Today's #flashfiction The Two Gardens

“Color inside the lines.”

Jackson Pollock* #quote

Tomorrow CJ might be coming over, though it's uncertain. Whether or not he comes over I'll probably find myself in some shenanigans since one of the mole people is coming by for tea time. Anyway onto the flash fiction!

The Two Gardens

        Two neighbors tended their gardens. They lived in a harsh, hot climate so they needed to care for them so the displays would thrive. Both of the old men considered themselves artists, both wore sensible clothes to dig holes in the dirt and plant their plants. And both looked at each other as friends and rivals.

       Tom's garden consisted of the most delicate and beautiful plants he could find. He shipped exotic flowers from every place he could muster and worked hard to maintain them so they wouldn't die out. He also treated manipulated his garden as his plants grew, so that lovely patterns erupted from within. The garden made quite the spectacle when a gust of wind pushed the roses and violets like the strokes of a massive paintbrush.

      Nathan's garden didn't have any green in it. Instead bright light shone off all that grew in his garden. Copper, tin, aluminum, steel and all forms of metal. Nathan worked as a mechanic until he retired and grew very knowledgeable about metals. He took pieces from scrapyards and created his own plants of metal with his blowtorch and planted them in the ground. He polished the pieces and put all manner of substances to protect them from rust and remove it.

     The two men stood proud next to their gardens. Many people visited and loved them, the houses behind the yards often being completely ignored for the spectacle of what the men created. Years passed and the men kept tending their gardens, Tom getting better, rarer more delicate plants and

Nathan making more wondrous artificial life spiral from the soil of his home.

      Eventually though, then men passed. Both very close to each other, but no one can remember who died first. Either way the consequence was the same, they both left their gardens behind and no one had the heart they did to take care of them.

     Without the knowledge and work needed the rare plants of Tom's garden withered in their harsh climate. Nathan's garden rusted away, each bit of constructed life turning from something thriving to ugly trash over time. Eventually new owners of the home chose simply to erase the gardens with a simple layer of grass.