EXTRACT FOR
Green Dreams
(Terri Pray)

"I need to understand just what you see in this place if I am going to help out." His pale eyes

narrowed as they walked through the garden, sunglasses dangling from his hand. Rose bushes that had not been trimmed in decades intertwined with ivy. Lavender bushes poked their way through the gaps. Thyme and rosemary fought for space along side clumps of heath. From the first moment she had seen the garden, Lily could not have been swayed in her decision.

"I never asked you to help out. Just to look around for a moment, really look around. Can't you see it?"

"What I can see is well over a year of work here, Lily. No one has taken a trimmer to those bushes since who knows when. Flowers, weeds, can barely tell which is supposed to be here. It's all just an overgrown mess that should be cut back to the bare roots and concreted over." The glasses pushed back along the length of his nose, that single action dismissing the garden. "It's your money, your time, but a waste of both to me."

Life, hope, a challenge, such untamed beauty her within the sprawl of houses and office blocks that surrounded the house. How could anyone see those qualities as a waste? It shouldn't have surprised her, but a part of Lily had hoped that he would, for once, see beyond the dollar sign. "You really don't see anything else except work?"

Had he always been this way?

No, she could remember other times; days spent walking through parks, exploring the potential in the world about them. Stolen moments under the trees, daisy chains left on pillows, love notes slipped into pockets. The change had come slowly, subtle at first, until the man she had fallen in love with had been replaced by someone she didn't know. Perhaps he had forgotten that love, like a garden, needed tending.

"No, should I?" His hand snapped out at a bug only he could see. "You can spend all the time you want here, just don't come my way for extra help. Not going to waste my time on this dump. I've got more important things to do contracts; company might be fighting a hostile take over."

Why would she ever come to him for help again?

To try and open the door back into the one she had loved. The one she had still held out hope existed somewhere within him.

"No, I have to finish the move, few things to sort out. As for the house, this is going to be my project, thanks anyway, Barry." Thanks for what? Ignoring her except when he thought there might be something in it for him? 

Did he really think she was blind to how he had changed from caring heart to someone who treated her as the next score? Those fumbling attempts to grab her, yet his eyes were now always looking for the next one, that more compliant woman who might just give him what he wanted.

"I can't believe you actually signed the contract on this place without insisting the garden be seen to. Never will understand you, thought I did once but this place just shows me how wrong I was. Good luck with this wreck, you'll need it." His steps led away from her, gate swinging shut with a low whine. Hinges needed oiling, but that didn't matter right now. The noise had allowed her to push any last hopes she might have held about a future between Barry and herself well and truly away.

He'd said as much himself; they'd both been wrong about trying to form a life together. Even with that knowledge Lily still couldn't understand just how could anyone be so blind to the promise within the garden.

The tree within the center of the wilderness called to her most of all. Old and yet young, each new spring, life throbbing through each budding leaf. Oak and older than the house. This alone made the house worthwhile in her eyes. Such strength and beauty combined within its being.

Her fingers moved softly across the bark, catching on rough spots, older bark flaking a little under her touch. It held such power within its heart. What tales it might tell if given a voice she could understand.

"In time, maybe I'll be able to understand the language you speak, summers to come where I can sit beneath your shade just to listen to the history within you." She could have leant against the tree forever.

Magical. That described both garden and tree clearly in her mind. A sense of peace here that almost made her believe she could reach out and tease the life back into the brown touched plants. Heal the garden just with the power of her being.

She leaned against the trunk of the old oak, sliding down to sit at its base amongst the roots. A silent comfort offered freely by another living being was welcome, even if that being was nothing more than a tree.

It was so easy to close her eyes and listen to the garden around her, return to a childhood dream where for a short time she had been able to understand the voices of the trees around her.

"So why don't you, then?" The new voice brought her back to reality within a heartbeat. The gate hadn't squeaked and no one else had been in the garden, she'd have seen them, so just where did she come from?

Green eyes, green hair, a summer dress that was barely there whispering about mottled skin in a blue haze. A summer dress made of gossamer?

Had she been staring at the sun earlier?

Why else did the woman look as though her skin was a mix of soft greens and browns?

"Is something the matter?" She spoke with soft words and a gentle voice, carrying a scent of the trees with her. "Maybe I shouldn't have startled you like that, but I've been alone such a long time, ever since she died." Her curls bobbed in the direction of the house. "At least I think she died, your kind doesn't sleep the way I do."

Dreaming, that would explain a few things. "Aren't you going to talk to me?" A hurt look formed across youthful features, turning cupid bow lips into a pout.

"Not sure what I'm supposed to say to a dream."

The pout shifted quickly to a merry smile, the young woman clearing the distance between them, easing down to crouch beside her, fingers reaching out to touch against her cheek. "Does this feel like a dream, Lily?"

Gentle fingers, they cupped at her cheek, brushing over lips with a tenderness she had long forgotten. "Or this?" Lips sought hers; gentle, teasing light in their touch offering a tenderness that pushed away her shock at being kissed by another woman.

Oak, she smelled of the oak.

"What are you?" Whispered words slipped free as the kiss broke, heart racing with the touch of the other's breath against her skin.

"I think you already know."