Board Thread:Story Board/@comment-25997078-20180108004154

I've been working on this story for some time now.

This is actually a school assignment, and I want your guys' honest opinions on this.

The Garden

A STORY ABOUT GENEROSITY AND THE GIFT OF GIVING

It was December 24th. Many were excited for the Christmas season to begin. The air was cold, giving fluffy and crunchy snow, and paving the way for the first two days of winter. But, more importantly, with everyone’s festive attitude growing in, it was Christmas Eve. Everyone using what they got from last year, Black Friday or anything else of that sort to decorate their houses and trees.

Of course, there’s always one man who doesn’t like doing so.

I’m not talking about Ebenezer Scrooge or The Grinch, no. But rather, A grinch, a curmudgeon. Someone who is mean-spirited and unfriendly. Someone who doesn’t care about the festive season(s). Someone who sees Christmas as a holiday that was just made for the purpose of receiving gifts.

And that’s exactly where it takes us.

In a suburban neighbourhood, right Midwest to the mountains, lied a house. Who occupied that house? Well, you can read the description above, and it’s a fitting personality for who did. A cold-hearted selfish goon who had no intention to give. His only passion was the backyard. Growing flowers in the garden, using the latest fertilizer and tools. He had his focus aimed towards his garden too much to grasp the knowledge of the feelings of anyone around him.

“You don’t mean that, do you?” A boy cried out.

“Of course I mean that. Everyone should just stick to what they have and not hand anything over to anyone. That’s the easy route to take.” The man scowled.

“Well then, sir. I hope you have a good day.” The boy pleaded.

“I’LL ONLY HAVE A PASSIONATE DAY IF I HAVE THAT DAY FOR MYSELF, AND NOT TO ANYONE ELSE!” The man yelled.

The boy stood there in fear. Not a second later, he ran off like the wind. The man did nothing to stop him. He just let him run off to the busy streets of his hometown. The man grasped his pencil and squeezed it, just to relieve the stress he put into himself. There was one other thing he grasped. His toolbox. He was about to go gardening, taking care of his plants.

He creaked open the door to his backyard. He walked over the old and mossy planks to his garden, where, in the dawn of day, he began to clean the snow and heat the plants so that they would grow well. He had a greenhouse installed so that the plants could grow in any season. He shovelled the dirt. He planted the fertilizer. He watered and moistened the dirt. He made sure everything was stable for his plants to grow.

“Plants don’t just grow out of the ground. They need special care. The kind of care that should be provided to first class passengers on an airplane.” He mumbled in excitement.

After he was finished gardening- no. He devoted most of the day to gardening, because it was his only passion. It was about 2:16 PM when he was finished with his gardening. He packed all of his tools back into his toolbox, shutting and locking it. He went back into his house, putting his toolbox underneath his staircase. He then creaked open his front door, sitting down at his front porch, giving evil stares to anyone who passed by the sidewalk. Some people ignored him, some people gave him an angry stare back, while some just went to the other side of the street.

One however, did none of the above.

He was walking down the street, trekking down the snowy sidewalk, wearing a brown cloak, going down to his knees and covering his head. He was walking with socks, torn, down the snowy sidewalk, just walking along.

“What is this man doing?”

The man gave this cloaked figure an evil stare. The cloaked figure stopped. Did he notice the stare the man was giving him?

Suddenly, but slowly, he turned his head towards him. When his head was fully tiled towards him, he gazed upwards towards his face. That was it. Standing, in the middle of the sidewalk, with torn socks, just looking up at him. The cloak covering his head blocked any light, covering his face in darkness.

“Excuse me, but you’re trespassing! Leave!” The man scowled.

The hooded figure did nothing. He just stood there.

“What did I tell you?! Leave!!” The man yelled.

Still standing there. Did nothing.

“What are you doing?!?! Stop with this ridicule!!” The man yelled, so that the entire neighbourhood could hear.

…

“That’s it! I’m calling the cops!” The man yelled, louder than ever.

…

The man went inside and grabbed the cordless phone, but before he could dial 911, he noticed something out of the window. Nothing. The man was gone, just like that.

The man smiled. “That got rid of him” He smirked.

He still had some anger in him after yelling out to the trespasser. He knew exactly what could settle down the mood. That’s right. Gardening. As ridiculous as that sounds, he did it anyway. He got his toolbox from under his staircase and walked outside into his backyard.

Only to find that he had dropped his suitcase in fear, eight seconds after he had walked out the door. Why would he do that? Well, that’s because his garden, his only passion, his only form of joy.

The flowers had been ruined.

“Dear goodness!! What happened to my garden?” The man yelled out to the world.

Suddenly, he heard a creak behind him. The wooden floor boards were creaking, trying to support the weight of something. The man froze cold.

