The Garden: Part Three (complete)

The first time I met her, I had been working as her father’s lab assistant. I remember seeing a flash of red hair before the vixenish qualities of her face. She looked at me with those sharp green eyes, and I was eviscerated by a glance. She saw right away that I was just a doormat her father used. She was the first to tell me I was better.

I never expected a girl like her to even bat an eyelash at me. I already had a girlfriend I liked, but Esther stole my attention easily. From what I had been told by her father, Esther was a bad seed, in and out of trouble her whole life. Her parents sent her to reform school after reform school, but her will had always won out in the end. Her father would say she was an extremely intelligent girl, but she was plagued by the unreasonable need for more.

I didn’t know what that was like. All I knew was that, occasionally, Esther would play assistant for her father from time to time, though she knew he only employed her to keep her occupied. She would sit at the front desk to his office, doing nothing and everything at the same time. I once saw her painting her nails and, for some reason, it was the most beautiful thing to me. She looked at me, smiled, and sweetly asked me to blow on her nails to dry them.

She started claiming my attention more and more after that. When her father wasn’t in the lab, she would beckon me close. We didn’t so much date in the beginning as she fucked my brains out. She was wild and passionate, and I was just the happy fellow she chose. I never expected it to last, and figured she would grow bored with me eventually. I thought I would just marry my girlfriend and have the memory of Esther to comfort me on boring nights. But one day, she showed up at my place, we made dinner. We kissed and, when I took her to bed, our lovemaking was slow and heated. I knew I loved her, but I thought it was going to take her time to accept that she loved me. She wasn’t used to such a thing, but I was willing to wait for my wild child. I left my girlfriend to be with Esther.

Anytime she came to stay with me during our courtship, she was always in the nude. I had the sense that this is how Jane felt while studying Tarzan, this primal, earthly being who had no shame or qualms, strutting around in front of their prim and proper lover. She loved to sunbathe, but more than that she loved the small garden she had started in my apartment. It was a small trove of potted plants, a box on the windowsill. There was nothing she loved more than her plants.

“Thurston,” she cooed to me one night after we made love. “If we ever get a home together, will you let me have a garden?”

“What sort of question is that?” I chuckled. I was pliable and lazy from our sweaty efforts. She always knew to strike when I was in this state. She would have me make promises, and I would always willingly agree.

“I don’t need anything else, Thurston.” Her fingers slipped through my chest hair, and her long, painted nails scraped down my skin. “Just you and a garden. I don’t need a diamond ring. I don’t need children.” She kissed my shoulder and neck. “I want a garden. A big one, too.”

“I know you like things big,” I teased.

She giggled, kissing my skin over and over, her lips parting ever so slightly until they were open and she was biting me. “All I ever wanted was a huge garden. One I could lose myself in.”

“We’ll have to find a yard rather than a house,” I chuckled.

“That’s fine.” Esther looked at me with sweetness in her eyes. After all, she’d just won her way. “We can live in a tent.”

We soon got married - nothing special, mind you, just a quick affair at the courthouse. Her parents and my parents never approved, so we eloped. I always wanted a big wedding, but Esther said the wedding wasn’t the important part, just the marriage. We took my savings and began house hunting. Esther’s specifications remained - a massive yard was the key to her happy home. Considering that marrying Esther terminated my employment with her father, I was stuck job-hunting while Esther hunted for a house.

One day, Esther came home victorious. She told me she’d found a place with a massive backyard, but the house would need extensive repairs. I agreed to see it, but before I knew it, I was on a boat. It took us to an island surrounded by fog, and a huge stone lighthouse that seemed to hover in the mist. 

The town on the island was small. It was mainly a fishing community, slowly transforming into a tourist spot. I figured there was a small house somewhere in the town itself that Esther was taking me to, but no.

We took a car up a steep hill, then through a long tunnel. I saw a mansion on the cliffside, but I thought that surely there must be something else nearby. To my shock, we pulled up in front of the mansion. It was dilapidated and abandoned. No one was sure what happened to the original owners. It had become a sort of urban legend for the locals. Some said the owners were murdered, and buried all over the grounds. Others said they had drowned at sea. 

Esther was enamored with the place, though. Not the mansion, but the lawn and gardens that stretched on and on forever. They ended in a forest that ran all the way to the town, but if we bought it, it would all be ours. I had no idea how we would afford such a place. If the property wasn’t expensive, the house would still cost a fortune to repair. 

