Knowing When to Call It Quits: Sunday Photo Fiction

Calvin and Julie sneaked away from the school and headed for the desert. He had to do well on his last assignment to obtain his certificate in landscape design.

The latest design was one of the best he had proposed all year, but he needed to test it out. With Julie keeping watch for the park rangers, he worked all day, snipping, cutting, pruning, and reducing the cacti, determined to create a masterpiece that he would then replicate in the gardens at the school.

Finally, a very proud Calvin shouted, “Ta da!” When Julie turned to look, she could not stop the laughter that bubbled up and out of her. She kept trying to apologize to Calvin, but every time she glanced at the cacti that looked like one of those swaying things outside the car dealership, she lost control.

Calvin was hurt at first. But as he looked at it through her eyes, he joined in the laughter. Realizing that he was not going to be a landscape designer, he thought, “Maybe plumbing might suit me!”

Written for the Sunday Photo Fiction by Susan, December 30, 2018. Photo by Joy Pixley.