Sunday, January 12, 2014

Blog // The Vacant Lot (Short Story)



I am a vacant lot. Inside, you can find nothing but “Dust”. Unfortunately, I had an almost dying tree, leaves and weeds before but something happened during the past months. I was almost killed and abandoned by my previous owner. My walls are made of granite and it is huge and high so that no people would be able to enter me. The deafening silence on my background became natural as the breathing of the almost dying trees. The withered leaves were blown away by the strong gust of summer wind. The overwhelming smell of earth crust was the scent which I came to love. The sound of the cracking branches of trees became the music of my everyday dull life… until… this person came.

Let me tell you my tragic story. Continue reading if you want to know. Ignore this if you’re not interested. I don’t care anymore because I have nothing to lose this time. I am naked and vulnerable to every thing but no thing could ruin me more because my current situation is the definition of “Ruined”.

It was a sunny day and the usual tremendous heat of the sun hit us hard. The almost dying tree cried out loud and my weeds were getting helpless. The wall which protected me from intruders was so colorless and it mirrored aging in an ugly way. I sighed, the almost dying tree sighed, my weeds sighed.

And then, in an unexpected moment we felt the presence of somebody who was trying to climb the wall. The almost dying tree squealed in excitement and my weeds became excited and curious… but I became nervous.

“What is this person trying to do?” I asked myself.

The person courageously climbed up the wall and confidently jumped inside me. It was a “man”. We were all mesmerized by his appearance but slowly, I got scared. And I thought he was going to turn his way back home but he didn’t. Instead, he described the place… he described us as something very interesting, something new…

He swept the ground under the heat of the furious summer sun. He didn’t care about the overflowing sweat on his face and his body… he continued with his task. He pulled out all the dried weeds and replaced them with Bermuda grass. He threw away all the trash. He watered the whole land and finally he planted some flower seeds.

Every day, he will visit the place where he planted the seed and watered and talked to them naturally. Every day, everyday… he was always there. He shared to us his happiness, dreams, secrets, worries and problems.

Whenever he talked to us, we feel very happy. It felt like he’s watering our non-existing heart.  He made us happy. He made us feel like we do have a worth in this “unfair” world, and that  it was possible for us to feel this kind of emotion.

And then, we felt the “need”. The “need” to be with him all the time. The “need” to know him more… know him better. The “need” to hear his voice every second.

One day, he finally saw the fruit of his efforts… one flower appeared which seemed to be blooming. He talked to it and prayed to God to protect the flower until it finally bloomed.

When the flower bloomed, his joy was beyond words. He couldn’t express his happiness… it was more than doubled when the other flowers bloomed too. The place suddenly became lively, with vivid colors of different flowers. And every day, he would look for the flowers and tend on them… he did this task for quite a long time… until he became tired of it… he had enough.

Every day became thrice a week which became twice a week… once a week, twice a month, once a month… and then… he came one day. When we saw his face and started talking… we thought “Oh, this is the end of the fairy tale.” He was carrying a huge garden scissors. Without warning, he cut all the flowers and threw them away. He cut down the trees. He was madly tarnishing the garden he worked so hard for… until he said out loud “I had enough of your pure beauty! I wanted something new and I found the place somewhere far away from here… I will leave now and never come back… don’t wait for me… and don’t expect me to come here again. This is the end. Goodbye.”

A huge hurricane came and it washed all the debris left by him. The sun came and dried me. Since that day, I became a vacant lot for the second time… my situation became worse than the first one. At least back then, I had weeds and dying trees… but he left me with nothing. Nothing but dry land… I can only hear the air and I can only smell the earth… I feel like dying… the huge wall I had… I made it higher than before and I now have a roof so that no person will be able to jump from there. I don’t want to experience the feeling of being abandoned for the second time.  After making me feel that the world is indeed beautiful… he left me with this huge scar on my soul… which will remind me that “I am abandoned”.

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The Inspiration:

Depression. Frustration.