It was a disastrous argument between Esther and I. I’d known about her temper, but I had yet to see it until then. She was adamant that this was the place she wanted, the place she needed. She screamed at me that I had promised her a garden. She went crazy, and when I told her so to her face, she disappeared into the island. 

I couldn’t leave without her, so I stayed. I didn’t want to lose her, so I started right away to figure out what I would have to do to buy this house. Once Esther came back, she was apologetic and said the house wasn’t important. We went home and, for a while, she didn’t bring up wanting a garden again.

Not long after, we got news that her parents died in an auto accident. They left her everything, which was a rather sizable inheritance. We bought the house on the island right away, and Esther began her garden as soon as possible. 

I was still looking for work, but in the meantime the mansion needed extensive repairs. I led construction while Esther continued to tend to her garden. One evening, she came to me in tears. I was exhausted from the work, unused to the manual labor it took to repair a home. She sobbed bitterly about how she could get nothing in the garden to grow like she wanted. It all seemed like nonsense to me, but I wanted her to be happy.

“Gardens are a waiting game. They can take months to grow properly, sometimes years. You didn’t think it would all be instant, did you?” I laughed.

She looked hurt and shook her head. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“Aww, it’s okay.” I hugged her close. “You’ll get this thing eventually. Do you want my help?”

She shook her head again. “No. This is what I wanted, and I still want to do it. I thought I was good with plants, but I’ve only ever had pots and windowsills for them. Never such a big garden before.” 

“Maybe you bit off more than you could chew,” I offered.

She nodded and started to cry. “You used to work with my father on these sorts of things, right?” She sniffled. “You used to be able to grow all sorts of things in the lab.”

“That was splicing,” I chuckled. “Not gardening.”

“But you know things that can work.” She gripped her hand around my wrist and squeezed. “You’re smart. Surely you could come up with something that would make my garden grow.”

I grinned and rubbed the top of her head. “Gardens take time. You have to be patient.”

The look that flooded into her eyes was haunting. I could see in her gaze that she was furious, but her smile and expression tried to bury the rage. “You’re right, my love.” She stood and kissed me. “You rest. You’ve worked hard. Patient.” She enunciated the word crisply. “That’s what I need to be. Patient.”

I was too tired to take anything from it. I had been sleeping like a stone lately, not waking for even the constant storms that crashed into the island. But somehow I would wake groggy and weak, and I could barely help around the house. I would regain my strength as the day progressed, but it all came to naught the next day. I started noticing bruises and cuts on my body, and Esther insisted I stop with all the construction work.

“Who knows what’s in those walls!” she scolded. “Whatever mold is in there, and whatever poisons they used to make these walls, it’s all getting to you! They’re still looking for someone to take over my father’s job at the lab. You should apply for it. It’ll get you out of this house while they fix it.”

I nodded and hung my head in my hands. “But what about you? Have you been feeling ill?”

“I’ve been having sneezing fits,” she confided. “But I’m outside in the garden almost all day, every day when I can be.”

She was right. I needed to get out. I applied and was granted the position her father once held. Due to the long boat ride there and back, I would work four days, then stay home three days. It did amazing things for my health, and I was able to start putting money back that was being spent on the house. 

Esther was always curious about my work, and would pester me every day about what I was working on. It made me happy that my wife was taking an interest in my job. Meanwhile, her garden was doing much better. Things were on the upswing. 

That was when I caught her. I came home early one evening. Her birthday was approaching, so I wanted to spend a long and romantic weekend with her, and I had bought all sorts of things to make the occasion special. But when I entered, the house was quiet.

I couldn’t find her anywhere until I reached the garden. I found her naked out there, crouched on the ground. Lying beside her was another nude figure. 

I was breathless and terrified. Had my wife been cheating on me while I was away? I was ready to scream, to break down eternally. “Esther, what are you doing?”

Esther turned. She was covered from neck down in blood. Her mouth opened wide as she looked at me, and she blinked a few times before she realized I was there. “Thurston.” She stood from the ground, and I saw the man laid before her was cut open, his ribs spread and his chest completely hollow. “You’re home early.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “Esther...” The air was choked from me. “Esther, what are you doing?” I repeated the words with horror.

“It’s for the garden,” Esther insisted. She stood and smiled at me, laughing like nothing was the matter. “You wouldn’t help me, so I had to find my own way to do it.”

She pointed down at the body. I looked aghast at the jagged ribs sticking upwards. How did my Esther do such a thing? I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. I didn’t want to. I wouldn’t. “Esther!” I screamed. “Esther, you’re a monster!” I couldn’t think of anything else to say. I was slowly coming undone. 

