The Story of Fred

The Story of Fred (con.)

"I will return to the garden I swore to protect." he thought. "I can make it bloom again!"

And so he returned to it. Returned with new commitment and determination, with a vow that he would never leave again.

The next morning, as Fred looked out on his garden, he felt a dread like he had never felt before. He knew what it was like to have a beautiful garden where everything would grow, and now he knew what it was like to lose that garden. The hurt was more than he thought he could stand. As he walked in the garden, he seemed to sense the smell of new fertility, seemed to catch a glimpse of the promise of new growth, but whenever that happened he would turn from it, turn his back on the garden, and tears would flow down his cheeks.

But Pete was determined to bring about the beauty that had been there before, and he worked and worked to make it fertile again, to make things grow. He had to capture seeds from the wind, for while Fred sometimes worked hard at planting new things, most of new growth had to come from within Pete. The garden became beautiful again. It didn't look like it had before, it wasn't as well ordered, or managed. And, Fred didn't spend as much time in it, somehow it hurt him to be too near it for too long. But, it had a beauty all it's own, and people again began to mention how pleasant it was, and how much they wished they could have one as beautiful.

Pete kept hoping and praying that Fred's pain would heal and he would again be able to appreciate what he was doing, would be able to see the love Pete was pouring into the garden, and would sense the vow that Pete had made--and know that he would never leave the garden again.

But, a funny thing happened (funny--weird). As Pete worked harder and harder on the garden, Fred's dreams became more and more depressing. In his dreams he would look out on his new garden, appreciating it, and then the blight would begin again, spreading through his garden as he watched. He would wake up screaming, screaming with a pain that went deep into his soul. Soon Fred couldn't even see the garden that Pete was creating, all he could see was the blight, and the pain that it had caused.

One morning he couldn't take it anymore, and Fred decided that he would tear out his garden and build a patio with a big swimming pool. He spent all day arranging for this, and planned to begin work on the next morning. Pete knew this was happening but he didn't know what to do. If the patio and pool were put in, he would have to leave, he could only live in gardens--he was a garden elf. He'd made a vow to stay forever, but he couldn't live in this new environment, and he would die if he tried to stay.

All seemed lost, but that last night a miracle happened. In Fred's dream, just as the blight was about to cover the garden, Pete appeared, and Fred saw him. All of a sudden Fred knew that Pete had been there all along making the garden a beautiful place. And, that it was only in his dreams that the blight struck again. Now he knew that Pete would keep the blight away for as long as he lived.

As this realization happened, Pete smiled and the garden in Fred's dream bloomed to a perfection that he had never dreamed of.

Fred woke the next morning knowing that all would be well, and that he would have a beautiful garden again, and, in fact, already did have. The first thing he did was cancel the construction of the patio and pool, and then he went out into his garden--seeing it, again, for the first time; secure in the belief that the pain of the blight would never return.

Brad Fregger
April 17, 1993