HOME GROWN

1.

Half past eight, Monday morning, August thirty first 1981, Estelle Boyle-Fontaine awakes lying alone on her back, in her bed. She turns to her side and given the evening that she and her husband Jim had the day before, she guesses that when Jim got up to ready himself for work that he allowed her to keep resting rather than wake her either for breakfast or for a goodbye moment prior to his leaving for work.

Initially and upon waking, it is bright especially with the bedroom curtains being open, if Jim wanted Estelle to rest then opening the curtains was not the best move to make, and as Estelle focuses her eyes on the ceiling it isn't long before she notices her surroundings darken.

It wasn't a rainfall or a sudden cloud cover that dampened an outdoor light causing the bedroom to darken; rather it was a shadow within the room, a rather large shadow at that, something big enough to cause that dulled darkness to envelope the entire room. Quickly Estelle becomes overcome. Her mouth and throat become dry all of a sudden. A dizziness and a nausea come over her out of nowhere to the point where when she sat up, she became weary of attempting to get to her feet, in case she were to lose herself and fall over.

Of course, August of 1981 was a time long before cellular phones became a common everyday item so in this moment the only household land line within the house was and is situated in the downstairs hallway close to the kitchen so using the phone to call for someone to come to her aid at this time is not an option.

This shadow, how odd it is. It is singular and soon appears to take the shape of a person, a man perhaps. It is not clear as to what might be creating this shadow and as it is also appears capable of moving freely through the room, across the walls and floor at first and then away from the wall as if it were some kind of corporeal being, real onto itself and not created by dispersed light being blocked by ... something else.

Watching this shadow, this shadowy mass move has a paralyzing effect on Estelle. She could feel the sudden chill the room took on and she would know not much else for she would pass out and would only wake again ten hours later by her husband's concern and after having soiled the bed. A night's stay in hospital is what she would get from this day and not a word she would speak about what occurred, not at least for quite a long time.

Three months pass and Estelle Boyle-Fontaine is three months pregnant. Over those three months she has been drawn to a certain spot in the local park. She has been drawn to sit on a bench where the surrounding shrubbery shines and glows brighter than anywhere else she has ever seen. Greens more vibrant than any other green, yellows and purple brighter, stronger and more full of life that that of anything else elsewhere.

Estelle has no way of knowing that it is her or rather what is inside of her that is responsible for how those surroundings look. The more time she spends here the longer the effect of her presence will be felt, then the need will come upon her, the need to bring this home, in her own unique way.

A young girl likes to come to this spot too. She likes how bright the flowers are and she likes to pick and collect them whenever the lady who comes to sit here has come. Whenever she does collect a flower it always manages to replace itself for the next time she returns.

'I like the yellow ones and the purple ones too' says the little girl as she fixes a purple flower into a flowerpot she has brought with her on this occasion.

'So do I,' responds Estelle as she looks towards her visitor.

'I am bringing this one home and I am going to take care of it.'

'Good for you. You know, maybe the next time you come here you should collect yellow flowers in smaller pots to keep the one you have right there company.'

'That's a really good idea ...'

'I think so. My name is Estelle. What is yours?'

'I'm Lacey ...' and with that Lacey's mum calls her for it is time for Lacey and her flower to go home.

The further into her pregnancy Estelle gets, the more difficult it also gets for her to take those trips of hers to that park to the point she stops going at all about two months before her child is born. It is draining, so very draining and Estelle was not at all prepared for such a drain. As it is by this point, she has many or her own arrangements now at home, each as bright and vibrant as anything from that area of hers at the park.

Apparently that area by the park bench also felt the drain, not that Estelle was around to see, it felt the drain of Estelle not being there. Lacey did see. The more time Estelle spent away from her spot the more the colours returned to what any person could expect them to be. Still, the girl continued to take care of her flowers she had gathered as best she could and with that something remained in those flowers.

Yeah, all those bright vibrant colours by the park bench faded to normality and even soon appeared to worsen. Little Lacey indeed noticed the change too, from her flowerpots first and then for that area she liked to visit. No matter how bad it got, how normal it got, Lacey kept her flowering pots, plants and all and a time for her would come where their importance would mean the world to her.

Even though this is her first pregnancy, Estelle knew it was not one hundred percent natural or normal, she felt it but what exactly she felt she did not know. She knew she should not be as drained and tired as she had been. Yeah, pregnancies can be ... tiring, what Estelle felt was strangely ... unnatural.

Husband Jim took care of his wife throughout her pregnancy as best he could. He knew no different, that what she was going through was no different to any other pregnancy the world has ever known except for what she attempted to describe to him. This first time he noticed anything different or odd without directly being informed by Estelle occurred on the day his wife went into labour.

The day Estelle went into labour Jim was home and by her side. She had a bag ready to accompany her to a hospital and as Jim reached for it, he notice the near-by household floral arrangement react. If he were to be asked Jim would not be able to say how the floral arrangement reacted or what it possibly could have reacted to other than the fact that something did happen.

Out in the front garden there also was a reaction as Jim and Estelle made their way to their car. At the hospital there were further floral reactions and Jim understood none of it. For all the pregnancy had brought, for all that occurred the day labour came and for all that still lay ahead, there would be a lot which seemed to defy logic.

All things aside, a child was born, a baby girl. On the first of June 1982 Jim and Estelle Fontaine became parents for a first time when their daughter Ester Leigh Fontaine simply ... arrived.