Garden Gnomes Are Everywhere

Photo by: @any1mark66

Gerrold’s Gnome Emporium rested beside the highway in Southwestern Montana. The remote location was beautiful, but business was slow. Gerrold wanted to increase sales. He started importing exotic sculptures from everywhere.

Susan loved the Emporium. She skipped her way through it like a child. Ben followed along behind, bored, but happy that his girlfriend was happy.

She stopped beside an alien gnome. “Ooh! I love this one!”

“An alien gnome?” winced Ben.

“It’s a Grey,” said Gerrold, joining the pair.

“Oh right,” exclaimed Susan. “From the fiction novel by Whitley Strieber.”

“It’s not fiction,” said Gerrold.

Ben leaned into Susan’s ear to whisper, “Cuckoo!”

Ben said to Gerrold, “You realize your Grey is…green, right?”

“Hey I didn’t make it. That’s the way Grey Garden Gnomes are painted.”

Ben whispered again, “Looney!”

By now, Susan had had enough. The couple left a few minutes later.

Gerrold sighed and watched them go. “You said these would sell!”

The three-foot tall, gray-colored Grey beside him said, “I don’t get it. They sell like hotcakes on Tarakis V!”
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Written for Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers: https://flashfictionforaspiringwriters.wordpress.com/2017/06/26/fffaw-challenge-week-of-june-27-2017/

Author’s Notes:

Communion the book: “Communion: A True Story is a book by American ufologist and horror author Whitley Strieber that was first published in February 1987. The book is based on the claims of Whitley Strieber, who experiences “lost time” and terrifying flashbacks, which hypnosis undertaken by Budd Hopkins later links to an alleged encounter with aliens.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communion_(book)