"The Scraggliest Azalea"

[kevin 311]

here is a story I wrote the night before I checked into a detox/rehab program

I went out to appreciate the white azaleas along the front of my yard, around 10 or 11 pm, not knowing whether the blooms would still be there when I came home

there was one I felt sorry for, but I was surprised to see it had some buds on it despite having hardly any leaves!

there was dry weather ahead, so I thought I had better water it to help it along

and while I was watering them all, a story began to form ...

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"The Scraggliest Azalea" (March 8, 2007)

The scraggliest azalea had Uncle Grackleworthy thinking, "These are the kinds of thoughts some people must have when they finally take up gardening at a certain age."

Not that he actually was gardening, but during a night-time appreciation of the white azaleas along the front of the yard, he noticed one, nearly given up for dead, mostly twigs with hardly any leaves, still had blossomed and even looked like it might have a few more up its bare, twiggy sleeves.

So, uncharacteristically, he, having checked the forecast and expecting no rain, thought he should at least sprinkle the bare twiggy one to help it along, as, unlike the others, it didn't have many leaves to catch the dew with.

A few trips he made with a water pitcher to water the whole ragged yet generally flourishing lot. "They probably think about life, those people who take up gardening, about cultivating this and pruning that. Help the weak, admire the robust, the wildflower, the invisible -- that sort of thing."

He ended up watering the others first even though originally he meant to help the scraggly one to bloom.

He watered the scraggliest azalea last, and admired it the longest.

"Thoughts like those," he thought.