Keykey Bee
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The Hidden Garden
Amaryllis looked out her back window through glazed eyes. She filled the golden kettle with water, like she did every morning. Today was different though, instead of ignoring the death and decay in her backyard, she stared at it. Unlike her grandmother, and the mothers before her, Amaryllis felt as though she took life from all that was around her, instead of breathing into it. Anything Grandma Aster touched bloomed as though the oils on her skin were fertilizer. The family, her food, her garden, everything browned and fell loose after she passed away. “Why did she leave me this place? I am not worthy of it” Amaryllis asked herself every single day. She set the sparkling kettle on the stove top and turned on the gas, igniting the flame. She stepped quietly to the table and sat down. Bills, notices, scattered across her once sacred table like maple leaves in October. She reached for the stack of unopened letters. One by one she opened them. Past due, notice of cancellation, collections, red stamped and ugly like stubborn weeds. Every day more and more were cropping up. “What am I going to do? What CAN I do?” she kept asking herself as she chewed the inside of her lip. She opened the last letter, a bank notice of foreclosure. Amaryllis stopped breathing. Her hands shook, eyes welled up. This was the one she long dreaded opening. She had pressed for extensions as long as she could but there was no more time left.
By Keykey Bee3 years ago in Fiction