The Obsession

THE OBSESSION

Every day she’d traipse across their acre of land, bucket in the left hand, trowel in the right, eyes focused , in search of the little gems.  It had become an obsession for her, she could no longer go outside without looking down for those little round nuggets.

Oh, sure, people laughed, telling her how absurd she was for wasting so much time searching for that muck. But she could not be swayed; she knew that one day there would be a stupendous payoff.  So, she just smiled and nodded at their remarks and kept on hunting.

She would spend hours at a time, and Mother Nature almost always provided a bucket-load of the little morsels. Back and forth across the yard, up and down  the landscape, and if she made the mistake of walking across the grass without the bucket in hand whilst doing the gardening, and spied the little beads gleaming in the sun, she would count the steps back to the veranda  and grab the bucket.  She was truly that obsessed.

Her knees would hurt, her back would ache, occasionally she would even get light headed from the constant bending over and standing upright again, but she could not give it up. There were always more to pick up.

The house started to look a bit less cared for, a few laundry piles had stacked up, dinners were thrown together haphazardly, but she no longer cared. Her one thought day in and day out was to collect more of that powerful material.

She knew that the ultimate payout could be huge. She could see it now, after these little jewels had been mixed into the powerful, transforming, concoction; the kitchen counter would be filled with fabulous gleaming colours and textures of  greens, reds, yellows and orange. But she had to persist and ignore the naysayers, so ignore she did.

Months had gone by, and she had finally quite a mass of the precious prize, heaped and ready for the conversion.  Now it was time for the magic, and magic it was! She scooped up a huge shovel full from her treasure pile and mixed it into the earth. She scattered the seeds and placed the dirt gently over them. She watered with care and then she waited.

She did not have to wait long as the seeds came alive quickly in the magical solution they were laying in.  The popped their little heads through the dirt and grew with glorious stems, leaves flowers and then the final prize of beautiful vegetables and fruit.  The plants kept growing and provided the most bountiful crop she had ever grown! She had so much food she was able to preserve heaps for the winter and had much leftover to sell at the markets. The people that bought her wares were amazed at how delightfully lovely and tasty it all was.

Ah, yes, she said to herself; it’s amazing what a little kangaroo poo can do!