This Garden Is For You
A Journey from Heartbreak to Healing Through Faith, Love, and a Dream Garden
This Garden Is For You
Introduction
The sweaty lines and crevices on my hands were said to tell my story through something called palm reading. Nikki was looking at the palms of her hands, thinking. She already knew her story and did not need a psychic.
“Ready for your Relem?”
Nikki was in the mental hospital. She was incapacitated from contemplating divorce and wanting rights. The Relem was a cup of pills to give her the strength of mind to do it alone. They just wanted to help. That is what the mental hospital is there for. Help…
“I heard you have a garden,” responded the nurse as Nikki took the water and cutely and awkwardly downed the little cuplet of pills. Nikki had the mentally ill innocence of a twelve-year-old good girl.
Nikki responded, unsure, “Well, this garden is not the one the man came to me about in my dream, but yes, there is a garden slightly available at my home I am leaving. My husband killed and ate a rabbit, and my fate is to eat rabbit and squirrel and frog and bird, like duck and quail, off my acre with walnuts and berries from the trees in my garden.
“It weakens my stomach.
“I am much too sick for that and need healthy, real food. A man has come to me in my dreams, and I plan to do it on my own. He is a billionaire and has a beautiful dream garden with lily pads, leap frogs, and an array of exotic plants and flowers with a gazebo and pond with a creek leading to a river.
“I have the strength to leave my sick husband, though you all are saying I am too mentally ill to make the decision alone without the help of a psychiatrist and his Relem or meds.”
Nikki was quieting down from the pills. She was gaining inner strength and losing manic energy.
The nurse continued, “Yes, take these Relem, and it will be okay. It is the vitamins you need to make you strong. I know it is not likely you will be as healthy living off the land, and we are sure you are unable to do it.
“We are on your side.
“You are in a bit of a rut and in danger. You do know you have a bit of schizophrenia? I am worried about this man you are dreaming of. What is he saying to you?
“You know your husband is quite upset you are leaving him?
“He has to claim bankruptcy and everything, and he is bothered that you claim to be more responsible with finances, you being financially independent without him. He does not like that you are becoming empowered and independent, faring better without him, getting out of debt, no bankruptcy or anything, but he is taking the sacrifice. I hope you are not in an affair.”
Nikki was taken aback. An affair? Whatever were they speaking of? She confided in the nurse, but not much. She did not trust that this hospital was what would make her well enough to achieve her dreams of a dream billionaire in a dream garden that was out there in a parallel reality for her to manifest into reality.
“I’d like to think I am just in the spirit, the man in my dreams, a Reiki spirit that is introducing me to a parallel reality. A spirit guide is what he is. I just finished my Reiki classes, venturing into the spirit on my own,” said Nikki.
The nurse was worried about this new onset of schizophrenia. “Well, tell me about him,” the nurse prodded.
“I really do not have much to say,” Nikki went on to say. “My mind feels like it is in a vacuum. Why must you need to know of something so private?”
Many years later…
Chapter 1: The News
Nikki was at her usual spot, ordering coffee and doing her writing. She had divorced over ten years ago and was living on her own in a prestigious town on low-income help, on disability, making it as an unpaid model and writer on disability, getting extra low-income help and aid.
“Did you hear the news?” asked a regular with his latte in a suit. “I read the paper today, and your ex-husband made a fortune from the mustard seed you planted in the garden when you meditated there when you were married. A mustard tree was all he needed; then everything flourished after that.
“The berries. The walnuts. The squirrels. The rabbits. He sells roses from rose bushes. It was a good idea, and he found a treasure chest of old rare coins when digging a pit for a fire to roast tomatoes and other vegetation he sells from his garden and, of course, s’mores. The chest was worth millions. Want him back yet?”
She grabbed his coffee, took a sip, and said, “Not even tempting. A date with you would have me more satisfied.”
“Very funny,” the billionaire exclaimed. “Here, finish my coffee. I will get myself an espresso.”
“By the way…?” Nikki asked. “Thanks. Do you have a garden?”
“I have many,” the Christian help answered with his billions. “Take my pond instead, though.”
Chapter 2: Take This Pond Instead
Nikki had fared well. The man from her dream of a mystical garden was fading, becoming real before her eyes. It was heaven manifest on earth.
Nikki did not know the man who wore suits at the coffee shop had a garden and would make their casual conversations a date at one of his gardens. She knew him as a billionaire. Everyone talked about his billions.
Nikki still had yet to reach a path with him. The church bells were ringing, but she did not want a marriage, but friendship, then maybe, quite maybe possibly, marriage. She had a lot to learn about marriage still and wished she could get to church. She was not quite sure what the church thought of her divorce.
