The Gardener

He had been dead for quite some time before he was informed of it. It’s a fairly unsettling realization, but since he was so terribly dead, it didn’t bother him nearly as much as it should have. His day to day existence was more or less the same, anyways. He woke up early, adjusted the blinds, told himself to do the washing up (then did not), and set about tending to his plants. Oh, how he loved those plants. They were flowers, mostly. Orchids, and poinsettias, and snapdragons, and forget-me-nots. There was even a bonsai tree in the mix, but that was hardly his choosing. It had been a gift from someone who did not know him well. Despite this, it had been placed in his care, so he cared for it as he would anything else.  
In fact, it was the plants themselves that alerted him that something was wrong. His african violets, to be exact. They were dropping. How could this be? He had watered them faithfully and lovingly, day in and day out, just as he always had. He was simply stumped when he saw this, but did what he could in the form of adding just a bit more water to the pot. Careful now, careful. He wouldn’t want to drown it.
But even being as careful as he could be, the violets continued to sag. They were not alone. His oxalis looked like great butterflies, wilted and struck down by the crushingly humid heat of a merciless summer. He struggled to help them, to help all of them, but as his arsenal of knowledge began to run dry, and the plants got worse and worse, he realized there was little he could do.
Time passed with apathetic agony, and all the while, he watched his plants die. It was heartbreaking. Some nights, he sat in the light of the moon, cradling dirty ports and mourning the brittle skeletons inside. Other nights, he clung to those that were clinging to life, growing weaker and weaker each day He didn’t sleep much anymore, but the only exhaustion he felt was that of the mind. He supposed that this was what it must feel like to treat incurable diseases. He had never really gone to a doctor before, but he respected them if this was what it was like.
The day he walked in to find his bonsai dead, he sat amidst the bodies, pulled them close, and cried.
He wasn’t sure how long he sat there, but the silence suffered a hairline crack at the almost hallucination-like knock on the front door. It forced him to look up and frown at the subtle sound. Very few people ever knocked upon his front door. Had he cried too loudly? Had some neighbor he didn’t know existed been disturbed? When he stood to answer it, his legs did not ache. He opened the door and blinked upwards at the glowing man standing before him. His wings blotted out the sun and his wickedly innocent smile mimicked it. The man asked to come inside. He left him. This was how he came to know he was dead.
“Dude, look, I am so, so sorry,” the angel said, for of course he was that. “It really just slipped my mind. I meant to come get you, like, ASAP, but a bunch of other stuff came up, and then there was this other thing, and the old man wouldn’t get off my back, and yeah, I just wanted to come get you myself just to make sure we’re cool. You understand, dontcha dude?”
No. He didn’t understand. In fact, he didn’t understand anything regarding his current situation, but when the heavenly being a buy-one-get-one pizza coupon to really make sure they were ‘cool’, he accepted without question.  
“Sweet,” the angel drawled, standing up and stretching a tanned arm. “Let’s go then.”
Go?
“Yeah, go,” the angel repeated. “C’mon, we’ve got an apartment all set up for you. You’ll love it.”
He hesitated for a long moment before nodding. The angel grinned, took his hand, and lead him away. Away from his home, away from his plants, away from the life he thought he had been living. He was only sad to see one of these things go.
After bribing the doorman to let them pass and forcing him to question exactly why an angel had so many buy-one-get-one pizza coupons, the angel took him into the Kingdom of Heaven. It was nice, he guessed. The lighting was exquisite and the atmosphere was spot on. Except for the condos. He hadn’t been expecting the condos, but the angel told him not to worry about it, so he tried his very best.
“So, yeah, dude,” the angel said when they came to a door marked only with his name, “This is it, your new home. Got lots of morning light. Pretty sweet, huh?”
He made a noncommittal noise.
“Well, you have a good time, alright, man? I gotta run. My break’s almost over. Call me if you need anything!” The divine messenger took a few steps before turning back with another sheepish grin. “And, uh, my boss don’t gotta know about this, yeah, dude?” The angel didn’t wait for an answer before clapping him on the back and dashing off with a ‘thanks, man, dinner’s at six’, leaving him alone in the endless hallway. He swallowed, then gave a timir look around. Well, this was it, he supposed, this was heaven. Time to get started, but as he looked around once more, he couldn’t help but feel something was off, but no matter. Nothing was perfect, he thought, opening the front door to his brand new home.
And there were his plants, waiting for him.