Week 4

The dry moss made a crunching noise beneath the soles of her best Sunday shoes as she walked along the straight path through the garden. On either side, identical banks of green bushes sat behind the scruffy grass verge, their flower buds waiting to explode into a palette of vibrant colours. Behind the bushes, tall leafy trees rose up to kiss to clear blue sky, their leaves shimmering in the gentle breeze that brushed through the garden.

A part of her mind wondered at the symmetry of the garden, the mirror like reflection of one side to the other but she paid it no heed. Her attention was focused upon the tall, red doors that rose up from nowhere at the end of the path. There were no walls on either side of the doors, nor did a frame hold the doors upright. They just stood there, together, waiting for someone to open them to reveal their mystery.

She clutched the silver lantern’s handle tightly in her hand and skipped along to the doors. Why she was carrying the lantern, with its small light glowing at its heart, when the sun was blazing brightly up above she did not know. Nor did she know why she was wearing her blue and white polka dot dress when her usual wardrobe consisted of jeans and tshirts. She certainly didn’t know why being a child felt wrong, as though she had passed that age a long time ago. The strangeness of her situation seemed to defy any logic yet she felt as though all of the answers were behind those doors.

Pushing the doors open, she found herself in the familiar setting of her mother’s garden. She was surprised for there had been no sign of it around the doors. It was as though going through the red doors transported you to somewhere else entirely.

Flowers bloomed everywhere, the colours even more vivid that she remembered. The air around her was laden with their heady scents, filling her head with memories of happy times from long ago. In the trees up above, birds sang their hearts out, rejoicing in the beauty of the day that they had woken to.

An old man sat at the small iron table, a delicate China teapot in front of him with a small cup filled with the familiar beverage of her family. Both of her parents had loved to drink tea at any time of day. Whenever one of them had been thirsty, the kettle had been switched on and the teapot filled without fail. The memory made her smile yet feel sad at the same time as though she had lost something precious in her life.

The stranger looked up at her approach and smiled. His face was worn and lined with wrinkles making him look very old yet his eyes twinkled with a youthfulness that belied his age. He said nothing as he poured the tea into another cup that had appeared upon the table. She had been certain there had been only one cup when she first saw him.

“Welcome, Laura, I have been expecting you.” He nodded at her to sit in the chair facing him. “Please join me, I’m sure you have many questions.”

Laura sat at the table and placed her hands around the cup, absorbing the heat from the tea. The silver lantern had disappeared though she did not remember putting it down anywhere. Nor did she remember seeing the second chair yet she was sat upon it, the hard metal seat pressing into her soft flesh.

“Who are you?” she asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. Her mother had often scolded her for that trait, saying she needed to learn patience before she spoke. “And where am I?”

“My name is Tanaka and you are in your mother’s garden. Don’t you remember it?” Tanake looked closely at her, the vivid blue eyes missing nothing as she glanced around her.

“I recognise the garden but it does not exist anymore. My mother is not here to care for it.” She didn’t know why she knew this, only that it hurt to think of her mother no longer being around.

“This garden exists in your memories. It is your safe place when you feel threatened by what is around you. As a child, you could play in this garden with no worries or concerns for the present or the future. That is why you are here now, as a child, seeking the sanctuary of this place.”

Laura frowned at his words as she tried to comprehend what he was saying. Was this garden not real? It looked real, felt real, smelt real, sounded real. Every sense she could remember experiencing in the garden was here so how could it not be real?

“I don’t understand,” she said, shaking her head. “Surely this is real.”

“If it is, then you are seven years old again, coming to play in the garden after visiting church as you did every Sunday.”

She looked down at her dress. The church visit certainly explained the dress and the shoes yet she wasn’t a girl anymore. She was an adult, wasn’t she? Looking at her hands holding the small cup she saw they were not the rough hands of her adult self but rather the smaller, softer ones from when she was a child. Her feet, encased in the black sandals, were small and childlike covered by white socks with a lace border. She was a child – but how?

“How?” she whispered, confused and afraid of what was happening to her. Was she going mad?

“Your mind has revealed a memory which has terrified you. To escape this dark reminder you have fled here, for safety and reassurance. You cannot stay here, though, Laura. You are needed in the outside world for you are the anchor for the one who can protect mankind. You need to go back to that memory, to relive it and understand it for what it really was before moving on. Do not let your first impression guide you for the rest of your life for that will not bring you peace nor will it help him.” Tanaka sat back in his chair, his white shirt appearing brighter against the leafy green background.

“Him? Who am I to help? How can I help him when I don’t understand what this memory is?” Tears of frustration pricked at her eyes as a feeling of helplessness washed over her. Why couldn’t Tanaka tell her what was happening without hiding it with his vagueness.

“The man who is your soulmate. See past the history that binds you and look at the man he is and what he was. Look to the heart he guards and you will find your answers. Go back to that night, remember what happened and see the truth.”

The image around her started to shimmer and fade away. The bright, sunny summer’s day turned into a winter’s day. The lush grass was covered in snow that glistened in the sunlight. The trees, stripped of their leafy green, raised their empty arms up above in silent supplication. Up ahead, she saw a familiar group walking along the path, heading towards a break in the trees which would take them to the evergreen forest where they would select this year’s Christmas tree.

A sickening sense of familiarity swept through her as she watched her young self skipping along the path, happy and carefree. She wanted to shout out loud to warn them not to go ahead but to turn and run home and not to look back but her voice was frozen. All she could do was watch the nightmare relive itself.