Garden of Gold

Where do our secrets go when they appear? What happens to them when they are told?

Garden of Gold

 

In the deepest, darkest and farthest recesses of every man’s mind was a path to a garden of gold. This garden, unlike the rest, was made only and entirely of glittering, shining, rich, gilt-covered flowers and pathways. The arches were gold, the fountains were gold, the gazebos were gold…even the grass was gold.

 

The gold was pure, for no man could taint it. It was created by the one thing human kind purposefully struggled to control: imagination. It represented the rich and perfect. It represented the poor and desolate. It was the aura of hope and desire as well as the toxins of jealousy and avarice.

 

But who protected such gold? A guard clad in gold-plated armor? Perhaps a witch of the darkest sort…or maybe even a monster hidden somewhere in the caves underground. Alas, none of these were true, for the garden was protected, not by creatures of the wildest imaginations, but two women instead. Creatures, one would say, of the most fantastical imaginations.

 

The Light protector and the Dark protector. These two sisters walked the paths of the golden garden every day and watched every blade of grass, every petal on a flower and every leaf on a tree. These small things were of much more value than what made them, for they held the world’s secerts in them.

 

Yes, indeed, every secret that ever was for any man of humankind to walk the Earth was held in those flowers. Dark secrets, stimulating secrets, happy secrets and sad secrets. All of them, every single one, without fail, were tucked deeply into the petals of the flowers.

 

Dark protected the secrets that were already told. For those were the most vulnerable to abuse, and she was the only one with a polluted soul enough to hear them. She heard their whispers from one person to the next and, as the flowers glowed around her as they received the words, the secret itself spread like wildfire, and changed even more.

 

“He saw her without her clothes on…”

 

“She took her clothes off for him…”

 

“I heard that they had an affair…”

 

“I think she is his mistress…”

 

One after the other, they came. It would have shocked mankind to know how fast their secrets spread. The glow of the petal represented the next person to hear it, for it became their secret as well, until they told another person.

 

“It would be best to hold your tongue and tell no one.” Dark whispered, “No one can hurt a secret they’ve never heard.”

 

Light protected those untold secrets, for they were precious. They were pure and as untainted as the gilt that protected them. For her, the flowers only glowed when a new secret was born and, when it was passed on to another, the flower would wilt and Dark would receive its glow. Every day it happened in this way.

 

It would do so for the rest of time, until there were no more secrets amongst men.

 

“My heart breaks for those who tell their secrets to another.” Light wept to her sister, “The flowers die, as does trust.”

 

“But dear sister, do not weep for them!” Dark exclaimed, “For when one flower of yours dies, twenty more bloom in its place.”

 

But they both knew that those newly bloomed golden flowers carried the weight of sorrow, mistrust and betrayal. Many new flowers for every secret told and passed on, but only one for an untold secret.

 

“I can only hope the day will come when merely one secret will stay in its place,” Light said, “and the flower need not die.”

 

“That day will come when a man takes the secret to his grave.” Dark replied.

 

As that was said, a new dawn was breaking. As Light and Dark took to their paths, the flowers bloomed, wilted, glowed and spread. The fields of the garden of gold were full of secrets both told and untold, but there was only one secret in the golden Tree of Life that would never be spoken…

 

For it was the secret of life itself.

Author's Note

Yeeaaahhh I day dream a lot, don't I. Relieved I managed to get this down before it escaped my mind. Please do read and review, let me know how you liked it/how I did! :)

Story to be featured in the Larcenist Magazine February issue! :)

Reviews=motivation! :D

-Mila

Reviews

[Roxi2Star]

I really like the imagery who were trying to create in this story, however the way you wrote it, was very much like you were telling me a story. You know? All I could picture was someone waving their arms about saying "And it was like this! Beautiful, gosh you had to be there." And all the rhetorical questions really took me out of the scene you were trying to build.

Criticism a side, you really do have quite the imagination and a talent to to tell the reader a lot about a world with very few words, and the way you can say a lot about a character with a few lines of dialog is amazing. Keep writing!

[Mila]

Thank you very much, this was very kind and helpful! :)

[SpeedyHobbit Armstrong]

Wow, this was definitely one of your most engaging short stories. Though your others are prettily written, I have the kind of mind that starts wandering with a lot of figurative language.

It also offers a lot of insight into the double standards women face on a daily basis.

[Mila]

Guess I'm a closeted feminist! Haha thank you. :):):)

[Rene Salinas]

Oh I got stuck in here, I felt inclined to read it as it was similar to a story I use to read to mines by the name of before you were born. the separation of light and darkness is useful in the sense that is not judgemental which I happen to agree with. As there is something to learn in both worlds. The language was vibrant and enthusiastic it seem immerersed in innocence. When finally light and dark take their respective paths a secret still remained encrusted and entrusted it in the tree of life.

Quite biblical as well.

I'd blame it on you ladies we were happy before you decided to eat from that apple.

Thankyou

[Mila]

Haha thank you very much! Yes, I was hoping someone would catch on the whole biblical vibe I was toying with. :) Glad you enjoyed!

[MomzillaNC]

This is a very poetic short story. The imagery and the characters are very well developed. Well penned.

NOTES: If you increased your font size to 14 or 16 point, it would shorten the lines onscreen and make the copy easier on aging eyes to read. Shorter lines are easier to follow accurately. That's why newspapers and magazines break their copy into such narrow columns, and why copy in books are kept in relatively short lines.

[Mila]

Thank you! And wow, that's really interesting, thanks for the tip! :)

[MomzillaNC]

You're welcome. I used to actually work in publishing. I was a graphic designer in magazine publication.

[Mila]

Really? That's awesome! :)

[MomzillaNC]

I loved my job so much! But, I love my life now -- even as poor as we are.

[Jennie Baron]

What a daydream, though! I'm so glad you captured it in words. Beautiful prose of a kind that I wish I'd written myself. Outstanding, Mira!

[Mila]

Thank you! Oh, my daydreams and scattered and unorganized, it is a miracle that I managed to get it down! I'm so glad you enjoyed! :)