Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew
I walked along the path looking at all the beautiful red, purple and pink flowers. It was beautiful here; so serene and I felt like I was in my own little world. I took a deep, deep breath and thought about the last time I’d walked this path with my sister a couple of years ago.
I started laughing my head off; one of those deep belly-rolling laughs that once started you can’t seem to stop. People were giving me a look that said, ‘Steer clear of that weirdo.’
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My sister was visiting from out of town and because I loved this place so much I brought her here. I forgot how clumsy she was and started off on a brisk walk expecting her to keep up with me. I’d been walking for maybe half an hour and realized that I couldn’t hear her voice anymore. I looked back and low and behold she wasn’t there.
I ran back to the entrance and when she wasn’t there waiting for me, I followed the same paths as before, calling out her name as I went, “Mel! Mel, where are you?”
Finally towards the center of the park I heard giggling, hiccupping and groaning. The flowerbeds towards the center were raised a bit and I finally found a way to look over the edge and there on her back in a puddle of mud lay Mel.
“Oh for goodness sakes! What happened? Why didn’t you call out to me when you first fell Melly!!” I put my hand out to help her up and she didn’t give me the chance to pull, she pulled instead. With a shriek, I went face down into the mud and just lay there for a bit, blowing mud bubbles. I finally managed to back up on my knees and sit, spitting out mud the whole time. I tried to glare at Mel, but it’s kind of hard to glare when your glasses are full of mud and other stuff. Pulling my glasses off I tried to wipe them off with muddy fingers, which didn’t really help a heck of a whole bunch!
“Melly, how’d you end up in here?”
“I bent over to smell the flowers and some little kids were running past and bumped into me. I couldn’t move out of the way and fell into and over the flowerbeds. I’m sorry!”
“Oh no! Please don’t tell me you damaged the flowers!” I shrieked again.
“Don’t worry, I made sure I fell really softly, okay?” she said sarcastically.
We looked at each other and started laughing like hyenas. We’re both asthmatic, so you can imagine how we sounded. I knew we had to find a way out without climbing over the flowers and after looking around at the beautiful pop of color of the flowers I noticed that there were tools back here. I knew the garden’s caretakers didn’t climb over the flowerbeds to get to their tools and after looking a few minutes I found a small door.
Helping my sister up we walked out with our heads held high or tried to anyway. We finished our walk, holding on to each other and laughing the entire time. On the drive home she looked at me and said, “That was a beautiful garden. Let’s do that again sometime.” She was so serious, but it was kind of hard to take her seriously when her hair was dried and sticking up with mud and twigs all over it. We started laughing again and didn’t stop until we got home.
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I looked at my watch; I had an hour to kill before I had to pick Mel up at the bus station. I thought I better enjoy the garden before I brought her back here tomorrow. With a little snort, I started laughing again.
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