Little Brilliant Stranger | The Ink Well Prompt #157

Phew, a fast butterfly flew across his face, in a moment, a host of dragonflies chased after the butterfly as Lawrence pushed the wheelbarrow loaded with dry leaves from the orchard his father left for as a heritage. Since the garden was willed for him, Lawrence had taken pleasure in dressing it to soothe modern fashion. In the first year of his handling the orchard, he sold over half a million oranges. That was the first of such magnitude of harvest from the orchard.

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One thing he did was disinfect the whole farm with herbicides and insecticides and build a farmhouse to keep watch against intruders who usually came to steal from the farm. But on this particular day, as Lawrence was tending the orchard and caught the sight of these insects flying across, he caught a phobia of his orchard being under attack by these insects.

Hey, flyers. This space is out of bounds to you all.

He whispered to no one in particular as he rode the wheelbarrow to the northern end of his farm.

That evening, he could not sit at his usual spot. He suspected that those insects were out on a mission. He murmured and soliloquy as he moved around the farm, looking for anything he could melt his anger over. Unfortunately, his orchard was not fenced. So, anything could walk in and out without his permission.

That night, Lawrence went to sleep with one eye closed. At midnight, a barking dog woke him. He sat for a while but the barking persisted and was coming closer to his farmhouse. At first, he was dropped by the fear of what could be out there in the dark.

Thirty minutes later, he summoned courage and walked out with his flashlight. He tiptoed to the door mouth and then gently opened the door and moved into the dark as the barking continued.

His flashlight caught the dog, which was lying under a log of a palm tree, frightened. A character that is not usual of a dog. Lawrence moved toward the dog.

Hey puppy!

The beautiful white dog wagged its tail friendly toward Lawrence. And together they moved round the farm and back to the farmhouse. Since he found nothing wrong with the farm, he went to sleep as the white dog laid beside his bed.

In the morning, at sunrise, the dog barked to say good morning while Lawrence was still choosing away in deep sleep. He jumped from the bed and rushed out to get the watering can. He had been preparing a nursery to replace some of the old and dying orange trees in the farm.

To his amazement, he found that most of the orange fruits in the middle of the orchard were gone. The white dog which he had name stranger barked, showing that it was from here that it started the barking last night.

Bats have invaded his orange farm. It would cost him his whole labour of over six months.
Ordinarily, Lawrence was hoping to harvest the fruits in three weeks, by then the fruits would have matured. But with this present situation, he moved to harvesting. It took him four whole days to harvest the matured fruits. Some fruits were not good enough to be harvested.

Stranger had lived with Lawrence on the farm for three weeks. Though he was worried that the owner of the beautiful dog would appear someday.

On the fifth day of harvest, three fruit sellers came to bid for the oranges. They came at different times. After the first fruits seller had paid for what was sold to her, Lawrence had already recovered all that he had spent for the whole year on the farm. He was glad that the remaining fruits would be his profit.

What a great harvest.

Then the second buyer. She paid double the price of the first buyer. It was like money rain for Lawrence. Everywhere he went, Stranger was with him. They have grown fond of each other, Lawrence and Stranger.

When the third buyer came in, Stranger ran away from Lawrence and barked continuously.

Come here Whiskey

The lady (third buyer) called on Stranger. But the little white dog kept barking at the woman.

What's wrong ma'am.

Lawrence inquired.

That's my little Whiskey.

She got lost a month ago. I have searched for her everywhere. I even made a report with the police.

The woman said to Lawrence.

Why has she been barking continuously? She has been happy all day until you arrived.

The woman looked embarrassed when Lawrence made that statement.

I guess she must be angry with me. The day Whiskey left home, she had peed on the sofa in the living room and was restricted to her cage for a week.

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This was so funny to Lawrence. He laughed hysterically and called out to Stranger.

Stranger, come over.

The little white dog wagged her tail and ran towards Lawrence, avoiding Ms Marley. She has come to love Lawrence since she turned into the orchard.

Ms Marley decided to let Stranger stay with Lawrence. If she were forced here back home, she may still abscond the second time.

She bought the remaining fruits and left Lawrence and Stranger to live together as friends.