“W-w-w-what w-was th-that???” The man stuttered.

He slowly, and fearfully turned his head around, and what he saw made him shake.

It was him. The same man that he saw in his driveway. The same man he assumed was getting frostbite from the torn socks he was wearing, the same man who had a cloak covering his body.

“WOAH!!” The man yelled in shock.

The figure stood still. It did nothing.

“Do you have a problem??? BEGONE, YOU PEST!” The man shouted out to the figure, pushing him away.

The figure stepped back to where he was.

…

“Look here.” The figure said, vanishing into thin air.

As the figure disintegrated, the man scratched his head, curious as to what just happened. What did happen? Was he hallucinating? The man stayed silent, but his face and body charged with fear. He turned around, still with his body frozen, ready to continue gardening.

“Maybe… maybe the soil was too salty…” The man muttered.

As he entered his greenhouse and prepared all of his tools, he began to sift and examine the soil for salt. After 1 hour of searching, he found no salt. Not a crystal.

“Maybe… maybe there’s a crack in the greenhouse…” The man muttered.

The man checked all around the walls and windows. After a good 30 minutes of checking, he came up with nothing. Not a crack, not a single impurity. The greenhouse was cleaner than a shiny golden ingot.

“Maybe… Maybe there-”

“MAYBE YOU SHOULD LOOK BEHIND YOU..” A voice insisted, coming from behind him.

The man wasn’t afraid anymore. He was furious. He looked behind him, ready to strike. But he immediately stopped. Stopped, with a face full of fear, as to what he saw. It was the same figure as before, only his hood had been let down. And his face.. his face was a skull. A skull, staring dead into the man’s eyes. No piece of flesh or muscle in the face. At all. Just a dead, white skull. His feet were off the ground, floating in the air, looking down at the man.

“Wh-who… no… WHAT are you???” The man exclaimed in fear.

“My identity is better known as a secret. My purpose of visit, however, should not.” The figure said. His mouth was covered by the tall, crest of his cloak. Who knows if his teeth were moving or not.

“Then… what are you doing here? To mess up my garden? Did you do this?!”

“Who else would it have been? Everyone has already become terrified of you.”

“So you did do this?! Why?!”

“Why do you think I did this?”

“…Because you’re a jerk…” The man quietly said.

Suddenly, the figure’s dead, calm eyesockets shifted into an angry stare. The crest of his hood lowered, revealing a mouth, teeth full of cavities. Slowly, his mouth opened, leading to a jaw gaping wide open.

“I’M A WHAT???” The figure shouted in anger.

“I’m sorry! It was only an expression of anger, I put lots of work into my garden. DON’T HURT ME PLEASE!!” The man stuttered quickly.

The figure’s eyes shifted back into a blank stare, and it’s jaw lowered, putting back it’s original expression.

“Thin words… but that’s not why I’m here. I’m here because of your false contributions to peace.” The figure said.

“…False contributions to peace?”

“Don’t act like you’re so innocent, because you aren’t. You’ve disliked everyone you saw. You threw away everyone you came across without giving them the slightest chance.”

“It can’t be as bad as that…”

“Oh, but it is. It is as bad as that.”

“…But how can I impact everyone’s lives just because I’m “Not so innocent?””

“Oh, I’m glad you mentioned that.”

The figure slowly started to rise his hand towards the man. The hand protruded from his sleeve, and out came the most vile and most sickening hand anyone has ever seen. Dirt was scattered all over it, cuts and bruises decorated it, bugs were crawling, The man backed away from it, refusing to touch it.

“Not clean enough for you? Well, let’s make it a little easier on your clean hands.”

The figure’s hand slid back into the sleeve, and tucked the sleeve into the armpit of his cloak. After 15 seconds, he took the sleeve from his cloak, and out came a much cleaner hand, only covered with dirt, and no wound or bruise in sight. The man slowly moved closer, and reached out his hand, ready to contact the other. As soon as the hands touched, a twinkling sound filled the man’s ears as gold dust emitted from the figure’s hand. The face of the figure began to turn to gold as a pointed hat spawned from thin air, mounting on the figure’s head. The man began to lift off the ground.

“What is happening? What is going on?” The man exclaimed.

“I am going to bring you somewhere.”

“Where?”

“A place where you were innocent. A place where you have experienced joy outside the garden.”

The figure and the man rose higher, now two or three feet away from the ground.

“You have never flied before, huh?”

“Never before.”

“Well, it’s going to be a lot of fun, believe me.”

The figure and the man took off from the ground in a sudden burst of acceleration. They curved back, diving down, and flying like an eagle towards the direction of the setting sun. East. They flew faster and faster, flying atop many houses per second. The figure’s head put on a smile.

After flying for minutes, they stopped, and lowered down to the top of a swing set

“Why are we here?” The man questioned.

