Tales from Oakboro: A Collection of Short Stories

Michael the gardener

Summary
|Once upon a time, in the small town of Oakboro lived an old man named Michael. He had lived there for many years, and everyone knew him as the friendly old man who loved to garden. Michael was a widow, and although he had no children of his own, he was always happy to share his love of gardening with anyone who would listen.

Michael's favorite flower was the white tulip. He had a small garden in front of his house, and every year, he would plant rows of white tulips. His garden was the talk of the town, and people would often stop by just to admire his beautiful flowers.

Michael was a simple man, and he found joy in the simple things in life. He loved to sit in his garden and watch the flowers grow, and he would often spend hours tending to each and every plant. He had a special connection with his garden, and he believed that each plant had a soul.|

Michael walked inside into his house his knees covered in dirt as he took his garden and gloves off he just bit Janet a farewell she came over to assist with his tulips as one of the neighborhood boys Martin has accidentally destroyed a couple of them. Michael lived comfortably in his old home that he used to share with his wife he walked on the tile floor into the carpeted living room covered in antiques and porcelain.

Possession was his late wife's porcelain doll she made by hand it was gorgeous he kept it safe in a small container made out of glass it's been cracked a few times. Michael sat down turning on his TV he had more advanced technology as he always took an interest in it he wasn't the kind of old man that didn't understand anything about it he coded many different websites for the town he soon got a call on his home phone he reached over and picked up the landline "hello Michael Walker speaking how can I help you" he said as he leaned back on the couch almost jumping when he heard a frantic voice "Michael michael! The website for the pet shelter shut down there was donation still process into the website and we don't know if it was hacked or something!".

He immediately recognized the voice to be Martha the head of the volunteers at Paw world he immediately stood up going back to put his boots on "I'll be right over there Martha don't touch anything!" .He quickly hung up the phone putting it in his pocket as he rushed out to get into his truck driving down to Town Square swerving a bit as he almost hit Janet who is carrying a new golden puppy.

He hopped out of his truck and ran inside of the pet shelter he saw the other volunteers looking at the computer worried once Martha saw him she ran over "oh thank the heavens are here the animals are going crazy the computer is glitching we don't know what's going on" young woman was almost in tears Michael put his hand on her shoulder "everything's going to be okay it most likely is just a small malfunction" he went over to the computer looking down at the code his eyes narrowed it was just normal HTML code but it looked odd there was letters missing like someone intentionally deleted it but there was things added.

"Was anyone around this computer anytime today?" He asked looking up at the volunteers they all started whispering among each other "we're not sure we were too focused on the animals today Linda gave birth" one of the volunteers said. he nodded and looked back at the code as he started to delete the added things and reput in some of the parts he was confused it obviously wasn't a malfunction he was certain someone messed with it.

Just finished up the code and walked over to Martha as the rest of the volunteers started to deal with the donations "can we check the cameras it's obvious someone messed around with the code I don't think it was malicious but we should check" he said with a worried look in his eyes Martha frowned but nodded agreeing with him they walked into a back room very small and she went into the camera system it was poor but you could recognize almost anyone in this town she went back to earlier this day.

Sat there watching the cameras and speeding forward forever it felt like almost no one but the volunteers went near the computer until they saw it a young little girl they immediately recognizes Abby walked over to the computer and started typing around Michael immediately knew what was going on Abby has been interested in technology lately and started taking coding classes so he just chuckled "Abby has been taking classes lately she didn't like the color of the website so she was probably going to try to change it as I think that's what they learned today I'll head up the street and go talk to her mom" Martha just smiled at him and nodded. he turned and walked out of the small shelter getting back into his old pickup truck driving down the street to one of the neighborhoods and stopping in front of an old blue house as he jumped out he walked over to the door and knocked three times.

"Hello Michael it's wonderful to see you" a beautiful woman opened the door Rosanna she was the mother of Abby "I heard there was a problem down at the pet shelter did you find out what it was" she said softly "yeah actually I did I came to talk to you about it it appears Abby messed around with the coat of it no malicious intent obviously she didn't like the color of the website probably try to change it cuz she learned how to didn't have enough time though" he said as he held in a chuckle Roseanne giggled softly "that explains why she refused to have a conversation with me about it I was suspicious as well when I first heard what was going on why don't you come in for some tea" Michael smiled and walked in behind Roseanne sitting down "Abby darling! Please come downstairs" the young girl ran down and almost stopped when she saw Michael "appy dear is there anything you want to tell us..." Abby looked full of guilt before she spoke up "I just wanted to change the color.." Michael smiled "I assume so I fix the problem Abby just why don't you meet me at the shelter tomorrow and we'll go through some color changes!" Her eyes lit up "really?!" she said excitedly "yep and afterwards we could go get some ice cream" the young girl smiled and jumped up and down hugging Michael before she was ushered back upstairs as it was past her bedtime.

Michael waved Roseanne goodbye as he got back into his truck driving back to his comfortable house parking it into the garage and walking into the door finally getting a breather after a long hectic day....

{What character should I do next we introduced a couple new characters in this chapter and last chapter I'd love suggestions!}