“These trendy glass gardens are a pain in the ass.” The witch stared around at the multi hued wonderland she stood in. There were flowers in every color and as the sun shone down over head, seven fires broke out. As the sun’s rays were reflected, refracted, and intensified through the many curves of glass, shit caught on fire. If the client wasn’t so generous with her money, Linda would’ve quit years ago.
Instead, Linda had spent the last three days from 10 am to 2 pm walking around the enormous glass garden. It had taken her months to painstakingly craft each flower from colored sand. The owner had been absolutely delighted, until the first fire started. It had nearly burned down the She Shed artfully tucked in the corner of the garden. The She Shed looked like a miniature fairy tale castle…that had been bombed in the war. One turret was nothing but charcoal now and several of the nearby flowers had wilted.
Linda cast a quick extinguishing spell. The fires went out and Linda quickly rearranged the four flowers that had caused the fires. The daylilies had been too close to the hydrangeas. She stood back and surveyed the storybook colors around her. After ten minutes there were no more fires. Linda waited another hour before declaring it a success. Her mother had told her she would never use the landscaping classes for anything of value. Well, this garden had made her enough money that she would finally be able to move out of her sister’s attic. One of the perks of having a patchwork education with no direction was it gave Linda the opportunity to take on all kinds of odd jobs.
Her first project, a congress of stone penguins, looked a little sunburnt but not much worse for wear. Linda’s favorite project had been the Prism room. At 9 am, the dancing rainbows made the entire room look like it was on fire. Linda’s client was eclectic but had helped Linda to hone her talents.
“You did it!” Linda fought to remain calm as her client came barreling out of the house. Karly was a wonderfully quirky woman who loved giving bone crushing hugs. In moments, Linda was caught up in one of Karly’s hugs. She struggled to breathe. Karly released her and Linda tried to hide her gasps for breath. “I have the most wonderful idea for your next project.”
Linda put on her best customer service smile. “What genius idea have you come up with now?”
Karly bounced like a toddler after seven cupcakes. “Call me crazy, but what if the garden glowed????!!!”
Linda sighed in relief. It was not the worst idea Karly had ever had. They had never again spoken about the turkey shaped butter sculpture that had attacked everyone at Thanksgiving three years ago.
The prompts for this short story:
The Witch
Rooms on Fire
A congress of penguins
Patchwork perks
Trendy glass gardens
Storybook colors
Glow crazy
Copyright 2020 Klaudia Grady