Originally written for a 1K short story contest. Prompt: Write a story that takes place over ten years. (#Writing Contests by hannahsue--, Contest #33)

Sure, I wasn't facing down Melville's white whale from Moby Dick, Hemingway's fish from The Old Man and the Sea, du Maurier's birds form "The Birds", or Benchley's shark from Jaws, but I had my own nemesis. It was something just as cruel and just as provoking as all those other literary beasts. Why, it had driven me to the brink of insanity and back again, over and over, every single year for the past decade. My inescapable agent of destruction was none other than the deceptively cute Honey-the-Hare.

I kid you not, Honey-the-Hare was a destructive force of nature. Her super power involved the instant overnight annihilation of all things green and budding-ly beautiful in my little sanctuary. When I began work on my non-existent garden 15 years ago, I had visions of a future garden that would forever change the balance of my hectic life. It was going to be my refuge - my sanctuary. I was going to fill it with all my favourite colours, scents, leaf shapes and shrub sizes. It was going to be my secret joy and revitalize me daily in a world that did nothing but suck the life right out of me. Back then I was full of hope and naivety. I had no idea my dreams would come to a very bitter end, by a solitary hare, before they even had a chance to mature and flourish.

Five years after I had begun my garden project, I had managed to create, with my blood, sweat and tears, a place of safe haven for me. I stood on the back step, one warm spring evening, looking out over my creation and feeling my heart swell with something like contentment. I was going to get a lifetime of happy moments out of this garden. And then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a strange and unexpected movement. I turned my eyes in that direction, not sure what I would see, but could spy nothing out of the ordinary at first. The light was bad. It was twilight. So, I got up to reach through the open back door and turned the floodlight on with a flick of my finger. It lit up my garden like a theatre and there, to stage left, was a little honey coloured hare nibbling ferociously on my heritage tulips, which had just begun to bud and bloom!!

I made a sound, something like a cross between a gasp and a squeal, and then dashed down the steps and across the little patch of grass shooing the creature out of my garden. It scampered off quickly and I felt some relief. However, as the night progressed, I found the silly little thing kept coming back. Each time I looked out my kitchen window I would see it eating the tulip leaves! I banged on the window to frighten it but it wouldn't budge. I turned on the floodlight but it didn't scurry away. I finally opened the door, ran down the steps and chased it a second, a third and a fourth time that night. Little did I know this would be the beginning of the end of my peace of mind in my little oasis-garden.

That foul creature from the pit of hell ate everything I ever loved. It ate every leaf, every bud, every gently unfolding petal, until my garden looked like something hacked to pieces by a kindergartner! Instead of spending my leisure time sitting in my garden and soaking up the wondrous sights and scents of a healthy, growing garden, I split my precious time between chasing the stupid creature off and mourning the loss of my delicate little plants. From spring through summer that year, I hardly saw anything get a chance to bloom. The honey-coloured hare did leave my daffodils in peace, as well as, my ornamental onions. However, that was very little consolation when everything else was a dish to be served without delay!

For the next nine years I spent every spare moment I had thinking about and devising plan after miserable plan to rid my garden, once and for all, of my arch enemy, who the neighbourhood kids had now begun to call "Honey". Well, there was nothing sweet about this monster. Honey-the-Hare, A.K.A. the devil incarnate, was not welcome and she wasn't going to out-think and outsmart me! I spared no expense and tried every stunt in every online blog about how to rid the garden of hares. I tried live-trapping her. I used rabbit repellent on my plants. I bought ultrasonic devices to scare her off. I had barrier fencing professionally installed to keep her out. And, I even went so far as buying a bloody lap-dog to scare her off despite the fact that I was allergic to dogs! No matter what I tried, everything failed. Whenever I looked out my kitchen window, I was sure to see Honey-the-Devil eating my garden greens! It was enough to drive even the most meek and mild person to the point of insanity.

Surely no one could blame me, after 10 long years of battling it out with her for supremacy of my garden, when I got out my pellet rifle in the spring and sat on the back steps lying in wait, night after night, for Honey-the-Devil to show up? I waited patiently, like a psychopath, for her to return. She never showed. I later found out from one of the neighbour-kids that she'd been found dead in someone else's yard that spring. I felt deflated by the news. Even though my nightmare was finally over and I could breathe a sigh of relief, I didn't feel relieved. I felt exhausted.My garden sanctuary was an illusion and the devil-hare had made me see it. Yes, I was tired alright. I was tired of my garden.

(980)