Nikki was in a pond. Yes. A pond. She was told to take this pond instead many times and laughed. The sun was shining behind fluffy white clouds and made her skin tingle with warmth and feel good. Her legs were paddling away. Where was she going?
“Your legs are looking pretty good there,” Rick, the man with the garden from the coffee place, said as he had Nikki in his paddle boat on his pond.
The leap frogs were leaping on lily pads, and the monarch butterflies, as well as the blue jays and cardinals, were fluttering about with the bumblebees. An array of nature colored this art palette for this pale blue-and-white, fluffy-cloud sky picture.
“Thanks,” exclaimed Nikki. “My legs feel like Jell-O.”
“Oh, in that case, let me show you. Here, this paddle boat actually has a motor.” Rick popped the hood and pulled a line. The motor started right away.
Fish started jumping everywhere, splashing Nikki. Nikki let out a delightful but frazzled scream and laugh.
“Oh, I did not know you were one of Christ’s!” Nikki screamed over the motor and splashing fish. Fish smelled of the lake, catching in the air.
“Come by me again?” said Rick.
Nikki let out an exasperated sigh. “The fish jumping… your kindness… I am beginning to feel like you are one of Christ’s fishers of men, me with the fish.”
Rick tipped his straw hat he was wearing to keep the sun out of his eyes and off of his face. “You can look at me that way.” Rick put his finger on his temple, on his forehead. “I do know Acts 2:38 and John 3:16 by heart. We can look them up in the Bible when we get back to my place.”
“No need,” said Nikki. “I will look them up when I get home. I know those are saved and born-again verses. I am already both. I love Jesus so much. He is my rock I stand firm on. By the way, is there a good church out this way on the pond?”
Rick gave Nikki a high five. “Thought you would never ask. Take this pond and church too.” Rick winked. “You know what I say… Take this pond instead. Here is my next line. Take this pond and church too,” exclaimed Rick, and he grabbed his straw hat and put it on Nikki. “We will get to the church off the lake,” ended Rick. “Ready for some hymns and Sunday school?”
The motor of the paddle boat had stalled, leaving them just floating on the pond. Rick grabbed the handle again and gave it a pull. The motor revved, and Rick went on a high-speed chase for home to get to the church.
Nikki let out a delighted squeal. “Here we come, Lord. This fish bit, and Rick, the fisher of men, will show me the line.”
Chapter 3: Take This Pond and Church Too
It was a marvelous Sunday… Marvel the clown could not have had the crowd and kids, thus families, more happy or thrilled, but they were filled with the Holy Ghost, which is a trick Marvel the clown does not know. No secrets with church. Just spirit and the truth taught by the Holy Bible. God’s light and magnificence are no secret.
“Marvelous, marvelous…” The church choir did a bow, and the congregation was shouting for an encore and their amens. Jesus filled the place, and healing was taking place. It was perfect as the pond shone through the clear stained-glass window, making a magnificent tapestry with ducks and geese for a setting for miracle healing and God worship. It was all quiet and at peace, but the church roared with lion-roar God worship.
A large, oversized black Holy Bible sat open on the altar, and a tall cross decorated the place with a silk purple linen draped about it. One fella was kneeling down beside it, yelling, “He is risen! He is risen! Hallelujah, praise His name. He is risen…” He was trembling, full of the spirit. A man of renowned faith and character, dressed in modest Sunday attire. He had a child of each sex on each side, hugging and holding them, and the man continued with them, “He is risen. Risen indeed. Take us and use us for your work and mission. Take my children and heal them and use them for your will. Let your will be done with us.” He went on.
The love that surrounded the place had the sun on the pond, a faint lesson of faith that the sun is always burning, feeding light to us and nature we need to survive and live, and we take it for granted like the God of the church that feeds us His spiritual, white, pure, radiant light.
The pastor was praying over people, tossing holy water with a wand on people, anointing the congregation. Touching bodies, healing them. “It is in the Word. Heal my people and set them free. Break the chains for a breakthrough. God is good and pure, and may He lead and take my people who have come here to worship.” The pastor’s words were firm, bold, and brave.
“‘Something Happens When I Call Your Name’ was resounding and reverberating through the small auditorium, which is just the tune we needed to move mountains and make the evil one tremble,” Rick said to Nikki after church. “The devil fled, and we are free,” resounded Rick. “Do you feel it?” Rick let out an amen and knelt on the ground before Nikki, then got up.
