[ CC ] Some lonely prompts

The first story is n't bad. It organically introduces the `` smartest man in the world'' fact without resorting to just saying it. The lack of details about the plants might be a missed opportunity; having super specific details about the plants would reinforce his massive intelligence being applied to the task of gardening. 
 
 The sentence beginning `` Without warning...'' and the following one seem flipped around. I understand that you are trying to introduce the phone after introducing the sounds of the phone, but the use of `` or at least, nothing but...'' not following `` nothing but...'' breaks the flow, especially since you did n't use the specific word `` nothing.'' The narrative flow is fine, but the word choice needs tweaking. 
 
 When talking about what the man is doing, your sentence structure is almost universal: beginning the sentence with He, followed by a verb phrase. Again, the narrative is fine, but the sentence choices could be more varied, so it does n't feel so much like a list. It could be something as simple as moving phrases around. `` Humming to himself, he goes back to tending his garden.'' It conveys the same information, but with a slightly more interesting sentence structure.
