The Hidden Oasis
He lives in a run down house at the far edge of town. I see him walking from the post office occasionally, usually on Wednesday.
He walks with a barely perceptible limp. The hat he wears is a deep green and sits slightly off center on his thinning crown. Some of the town's teens whisper about him and stare, almost in fear.
No one seems to mind him living down that way, but they discourage their children from going down there with school fund raisers or even trick or treating.
He has a car in a garage beside his humble house all grown up with weeds and briars. Someone said he stopped driving the car after the missus passed ten years past. No one ever met either of them in social gatherings.
The day my spaniel, Ralph, chased a rabbit back that direction was the day I found out how much this quiet old man contributed to our little town and it took my breath away.
I rounded the bend running, following Ralph's barking as I swang around the back yard huffing pretty deep because I was out of air.
The back yard was completely different than the modest front. Before me rose elegant statues intertwined with the most beautiful blooming vines. Intricate wooden benches and swings were situate in various places throughout the most beautiful garden my eyes ever rested on. A pond rests in the center of this hidden oasis and, to my utter disbelief, several deer wander casually through the garden. Birds whistle to each other, setting off the alarm that I, a stranger, have breached the garden.
I stopped in my tracks and looked left and right for Ralph who wasn't barking or chasing the rabbit any more. He lay, to my shock, at the feet of that old man who was holding the terrified rabbit and stroking his soft fur.
Here there hides a sanctuary of proportions that no one dwelling in this little dust bowl could ever imagine. Fruit trees and fragrant florals everywhere the eye could see.
This place could be a great support to the community, if only the old man desired to share his oasis.
photo captured with Galaxy Note10 Plus on my lawn
This is my five minute freewrite using prompt: great support to the community hosted by @mariannewest.
My Twitter handle is:
@wandrnrose7
Please find me there ❤
Thank you for reading 📚, comments ✍, & sharing 👫.
Amazing story and thank you very much I really appreciate your posting today.
Thank you for dropping in and I'm happy that you enjoyed it! Take care ❤
Absolutely have a beautiful day from both me and puppy dog.
Congratulations @wandrnrose7! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Your next target is to reach 900 posts.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Check out the last post from @hivebuzz:
what a great story!! I'm guessing this is fiction? Otherwise it sounds "too good to be true," which is often a sure sign that a great story *is true. The image of the old man and the rabbit at the end: priceless. You pack a lot of wisdom into a variation on the cautionary tale (not to judge by appearances). love it!
It is fully Faxon, and you have a good eye lol. Thank you so much for reading my little story. To me that's a feel-good story that comes right out of the clouds.
fully Faxon = fully non-fictional?
Sorry, I'm every bit as obtuse as sister Lori said I was. :)
(But I still learned a lot of stuff you didn't, Lori, so there's that.)
yeah, I'm still holding conversations with her inside my head...
I love the old man, the one whose door the kids must not knock on, come Halloween.
You could make a whole novel out of him. With the rabbit. :)
Lol fictional. I didn't even notice what my phone had done when I did that comment my voice text. Sorry about the confusion!
One of these days I'll stop being a flaky short, insecure writer and actually move forward with one of these encouraging thoughts on an idea. Right now I focus on my day to day and try to get some writing in or other creative outlet (art) or else I feel that I'm completely suppressed. The day the day job on the phone answering health insurance benefits and questions gets to be a brain and creativity sucker.
My heart really hurt when I read that story about your sisters last words and I can't even imagine the impact that had on your spirit. There sure was a lot of emptiness in her apparently. My first instinct was jealousy. I grapple with my only daughter, Lianna, who hates the very thought of me. She has taken after her father who hates me doubly. I can't feel too bad though, because she hates God just as much as she hates me and so I know that she's not rational.
As a newlywed after almost twenty years of Single Living, I am learning to share my spaces and my life with a spouse. It's not as easy as it seems LOL. In any event, it's awesome to speak with you again.
Your daughter and her daddy... thank God you're a newlywed and starting over, even if it's a bit of an adjustment. Thanks for the kind words - I've heard "jealousy" as a motive - why can't we be happy for others who succeed and do well and look great?? Oh well. Off to walk dogs and enjoy what's left of an October day. The sun keeps setting earlier but spring will come.... and you are NOT a "flaky" writer, and you will move forward. :)
:) I agree with you and by flaky I just mean inconsistent. Today was an exceptionally beautiful fall day. I hope your walk was refreshing! I'm not looking forward to the cold winter months looming ahead.
The long, cold winter: I used to dread it too. Now I look forward to a respite from chiggers, ticks mosquitoes, poison ivy, humidity, heat, and other hazards of summer. Just, not TOO cold, please, none of that prolonged, sub-zero stuff, and no icy roads, but snow is pretty and the curl of smoke against pewter skies, the smell of woodfires burning, and hot cider mulling.... yeah, pass me the knitting needles, I might even learn to knit a warm woolen blanket. NO ICY ROADS, right? Deal....?
Eh. I'll be counting the days until spring, just as soon as December 21 arrives.
That was a delightful comment to read! Where are you that you have chiggers? We have tics, poison ivy, poison oak, deer flies and lots of mosquitoes. I am a summer kind of girl. I need the hope of sun to look forward to, especially now that I work from home. Our winter starts in November and goes through end of May😖.
On revisiting this one, the ending caught my eye anew.
He chooses to keep it an oasis - not out of selfishness, perhaps, but in order to protect it from vandals and intruders and those who judge? It's an intriguing question (to me). Why does he not share his oasis even though it means ridicule and distrust and misconceptions about him. Among others in his community. Apparently his community is nature with its flora and fauna, not humans, with their thorns, rules, expectations, and prohibitions. Again: you pack so much into a small space! Splendidly done!
What a beautiful story!!! That image of the man petting the bunny, and the dog spellbound at his feet, gave me chills. The old man has created a node of higher frequencies, so that the town, unknowingly, benefits. Lovely stuff