about the problem you had I was reluctant to grant your transfer request."
John shifted in his chair.
"I'm over that now. I'm ready to put all my energy into teaching." He lifted his eyes to meed Principal Adams'.
"I certainly hope so."