Vincent Iezzi
The imagination of Grandpop Tim E. sets the stage for adventure and magic in the garden and forest behind his house.
He told each of his grandchildren that the garden and the forest, if they remained very quiet and still, will come to life with activities. After he goes “away and never will come back” his grandchildren take the walk into the garden and forest and find talking flowers and rocks, living water bucket and rope all around the singing well. In the forest they find adventure in far away places that help them understand things in life like reading, studying and listening.
The adventure begins with a small walk into the garden and forest but ends up in unknown pleasant and inspiring places.
Take an adventurous journey into a magical garden that will grip the minds of the young and take them to a land of joy and beauty where flowers, rocks, and a bucket and a rope speak of Mother Earth. Listen as the magical well in the garden sings in the summer and moans in the winter.
Join Grandpop’s grandchildren as they step into the forest and meet the King Tree who is also called the Tree of Visions. Let this tree travel you to lands and places far from your world and into the realm of make-believe and fantasy.
Travel with Grandpop’s grandchildren as they find the beauty of imagination and learn the value of reading, learning, thinking and listening.
Far away in a place over the mountains and across the seas, there is a special garden, which is the most beautiful garden in the whole world.
In this garden are big and tall red, yellow, white, and pink roses. There also are tall and big round mums in the many colors of a rainbow, and many other plants that grow big and tall. In fact, everything in this garden is very tall and very big.
Some smart people say these tall and big flowers make the Garden enchanted, but truthfully, the thing that makes the Garden so special and ever magical is the big gray stone well that sits in the middle of the Garden. For special people, this well is known to sing in the summer and moan in the winter.
- O -
Shortly after Grandpop Tim E. went away and would never come back, young Jon and Tricia went into the Garden and sat, not too close to the well, but by the well. They didn’t want to sit too close to the well because they were afraid of it.
Their Grandpop had told them many mysterious and wonderful stories about the well.
He had told them they could hear the well singing in the summer and moaning in the winter and “if you sit and watch the well quietly, very, very quietly, you would begin to see things, strange and magical things happen.”
So on this one day, while the rest of the family and their cousins were busy talking and being friendly with each other, Jon and Tricia decided they would go and sit by the well and be still and quiet and watch.
For the longest time, nothing happened, but still they watched, quietly; and still nothing happened, though they did notice the Garden was not as bright and beautiful as they had seen it before, and they quietly wondered why this was so.
All of a sudden, the birds became quiet and the breeze stopped traveling through the trees. The sky became cloudy and the sun began to occasionally peek from behind the clouds. The Garden became gray and quiet and scary.
All was still.
Jon, who was eight and the oldest of the pair, looked quickly at his six-year-old cousin Tricia, and carefully reached for her hand and grabbed it tightly. He didn’t want her to become frightened and he needed her hand to calm himself, because deep inside, he believed the magic of the well that their Grandpop had spoken of so often was about to become real.
The sound of an old man clearing his throat broke the silence of the Garden. It frightened them, so they looked around to see if one of their old uncles had come into the Garden. Seeing no one, they looked at each other and again, silently, returned to watching the well.
Next they heard a giggle and again they looked around, and again seeing no one near they returned to their task of looking at the well.
Finally, they heard a sneeze.
“God bless you.”
They looked around and again no one was in the Garden but them. They then looked at each other.
Tricia edged closer to Jon and he wrapped his arm around her to assure her that all was okay, even though he was beginning to suspect things were not okay.
“Thank you.”
Jon squinted his eyes and looked real hard at the well. Nothing had changed. It still was the same old round, gray brick well.
“Welcome.”
When he heard that word, his eyes went to the flowers that were growing on the side of the well, and he noticed that one pink rose had moved. Actually, it was still moving; one of its leaves was brushing against its face as if it were wiping it.
“Have you caught a cold, Pinky?”
Jon looked at the red rose in shock.
It had moved!
Its petals moved like a mouth!
It spoke!
“How could I?” the pink rose answered. “It hasn’t rained in days and there isn’t a breeze anywhere.”
Tricia must have seen the roses also, for out of surprise, she had covered her mouth to smother the cry of shock that sat on the edge of her lips.
Jon put his index finger on his lips to remind her to remain quiet, and together their looks returned to the roses.
“Well,” said the red rose, “you have been known to catch a cold from nothing.”
“Not at all true, Reds,” insisted the pink rose.
“I bet it’s your people allergy again,” the yellow rose said confidently as she joined in the conversation.
“You are probably right, Goldie, but I don’t hear any people around, so I don’t think that’s what is wrong. I simply had to sneeze. It so stuffy in the Garden today.”
“You may be correct, Pinky, but you only got that way when Grandpop came and sat in the Garden and he would trick us all by not speaking and being very still.”
“That’s true. Wasn’t he a clever one to trick us that way? I liked him for that,” the white rose chimed in.
“He hasn’t been around for a long time. I miss his talks,” said Reds.
“He’ll be back. He always stays away for a while and returns later.”
The pink rose sneezed again. This time, the force of her sneeze made her sway back and forth.
“God bless you!” Goldie said quickly.
“Thank you, Goldie,” responded Pinky.
“My goodness, Pinky, you shouldn’t sneeze so hard. You may loose your petals,” Goldie cautioned.
“Now that was definitely one of her people allergy sneezes,” insisted Reds with authority.
“You know, Red, you may be right. It must be my people allergy.”
They all stopped talking, and listened for a sound, waiting for a movement. Together they turned and looked to their right, then to their left.
“Are you out there, .?” Pinky asked in a choked whisper.
Jon and Tricia looked at each other in confusion.
Should they answer?
. had told them to be very, very quiet—not to move.
Besides, how do you talk to flowers?
“Oh, you flowers are such silly ninnies. Of course he is here,” a rough voice said.
Jon’s eyes opened wide as he saw that all the gray rocks on the well had suddenly grown lips. They had no eyes or faces, just lips. Suddenly the entire garden blew up into talking rocks and roses, and the other flowers and bushes began to move and sway with great excitement.
“I can feel their people heat.”
“They must be sitting nearby.”
“I think they have been there for a long time.”
“BE QUIET!” Reds shouted. “They must not hear us,” she whispered.
The Garden froze in silence.
Tricia leaned over to Jon and whispered in his ear, “Should we say something?”
Jon shrugged his shoulders. He could not answer, for he was still in shock at what he had seen.
