The story of the garden:

Our garden, which for years had been a scalded, barren vista was soaked to the point of saturation, and we stood out in it catching the slow, swollen raindrops on our tongues like pennies from heaven.

Then we noticed the garden had begun to grow. Slowly, but visibly, grass was growing around our feet, a strange, brightly coloured grass of reds, yellows, blues and greens. We all looked at each other in disbelief.

An old man passed by and told us that he had heard of these gardens before, that they had appeared on the first day of the last century, too (and the century before that, for all he knew).

He told us that all but one of the gardens had died, as they needed constant tending, but if the gardens were kept properly they would bring a lifetime of happiness to the owner.

Just then, the TV, which had been dumped in the garden long before we moved there, flickered to life. On the screen, a small child was explaining her dreams for the future now that the war was over and she had been reunited with her family.

As we stood there in the rain on our multicoloured lawn, we made a promise to each other that we would tend our chemical garden forever."