Violet's Garden

Garden Fence, 2012

Beyond the fence grew the sustenance Violet needed and craved. Tomatoes, potatoes,  beets, beans, and celery. Carrots Cézanne would have adored, broccoli, and endive. Bright yellow flowers popped from green vines promising a crop of cucumbers that would lengthen her pickling season by a few days. She didn't mind; the dill from the small herb garden she'd blessed with holy water and planted as a tribute to Escoffier, and the garlic would sweeten the smell of the kitchen for weeks.

Next year, she'd not plant the pumpkin seeds. Eda's Montclair Behemoths had won first prize at the Delacroix County Fair each year for the past eight. Each year their size had increased exponentially. Now they required more food and water than Violet could provide. This year, the biggest, a gargantuan, cast a shadow that stunted the growth of the eggplants. More the size of plums, they were likely to wither and shrivel to prunish for lack of water.  Regardless, if she could borrow Hal's pickup to haul the trailer, she could get that veritable Brobdingnagian to the fair. And she would win.