Rick continued and went on, “You are quite a maiden, looking like Christ’s bride, so fair and virgin-looking to be wed to only Him. I know Christ is also your son, father, counselor, and physician. He makes the mountains tremble to His name, nature resounding Him at my pond. I hear His echo in all nature. He is in the beauty of the flowers, in the tall green grass, and in all the colors of the birds, animals, and bees.”
Rick was still speaking. “You make that very evident, and it is all in the scripture of the Holy Bible. King James is my preferred version.”
Nikki let out a sigh. “I think the New International Version is quite more understandable. I will take this pond and church too.” Nikki’s words were quiet but firm.
Nikki continued, “The roses really smelled up the church nicely today. Someone joked they were from my ex-husband’s garden, and they do not know why I do not go beg for him back, him having millions now and all.”
“Oh, no need,” said Rick. “My garden has plenty of roses, and you are now friends with me, a billionaire. I let the church go back to my garden by the pond out there and grab a few dozen roses. The rose thorns symbolize the crown they put on Christ when He was on the cross at Easter time,” started Rick.
“Ahem… No mockery of Christ here,” Nikki said, muffled. She was drawn to the Christ in Rick, and he had her heart feeling pure pity for Christ, her Savior and Lord.
The pollen from the flowers brought the bees around, and Nikki’s sinuses could use some good clearing from the eucalyptus leaves from the garden by the pond. Nikki was muffled and stuffy, needing natural nature healing.
Little Jameson, Nikki’s grandson, loves playing in eucalyptus leaves, getting a bath from a plant that kills germs at such a minute level. It makes him feel so good, giving him good, minty-fresh sinuses, and is so fun. He loves the look and shape of them, and they are by the gazebo by the roses. He stays away from the roses because of the thorns but loves to smell and look at them and pick them for his mom and grandma Nikki. He hand-selects and picks them carefully and lovingly on Sundays before church when he goes and checks on Nikki with her mate, hoping to one day join them at the church.
Sadly, nature does leave Jameson’s face with sores and rashes, but his mama thinks it is from too much protein—a protein intolerance. She compensates with nuts and beans for protein, and Grandma Nikki fears he is not getting his adequate amount of muscle but does see he is a strong boy.
“It is good for a growing boy to be in nature with the outdoors, and I hope he gets the adequate protein he needs and that his condition is permanently reversed,” said Grandma Nikki.
Not only was Nikki Rick’s church, garden, and pond friend and companion, but she was also a mom, a grandmother of two named Jameson and Briella, her two precious sweets.
“Do you think the church has room for my children and grandchildren to have a party for Halloween?” timidly asked Nikki of Rick. They met this old crone and wanted to make her comfortable in church, and she just loves her children. “I know church would much rather them celebrate Halloween with the holy saints instead of demons,” complained Nikki.
And thinking about something as special as a kid’s party for families at church on a Saturday at this church with the pond, too, was just what the kids of the church needed. None of that demonic, awful nonsense.
Nikki went on to explain, “The old crone lives amongst the overgrown willow tree and is full of hidden secrets and hidden formulas for healing, and the grandbabies thought church would be good for her. Jesus and the Bible are no secret. She is somewhat a witch and needs the Lord. She got excited when they invited her to church.”
Nikki shrugged, and Rick took the floor. “No secrets there,” Nikki whispered, desperate to know greater truths and be rid of the crone’s mysticism.
Rick started talking. “Miracles and healing happen at church.” Rick nudged Nikki and gave her a little laugh. “You mean you invited the mysterious witch at the willow tree to church? We pray for her. Where will her crowd go once born again but to the church? We need a bigger building. Sure is a small church by the pond, but Jesus loves children, and so do they.”
Nikki talked, “Jesus loves everyone. I am sure it would be no problem for your secretive crone, the church prays for, to come out of the willow?”
Chapter 4: The Old Crone by the Willow
“Well, how about a party?!” exclaimed Nikki, holding Briella and Jameson’s hand in each hand. “We will see you later. Stay safe. I am meeting Rick at the church to prepare. Why don’t you both go tell the crone we are preparing the party?”
The two grandkids, Jameson and Briella, walked happily and excitedly to the crone’s place by the willow. On the way, Briella stopped by the garden to pick some roses and told Jameson she would meet up with him later. Jameson did not care. Picking roses for Grandma and Mama usually was his idea, but he let Briella do as she wished.
Once Jameson got to the old crone by the willow, the old crone was showing Jameson some potion she was making in her cauldron to rid him of the sores on his face.
“Stop,” Jameson said. “My grandma says it won’t work, but Jesus will.”
Jameson confided, a bit freaked out.
“Are you scared of a little witch’s brew?” asked the crone.
