Resurrecting the Garden

Chapter One

                                                                        "And if I fail and cease my existence

                                                                            Will the world know that I tried

                                                                         That these bones always led me home to you."

   The sun shimmered through the trees and bounced off the untouched white snow. Shadows fell long in the afternoon light, and the world was eerily quiet. The bustle of everyday life had slowed to a halt. Every so often, a branch crackled under the weight of snow, but nothing else made a sound. And I listened for signs of life. Anthing to tell me that humans still existed. But there was nothing, and my worry only grew. It must have showed, because the man in the corner cleared his throat and raised his eyebrows at me. I stayed silent and simply shook my head at him. I let go of the curtains slowly and sighed. I had been checking for signs of life for weeks now, perhaps months. And each day, multiple times, I saw and heard nothing. I didn't know whether to rejoice or simply cry. Would it be such a horrible occurrence if everything was simply gone?

   The throat was cleared again, and this time I turned around. The man shook out the newspaper from two years ago and placed it on the rickety table beside him.

   "When are you going to stop reading that?" I asked, irritated. His daily routine of re-reading the torn, stained pieces of paper had almost driven me to insanity at this point, more-so even than the lack of other human interaction.

   His green eyes crinkled as he smiled at me. "I'll stop reading it once you stop voicing your annoyance at it," he replied. Every day was the same question and the same answer. Neither had changed for as long as I could remember now. I sighed again, this time more exasperated.

   He stood up and moved to the window. "Snowed more, did it," he commented, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes. "It's about the only thing happening in the world these days," I retorted, but he didn't respond. He rarely ever had a conversation with me. Two years of being trapped here together, and I still didn't know anything about him. He seemed to be more of a stranger every day, and I wasn't sure how that was even humanly possible. Maybe he wasn't human. I laughed to myself. It would be my luck to be isolated with an alien. I shook the thought out of my head and moved to the sink to wash my hands.

   As I washed them, I let my mind wander to the day all of this began. Or I suppose, the day the country was made aware that it was beginning. For weeks, months even, we'd ignored all the signs and the warnings.

   In standard American fashion, we'd laughed and scoffed at the demise of others. We congregated in throngs in the streets and rejoiced at the fact that America was great and we were immune to tragedy.