“Why do you think we are here?”

“I have no idea. My only guess is-”

The man was interrupted by the sound of a snowball. A snowball seemed to have hit someone.

…

But nobody reacted violently. Nobody shouted. Nobody threw a fit. They just laughed and singed, as if it was expected. And it was. The snowball hitting the kid was because of a snowball fight. The snowball fight continued, with more laughing and snowballs.

“…These kids are throwing snow at each other, but none of them are fighting!” The man said, confused.

“It’s a snowball fight. The kids in this park are spending their time throwing peaceful projectiles at the other kids.”

“But how is this enjoyable?”

“Maybe some kids have a different sense of humour than you. Not every kid enjoys snowball fighting. And you are one of them. I don’t blame you.”

The figure and the man levitated, and not a second later, they bolted up into the sky. They were now atop the stratosphere, and were flying horizontally. They flew horizontally for a minute, and dived down. The closer they got to the ground, the more air blew by their faces, chilling them. Eventually they both hit the ground in a startling shock.

It was dark, as the man’s head was fixated on the ground, and cold soil covered it. The man couldn’t see anything.

“Christmas Time.” A voice said from behind.

The man lifted his head off the ground, and stood up, to find two people talking. Both seemed happy.

“Ah yes, Christmas time! This beautiful event only comes once every year!” The first person exclaimed.

“Yes. I cant believe it’s Christmas already! Where did fall and summer go?” The second man exclaimed, also.

“Here I would like to give you something.”

The first person reached into his pocket and pulled out an ornament.

“Here. This is an old ornament I found. Take it and use it on your tree.” The first person said happily.

The man seemed shocked. The thought that someone gave a gift on Christmas showed him that Christmas can be happy to some people, too. The figure appeared beside the man right after he realized that.

“Don’t act so surprised about this scene. You’ve experienced the joy of giving before.”

“How so?”

The figure grabbed onto the man and chucked him into the sky, landing into a cave. He stumbled a little bit before awakening into a house. No injury.

“Recognize that boy?” The figure questioned.

“Why- yes! It’s Gerald! He was one of my schoolmates!” The man exclaimed in excitement.

“Watch what you are about to do to him.”

“What will I do with him?”

“It’s your past. You should already know.”

The man was confused, despite it being an event in his past. Suddenly, the door slowly opened. And out came a little boy. A boy, holding a small horse toy.

“Why- that’s me!! I was a little boy!!” The man exclaimed.

The figure chuckled lowly as the boy slowly walked up to Gerald.

“Gerald?” The boy said.

“Yes?” Gerald said, as he turned his head to face the boy.

“I got you something.”

“What?”

The boy revealed the toy behind his back. He reached his hand out to Gerald, and handed him the toy.

“A toy horse?! Thank you!” Gerald exclaimed, swooning the boy.

The man smiled.

“Wow… I really did that.” The man said.

“It seems as if you gifted a friend. Your history isn’t heartless after all.” The figure explained.

“But… But how did it go so quickly?”

The figure pointed, and the walls of the house began to crack. Seconds later, the walls and floor gave way to a thunderstorm, and the boy and Gerald faded. The man and the figure fell. The man was swaying rampantly, while the figure didn’t seem to mind.

Suddenly, the skies cleared to a summer day. Second by second, the clouds began to fade away in to nothing. But the only thing that appeared was the ground. It got larger, and larger, until the man and the figure hit it.

“I must say. Do you even care about my garden?”

It was there that the man wouldn’t move. This was a thought that he remembered, and as it played out he felt a shot of guilt tremor down his back.

He heard the click of fingers as footsteps impacting the hard topsoil approached him.

“You are afraid, man?” The figure asked rhetorically.

The man stopped for a second. Then spoke.

“I am…” The man said.

“Why are you afraid of the things you have done?”

“There are some things on this earth I cant bear to see, and that is how I lost Gerald to… to…”

“Gardening?”

“G-gardening.”

“Well, you’re about to witness the entire scene.”

The man lowered his head so that it was covered by the topsoil. He refused to move it upward. He refused to look up at anything.

“Don’t be like that man. Look.” The figure demanded.

The man still feared the thought of the scene. He kept his head grounded on the topsoil, refusing to move.

“Man. I said to look. Do so.”

The man kept his hesitation to a maximum.

“Man. Stop ignoring me! LOOK NOW!!!” The figure yelled.

The man jolted upwards in a burst of adrenaline. He looked towards the sound of the voice, and there, he saw two people. Both teenagers.

The spirit clicked his fingers, and the conversation between the two boys continued.

“No. I don’t care much about it. I’m just being honest there.” The second boy, Gerald, said.

“May I ask, do you show any dignity towards plant life at all?” The first boy, a younger, teenage version of the man, exclaimed in anger.

