Just a Little Unwell
By Iyana Jenna
Patrick loves taking care of his garden, the white and yellow colors of honeysuckle and buttercups and some bushes of Deptford pink. He loves weeding and clearing off the garbage, and he loves doing it alone. The only company he wants or needs is his only friend, a cockroach named Chad. He’s been doing it for months, or years—exactly how long he doesn’t quite know for sure. He also doesn’t know why no one else has ever come to the garden. He has several neighbors who live in two rows of small white houses just like his own. But he only sees them from afar, never talking with them or visiting each other’s house. He’s always alone, always in the garden the whole day, and he always goes home when the sky is dark with Chad tagging along, like he always doe
