Sometimes you look at something and for an instant you wonder where it came from, how it got to be there, something you have never seen or known before. Then, when that moment of bewilderment passes, you realize it is something you have had a long time, perhaps even loved all that time. That is how I felt about the garden.
It was an old friend to me, not just my home. I was comfortable within its confines, safe and protected. And that never changed, it never would, even after Tetan came.
A part of me knew I should fear this creature. But somehow, he made me feel safe. I never feared him for one moment. Fear was foreign to me.
After his first visit, I knew that he would return to me. A part of him was left with me, a part I could feel filling my heart and my life completely. But it was not all of him, no. And I yearned for him. I did not understand this feeling but I embraced it. I needed Tetan. He knew this somehow.
My days were quiet and my nights long as I waited for his return. I slept in my cold bed thinking of the way his long fingers had felt as they lifted my gown. I remembered the feel of him as he pressed inside me, again and again, taking me and using me. I needed to feel that again. I needed it so painfully that my hips would rise from my thin mattress in agony as I dreamt of him.
It was a moonless night and I woke in desperate need once more, my body twisting helplessly caught up in a web of desire. The room was hot, from my need or the fire I do not know, and I could feel the beads of perspiration rising upon my skin. My gown rose about my hips, tangling me. I was so hungry for him. It was at that moment I heard his voice.