“That’s not what I’m saying…”

“Maybe that is what you are saying. Maybe you are just trying to cover up the true feelings you have of this garden. Is that it?”

“No!”

“Quit living in denial, Gerald. Nobody likes a liar.”

“Me? I’m the one living in denial? You’ve grown quite different from who you used to be. You are the one who’s denying ME for what? A garden? Maybe you’re right. Maybe I do dislike this garden. Maybe I do hope that it exhausts it’s water supply.”

The other teenager got a look. A look of hate. A look of malice and dread. And suddenly, that look got extreme when suddenly, the man cringed and tucked his face back into the topsoil as the teenager shoved Gerald, throwing him to the ground. Gerald got up, brushed the dirt off of his clothing, and gave the teenager the same bad look.

“If that’s how you truly feel about me, then I guess that’s that.”

Gerald walked out of the teenager’s backyard, slamming the gate shut with all of his might. The teenager kneeled down, not giving his actions a thought, and continued gardening.

“I see… I see what I have done wrong now… Losing Gerald to gardening… I don’t know what to say…” The man said in sadness.

“Don’t say anything to me. The only person you have to speak to is Gerald himself.” The figure said.

“But answer me this one question… What will happen if I continue down this path?”

The figure stood, feet planted in the ground. And pointed at the ground below the man.

“I’ve showed you gifts, happiness and your long-feared actions towards Gerald, WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO CONVINCE YOU?!”

Suddenly, the ground below the man cracked, and eventually, it opened, giving way to a dark chasm. The man fell, and fell, and fell, every meter getting darker and darker. The ground that the man was standing on dissolved into glitter. The man could not see anything.

The man hit the balcony of a house. Despite it being a sharp and very sudden impact, he felt no pain. He got up and he saw only darkness on the porch of the dark house. Darkness coming from the lack of sunlight in the depths of the chasm. The only light emitting from behind him. He looked behind him and he saw nothing, but a torch and a man, sitting in a leather chair.

“What? I-is that me? Is that me, isolated in this… terrible place?”

“It is.” An echo emitted from behind him.

The man looked behind him, only to find darkness, still. He turned back around, and focused on the man, sitting in the leather chair still.

“If you continue down this anti-social path, this could be your fate.” The voice echoed.

“I-I’ll be stuck in a ravine for the rest of my life?”

“You are separated from everyone in a ravine, correct?”

“Unless there is someone else in the ravine, then yes…”

“Well, you could be separated from everyone else if you continue down this path. Nobody will talk to you, you will be forever isolated in this ravine of loneliness. The only other thing in this ravine of broken thoughts is loneliness.”

“I see… I don’t want that to be me…”

“Well then, you know what to do.”

The man, in a sudden burst of acceleration, bolted upward, out of the chasm, and into the exosphere. The man eventually stopped, hovering where he could see the full moon.

“I shall hibernate and leave your responsibilities to you. Don’t disappoint me.” The echoing voice said as the man fell.

The man fell and fell and fell, fell as fast as he was in the chasm. Eventually he saw the ground, and a second later, blast. The man had fell, hit the topsoil.

But he was fine.

He was fine, just fine, both emotionally and physcally. He rejoiced, as he wasn’t dead. He was full of happiness, something he hasn’t felt in years.

“I’m alive!” The man rejoiced.

The man ran faster than a cheetah through the gate of his backyard, and, to his surprise, he saw Gerald, walking upon the other side of the street. The man ran to Gerald, face full of excitement.

“Gerald!” The man shouted as he sprinted towards Gerald.

Gerald turned around, and to his shock, he saw the man approaching him. Gerald expected nothing but the worst from the encounter.

“Gerald, my friend. I have made a huge mistake in our teenagehood. But perhaps we can put this all behind us?” The man exclaimed.

“Excuse me?” Gerald said, confused.

The man calmed down. He let out his words more softly and more expectant given the situation.

“Gerald. You remember me, and I fear you only remember me from the worst. I expect you to still dislike me for that ruthless action I put against you back then.”

“Okay?”

“Gerald… I have been thinking for quite some time now, and I was too afraid to bring it out, but now I think it’s time I said it. I’m sorry. I was such a hypocrite back then. Allow me to ask for a pardon for the ruthless action I had done to you long ago.”

“Well, it’s certainly better than just wasting our lives as enemies…”

They both laughed. The have each other a hug and patted themselves on the back. They did it in the name of Christmas. Their lives changed right then and there, becoming the happy men they were.

We can only guess that this went well for both the men.

…

And so it did. The two men reunited and regained their lost friendship. The man and Gerald waked hand-in-hand towards the park, where Gerald usually went to catch some fresh air. As the man took a seat on the bench, ready to admire the landscape, he heard a whisper enter his ear.

“Thank you.” 