Friday, October 30, 2009

Halloween Snippet


“Snip, snip, snip”. Her Felco clippers imitated a metronome as she pruned the spent Heliconia leaves. This plant was at the edge of deep shade and in a seldom visited part of her garden. The little woman had been at it for what seemed hours.

Pausing beneath a towering Talipot palm she noticed the sky was turning a morbid shade of gray, adding an odd heaviness to her usually pleasant mood.

She was just so tired. Gardening never used to take it out of her like this. “ I guess it’s just old age” the woman thought. “My, wouldn’t it be nice to just take a little nap.” Looking left she noticed a dark void in the tangled roots that supported an ancient Ficus tree.

Pushing aside spider webs the gray haired gardener crept into the opening, sat down, and slowly slumped over, her head cradled against rough bark. As she closed her eyes the last things she noticed was a large bird in a near pine and a heavy odor, a thick miasma of decay entering her nostrils while she began to doze.

The odd dream slowly formed, in her mind’s eye she saw a curious looking bug and her own wizened hands pruning, clipping with the rusty shears …snip, snip, snip.

Snip , snip, snip…the drumbeat of the pruners grew louder and closer, slightly painful…snip, snip, snip.

SNIP, SNIP, SNIP…louder now…so loud and so close.… the pain increasing tenfold…it seemed to be .......................................................................
inside her head………………………………………………………............
..................................................................................for indeed........……………………………....
..................................................................................................................................................it was!

15 comments:

Deborah at Kilbourne Grove said...

Now, I will have nightmares tonight, do you hear anything......

Mary Delle LeBeau said...

A scary story for gardeners. Good work

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

The poor woman! Guess napping in the garden isn't such a good idea.

Pamie G. said...

Stop it already!!! lol...

Tatyana@MySecretGarden said...

It's a good Halloween story, Scott!

rebecca sweet said...

You are SUCH a great storyteller....thanks for the scary images...really appreciate it...I'll be sure to be thinking of your in the middle of the night when I awake from a horrible nightmare....

Nell Jean said...

Your ESP was just a little off. My actual thoughts as this old grey-haired woman went to sleep last night was, "I need to ask Scott about cutting back the heliconias...."

Kathy said...

EEK! How am I going to get that image out of my head? I will never "hear" my pruners the same!

Michelle said...

snip....snip.....snip....scary critters!! Happy Halloween and thank you for your kind comment on my blog. I look forward to this new botanical site! Cheerio for Vancouver Island. Michelle

Caroline said...

Creeeepy!
What a great Halloween tale.

Wendy said...

crreeeeepppyyyy. Creepy story, made especially creepy with that awful large armoured bug. ew. Good thing we don't have those kinds of bugs around here - at least not that I know of. Great story (wizened is one of my favorite words. I need to start using it more often).

Kimberly said...

I was concerned about the vulture, but the beetle jaws were creepier by far. What great garden horror. You might have a new fictional genre here...

radha said...

You have these lurking nearby? Yeeks!

tree service south shore said...

Excellent blog, an educational resource for gardeners and researchers. Cheers for posting.

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