Her Grandmother's Garden

A Story by Steph Morgan

Katharina never forgot the secret of her grandmother's garden and she knew she never would.

“Mama! Mama!” The little girl called, jumping up and down. Her orange dress was dirty, and there was a smear of chocolate around her grinning mouth. “Mama, can I go play in the garden?”

Her mother smiled, kneeling down and gently wiping her face with a cloth. “Of course, Katharina. Just be careful, alright?”

“Okay, Mama!” Katharina said happily. She took off running out the backdoor, straight to the garden she loved so much. It had been her grandmother’s garden before she passed away last year, and her final wish had been for Katharina’s mom to take care of it until she was old enough to do so by herself. Katharina used to watch her grandmother while she gardened, and she knew the secret.

Her grandmother’s garden was magical.

But other than her grandmother, Katharina was the only one who knew. She promised to never tell, and she didn’t mind. She had all the friends she needed in her grandmother’s garden anyway.

Crouching down in the soft soil, she smiled brightly. She spotted her favorite flower, a cute little pink blossom, and knelt close to it, whispering the little rhyme her grandmother taught her: “Roses are red, violets are blue, little Miss Peony, oh how I’ve missed you!”

A little breeze blew by, and the flower shivered, and then she sprang into life, singing happily, “Hello, Miss Katharina! I’ve missed you too!”

Katharina laughed, clapping happily as Miss Peony twirled about. “Come on, Miss Katharina!” She sang. “Let’s wake the others up! We’ve all missed you so much. Let’s play!”

Katharina nodded, and Miss Peony skipped over to another flower, this one a pretty light blue color. She grabbed it’s leaves and swayed back and forth as she and Katharina sang, “Roses are red, violets are blue, handsome Mister Aster, oh how we’ve missed you!”

Just like Miss Peony, the blue flower shivered into life, immediately leading Miss Peony in a graceful waltz now that he could move. “Oh, is it time to play?” He asked.

“Yes!” Miss Peony replied, laughing as he dipped her.

Katharina laughed. With the help of Miss Peony and Mister Aster, they sang the rest of the garden into life, and soon Katharina was surrounded by all her wonderful garden friends.

And from the window, way across the lawn, Katharina’s mother smiled softly as she watched her daughter. That little girl in the orange dress with chocolate smeared all over hadn’t changed much. She was still her little girl, and her favorite dress was still orange, and she still loved chocolate. But she was taller now, older, with more knowledge of the world now then she’d had way back then.

But even so, Katharina still came home from college every spring to replant her grandmother’s garden, and she spent all summer taking care of it.

And she never once stopped singing those songs. She never once stopped talking and laughing out there all by herself, as if there was a whole world out in that garden.

There was something about that garden that kept Katharina beautifully sharp, intelligent in the world when she chose to be, and blissfully free when she chose not to be.

She seemed lost when her mother tried to figure out where her mind took her, and yet she was always where she wanted to be, the dreams of her imagination real to her more often than just behind her eyelids.