False Spring

The daffodils were already sneaking up from the soil. Alisha stopped, looked up at the sky and took a deep breath. The air felt just right and she was invigorated. Spring was coming! Spring was coming! She had to tell her mother.

"Mamma!" she called, though home was still far away. "Mamma!" She was running now, and she crossed the stream in one big skip. She arrived at her gate, breathless, flushed, with her hair windblown. Her mother smiled, looking up from the flowerbed. She had been digging up the weeds. Now, she looked at her seven year old child and felt a sudden gush of pride and joy. What a daughter she possessed!

"Mamma, Spring is coming!"

"I know, child, the weeds are here already!" Mamma laughed.

"What if we let the weeds grow? Why do we throw them away? They're plants, too."

"You want to let them grow? Okay, take these. Plant them near those rocks you like to sit on. Goodness knows nothing else can grow there, they won't choke any other plant."

Mamma knew of her secret hideout on the rocks? She thought nobody else knew. But Mamma was giving her a gift to plant there. Alisha didn't wait to find out how Mamma had found out. She took the basket of discarded weeds and skipped away.

Alisha skipped all the way back to her secret hideout. Carefully, she planted each limp weed. She'd need something to scoop water with tomorrow, in the meantime, she scooped from the stream with her cupped hands, making several trips to water her own garden.

Alisha nurtured her garden like any other proud gardener. The only job she didn't need to do was weeding. She kept an anxious watch on her plants, noting every bit of growth.

Finally, she decided it was time to take Mamma for a picnic to the secret hideout. Alisha knew how to make sandwiches and lemonade, and she got a hamper ready. She officially invited Mamma, who accepted with alacrity.

Mamma had been feeling a bit low lately. With Pappa off on an overseas job and brother off on camp, the house felt empty. And Spring hadn't arrived after all. The signs had proved to be fake. Alisha's innocent offer of a picnic might be just what the pair of them needed.

Mamma could skip, too, though not as lightly as her daughter. They made their way across the stream and to the hideout.

Mamma stopped.

She stared.

Had she said no plants would ever grow there?

What was this?

Next to her, holding her hand, Alisha was giggling.

"I knew you'd be surprised," the child finally said.

"Surprised? I'm – I'm – I don't even know what I am!"

"You're my Mamma and even your weeds grow flowers! Look at the pretty colours, Mamma! Look at how bright the leaves are, feel how soft these petals are!"

The mother turned and in one sweeping motion, picked her child up and kissed her. "You made a miracle happen!" she told her daughter.

"A miracle?"

"Yes, child. I thought it was a False Spring because the winter remained. Now you have shown me that it was a False Spring because summer is already here!"