Her eyes narrowed, and that nasty look entered them. She flung herself at me and pushed me to the ground. She struggled and I fought against her, but eventually I gave up and let her climb on top of me. She grabbed me and forced her blood soaked hand over my mouth. “Be quiet! Be quiet!” She held both hands over my mouth while she smiled. Then she nodded and let out a ragged gasp. “It’s okay, honey. It’s okay.” Blood was smeared all over me. I could smell it, and I could almost taste it. 

“I did it for us! I did it for us!” Esther announced triumphantly. She kissed me and moaned into my ear. “I didn’t want you to think I failed.” She kissed me more, becoming sweeter with each touch. “It’s okay. It’s really okay. Thurston, look at me.”

There was blood on her face. Her eyes looked wild and demented. I stared at her, taking in the strange creature above me. I didn’t recognize her at first. I didn’t know this woman, this beast. Her expression began to change, and at last I saw the Esther I loved, the Esther I married.

“Touch me, Thurston,” she whimpered. “Let me know you understand.”

I touched her face, slowly dragging my fingers down to her neck. I considered wrapping them around her throat, choking her then and there. I think back and wish I had. Then maybe I could have saved her. Maybe I could have kept her. I could remember Esther as she gave herself to me.

She moaned, licking the blood from her mouth as she rocked her hips against me. “No one knows,” she whispered to me. “Only you and me.” She lowered herself closer. “Because the two of us are all that matters. No one else does.” 

“Esther, we can’t,” I breathed. But I wanted her, and I let her take control of me. We made love there in the garden, right near the corpse. I wish I had killed her instead of loving her. I wish I ended the beast. But there is always a snake in paradise. 

I never asked Esther to explain herself, and I never asked who was buried in the garden. I suppose I just didn’t want to think about it. The next day, she asked me once again to make her something that would help her garden grow. 

“We’ve been running tests on kudzu,” I told her. “We’re trying to find how it grows so rapidly, and we’re hoping to use it to help with harvest production. We have trial runs on something, but it’s not stable.”

Her eyes widened. “Bring me some. We can run our own tests here. My father used to do it.” She clutched my hand. “Don’t you want to provide something for your child?”

The wind was knocked out of me. I stared at her, and she grinned. “I was going to make it a surprise on my birthday, but...” She couldn’t contain her joy, nor could I. I held her hands tight as she blurted out those wonderful words. “I’m pregnant, Thurston.”

I gave into the joy of having a happy family, rather than the horror of what lay in the garden. I gave into everything that Esther wanted. There was no choice in the matter. I gave her everything. I wanted us to be happy again. I wanted her to continue being my harmless wild child. Whatever bodies were in the garden, I pushed them from my mind, and I filled that space with the anticipation of what was to come.

Esther took my experiments from work and added them to her garden. Vines began to take over the island. At first, they crept slowly, and no one noticed them encroaching until it was too late. They grew ravenously over everything, starting from our home and the cliffside. As Esther’s pregnancy progressed, her garden became overgrown, expanding beyond the confines of the walls. This made her rapturously happy. But people in the town were beginning to complain about the kudzu. 

We hired a gardener and, despite my denial, I knew I had to keep a watch on things from home. I feared what he would come across in the garden. I didn’t want my family and my life being taken away from me, so I moved my lab and my work into the basement of the house. This pleased Esther, because now she could get her hands on what I was working on right away. She didn’t like it, though, when she met my lab assistant, Akatsuki. Esther would come into my lab constantly, asking to see what I was working on and if she could help by planting it in her garden. All she cared about was that garden.

“Isn’t it beautiful, Thurston?” she cooed one morning. “Look at this! Look what we have made!”

I gazed into the garden, not seeing the forest or the trees. I only saw her joy. I saw her pregnant belly and the child that was soon to come to us. I touched her belly, and she laid her hands over mine. Her nails were caked with dirt, and were turning green from the cuticle up. I didn’t pay attention then. I just wanted us to be happy and peaceful. No more arguments or fights.

I woke one morning to screaming. Esther was no longer in bed with me, so I hurried to get up and search for her. The screams grew louder and more agonizing. When I found Esther, she was crouched in the garden. Her legs and thighs were covered in blood, she was screaming like an animal. 

She birthed our child in soil and grass, and it began screaming with her. I raced forward, gathering Esther into my arms while our gardener raced out and gathered up the baby. He had been coming in to work when he heard Esther’s screams. 

