Garden

 

The kids were all afraid of him; the old man who lived in the big house with the yard that took up half of the block, with a ramshackle privacy fence that separated it from the smaller, lesser houses.

After finding the opening in the fence and peeking through it for days, the little girl finally slipped through and into the carefully tended gardens.

Looming above her, he glared down at her and waited for her to scream and run like the others did.

“I like your flowers” she glared back at him.

They remained best friends until he died.