A man stood in a wasteland. Dry, cracked earth surrounded him. He was wearing an unbuttoned white suit with a black shirt underneath. He had a black tie that flapped on the wind. The man took a step, his white shoes leaving a footprint in the barren, brown dirt. Everywhere around him was the same; a dreaded scenery of inhabitable land, ruined by bones of concrete and stone. No green was evident on the land, only black, grey, and sickly brown.
This wasn’t how he had left things. It wasn’t at all how he had left it. “Tsk, tsk, tsk”, he mumbled, sighing.
The man walked for a bit more, his suit and shoes remaining spotless and unspoiled. He was a speck of white on a grey-brown canvas. After some time, he stopped, looking down.
“Oh, you poor thing”, he said. The violent wind carried his words. In front of him, in a small, but shallow hole, something moved. A foetus was in it, sobbing and moaning painfully. It looked sickly and brown, with a colour a shade deeper than the poisoned earth around it. Its limbs were thin, looking more like branches. They weren’t moving. Only his frail chest rose faintly when it took a breath.
“What have they done to you…”. The man reached down and took the foetus in his arms. It left a trail on his white suit, but the man didn’t seem to mind. “It pains me heavily to see you like this, my child.”
The foetus stopped moaning in the man’s embrace and it started breathing more regularly. Its limbs dangled numbly in the air. The man looked up, frowning. Two giant dark clouds mingled above, occasionally hurling lighting at each other. It cast the entire land in shadow.
“Let there be light!”, the man said. Instantly, as if pushed by an enormous hand, the clouds dispersed, allowing rays of sunshine to fall upon the man and the foetus. It cringed in his hands, surprised by the sudden burst of light. “Hush, hush”, the man gently swayed the foetus. “Now let’s find you a better home.”
#
A man stood in a wasteland. It was the same as before, barren and empty, but it wasn’t littered with concrete remains. The foetus was still in his hands, cradled like a baby. It seemed to be asleep. They stood at the top of a low but wide hill. “It’ll do”, the man said. He looked at the ground. A patch of dirt suddenly darkened, and soon, a puddle appeared. The water was clear and cold. Soon, as more and more water burst from the ground, the puddle began moving down the slope of the hill. As it washed over the land, the dirt regained its dark colour, allowing the acid and toxic dust to seep into the stream of water. Contently, the man watched. He knelt, gently holding the sleeping foetus with his left arm, while he touched a piece of wet dirt with the palm of his right arm. The earth opened, revealing a shallow hole with a dome-like bottom. The man gently placed the foetus inside the hole. It snuggled, shifting a bit, and then it continued sleeping. The man stood and the earth closed. In a moment, dots of green appeared around the place where the foetus was buried. He looked at the sun and smiled.
A tree erupted from the ground, reaching well over the man’s height. It had young budding leaves on its branches. “There you go. All better, I see”, the man said softly. The wind gently rustled the leaves.
“Now, I know they hurt you, and that they’ll probably do so again. But I want you to give them a second chance.” The man pulled two clay figurines out of his pocket. They resembled humans, one male and the other female. “Maybe they will treat you nicely and with respect this time. Maybe…”
The leaves rustled in the wind.
“You will accept them? You know I can’t force you to love…”
The leaves rustled again, eagerly so.
“Even after everything, you forgive them.” The man smiled. “You make me proud.” He placed the two figurines at the bottom of the tree trunk. The man turned around. The green was covering almost every piece of land as far as he could see. The man took a deep breath of fresh air.
“I guess I have a soft spot for gardens…”
