The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Untended Field
by Sonora Taylor

We’ve all seen the untended field on the side of the road. We wonder if it’s truly wild, or if it’s merely an extension of a long-forgotten farm. We imagine the farmer sitting on their porch, sipping lemonade and watching the sun set over rows of golden grasses blowing in the wind.

It’s easier to imagine the farmer than it is to think the field grows wild and perfect on its own. For if the field can take care of itself, what else can it do on its own?

Can the field till its own soil, be born anew with its fertilizer of choice? Does it close in on people exploring its vastness so that they can never get out, even when they walk in a straight line like their well-meaning elders told them to do to avoid getting lost?

Can a field survive with only rain, sun, and soil? Or does the soil need the bones of any living thing to maintain its flourish? People no longer turn to dust the way they once did thanks to coffins and urns. Maybe the field in its untamed state seeks to tame those who would dare to not follow their end of the bargain.

All it takes is a stone out of place, a hole supposedly dug by a gopher, for people running wild in a field to fall and crumple beneath the golden grasses, to quietly return to dirt and let the grasses flourish in their stead.

It’s all it takes. It’s all the field wants.

But it’s easier to think the field is owned by someone, a benevolent farmer as opposed to the flora that will do what it takes to survive.

Go ahead. Believe it.

The field is waiting either way.

Fiction © Copyright Sonora Taylor
Image courtesy of  Pixabay.com

More from Sonora Taylor:

Seeing Things

Abby Gillman has discovered that with growing up, there comes a lot of blood. But nothing prepares her for the trail of blood she sees in the hallway after class – or the ghost she finds crammed inside an abandoned locker.

No one believes Abby, of course. She’s only seeing things. As much as Abby wants to be believed, what she wants more is to know why she can suddenly see the dead. Unfortunately, they won’t tell her. In fact, none of them will speak to her. At all.

Abby leaves for her annual summer visit to her uncle’s house with tons of questions. The visit will give her answers the ghosts won’t – but she may not like what she finds out.

Available on Amazon!