“Just not right,” said Jameson, backing into the corner with a chair in it. “My momma just will watch my protein. Snow White ate the apple. I am not even tempted and do not want to fall into a satanic sleep or trance. We will get together at church and stomp on Satan and do fun holy worship,” said Jameson, now standing on the chair in the corner, looking down on the witch’s cauldron that started having dancing cobra snakes trying to entrance him.
“Now, now. No need for violence. Satan would not like that. Take the potion like a good little boy and be done with it,” prodded the crone.
In the meantime, Nikki and Rick were in the church getting the Saturday church party together. They filled tiny little fake plastic cauldrons with Snickers bites for the kids to be cute.
“They should like these,” cooed Nikki.
“My, my,” cooed Rick back at Nikki. “You sure have been looking pretty to me.”
Nikki turned timid, and Rick fell in love with her plain, virgin look, seeing it as love for Jesus.
“Let us go check on the kids. Briella and Jameson were last seen knocking on the old crone’s door to tell her the party was on and that we are preparing.”
“GrandMomma! GrandMomma! Something is wrong with Jameson.” Briella was crying. “He is locked in the old crone’s house, and all I can hear Jameson yelling is, ‘Help! Help! Snakes! Snakes! I want none of your witch’s brew!’ We gotta get him fast. There are snakes. I saw them in the window.”
“Now, now,” comforted Grandma Nikki. “We better go take a look.”
Nikki was a bit disturbed. Briella led Nikki to the house by the willow, and she opened the door with her hairpin.
“Oh, I feel dizzy. The snakes are making me dizzy,” whined Jameson as Rick trampled in.
“We will have none of this evil, wicked nonsense. Take your spell off of Jameson now,” Rick demanded of the old, wicked, sick crone.
In the meantime, Kaylah was getting some grocery shopping done while the kids were with Grandma Nikki and Rick. Kaylah’s husband, the babies’ father, called Kaylah on her iPhone.
“Bad news. Get the groceries paid for and come home quick. Jameson is at the child mental institution talking to the child psychiatrist. He is a bit entranced and a bit in shock, in a trance, and they are concocting a Relem or prescription for him. The pastor cancelled the kid party, and the crone is in the insane asylum chanting, ‘I will get you, my dearie, and you little dog Toto, too,’ over and again with wicked laughter. Briella thinks Jameson got a spell cast on him and that the crone is mad at her for getting Grandma Nikki and Rick and saving him from further harm. There is a bushel of roses waiting for you that Briella picked.”
Ricky hung up the phone.
“I… I… said no,” stammered Jameson in shock to the psychiatrist, with the chills, staring.
“Give me a few days of the Relem, and he will snap out of it,” commented the psychiatrist. “This is not our first brush with the crone. She is a mad woman. The pastor wishes her well, and the pastor told me he is praying for us all. He will pronounce this all to the church on Sunday and give his apologies with a church lesson about how to stay away from witchcraft and the devil. The crone is a serious case to handle.”
Kaylah showed up and hugged Jameson.
“Momma! Momma! I said no, and all these cobra snakes came out of the cauldron, and Doc said I am in PTSD.”
The doctor smiled. “Everything is going to be fine. Just take the Relem cuplet, and you will be home in a few days.”
Rick took Nikki by the hand.
“So sorry for Jameson and the party. We tried. I guess the crone is mentally ill and really had a wicked scheme. I hope you can all make it to the sermon the pastor is making on witchcraft and fleeing the devil.”
“Of course we will be there. Just to think this all started on Summit Street.”
Chapter 5: The Shoutout on Summit Street
“Here ye, here ye. This is a cheers to the uniting of Nikki and Rick.”
Nikki and Rick were at Buddy N Pals on Summit Street, having cheers with nonalcoholic drinks amongst the crowd there. Their meeting at the Starbucks on Summit brought them down the street to Buddy N Pals, where Nikki had published poetry in poetry books.
“To all my buddy n pals and sisters and brothers in Christ. Rick and I are now engaged and will be living at his gardens and ponds, being dutiful to the small church there. It is with great honor I have tied the knot. I pray the Lord forgive me of divorce, but I was sick, dying, and my last husband could not care for me. Well, the Lord has me well with this never-wed Rick with no children, and he feeds me good food and spirits. It is with great joy we will marry at the church at the garden and pond.”
Rick took over the speech.
“My fair maiden Nikki. I loved the virgin you became and your love for Jesus. When I saw you wed to Jesus, I knew you were going to be my wife. From this garden is for you to take this pond instead, to take this pond and church too, and the old crone by the willow, we made it. We will have a fair marriage and rejoice in the Lord.”
“The best man is you, Rick. We will sow the seeds of the future and stay rooted in Christ.”
