Lili's unhappy tale of the day

Filled with good intentions, religious zeal and more than a pinch of homophobia, but rather short on education, they formed a circle and held their hands, over the lizards, the ants, the buzzing and crawling insects and spiders, the wildflowers of various colours and the native creepers. A smell like honey mixed with the scent of a florist's shop filled the air. As they turned their eager faces toward the sky some were shaded by the fuzzy and scalloped leaves of the twisted old trees, which were adapted to find sustenance in soil in which few permanent plants could survive. They asked God what He wanted them to do with the block of land that they had automatically been allocated by the government when the suburb had first been established. They had already established a church and had come to dominate the markets in welfare-to-work services, second-hand goods recycling and retailing and educational programs for welfare recipients in the area, and they just didn’t know what to do with themselves next. God said unto them that they should hire a contractor to mow down the scrub and to clear a very wide firebreak all around the block, so that the weeds will have a place to grow and the rubbish dumpers will have ready access, and then when the weeds grow high after the winter rains, call in the local volunteer fire brigade to do a controlled burn, which should rid the land of most of the beauty and the wild ungodly nature, and create a hideous Hell on Earth for the undeserving working-class heathens to behold every day.