The baby was a little girl, but she didn’t make it. Esther and I buried her in a special part of the garden, which we filled with the flowers of her namesake - roses. I fell away from the world, forcing myself into my work and seeing nothing else. Akatsuki became a great comfort to me. She had moved into the mansion and was always there. She helped me with my work and with my grief, since Esther was not in the right mind to do so. 

Esther went into her garden after Rose died, and I don’t know if she ever came back. The next time I saw Esther, it wasn’t the woman I knew. She was kneeling in the garden, covered in vines while a host of people stood around her. They too were covered in vines, binding their arms against their backs and tightly woven around their legs. Their heads were bound as well, but they could open their mouths to hiss and scream as I approached. Their torsos and genitals were completely uncovered.

Esther turned to me with a look of shock. “You came out.”

The garden was overgrown, spilling beyond the bounds of the walls. I could smell rot and decay everywhere around me, and I knew it had become more of a mass grave than a garden. I looked at her wild eyes, her twitchy grin. I felt like this wasn’t the woman I married, as if she had been wearing a mask around me all this time. 

“What have you done?” I whispered in horror. “What is this? Who are these people?” Esther was standing right in front of me, but I was not sure it was really her. 

“I’ve grown,” she giggled. “I’ve grown and I’ve finally gotten the garden I always wanted. It’s endless and it’s perfect and it’s all mine. Thurston, because of you and what you gave me, I did this.”

I looked around at the people; they were human, or perhaps had been. Whatever Esther had turned them into was her own sick desire. “What I gave?” I whispered breathlessly. I choked on my words and began to laugh. “No. No, Esther. This is not what I gave you. This is what you took, and you cannot just go and take everything!” I screamed in desperate panic, one that had been growing since I saw her in that garden over the corpse.

“You must be patient!” Esther laughed.

I felt so wretched, so misunderstood. Had she just been patient, none of this would have happened. Rose would be alive! We could be a family! But she just had to have that garden! “You do not understand. This world I have given you, you have taken away, you have run with it, you have done something to it that I can no longer repair. I cannot keep on giving to you. I have nothing left.” 

Esther looked at me with all the contempt in her heart. It was just like that day, which felt like centuries ago. It was pure hatred, only this time she did not try to hide it. She glared at me, boring deep into my soul and ripping chunks of it away. 

“I will keep growing,” she said with all the seething bile that was in her. “I will keep growing! I will keep growing! I will keep growing!” She stomped her feet, jumped and pounded her heels into the ground. Her voice became that of a screaming banshee, while all around her, the once-human things took up her chant. The voices grew in number and in volume. They raised above me as if I were sinking in water. They screamed and screamed.

The island became empty. Those who had not been poisoned by Esther fled to escape the fate she had decided for them. Only the lighthouse showed signs of life.

I stayed with Esther, and gave her what she wanted. Nothing changed. I just knew who she really was now, and I wanted her to love me all the same. I was in agony, but I could not tell her no.

I still can’t. 

Every six months, the garden needs to be tended to. New hands to take care of the soil, new blood to nourish it. Esther has strict instructions for how her garden must be tended to, and I must follow them.

In order to keep the secrets of the garden, my home has the only working phone on the island. I have no modern comforts, and I promise a substantial pay for the gardener’s work - even though they may never leave. I go to the dock and see the lighthouse still turning. I see someone standing outside, watching me, and I am violently afraid of them. I do not know who they are nor why they choose to stay in this cursed place. 

The town is completely empty. You will not find a soul in any of the houses. Some of the homes still have all their furniture, and some still have tables set for dinner. People were taken so fast by Esther’s desires, and others just ran to escape them.

I have no inclination to keep bringing people here, but I cannot let Esther move. I know I have to keep her happy and well tended to. So every six months, I go to the docks to pick up my new gardener. 

This time, I recognize the young man who stands on the dock. He was here when he was small. In fact, from his name and eyes, I remember him as the son of my very first gardener - the one who had been the first to hold my Rose when she was born.

I felt a pang of guilt at the idea of holding him here, to only get pulled into Esther’s clutches. Subconsciously I want to protect this boy. He’s not like the others, not some meaningless stranger among dozens. I know him.

Beyond the iron gate I know Esther is waiting for him. She will use Rose to lure him. But she will take this young man to grow her garden. I want to save him, but there is nothing I can do. I am not strong enough. I am no longer myself. I am part of the garden now.