Member-only story
Visit From a Stranger
a fairy tale
A stone cottage sat just past the edge of town. It had round windows, a roof coated in moss and was surrounded by the most vivid rose garden imaginable. From March until June the flowers crowded every open space, filling the air with perfume and growing to sizes well beyond that of a normal rose.
The garden was surrounded by an impenetrable, wooden fence and the lock on the gate was secure in order to keep thieves from sneaking in and stealing any of the roses.
In the cottage lived Ines, a woman well past youthfulness, but not yet too old to squat amongst the flowers or carry heavy buckets of water from the creek. She seldom went into town, but when she did, the townspeople watched and whispered about her. She was odd, after all. Ines was unmarried and resistant to any attempts at small talk. Plus, there were those roses. So big and bright, yet she never sold them at the street corner or tried to profit from them in any way. Who could explain it?
And, yet, though she was considered odd, she was their oddity. When witch hunts swept through the country, no one bothered bringing up her name or pointing a finger in the direction of her home. Plenty of folks were burned in those days for the crime of being different, but the townsfolk somehow knew that Ines must be protected at all costs. If her cottage were to…
