Once there was a house situated on a small hill, surrounded by land as far as could be seen. This house belonged to a man, his name was James. James was a big man, standing over six feet, with broad shoulders and a barrel chest. He had dark hair and light colored eyes, and for a farmer, had soft hands. James has no family of his own. He has tried unsuccessfully many times to find love, but he has given himself to the belief it’s not destined.

He has found peace in his fields, being close to nature, he is able to create life in the form of the plants he grows. He gives all to his crops, his time, his heart and soul. Each morning he rises before the run does dresses and goes to morning breakfast. He sits and talks to himself about his work for the day. ‘the cabbages need tending’ or ‘I need to check on the carrots, make sure the traps are set for the rabbits’ are very common things heard at his table.

On this day he is going to do something new, he has a patch of earth near the back of his land that hasn’t been cleared. He finishes his eggs and bacon, and picks up the biscuits as he walks out the door, he will eat them on his way out to the back corner. He stops at his tool shed and pulls out a large sickle to take with him. He walks across the large field, past his carrots, tomatoes, and various other vegetables. He arrived at the back corner, a large area of brambles and thickets. He dressed properly cause of all the thorns and sharps knowing it’s a good chance he will end up pricked by the end of the day.

He gets to work, the sun is now showing thru, the morning sky is filled with the colors of fire, the reds, oranges and yellows stretch out from horizon to horizon, chasing away the nighttimes blues and purples. By midday he has cleared away a small area in the front, enough to see there appears to be an open area in the middle of this large patch. He changes his clearing movements, to make a pathway into the middle.

Finally after some time he clears the opening, finding many weeds all over the ground, moving into the middle of the open area. He walks in, trampling the weeds looking around at the weeds, noticing they all seem to run to something. He moves following the long vine like weeds to find what appears to be a dying rose. The only sign that it is a rose is the lone red pedal that looks like its barely hanging on.
‘You could be beautiful if it weren’t for these weeds.’ He says to it.

He looks around, and decides it’s a pity to let a rose die in such a way, and begins to use his hands to pull the weeds away. After some time he clears the area of the weeds, and makes sure there’s light coming down on the rose. ‘I will be right back’ he runs off.

He returns some time later with some water and fertilizer. He pours the water around the rose, and puts the fertilizer down around it. ‘There, hopefully I will be able to bring u back to life, you are too beautiful a flower to let go so cruelly’ he remarks with a smile on his face. ‘I cannot move you yet or I would have u next to my home, so for now I will come visit u ever day and bring u food and water till your strong enough for the move.’ He leaves for the night and goes home, eats dinner and goes to sleep, all the while thinking of his new discovery, and how wonderful it would be to be able to help it back to life and bring its beauty to his home.

Over the next couple of weeks he lives up to his words, even though he’s busy with his farm work, he always makes time to come see the rose, to bring it food and water. He has started making a habit now of bringing a picnic dinner with him, to sit and eat with the rose, talking to her all the time. He has begun referring to her as her, even calling her rose, as if she was a woman.

‘Oh rose’ He sighs ‘soon enough I will be able to move you, get you out of this dark and dreary place, and into a wonderful place to grow.’ He would say to rose. He sat eating, and telling rose of his life, his history and how it is that he has no love in his life except the farm and all its plants and vegetables. And ever night as he would leave, he would say ‘good night rose, rest well and I will see you again tomorrow.’

Every day he would go there, and every day he would see rose get better. Finally the day came that he was going to be able to move her to his house. He already had a place picked out, just outside his back door, so that in the mornings when he ate breakfast, and in the evenings when he ate dinner he would see her. He wanted to be certain she was the first thing she sees in the morning and last at night.

He comes down to the bramble patch, making his way thru the trampled path he cleared nearly a month ago now, and sees rose, standing there tall and strong, the light shining down on her, enhancing her beauty. He stops to wipe the tear from his eye from the beautiful sight. He moves over next to her, sitting his bucket down and starts to dig around her, and gently lifts the large mound of dirt and roots out of the ground and into the bucket. He buts a bit of fertilizer on top, picks up the bucket and moves up to his house.

He comes to his house, the spot where he wants rose to be is already dug, and he has water and some more fertilizer sitting out. He sits the bucket down and starts to work on the transplant. He looks down in the hole, ‘ok I remembered the fertilizer in the bottom’ he mumbles. He moves the bucket over next to the hole, and tips it over, holding rose so she slides out and down into the hole, then setting her upright. He goes about packing the dirt in around her making sure she’s in there good and tight. He sprinkles some water on her petals and on the ground, saying ‘welcome to your new home rose.’ He could swear she was smiling back at him.

He goes on to bed, still excited from the day, he cannot sleep. He decides to get up and go look at her. He walks out onto the back deck, and moves down the stairs and sits next to her.
‘Good evening my beautiful rose.’ He smiles ‘I hope you are well.’
‘You know this has been strange for me, to find you and raise you back to health from those weeds that were taking your life. I would come down and sit and talk to you as if u was a real woman rose, and this felt perfectly normal to me. I have always taking pride in all that I grow, to see it come to life in front of me become something more beautiful, even the vegetables. But you rose, you are so different, its not just seeing your beauty, but knowing I have done this, knowing that all my time, my care…’ he pauses ‘my love has done this.’

He stops at the thought that is moving through his head. ‘If only you were a real woman, I would love you forever, treat you like a queen. Your beauty would sweep over this land making it, and me, so much greater. But alas you are not a woman, you are a flower. And your beauty can still sweep over this land. And me, well, I guess I will just have to love a flower. Not something I understand, but its something I'm willing to do.’

He looks down at rose, and swears she’s smiling at him, a drop of water falls off one of her petals, almost as if she had let go of a tear of happiness.
‘I love you rose.’ The words just flow out of his mouth and he smiles.

With his words being free in the air, rose begins to do something strange. In all his years he has never seen a rose glow. He watches rose, her glowing gets brighter and brighter, and she begins to grow. James jumps up and back, watching rose grows and changes. He stands with his mouth open at the sight in front of him. Rose has turned into a woman. A tall, slim and nude woman, James quickly takes his shirt off to give to her to cover up.

‘Thank you James’ she says in a very sweet voice. She puts on the shirt, and pulls her long red hair out, letting it flow down her back.
‘For too long have I been trapped like that, it was your love that released me.’ She smiles and hugs him tight.
‘h-how did you end up like that?’ he stammers
‘A long time ago I was in love with a man, but he didn’t love me. He was an evil man, wicked and cruel; he only wanted to posses me. I tried to get away from him, I couldn’t live with him anymore cause of how he was, he never loved me, or cared. When he found out I ran away, he tracked me down, and he cursed me. I didn’t know he came from gypsy blood. But he turned me into a rose so only he could see me, and keep me to himself.’
‘Well his mother found out what happened. And took pity on me, she cursed him as well. She gave me a chance; she made it so that I could return to my normal self when a man could come along and love me with all his heart as I was. But knowing that I could remain that way for a long time, she cured her son, turning him into the vines and brambles that surrounded me.’ She kisses him; he returns the kiss feeling all the love inside him explode. ‘Thank you so very much James and I love you so very much too.’ She says looking into his eyes.

From that day on, they lived together in love with each other. And like he had said, she was his queen and he treated her as such, and her beauty shown out over the land and all there crops always prospered. Together they had true love, even in death. Lying together in bed in there old age, they decide to go out into the field and leave the earth together.
Once in the field, the lay together and together they pass on. But a miraculous thing happened. They combine together into a rose bush, all there love to blossom and remain beautiful for all of eternity.