A Monstrous Garden

• Caleb Watson, Grade 6, Tate Street Primary School
• Short Story
• 2018

Excellence Award in the 'Horizon of Dreams 2018' competition

“But Dad I just need 5 dollars!” “No Henry, no more. That garden of yours is certain to win.” “What about Mr O'Green? His garden might grow out of nowhere like last year.” “Oh, fine just take it.” “Thanks Dad. I owe you.”
I went down the street to buy a small bag of fertiliser for my garden. All of a sudden, I catch something out of the corner of my eye. I walk down and find a green glowing sack. It had a label. It said, 'garden fertiliser, only use small amounts at a time’. I picked up the bag and ran home. I ran straight to the garden and put the fertiliser on. 'That's not enough it needs more' I thought to myself and I went ahead and put the rest of it on.
That night at 4 in the morning I woke up from a nightmare. I got up and ‘Crunch’, there were leaves and vines all over my room!! I saw a tomato as big as myself! I walked over and tried to lift it. It was too heavy for me to lift. All of a sudden, the giant tomato tried to eat me. I realised at that moment that all of the plants were alive! I stumbled over a thick vine into another tomato. This time it got me. Just before it could swallow me whole my older sister Abigail wacked at the plant with a baseball bat and it vomited me out.
We tried to find our way out of the jungle of living plants when suddenly Abigail's Venus Fly Trap ran out of her room and chased after us, trying to snap us up with its all mighty jaws. We ran and ran for our lives. Then I thought of an idea. We could lead the fly trap to the tomatoes. We ran back to my room and as I had imagined the tomato swallowed the fly trap whole.
We ran to the garage and in there we found a glowing plant. We could vaguely see through it and saw the shape of a body and a Venus Fly Trap. “Is that Dad?” Abigail asked. “Is that the Venus Fly Trap? It's got to be the stomach of the garden.” I said. “We should cut it open and get Dad out'' I insisted.
Abigail and I ripped at the stomach of the mighty beast. We got Dad, but he was unconscious and covered in goo. “We should call 000.” Abigail cried. “No, we can deal with this. We just need to find the heart of the plants.” I replied as I tried to comfort her. We walked all around the house being very cautious, when we found another glowing part. “That's it, it has to be.” Abigail and I struck the plant and the plants shrivelled up and fell with a loud thump. “We're safe now, but what are we going to do with the rest of them?”