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101 Word Short Stories

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Stealth Gardening

March 18, 2022 6 Comments

By Helen Chambers

Denny helps me over the fence—such a gentleman! The others don’t wait. Those mere saplings don’t understand that 80-year-old legs don’t bend and twist so easily, that 80-year-old fingers can’t grip like ivy. I never expected to be creeping around town in the dark wearing a balaclava and army boots, trespassing—trespassing!—on private property: the Smythe’s back garden, actually. I’m sowing a rainbow of colour into the darkness, planting as if to extend my life. Sapphire love-in-a-mist, scarlet poppies, yellow corncockle, and bottle-blue cornflowers will bloom in my tracks in summer, even if I’m not around to see them.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Helen C says

    March 18, 2022 at 7:03 am

    The ending is very sweet and poignant.

    Reply
    • HelenWivenhoe says

      March 18, 2022 at 7:31 am

      Thank you 🙂

      Reply
      • Janita Le Fevre says

        March 18, 2022 at 7:55 am

        I love the repetition of ’80 year old.’
        Perhaps new lines at’ I never expected’ and ‘I’m sowing’
        The colour references are wonderful. Well done

        Reply
  2. Nancy Rule says

    March 18, 2022 at 9:28 am

    Sapphire love-in-a-mist – love this – great story – so visual!

    Reply
  3. Vanessa Crannis says

    March 18, 2022 at 11:31 am

    What a touching idea. The entry to the garden is a striking description and you create the prettiest flower bed in my mind’s eye.
    Wonderful!

    Reply
  4. Indra Raj Pathak says

    March 24, 2022 at 8:29 am

    Quite amazing, very creative plot with metaphors steals the show.

    Reply

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