may 10, 2021
dear friends,
would you take a walk with me? let me show you around a very special place from my childhood. it may not be what it seems, though. read to the end, and i'll meet you there.
jess x
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The gate opens with a loud, resounding creak. The metal is hot beneath my fingers as I guide the rusty metal to close in its latch behind me. A rush of nostalgia floods my veins as I turn and gaze at the scene before me.
It looks just like how I remember it, and I don't know where I want to go first.
I detour from the stone path and turn left to the hedge maze. It's always been small and unchallenging, even years ago when we were just kids. So much so that it was more fun to jump over the hedges than to actually go through them.
I do that now, hopping over one grassy wall to the next, even taking a moment to pause and stand on top of the walls. For old time's sake, I climb back down and decide to go through it the traditional way.
After realizing with a slight scoff that you could get to the exit no matter which way you took, I made my way back to the entrance and back onto the stone pathway.
Large, leafy bushes line either side of the path. I reach out and touch one of the flowers blooming on top. The blush pink color of its petal pleased me then and now. I've ended up with more blush pink items now as an adult than I did when I was a child.
For the fun of it, I hop on each stone tile as I make my way down, go under the cherry red arch, and onto the fountain area. I don't hesitate to jump right into the water, either, despite my being fully clothed. The water rises to my waist, and I'm delighted by it. Carefully, I approach the pair of coy fish that spins in a circle together. One orange, one black. I wonder how old they are at this point. I wonder if they're friends or siblings.. Some parts of the area looked a little ruined, and I wonder what happened while I was gone. Still, with the butterflies overhead, the fountain area still holds the same whimsical charm (with an added playful note due to the panda statue in the corner of the plot).
I turn my attention to the turtle that sits next to the base of the white fountain. "We never did name you, did we?" I said to the turtle. "That's a shame. Maybe I'll ask Leila if we did."
The turtle just stares at me, unblinking, and I decide to move on.
The waterfall on the right still falls, rough and strong into the river below. I walk onto the wooden bridge and look over the railing, wishing I had some sticks that I could toss over the edge and watch float into the water. Maybe my friends and I could've had a stick race like in Winnie the Pooh, if we had the physical capabilities to do so. By the bridge and the waterfall is the tea house, and I push past the hanging fabric and enter.
A place truly frozen in time, the same four items remain inside. A teacup and a teapot sit on top of the brown table. A piece of parchment hangs on the walls, but I'm unsure of what it says. The place is small, but we found it fun, as it's the only building on the property. If the weather at the garden was anything other than sunny, it would have been the perfect shelter from storm or snow.
Soon I'm outside and walking along the bank of the river. I consider jumping in and taking it all the way to the other side of the forest, but I make my way to the rocky cave instead. Its ceiling is so damn low, I'm lucky I didn't grow any taller or I'd never fit.
