In the Garden

Among the weeds and finally relaxed, I took in a deep breath. Bells chimed behind me but I ignored them, lulled instead by the sweet smell of the grass, the quiet patter as small bugs pranced around beneath and beside me. Crushing the dirt as I made an impromptu snow angel, I let out the air I had forgotten I’d been holding.

            Dark circles had been beneath my eyes the last time I’d looked in the mirror, but lying here beneath the sunlight and just above the underground and I felt warmth returning to my skin. Electrified, I sat up with a shiver as the day began to heat up, the sun growing brighter with each passing second.

            Far enough away we might forget about it, and yet close enough that it’s still everything the Earth turns for I thought to myself. Goodness keeps its distance like that though I suppose. Helps people remember to value it, lest it slip away. I fell back down into the grass, staring blatantly at the sun as my eyes watered and the grass grew warmer still. Jokingly I considered a staring contest, but looked away quickly before the sun could blind me. King of light, and it would be foolish to test that.

Looking at the grass to calm my eyes back to regular color, and I noticed something shiny on the other side of the garden. More silver than tin foil, it captured my attention immediately and fully enough that I stood up and walked over to look closer. Near enough to realize why it was sparkling, I noticed it was a beautiful silver engagement ring. Old enough to have fallen off someone’s finger, and yet the diamond still shone as if it were new.

Picking the ring out of the grass, I smiled at the weight of it in my hands. Quickly sharing it with the sun, and I noticed the pink, blue, and green hues that shone through what had originally seemed purely transparent. Realistically, I couldn’t take it without repercussions. Seriously though? Temptation was sweet and I was taken in by sugar.

Undoing the clasp of my wallet, I slipped the ring inside the first pocket reserved for coins. Vividly it shone through the thin fabric. What to do next was unclear; could I stay here in the garden with this clear piece of evidence clinging to me like a stray dog? Xeroxed copies of my picture would make their way into the news, presenting me as a criminal when I was only an innocent, an innocent claimed slave to curiosity.

“You don’t belong here,” I heard a voice behind me say quietly. Zooming quickly around and I noticed it was the woman who owned the garden; shuffling quickly to the exit and I kept an eye behind me as the image began to fade.

Almost three hours had passed and the garden reduced itself to what it always had been: a dismal gray strip of sidewalk in a quiet little alley, a sprout of crabgrass full of my own used needles the only green for miles.