When Fran slipped in her cottage garden she was momentarily immobile, unable to get back to her feet she laid among the caterpillar cabbages she was just spraying.
It was no good yelling for help because the neighbours were at work and her late husband insisted on the high fence all around for privacy, so she could not be seen either.
He was inclined to run naked in the private garden and have Fran over the cabbage patch, sometimes across the garden bench which was nice too. They'd often end up submerged in the cabbages, caterpillars and all but it made for a different sort of experience that they both liked to experiment with.
But now, with John no more and buried beneath the cabbage patch after a meaningful knock on the head with a pick axe, Fran would have to find a method to raise herself up from the ground. Well he did try to strangle her when they were involved in sexual role play. At least he was near to it and for the world she felt her consciousness lapsing, so she pushed him off, his cock still blazing, and gave him one horrible blow with the building implement they were using to raise the old patio tiles for new.
He'd had a jolly good innings and she wanted change anyway, Role games are fine but they got damned boring with John and, given the bother of a funeral arrangements and explanations to the police she thought it best to bury him and be done with it. If anyone asked any question he had left her for a younger woman. No one would ever find him under the cabbages.
Her only option after her fall was to get to her mobile phone and call for an ambulance. But with the weather being warm she'd removed her cardigan and placed it over the back of a garden chair. The mobile was in one of the pockets.
She tried the best as possible to stop the bleeding on her ankle by tying a handkerchief around which seemed to help a little.
But really she knew she had to resist the immense pain in her leg and drag herself to where she could grab the phone.
Although in her seventies she was still very agile and by taking rest intervals, she was eventually able to reach her phone.
****************
"Fran, you really must be more careful, the trouble with you is you think you are still an eighteen year old. Accept growing older gracefully and take in a gardener."
Her friend Janice was adamant; "It is like last week when I offered to dig up your King Edwards but you declined and ended up straining your back.
"But if you were a gardener, Janice you'd know that part of the joy in vegetable gardening is the harvesting, especially those multitudes of potatoes. Having planted, nursed and watched them grow and flower the achievement is when you dig 'em up."
"Buy you hardly eat potatoes you tell me, so why bother?"
"Much of the pleasure is in giving my produce away, and you certainly don't refuse my offerings, Janice."
"You are so stubborn. But seriously Fran, you must do something, you were lucky this time, it was only a sprain and a slight abrasion but what next?"
"But I love gardening and it is true what they say about being nearer to God's heart in the garden than anywhere else. And anyway, I feel I owe it to John who converted the garden from an overgrown jungle of sorts to the wonderful place on God's earth it now is, I owe it to him to keep it up.
"I am sure if John was here now he would prompt you to bring in a gardener or have it paved over or something. Look at you Fran you can hardly kneel down without getting up again."
"I manage, with my stick placed next to me. That's how I manoeuvre myself up again."
There was no moving Fran - Janice knew that. There had to be another way.
"Don't you see? I know you are concerned Janice and I value your friendship. More so, because, as you know, I have no children.. Without friends I would be miserable indeed, but without my garden, that would be sacrilege
"Tibby has to be the oldest cat I know."
"He is about fourteen Janice."
"That's about 98 in human terms and he still keeps the mice away. If I reach that age I shall be grateful, but not if I am cooped up in a chair, unable to do my garden.
"Growing older means keeping both the brain and the body exercised and what better way than enjoying your garden and one can never stop learning."
"With me Jim keeps me exercised well enough in bed, or rather, he likes to refer to it as 'sexercise'' sorry Fran, I didn't mean to upset you"
"You haven't at all. That period in my life has gone by" she pretended, "I can concentrate on my garden activities. She didn't tell her Janice about her vibrator friend and how she fucked herself over the bench in the greenhouse.
They were there, sharing tea and sandwiches in the garden Fran proudly announced that the cucumbers and plum tomatoes were fresh picked in the greenhouse that morning.
"See what I mean Janice?, there is just something special about enjoying fresh harvested produce from one's own garden."
"I guess at least you don't have to crouch down in the greenhouse, the shelves prevent that."
"Well yes, John even put in a self-watering system too which saves the legs. I enjoy the greenhouse I must say, it is much easier to manage these days I have to accept."
(John actually put in the shelf at waist length so he could get a good entry with Fran) They enjoyed the humidity of making it in the greenhouse, like they were fucking in the tropics and they enjoyed great sex amongst the tomatoes and cucumbers. Sometimes John would humour her by measuring up to one of his price cucumbers and if, like sometimes the cucumber exceeded his growth she would give it an extra work out to increase volume, which was always a delight to behold.
Other times overripe tomatoes could cause a very sensual stir with a little bit of directed rubbing and crushing. It was all good fun until one day a very large bubble bee, cross at being disturbed when pollinating the new cucumber flowers, sting Fran neatly on one of quinny lips and that put and end to their frolics for a day two.
Occasionally she still auspiciously takes a cucumber into her mouth and lets her imagination run away with he when she is in the greenhouse. But she knows only too well it is a very poor substitute. And it doesn't taste the same! And then afterwards realising that the motion did nothing at all for her, she felt disgusted. She concluded that there was nothing like the real thing, a good ripe hard cock was heaven to handle and taste, and when in her sexual mode it was good to relate to it that way - but at least with her new rabbit vibrator she was able to imagine and reach a good orgasm, when she was in the mood, but her real desire was still to have the real thing.
Janice left Fran that day knowing that no way was she going to shift her friend away from her gardening pursuits. But in discussing the benefits of a greenhouse gave her an idea...
It was always a mystery as far as Janice was concerned how Fran's husband just disappeared from the face of the earth, according to Fran he just up and went and she found some texts on his mobile phone he'd left behind, that he was having an affair, so she believed he went off with his new floozy.
That was the story according to Fran just to put Janice off the scent.
A few days later Janice told Fran that they were going away for a fortnight - adding the break is just what she needed.
"Don't be silly Janice, what about my garden. This is the busiest time of the year come late summer. And what about Tibby and the birds, everything!"
"Don't make excuses, you are coming and that is it! I have to be stern with you, it is the only way to make you see sense. Okay so you can't live without your garden, but we all need a break sometimes, even from the best things in our life.
"Jim will tend the garden and ensure the birds and Tibby are fed."
Jim was her partner and Fran liked him enough to trust him.
"He will visit twice a day, in the morning and in the evening; we are just up the road so no problem there"
"I just cannot leave my garden or the creatures I love just for selfish ends, Janice. It is very good of you to be concerned about my welfare but I am afraid I must reject.
"But it must be years since you have had a break, come on Fran, you know it will be good for you."
